Wasteland Locket

“Uggggh” I moaned loudly.

Waking from my sleep. It had been a long night, the sun was beating down horrendous, I was thirsty, tired and ready to keep moving, I’d been in this town for too long and needed to keep moving, this desert town just wasn’t for me.

As I stood up and collected my things a 1971 Cadillac limousine was heading through town, followed by three what looked like old army hummers. I proceed to go check it out. The limousine and the hummers stopped outside of the [Trade And Switch] shop and out stepped five big guards, while everyone was watching, one of the guards ran up to the limousine door and opened it.

Before anyone could step out, Peg started heading up to the car. Peg was a odd looking character that everyone around knew of, he only had one leg and hobbled around on what looked like a leg off of a cheap dinner table, he was missing one hand with a fork taped to the end and a scar from forehead to chin, he would run up to people and beg for any scrap he could get. As Peg ran up to approach one of the big guys grabbed him and threw him for what looked like a mile but was realistically about 20 feet or so,

“Back away!” Yelled the big guard.

The guard puts his hand out and this girl gets out, she was absolutely stunning, her skin was flawless and radiant, her smile white and beautiful, she was wearing clean clothes which in this dust stricken butthole of a world was an awe moment for itself, she gets out and everyone’s eye is fixed on her. She walks into the shop and the guards throw everyone else outside.

As I walk up to Lixen I ask, “What’s going on here?”

“I {hic} don’t rightly know but boy I sure would love a piece of that tail, yer hear me?” He replies in a drunken slur.

I leave the old drunk to himself and head to get a closer view.

I walk towards the old switch shop but before I could get to the window this big ogre of a guard grabs me by my shoulder,

The guard shouts “Stop here or go around!”

Before I could even think I break his finger.

I let out a sigh and think to myself “Here we go, you’ve done it now.”

He yells “you silly bastard!”

“first off, you touched me first, secondly I don’t like being touched.” I reply.

He let out a long I’m in pain groan and said “I’ll teach you about being touched.”

I dropped my bag and grabbed the handle to my sword.

Now my sword is the most important thing I own, I call her Maybelle, she’s sleek, she’s pretty and she’s deadly, a razor sharp beauty queen. I slide it out of its sheath and point it towards the guard and say “Touch me again and you’ll lose that hand.”

The door to the shop opens and out walks the girl,

She ask, “What’s going on here?”

“Sorry ma’am just a little disturbance.” The guard replies

I chime in with a grin on my face, “I was just trying to get a better look is all.”

She gasp and says,” that.....that locket.....the heart shaped locket there, where did you get it?”

I glance down and she’s talking about the heart on Maybelle, I take a step back and reply, “Here and there.”

“May I see it?” She responds with curiosity in her voice.

I hesitate, I have one rule, no one touches Maybelle.

I say, “You can look but you can’t touch, and those guys stay back there.”

I take a few more steps back and she starts walking towards me.

“Ma’am you can’t trust this degenerate!” One of the guards exclaims frantically.

She replies with her hand on his elbow, “It’s okay I’m just going to get a closer look.”

As she walks up I lay the tip off the sword in my left hand and the handle in my right. I’m confused, she doesn’t even care about the sword, she’s looking at the locket.

She asks, “How much?”

“How much what?” I say confused about the question.

“How much for it?” She ask with sternness in her voice.

“It’s not for sale.” I reply

“You can’t be serious, it’s just a locket on the sword, what do you want for it?” She says with a sense of entitlement.

“Like I said before it isn’t for sale.” I reply.

I start thinking back, way back when I was a lot more green, I start thinking about when I first got Maybelle, I was sitting in this bar next to an old man, worn with years and scars and tired eyes, drinking piss warm hash, I started thinking about the man who made me who I am.

She yells and jolts me from my day dream, “I don’t understand, that locket means more to me than anything in this town.”

“I’ll make you a deal slick, what do you want?” She says grinning.

My mind flashed back again to that day and that bar, when three riders came in. Now riders are the worst of the worst, usually traveling in packs and thinking they can take and do whatever they want. These three riders came in with patches on that said WASTELAND DEVILS.

