The World He Once Knew

The smell of a smoking fire mixed with the delicious scent of steak being charred, carried through the air. Mataius snapped awake, dream rapidly fading and dark reality about him came rushing in. As he gained his senses, he looked down to see his right-hand clutching onto the heart-shaped locket around his neck. "This is becoming a habit" he thought to himself, and then caught himself salivating at the smell of dinner. Mataius sprung to his feet. The dinner was not his, nor was he expecting to be a welcomed guest; that was not a thing anymore, he mused. He quickly gathered the little belongings he had, unholstered his pistol and checked the ammo, before placing it back. From his vantage point higher on the hill, he could see smoke to the north, "Good" he thought, as his journey was taking him east; another 30 miles east to Spokane. He started the trek, legs carrying him easily after having walked over 200 miles in the last two weeks. It has been a long two weeks; longer 200 miles from home; from his 4 bed, 3 bath home on the lake near Seattle. And an eternity from the last glimmer he had of normal life.

There was two years of warnings, two long years of preparation. Two years of politicians making promises, media raising the alarm, and scientist making grand predictions. In the end, it took just 7 days to destroy it all. One could hardly blame humanity for this cataclysm, who could have known that the magnetic poles were going to flip a couple of millenniums early. Yet it was certainly the human species' flaws that erased any chance it had at a future. It was fear, masquerading as decisive, sound reason that ordered the nukes and guided the hand to push the red buttons.

A little more than two years ago, a seemingly inexplicable event happened, a cargo ship ran aground on British soil in the French channel. Visibility was bad that night, but it was not storming. This was not an isolated incident either, it turned out that many ships reported close encounters with land that weekend. All naval navigation was slightly off course, and the culprit turned out to be a sudden shift of the north magnetic pole by almost 1 mile in 24 hours. It usually moves about 20 miles in the span of a year, and that already was high according to the scientists. Within a week of that event, the first headlines of doom appeared - "MAGNETIC POLE REVERSAL IMMINENT". Then 24 hours of coverage picked up, with interviews of politicians describing the bold actions they were going to take at the next committee hearing. To scientists attempting to describe the severity of such an event and throw darts at the calendar in their effort to present a timeline. There were the skeptics, the faith believers, the charity workers, and the business leaders. The only thing that was missing, was a plan, or frankly even an understanding.

"Two years ago." Mataius thoughts to himself. "Two years ago, I was an entrepreneur. I was building a startup. I had a family." There was no emotion, thoughts like these were more common than not. "Now, I have nothing. I have a hopeless journey, and I have this, metallic, locket," he reflected while feeling the locket in his hands.

Mataius walked at a steady pace on the edge of a forest, in sight of I-90 to keep on course. The highway was littered with abandoned cars, all made useless by the electronics that were so engrained into their function. No one was able to explain the exact nature of the magnetic pole catastrophe, apart from the absence of its reliable magnetic protection. Earth is now exposed to the storming whims of the live-giving sun, and the electromagnetic charges it lobs at the world, frying all-electrical on impact.

Shots rang off in the distance ahead, Mataius instinctively crouched and reflexively grabbed the locket for a moment, before consciously letting it go. The shots must have been a mere 300 yards ahead, luckily alerting him to the presence of people. He has gotten good at keeping himself hidden, stalking around danger; only needing to fire his pistol twice before. Having not bothered to check his accuracy due to speedy haste of that moment, Mataius to this day cannot say if he was in fact responsible for taking a life. Today, he prayed he would be able to avoid trouble all together. After 25 agonizing minutes of forest edge traversal, he spotted the group of men huddled around a small fire in the middle of the highway. They appeared to have made camp at an abandoned RV and found liquor for the night. Mataius sighed with relieve after seeing one of the man yell and fire several shots into the air. They were all dressed in military fatigue, once a proud sign of protection, now a warning of volatility. Most men stationed at or near main bases were vaporized within the first hours of the attacks, those that remained were the burdened few bearing the brunt of insatiable guilt for their lucky fate.

