Best Middle School Submission: Matthew Stephen

Best Middle School Submission

written by Matthew Stephen (Year 7)

Ignorance and Hope

Ibarrelled towards the light, not knowing how and where it would take me. It had been days, months, years since the calamity, time had stopped ticking, rivers had stopped flowing, babies had stopped crying. I was alone, my thick black hair and peculiar grey eyes were something I had pride in before it all went crumbling down, but now emotions are just a mere distraction from the truth. Some people ran and some murdered when it happened, when the cities fell and for once we all knew what was coming, but some, like me, stayed to watch. I watched as people ran from fire and gasped for their last breath, I stood there as my own people turned into dust.

Decilit streets passed me as I pondered around the remains of what was once a sprawling city. The cars of people who once were, littered the streets, left alone, frozen in time, I could almost feel the panic that shot through the air when it happened, when people turned against each other, when suddenly all the hatred in the world was seen. Only those who didn’t feel were left alive, those who didn’t care. As humanity fell, nature had taken back control, trees crept through crevices in the concrete ground, vines hanging from the highest buildings, like they knew that we were no more.

As I drifted through the maze of streets I came across one of the supermarkets, just what I needed, I thought, it’s blinding green paint had been stripped away into a murky dull grey. Plants and weeds sheltered the building as I sliced through them trying to gain access to the goods within. Shoving through the dense forest of protection of which this door had acquired, rays of light hit the lines of shelves for the first time in so long, revealing the nutrients I so desperately needed. You have a customer and they’re certainly hungry, I thought to myself.

While my stomach rumbled like a volcano about to explode I sauntered through the cold still air, to my relief, I caught sight of the canned goods aisle. Cracking open a can of sloppy red tomatoes that were definitely slightly off, I breathed in a gasp of air, placed it on my dry tongue and forced it down my throat. Staring off into the darkness, I thought, how could this get any worse, I had been alone for six years, but not once I had wished for company. I don’t think I ever will. My mind drifted off in the dead silence.

“Hey Mr, can you help me find my mum? I saw you come in here and followed you,” said a boy in an annoyingly happy voice.

My eyes shot open in pure anger, I could feel the blood rushing through my body. I had not seen a human for the last 6 years and the first person I saw was a small boy who wanted to find his mum, what could possibly be the odds?

“Firstly, that’s very creepy and sorry to disappoint you, but you do realize that she is definitely gone?” I replied stiffly. “No! My mum said she would always be there for me, so are you going to help me or not Mr?” replied the boy in an almost scary voice.

I thought to myself, should I help this poor lonely child whose pants are nearly completely ripped apart and hat is almost as useful as a piece of paper. Definitely not. “Well as much as I would love to help a small lonely child like you, in this world there is only one person who matters, and that is yourself, and from as far as I can tell, you are not me. So good riddance,” I replied in a chirpily.

I took off confidently hoping never to see the sight of that silly boy ever again. I wandered through the shop, out of the dense jungle of a door and back out to the perilous silent city. Until suddenly it wasn’t so silent, the sound of light footsteps trailing behind me crept closer and closer.

“Come on I already said no kid,” I shouted as I turned back to realize that those footsteps did not belong to a small innocent child, but to a much more intimidating person dressed in a spotty green uniform. They also were holding quite a long bat. I really did reconsider all of my life choices in those moments. Within seconds my head was flying through the air with my impending doom almost arriving. My head hitting the ground, knocking me unconscious almost immediately, not like I wanted to be.

My eyes slowly lifted to reveal the sight of an old abandoned warehouse which had one of those old trains with funnels coming out from the top in it. I could sense that something was definitely wrong, my hands were tied together as I was dragged along by two large guards. The crying of people who were packed in carriages passed me while thick dark clouds came into view. Screeeechh, a large decaying door on the side of the train slid open letting out a wave of sorrow out from the daunting people. I never knew that so many were still alive, I was better off without knowing. That’s how it is these days, the less you know, the better, the more you can focus on what really matters, surviving.

I looked up to face these new happy companions I had, full of joy, shown in the many tears coming from their eyes and very excited for the journey we had yet to experience together. Pushing through any gap I could find in the sardine packed carriage(smelt like it too)I managed to squeeze my way to the corner of the carriage, where I saw the worst thing I had ever seen in my entire life. He had bluish green eyes and wore a hat as good as paper and was probably why I was in all this mess.

“Hey Mr! I went out to follow you so we could find my mum but then a big person hit me with a bat! It was terrifying, but I know we are the way to my mum so I was happy,”exclaimed the little boy in that same annoyingly happy voice.

