The Protector

It’s been 10 years since the bombs dropped. 10 years since the flash that took her sight. In the years after the world turned on itself pillaging and destroying everything it could. If it could be taken it was taken if it could be burned it was burned....and everything burned. The evil that led to the dropping of the bombs was only a precursor to what was to come. In this world the strong survived on the flesh of the weak, and the rest either served or were slaughtered. You would think in this world a blind girl wouldn’t survive.... like many before, you’d be mistaken.

“Give me the locket,” snarls a grisly figured man standing in the shadows. He wore a dark over coat and hat, and his face had a scar running from his jaw bone up into his hat. Him and his crew of a dozen or so men had tracked her for days and now they had cornered her in an abandoned subway station. They slowly surrounded the young woman as they crept cautiously towards her.

“This is your last chance,” he gnashed as saliva ran across his lips.

The Heart Shaped Locket hung steadily around her neck hugging her dark skin like it was always meant for her to wear it. The locket, a once simple gift was now the capsule that held the fate of the world. No one knew exactly what was in the capsule but rumors were told that it held the coordinates to a secret place. A place that could change humanity once again. In the right hands it could help the world heal, and possibly end this nightmare, but in the wrong hands it could be the ultimate tool for control.

“Okay, have it your way. Get her boys,” the man yelled.

Slowly the other men began to move towards her. Armed with knives, spades, crowbars, and other blunt weapons they set their eyes on killing her. In their minds it should be no problem killing a blind girl and taking the locket for themselves. However, the katana blade angled towards the ground that she gripped tightly in her hand caused them to hesitate.

Before the bombs dropped the young girl was a little different than the other girls her age. Most girls liked dolls, and combing each other's hair, while she studied the art of ninjutsu passed down to her from her mother. It seemed strange for her to be fascinated with such an obscure martial art, but her mother learned it while growing up in Japan as a child, and took great pride in teaching it to her as she grew. Her mother’s father, her grandfather, was a business man who lived most of his life overseas. While living in Japan for years he had his daughter taught this ancient art by a master who lived next door. This in turn was passed on to her as she grew up in the states. She loved it and would often train all day long meticulously mastering every move. She had dreams of competing in tournaments all around the world someday, but that was before bombs dropped.

The flash that day was so bright it engulfed the entire sky. Instantly she saw a white flash in her eyes that was blinding and all she would see for months was brightness even when she tried to sleep. Her mother, like many others, died from a sickness soon after the flash and she was soon left all alone. However, the brightness in her eyes eventually began to fade and something miraculous happened. She began to see again, but not like before. Instead, she saw bright outlining's around where people were, and she used this to navigate as everything began to fall apart around her. As the world crumbled, she went deep within, hiding herself among the tunnels and passage ways beneath. She used her dark appearance and skillful training as a camouflage to hide herself from the evil the world had now become. Soon she stumbled upon a bunker where an old military man was dying. He told her about a place where the world survived and where they were able to rebuild. He gave her the Heart-Shaped Locket and told her it was his daughters before she died. He made her promise to protect it and never share it with another soul. What he hid inside the locket no one knows but her now, and she was willing to die to keep it safe.

“What are you afraid of?” the grisly man snarled. “Kill her!”

One by one the men tried to grab her but her blade moved with speed and skill. The first man’s hand was instantly severed from his body in a single swipe, and she quickly moved from one man to the other. In a matter of moments, the dozen men laid on the ground dying or already dead as the blood ran down her dark skin and blade. She turned her head making eye contact with the grisly man as he shook in fear.

“You, you, you’re supposed to be blind,” he stammered as she walked up to him.

In a swift motion the blade cut through the air and ran through his chest all the way into the wall.

She leaned in close to his ear as he gasped his last breath.

“I am,” she whispered as she removed her blade and his body fell.

In a single motion she snapped the blade and the blood shot of it and hit the wall. She gently slid the blade back into its sheath as she grasped the locket with her hand. Her dark brown eyes glazed upwards toward the light peeking through the entrance outside. She knew she had to go up there and face the horrors to get to where she needed to be. With a deep breath she made her way outside knowing what awaited her up there.