The Stone

Elia wandered through the forest, enjoying the peace and quiet as she always did. There was nothing but the rustling of her backpack, the clink of her knife handle tapping the canteen in her hip bag, and the rhythm of her boots hitting the ground beneath her feet. She would have to better secure that knife after setting out her bed for the night, she thought, but the percussion was welcome. It had been a while since she heard anything that resembled music. Making camp in this area would be a breeze with plenty of rock overhangs and bushes to settle against. It was a stroke of luck that she found such a quiet pass through the mountains, though not entirely surprising. Elia was a lucky one, and it was the reason she was alone now. Her last group encampment got raided by marauders. It was a rare occurrence these days, and she escaped unscathed as she tended to do. They were nice people, and she was going to miss the camaraderie, but surviving was easier without attachments.

The group before this one was attacked by a pack of wolves. The one before that proved to be unkind to a girl her age, although she wasn't quite sure how old she was anymore. 25? Maybe 27? There was a time when people helped keep track of that sort of thing. Her memory wasn’t the best to begin with, but her entire past was a complete mystery before her 12th birthday. All she could remember of that day was a crude attempt at a cake placed in front of her, and kindling sticks jutting out of the top of the lopsided mound. She remembered thinking that this wasn’t like any cake she’d had before… but the thing was, she couldn’t remember what cake was supposed to look like, let alone taste like.

One of her old keepsakes, back before she learned to fend for herself, was a portion of a book that described a tea party. The front half of the book had been ripped away, but she carried it everywhere she went. She made space for this book even if it meant she had to carry it in her little hands the entire time on a long journey to a new camp. The first page of her book brought her to a dinner party filled with whimsical creatures drinking tea and eating all sorts of pastries. She knew the cake was supposed to be round and sweet. Her cake on that day was sour and burned on the bottom. She was grateful to have it all the same. It was small, and meant for her alone, but she wanted to share it. She could never make out the faces of the people around her singing soft and low. A very small hand would reach out from beside her towards the cake illuminated by the dying flames. She had to blow them out before… before what? There was a flash of blinding light, and everything went black after that. There was her birthday, and then there was running and hiding for a long time. The strangers that were with her during that time took care of her as best they could, but there were no more birthdays after that.

If you came across a group with an old timer, they would tell stories about the before times while the fire died out for the night. It was on a night like this that Elia tossed her beloved book into the flames just to hear one more story. There were buildings and lights as far up and out as the eye could see. They made it sound as if electricity ran through the air describing holograms on every corner and bullet trains that could hurl you across countries within an hour. They would sit in front of screens for hours. The tallest buildings were a mile in the sky at least. Now, almost all of them lay sprawling out over the skeletal remains of highways that lay in their horizontal path. Once, Elia came upon the ruins of a big city. It was beautiful and terrifying that anything could be so big. She couldn’t believe people lived in those things then or now. The way the old timers put it, society was just a shell of what it once was. There was no way to comprehend the magnitude of what occurred. It was an asteroid cluster, but some called it The Meteor Storm. Earth had very little time to prepare for the pending impact. Panic gripped the world. Lots of people went underground to wait it out with varying success. What they didn’t realize was the chaos that would rain down upon them after the initial impacts. The pieces that hit the planet did their fair share of damage, but the hundreds of satellites that were damaged during the storm crashed down upon their creators relentlessly for months. The debris that was scattered across the atmosphere continued to wreak havoc on communication outlets until there was nothing left to salvage. Nobody knew for sure when it would all stop, and it never really did. All you can do now is keep your eye trained to the sky.

There were some satellites that managed to survive, but one could never count on them staying that way. Some screens still worked and could turn on with a reliable power source to feed it for long enough, but they were mostly gimmicks of the past for all Elia cared. They said people used to kill each other for the chance to look at a screen, but those days were fading fast. Most of the tech hoarders went back to the cities to revive the old ways, but without a grid to work off of, they can master only the smallest domains.