Some part of me wished that person would have hit that boy just a little bit harder, but you can’t get everything. I just couldn’t fathom the fact that out of every person left on this planet this boy who’s only mission in life is to find his mum ended up with me in a carriage on a train of who knows where. Yet he was the first person I had seen in so many years who had shown something so many had forgotten, love.

“You do know that we are most likely not just going to be dropped off nicely for your mum to be waiting for you and we are definitely going to a prison camp where you will spend the rest of your life suffering,”I responded neary shouting at him. “Why.. would you say something like that, of course she will be there, she always is,” he replied as his eyes became as full as the ocean.

I looked out a small crack in the carriage seeing crows flutter by and dense mountain forests pass. The dark clouds had intensified, starting to slowly drench the land in the tears of the sky. The boy had balled up on the ground, I could hear the sound of his wimpers through the now pelting rain, his thin white hair covering the look of his sorrowful face. I felt something, something other than a pure need to survive, something obscure, new, I felt bad. He was just a kid in such a lonely world and somehow he found the drive to keep going and I didn’t.

“How do you know your mum is where we are going?”I asked him, hoping to make sense of such a mind.

“It’s not that I know she’s there, it’s that I know she is here for me and that means that she will find me, no matter where I am,”He said quietly. I had nearly forgotten what made humans so special, our ability to find hope in the most unlikely places. I could feel the train decelerating as we halted to a stop, the once almost dead crowd of people suddenly lifted their heads to view what was happening. Screeeeecchhhhh the rusted metal door was dragged open once again to unveil the sight of barbed wire and tall buildings with daunting light pouring out of them. It was like breathing water, every breath felt like a thick dense gulp. Besides the air, tall tropical trees surrounded the camp for as long I could see, providing almost perfect camouflage for this camp. Prisoners were being hauled around dressed in dark green jumpsuits looking as if their souls had been pulled out of them, what had I got myself into? But just as I finished that thought, I caught a glance of someone holding a threatening black gun. More of these threatening people revealed themselves as I was shoved around trying to stay in one place. Suddenly I could feel the tension in the atmosphere rise as they whispered to each other, something was going to happen, something exciting, I thought.

BANG! BANG! The air lit up with sounds, I could hear screaming, shouting, the first sign that these people around me were actually human. The armed people launched out of the carriage onto the murky ground while guards tried their best to shoot them down but there were too many. I turned back to the kid who was still huddled up in the corner. I could have left him, but he was the first person to ever make me think about someone else in this world and I couldn’t. “Hey kid! Get up, we’re escaping and finding your mum,”I felt my nerves shock as I said that realizing the true magnitude of the situation we were in.

“Really? I can’t believe this after what you said,”He replied as I could sense the hope that I was missing all along coming back to him.

“Look, you made me realize that maybe there is a chance in this world for people like you, so stick to my back and don’t leave my sight,”I shouted while I almost made a cheeky grin.

We descended into what had now broken into a full on battle, shots flying from one side to another, explosions causing the ground to tremble. It was almost impossible to not get caught in the crossfire, sliding under fallen towers and leaping over holes left from the grenades. But that’s when I heard it, my greatest fear, the sound of a bullet that did not make it to the otherside. My head flung back knowing what had happened, the boy had been hit. I launched back like my life depended on it to see him lying still on the ground, but I didn’t and I wouldn’t lose something that had given me so much already. Blood was creeping down from his shoulder as I threw him over my back, you’ll be okay, I told him.

His bluish green eyes peaked open as he gasped for air while I raced towards the tropical trees drowning in sweat to get away from the fighting. I ran through the bushes filled by this new need for change pushed through vines and bearing the weight of a child on my back. The air started to loosen and the sound of shooting faded away, I gently placed him on a log trying to find where he was shot. I tried to tell him not to speak but I think he knew that may be his last chance.

“Leave me, Mr, you have tried your best to help me and no one has ever done that for me, so really thank you,”he said breathlessly.

“But you can’t die, you can’t, what about your mum?”I said almost tearing up myself.

“My mum always told me that she would be there for me, I always believed she would find me, but now I realise, I’m finding her,”He replied as he gasped one last time and accepted his fate. That’s the thing about humans, we can be arrogant, misled, fooled, but we know when something is right, through love and through pain.

I never lived a day ever again without thinking about that boy, he found a reason not to care and he survived in a world that no one was supposed to survive in. —•