To Those Who Need It

This story is about a locket. The locket will go to whoever needs it the most. This locket will provide them with some semblance of hope in their darkest moments.

In a world that has been ravaged by years of turmoil between multiple countries, the locket is a glimmer of hope for anyone who needs it. From victims of abuse, it brings back their happy memories from before. For those who see no light at the end of the tunnel, and even those who don't realize that they need it, the locket brings them the light that was missing from their life.

Maria, a young woman of twenty years with brunette braids and the most startling green eyes. She and her father Joseph Pattison, with their Hispanic, Arabic and Germanic background, stood out against their new family and their primarily English background. Maria and her father both stood at about 6 feet tall, whereas their new family stood at around 5’5 and above. Maria and her father both had a dark olive skin tone and the rest of their family a very pale skin tone. However the rest of their family had the most striking blue eyes and variations of blonde and dirty blonde hair. Because of Maria’s mom and siblings inability to blend in with the elements, they would tend to the camp with some of the other members of the camp in preparing meals, mending and washing the clothes, and healing anyone that needed it. Maria’s father would be heading out within the hour to go scavenging.

The camp was laid out like a small tent city. Maria’s family was at the center of the camp with the rest of the camp members spread out around them. The infirmary was located towards the middle of the camp near the fire as the patients in the infirmary needed to stay warm especially with winter coming so soon. The food storage was across the fire from the infirmary, along with the storage for clothing, shoes, extra tents, and bedding supplies. All around the fire was seating of all types for everyone to gather for meals.

In the mid morning sun, Maria left the camp in search of more clothing and shoes for herself and the others in her camp. Maria and her family are the unofficial leaders of her camp as they are one of the few families in which they all survived. With her family leading the camp, the job of scavenging for clothing and shoes falls to Maria. She looks back before she walks away, at her tent, where her family is still asleep. The remainder of her camp, everyone is slowly getting up and starting their day. She thinks to herself that she is one of the lucky ones. Her family survived the Big War of 2048.

The War of 2048 destroyed everything. Cell towers and electricity are a thing of the past. Cell phones, and walkie talkies are out of commission. Computers and televisions have no place in this new world.

Maria is walking down what used to be 5th Avenue in New York City. She discovers the locket by chance in the broken window of an old boutique. The boutique has become a mass of rubble and broken windows and the area surrounding it isn’t that much better. All of the buildings are in some form of shambles. The sidewalks show the scars of the battles that have been fought around them from cracked concrete to burn and scorch marks every hundred or so feet.

Due to the effects of the Big War on New York City, instead of the 5 Boroughs, everyone now lives in camps strewn about the city. Maria opens the locket in the hopes to find whomever it once belonged to. She thought that they may even be at her camp. However, to her astonishment, it has a picture of her with her new family inside, from before the Big War. In the years building up to the Big War, Maria struggled with growing up in a family where the only person who understood her and tried to help her figure out her purpose in life, was Joseph, her father. Internally she struggled with depression. This mental health issue was accompanied by the fact that she grew up with no relationship with either her siblings or her mother.

So when her parents divorced and her father rekindled an old relationship from when he was younger, she welcomed her new mother and new siblings with open arms. The locket opened up a flood of pleasant memories of her new family from before. From playing cards with her new siblings to baking with her new mom, and just simple music and movie nights with her family. Some of her favorite memories consisted of playing video games with her brother and roller skating with her sister.

These memories contrasted sharply to what she grew up knowing. From her mother not really wanting much to do with her from the time she could take care of herself. To not having much of a relationship with her sisters, including having to find ways to entertain herself and forcing her to become a recluse of sorts.

The locket helps her find these happy memories and hold onto them in place of making new memories. Maria finds it to be somewhat of a challenge as of late because there is little time to make new happy memories. With the new life that has been created to thrust on them. There simply isn't much time to do the things that she and her family used to enjoy. So Maria now clings to these memories in hopes of better days ahead.

In her walk down the streets of New York she encounters a young man by the name of Vincent from another camp and Vincent takes notice of her locket and recognizes it so she hands it to him not realizing that when it is passed from one person to the next the picture inside changes...