As Mataius continued stalking, a shot rang out barely missing him. Not a second later he was at full sprint, cutting into the dark forest, legs recognizing the slight grade upwards ahead of him. He continued to run as he heard the men attempt chase behind him, after several minutes their voices became faint, and he was atop a hill. Mataius continued his run, pushing his muscles to put distance between him and his pursuers. No doubt they have given up by now, but he did not want to take any chances. Suddenly he tripped, and fell, rolling a short distance before coming to a stop. He jumped to his feet, bruised a bit, standing and listening. The sounds of his pursuers have abated, and he relaxed. His hand felt for his necklace, and it was gone. It must have ripped off as he fell. Mataius quickly searched around for it, aided by the full moon. He spotted the heart shaped locket laying on the ground, unclasped. Mataius gently picked it up looking at the face of a young woman - a very beautiful young woman. He studied the photograph, seeing the face of this woman for the very first time. "Isabella" whispered Mataius uncertainly.

"Isabella… Please… Isabella" were the dying words of the stranger that handed Mataius this locket. Seeing her face for the very first time, Mataius thought of the letter the stranger gave him to give to this Isabella. He set out on the journey, the very next morning, with a strange sense of importance. As the world around him continuing to crumble, this letter, this locket, this dying man's wish was something that still existed. It was the feeling that he carried a token of love from the world that was before. Mataius closed the locket and got to his feet to continue the journey. It did not matter to him whether Isabella would still be at the house she supposedly lived at. It frankly did not matter to him whether she existed at all; the further away she was, the longer his token from the past would be with him. And if he had the locket, that world, the one he thrived and lived in would continue to still exist.

Streaks of what looked like lighting, appeared in the sky. Parallel lines going from one south to the north. "That's my work" sighed Mataius, and many memories rushed back to Mataius. The months he would struggle to build his business. The weeks of uncertainty following the first shift of the pole. Mataius recalled the message he shared with his team, two months from that fateful day, "The world is now changed, there is nothing we can do about that. However, from today, we will do something about the future". It was then that Mataius joined the international disparate group of businesses attempting to essentially make a global-scale electro-magnetic field, to affect the one of earth. This was the most valiant effort humanity gave, and now it has become merely a visual display - a reminder of the storms the sun was causing.

As the sun began to rise on a new day, Mataius saw the highway off in the distance. He altered his direction slightly, to come in proximity of it once again. Upon approach, he was amazed to recognize the exit number as the one he needed. He was about 5 miles away, or less than two hours. Spirits raised in anticipation, Mataius picked up the pace. Using some old map pages, he ripped out of a book in the library, he was able to orient himself along the streets. Isabella lived just outside of Spokane in a sufficiently rural area, yet Mataius soon found himself exposed among rows of spaced-out houses. He transferred the locket to his left hand, keeping his right hand on his pistol. Some houses had candles in the windows, but apart from that the street was devoid of any human activity.

Within a short span of time, he stood in front of his destination. Unsure of himself, left hand trembling he was hesitating and could not decide on how best to act. He heard a shot and saw grass burst in front of him, this time he raised both his hands up. "I have a letter, and a heart shaped locket for Isabella" yelled Mataius, letting the locket fall from his grip to hang on the chain he still held. The front door opened, and two women slowly stepped out holding pistols aimed at him. Mataius immediately recognized one of them, as she said, "I am Isabella". He slowly extended his left hand forward. Isabella cautiously stepped forward, holding the gun with the left hand, and extending her right hand to grab the locket that she recognized. Mataius stood frozen with serenity, for fear has never possessed him; he regarded emotion to be part of that world that no longer was.

Isabella's hand suddenly froze, her deep blue eyes that were piercing him with their gaze just seconds earlier, lost their intensity. Isabella's hand slightly trembled, as he briefly glanced at it before returning to her gaze. Something was wrong. Her eyes, with agonizing hesitation, slowly shifted to look at the necklace. The gun slipped from her left hand, meaninglessly dropping to the ground. Isabella's fingers shook attempting to possess the locket, yet her body began recoiling from the world. Her eyes betrayed what was left of her composure, as pain, unchaining itself inside her, thrashed about for relief. With her horrific scream, it escaped, and dissolved the strength that once held her upright. Mataius stepped forward, catching her in time, and gently brough her to the ground. "I am sorry", he managed to say, as emotions began to seep in. Mataius thought that by giving up the locket, he would give up the remnants of the world it represented. Yet, in his detachment, he was oblivious to the enormity of destruction it would bring to Isabella upon her taking possession.

"I am sorry" Mataius repeated, as Isabella sobbed uncontrollably in his arms. Piecing together the shatters of her strength, she managed to whisper, "Who are you?". "My name is Mataius".