Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 105

Run Away
Diocesan Girls' Junior School, Tam, Nga Yan - 10
Run, run, Mia!
“ As a matter of fact, a…”
Mia tugged her messy black-brown hair into a braid, ignoring her mum as they walked into the
big, dome-like house. Mia heard the orderly clacking sounds of high-heels while people strode by. Strange,
new inventions looked out from every bullet-proof glass wall. It was a living factory--a few stations
demonstrated the latest type of machine. Mia watched, fascinated, as a spindly arm reached out from a tube
kind of thing, holding onto a toothbrush and mimicking brushing other’s teeth. It was a nice idea, she
thought, for the cities within China to form the Greater Bay Area so to bring their technology one step
more advanced.
“ Mia! Where are the bits and pieces for my robot?”
In a quick, fired sentence of an odd mix of spanish and english, a harassed-looking Ms Shonman
asked frantically, flapping her hands.
“ You placed them in the chest of drawers,” Mia said patiently.
“Ah, no.They have vanished! My company relied on me...What shall I say when they hear about this?”
Mia looked at her mother sympathetically. As head of her newly-formed asian company, Mum was
bound to put together the finishing touches then present their robot to the government tomorrow at noon..
“Is it possible to buy them?”
A fierce look settled upon Ms Shonman’s delicate features.
“It is hard. We retrieved them from the black market.”
Oh… A business trade with illegal goods and low prices. So Mum was a fraud. Her mother’s face
hardened. She fixed her dark eyes on Mia’s innocent brown ones.
“We need the money for rent and other purposes. Don’t think as of a traitor.”
Mia swung her sequined duffel bag over a shoulder. She held out her phone, bemused. One
moment before, she was chatting with her mother. In less than a minute, she was bundled up in her coat
and pushed to the door with bag in hand. Incredulously, she followed the directions typed on the flashing
screen from her mother. As she stalked down the street, the wind slapped against her cheek sharply,the
sensation as if a knife had cut her flesh. Pitter, patter, the sound was heard while rain drizzled from the
stormy skies. She hugged her coat closer; then boarded the first bus which skidded around the corner into a
halt. She went past the Shenzhen border and got into Chimelong. As she was striding towards the shadowed
alley, where the black market waited, a sudden ringing ran in her ears. Then everything happened at once.
At least ten creatures dashed for her, followed by an odd mix of men. Some were zookeepers, and smelled
of raw meat; some were armed in sedatives, dragging a really large cage along. Mia was cornered into a brick
wall that was at the verge of collapsing, and she found herself face-to-face with a magnificent golden lion,
its shaggy mane bristling. Mia could only focus on the blinding white of its bared teeth, and panic crawled
up her, an unpleasant feeling roiling in her stomach. It’s going to eat you… were her only thoughts. A
blinding-hot feeling shot up her, and she crouched down and impulsively threw her flats right at the lion’s
face. Foolish of her. It was, in no way, harmful, but distracted the lion for five seconds. In that short time,
the men had it sedated, then put in the cage beside its pack. When the situation had gradually calmed down,
after Mia had found out she had been attacked by an escaped pride of lions from the zoo, the place was
deserted, and a sallow man with a bag full of illegal purchases poked his head out from the quiet alleyway.
It was late at night by the time Mia was still halfway back home across the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-
Macau Bridge on an uber, courtesy of her rescuers. She still felt shaken from the encounter earlier, gazing
out to the vast ocean downwards when she felt a sudden tremor; a quiet vibration. She snapped her gaze
towards the driver. Suddenly, shrieks filled the air, distant but clear to Mia’s sharp ears.