Elia felt thankful that she couldn’t remember the before times. She didn’t have to yearn for a bygone era. She didn’t have family to miss. Her life was just as it had always been. Keep moving, stay focused, and don’t die. People were kind sometimes and sometimes not. She didn’t have anyone to worry about but herself.

She learned quickly not to get attached to people or things, so it was rather curious that her most prized possession was a small, black, heart shaped stone with an engraving of an E. At least, she thought it was a stone. It had the quality of glass, but in all her harrowing adventures, it never cracked or chipped. For all intents and purposes, it served her no function, but it was pretty in a way that held her attention. The stone was slightly magnetic and had an odd quality in balance. Sometimes, it seemed to shift on its own. The weight of it never felt right. At times it was too heavy and others too light. It had been with her as long as she could remember. She had the sense that she must have been wearing it on that last birthday as a necklace, but there was no evidence of a chain any longer. There was no evidence that it could be worn at all, so she kept it in a small pouch that tied around her wrist with a paracord. There was something almost magical about that stone. Every now and then she would pull it out and just stare at it for what felt like hours.

After setting up camp, and watching the embers die, she enjoyed what might be her last warm meal for some time. The soup in her canteen had finally run out; the last remnants of the group she had to abandon. She savored those last few sips. It would be dried berries and possum jerky until she found something to hunt and cook. Cleanup would be easy and then she could rest her head. The possibility of dreaming crossed her mind, but whether her dreams were pleasant or troublesome, they were quickly forgotten so she brushed the thought away.

It was during a twist of her wrist that she felt a rumble. It wasn’t the first time that a phantom vibration emanated from the stone. She pulled it out of the pouch and stared at it like she had done a thousand times. What was she waiting for? This stone occupied more of her mind than she would like to admit. She had to laugh at the absurdity that she could be obsessed with a stone. In a moment that could only be described as an inspired event, she held it in both hands and decided to press it to her lips. The stone was neither cool like the crisp air that hung in the trees, nor warm from sitting by the fire. It almost melted into her kiss. She chuckled at the thought of how silly it was to be kissing a rock, but when she pulled it away from her face the humor of the moment was washed away by a mixture of terror, confusion, and awe. The E lit up with a soft glow. The light shimmered from inside the stone along its edge as if it was two halves fused together. She gazed at her open palms unsure of what to do next. Another shudder of a vibration rolled through the heart and with a faint click, popped open.

She stared in wonder at the images shooting out of the heart. They were holograms. They had to be. Images of smiling faces cycled through light beams that stopped inches from her face. She realized that tears were streaming over her cheeks, but she didn’t dare wipe them away or blink or move a muscle. Whoever these people were, she needed to see them. She needed to soak them in. The pictures kept going for what seemed like forever, but she didn’t want them to stop. She watched their smiling faces age. The baby started walking. The middle girl started to shy away from the camera. The eldest had a crooked tooth that she showed off with every smirk. They were all so happy. She had the sense to check her surroundings as the image of a little girl sitting in front of a mound of burnt bread with little sticks popping out of it flashed in front of her. The youngest, was standing next to her barely able to reach her head over the table, arm outstretched toward the flames.

Elia dropped the locket as a flood of memories rushed through her mind. That was her family. They had gone underground like everyone else tried to do. Something went wrong and they got separated. Where were they now? Was she the only one who survived? Why couldn’t she recognize any of them? She couldn’t even recognize herself! She wanted to scream into the darkness but held her breath instead. It was excruciating, but there was no need to attract more attention to herself than she already had. She exhaled slowly, making sure to focus her eyes through the tears. Once satisfied that she was indeed safe, Elia turned back to the locket. It had closed when it hit the ground. Where her E once stood, and K took its place, and a small arrow pointed off to the east. She opened the locket again, but the images no longer showed. She tried kissing the stone over and over with no effect. When she moved, the arrow moved with her.

Kara, she thought. Kara is that way. She had a sister somewhere out there, and she intended to find her.