The Hunt

I was three when the meteor hit. Small, but lucky. The earth shook beneath the world’s feet, and the fallout was terrible. We haven’t had a blue sky since that day. The fluffy white clouds were like a dream. The world was almost at war, the Nationalists (Naytos) and the World Socialist Organization (WSO, or Wizzos, as we call them now) were on the verge of World War 3. So self involved that when scientists tried to warn us, their voices garbled, and were lost in the conflict. Some world leaders used it as a tool, holding opposing voices hostage like a badly planned game.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. This story starts before the Wizzos and Naytos. Before the world went mad. I remember the day everything went dark. My parents had been preparing for disaster for months, expecting the war to hit with some sort of nuclear fallout. Little did they know that the war was then, the least of their problems. The entire Southern Hemisphere was wiped. The ash and debris that went up in the atmosphere didn’t clear for months and when it did finally become breathable again, it was still thick. We called it the murk. The air was thick and muddy, full of sorrow and torment. We had to wear filtered masks and goggles so that our lungs wouldn’t shred and our eyes could stay clear. We held tight for a few weeks in our shelter before dad started venturing out to check for provisions. Dad would go out, appropriate some resources and bring it home to us. He did this for years, always coming back with new wonders. I was convinced he was magic.

When I was ten years old, he brought mom back this delicate little necklace from one of his outings. A gold locket with ornate silver filligrees and a rose gold flower inlay across the back.

“Dan… this is so impractical. What could we ever use this for?” She chided.

“To remind you of the times before. To remember how beautiful you are, and what you mean to us. Open it, Dellei.”

She unhinged the clasp, and flipped it open. Inside was a smudged picture, the three of us all smiles, cuddled up on the couch. My aunt had taken the picture, it hung in our house. Dad must have gone on a salvage trip.

She started crying. She clutched it to her chest before pulling her hair out of the way so that dad could fasten it. I asked if I could see, and went to my mom to get a good look. I squeezed it too hard, I think, because when I grabbed at it, something clicked. A tiny key fell out. It was so small there was nothing I could imagine that would truly be able to use it. Mom picked it up, she smiled, “Aren’t you a wonder. Always finding new things. I’m sure we’ll meet it’s lock someday.”

She stopped for a moment. Looking down at the little locket. Running her thumb along it’s edge so delicately. She was caught on a thought. The silence carried for a long time, dad bringing down his spoils from today’s excursion. He took a moment to pause, and she looked up at him, then to me. “I’m so glad,” she said under her breath, “That we have one another. That we didn’t lose each other after the hit. I wonder how many of us are out there.”

He smiled wryly. “I guess we’re about to find out.”

He pulled out an old CB radio, the type people used to need licenses to use. Dad was so excited, he quickly started to set it up. We had a little pedal generator and battery for basic needs. “It may not work straight away. I’m going to have to tinker with it to get this thing up and running. But maybe we’ll find someone. Maybe there are more of us. I never see anyone on my runs.”

“Never?” I asked him.

“Not even one. The murk is still thick, though, so I could just be missing them. But imagine what it’ll mean when we finally do find someone. I don’t imagine many people have these things… but I imagine the people who do will be listening. Hopefully we might be able to find other families, maybe even some who have children.”

Others. He believed there could be other people. More survivors. More kids. I wonder if anyone I knew was still alive?

It took a month of fiddling with the machine, but we finally got it up. Turns out there are a lot of things you need to know about, so we raided the library for books on the subject. Different antenna lengths for different transmission strengths. Different frequencies. Special codes to make sure that you followed protocol, and people could hold conversations without garbling the transmissions. We studied, we researched, we fiddled and we worked. Desperate for other human contact, there were days where we would be up with the heat of the morning sun, and wouldn’t go back down till the warmth of the next morning. But the day we finally got it, there was no one on the other end. No one heard.

Dad hunched in his seat. He had a momentary lapse of dejection, I frowned but I gave him a big hug. He clutched me tightly, then relaxed his arms to look me in the eyes. “Sweetheart, we’ll try again later. They’ll be on. I just know it. Maybe they were out looking for food. We’ll try during different times so that we can find someone. I promise...If there is anyone to find, we’ll find them.”

One evening, after Dad had gone to sleep, I crept into the room to try it myself. I remembered my protocols… kind of. “Mara here, is anyone there? Over.” I had forgotten that dad told me to use a code name, but it was too late. “I hope someone hears me. I just want a friend.” I never got a reply.