The ugly one in the front yells, “Woowee boys, what do we have here!”

I could see the old man tense up.

“Now old timer di...di...di...didn’t we tell you that you b...b...b...better keep going because if wa...wa...we caught back up with you that ya...you...you’re dead?” The second rider stutters.

The old man looks over at me and says, “Listen here slick, you help me get out of this alive and I’ll help you get whatever you want.”

He stands up and leans Maybelle over against my stool still sitting in her sheath, chuckles and says, “I didn’t think you fat imbeciles could pour piss out of a boot, better yet find your way to town.”

The rider in the front says calmly to the others, “alright old man, cmon guys let’s show him how we handle disrespect.”

The three riders started walking towards this old man and I could feel my chest tighten up and my hands getting sweaty as I reached for the sword.

Once again the beautiful girl that seemed out of place chimed in and broke me from my day dream, “So what are you looking for?”

“What.....What is your name?”. I change the subject and ask.

“Why is it any business of yours what my name is?” She responds aggressively with a confused look on her face.

I went back in my mind to that bar, as the riders approached the old man with their pipes and homemade death bringers, I jumped up and unsheathed Maybelle, I struck the guy in the front with a hard blow slicing open his neck. The old man reached in his suit jacket and pulled out two daggers, with speed to the likes I’ve never seen, he buried one dagger in the skull of one and threw the other dagger into the heart of the other man.

The girl cut into my day dream once again saying, “My name is Raelle.... Raelle Nebrack.

My mouth dropped and heart rate increased as I figured out why she wanted the heart shaped locket,

I chuckled and replied, “How do I know that is your real name?”

She looked confused and irritated that I would question her honesty about her name and exclaimed, “Why would someone lie about their name?”

I went back into the past, after the fight with the riders,

“We have to get out of here!”, The old man exclaimed.

“Why, we took these guys on, we can take on more?” I reply full of adrenaline.

He looks irritated as he pulled his dagger out of the dead riders chest and said, “Look kid, I’m an old man and you’re as green as buzzard guts in the desert sun, we got lucky, so if you would like to keep your head from leaving your shoulders, I would suggest we move on.”

I look around and decide he is right.

Don’t forget Maybelle and looks at the sword.” He says as he walks towards the door.

I travelled with the old man for months, he taught me how to survive, he saved my life more times than I can count, he was the closest thing to a father I had.

As we headed west, he says to me, “I’m in search of a locket, the shape of a heart with the inscription, My love, My world, My life.”

He continues, “My name was Russel Nebrack and it belonged to his late wife Maybelle.”

I snap out of my past endeavors to reply to Raelle,

I say with my hand on the locket, “Raelle Nebrack?... Do you know your father?”

With a small quiver in her voice she replied, “Yes, he..... he left years back.”

“What’s his name?” I ask.

“Russel.... Russel Nebrack.” She states while looking back at her guards.

The look of shock on my face must’ve given away everything I was thinking because she continues and says, “Did you know him?”

“Yes.” I say filled with emotion of the man who taught me how to survive in a world turned to hell.

The day Russel died was a tough one for myself, we were fighting some bandits that grabbed some women out of an encampment nearby us, he fell before I could stick the rusty sword I was carrying in the skull of the degenerates. After the last man fell , I ran to my friend, knelt down with my hand upon his wound and tears in my eyes,

“Promise me you’ll find Maybelles locket and return it to Raelle.” He whispered softly, gargling on the blood that filled his lungs.

With his last breath and his hand gripped around my wrist he says, “Protect.....Protect.....Rae.”

I wept.

I tell Raelle that I was with him in his final moments on this world.

“Did he suffer?” She asked with tears filling her eyes.

I hesitantly say, “He succumbed to his wounds after saving the life of five women, he died a hero.”

I sheath my sword and unravel the purple lace on the handle revealing the chain of the heart shaped locket, I carefully take off the locket and cup her hand and return it to her and say, “I looked around everywhere for this locket, I made a promise to your father that I would return this to you, you ask what I want, I want to go wherever you go.”

“let’s...let’s go.” She replies sobbing.

She grabs my hand and we load up in the limousine and head west, followed by the hummers in route.