We kept trying. But we never heard from anyone. Dad started giving coordinates to try and get people to meet in person, since maybe they only had one way radios. We’d go out to meet anyone who heard every Tuesday and Friday, but with no luck. Dad let me come along, but always made me hide just in case the people were unfriendly. We’d sit in wait, and make the excursion back home. On our way home one evening, we heard something moving through the murk. We were being followed.

We heard something fall behind us. There was no breeze, and we had been careful not to touch things. But whatever this was, it was definitely close. Dad and I kept walking, staying quiet and hoping whatever it was would lose us in the murk. When we lowered ourselves into our den, we heard a raspy sort of breathing, a wheeze, and then quiet again. We couldn’t see anything, anyone. Then, it jumped on us. We got knocked into the wall of the den. Mom screamed. I couldn’t breathe for the weight on my chest. I opened my eyes, my mask askew after the fall, all I could see was a giant set of eyes. The thing started to sniffed me all over, then stopped moving entirely. I was still pinned down, and mom came over to help. Dad was knocked out cold, and this thing was just sitting on top of me. Mom helped me wriggle from underneath it. A giant biomechanical cat sat in our den. I heard radio feedback coming from inside. It started to purr and it’s movements started back up. Terrified, I did the only thing I could think to do, I jumped on it. It thrashed in surprise, but quickly stopped to sniff back at me. “Mara…”

“How did it… know my name?” I asked mom.

She grabbed me and pulled me closer, watching the creature. “I don’t know, honey. I don’t know.”

I got up. Something about it was familiar. Its body was an elegant thing to behold. It was covered in a silver filigree, with little rose patterns all over it. You could see the muscles beneath it, powerful, with every breath you could see the filigrees I reached out slowly to put my hand on it. If it had wanted to kill us, it would have done it already. It leaned itself into my hand, embracing the pet. It purred again, the low rumble shaking us to our very core I felt an energy pulse through my heart that I couldn’t explain. I sat in front of it. “Who are you?”

“I am the before, the after, and the now. I am your future, but I am a present.”

“A present? From who?” I asked, startled.

“From you. It’s almost time to go.” It growled.

I looked at my mother, who got up and walked over to me. She exchanged the necklace from around her neck over to mine. She looked at the cat, and said “Whatever makes you think you need my daughter… I cannot fathom. She isn’t going anywhere without her family.” The cat looked to her, then to me, my dad began to stir awake in a haze. “Is that…. Our CB radio? Why is it part of a giant cat?”

“It is. And I was.” The creature looked to me, nudged me with it’s nose, and whispered, “I need you to help me. You’re the only one who can.”

I ran my fingers down it’s back, between it’s shoulder blades, I found a small keyhole, so tiny, no key could ever fit. I thought about that for a moment. Could it be? I asked for my mother’s necklace, and pulled out the little key. I put the key into the too tiny lock, and twisted. The filligrees resembled the ones on mom’s necklace-- no… they were the filligrees from mom’s necklace. Silver laced in floral patterns all over the creature fluttered like feathers as I turned the lock. The creature began to purr and glow. The glow emanated around the room, and that energy in my chest pulsed with it. Every breath I took like another pulse. I became dizzy with it, then crumbled to the floor.

When I woke up, a hooded woman was carrying me, but we were moving so fast. Every stride the creature took beneath us felt like a mile, and every breath I took seemed to power the strides. We reached the edge of a canyon, an electric bubble formed over its surface. She took a long finger, and scratched the bubble veil, to let us through. When we stepped inside, a whole city was bustling, moving. It had been seven years since I’d seen a city like this one. It was dark around us, but the city was as bright as the day. Glowing signs, pulsating advertisements, street lights to illuminate the street as you walked. It was so beautiful. But, after I caught my bearings from the city’s lightshow, I realized something. There was no murk here. The air was pure. The air was clean!

I turned and asked the hooded woman, “Where are my mom and dad?”

“Mara, I don’t really know that I’m the best person to tell you this. But I do think you should know. Danellei, come.”

The creature stepped forward. They petted themselves against me, and growled low, “I am missing pieces. The pieces meant to bring them back. When we connected, your energy pulse absorbed them.”

“My what did what? How… Is that even possible?”

“Now, we must begin the hunt to find all of my pieces. Are you ready?”

“Do I have a choice?” I shrugged. “You say this will bring them back?”

“Let’s go.” They smiled wryly. It was odd how much their cat like face reminded me of my father.

Let the hunt begin.