Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 341

Wastelands
Ying Wa Primary School, Tong, Calvin - 11
It’s the year of 2183 and it is hard for us as 21 st century people to imagine, many of the countries
we know nowadays have either merged into a huge country or disappeared, like the UK and Germany and
China. Well, to be precise, China was surrounded by acid gas and many of the projects that China had once
founded were forgotten, like the extension of the Great Wall and the building of the Great Sphere to
honour the deaths of the soldiers who died in World War III.
Only the glorious Greater Bay Area Project was continued, alas as the great earthquake split them
in two and the Greater Bay Area floated to Oceania and morphed into Australia. The humans on the lands
of the project no longer stayed on the ground as they used Nano technology to build cosmopolitan islands
that float on the ground. The grounds their ancestors once walked and lived on became the wastelands.
“Vroom vroom!” the familiar vacuum sound rung in Sam and his friends’ ears as they went hunting
for things in the wastelands when they came across an annoyed wasteland security, “Get out, rubbish
beggars! All you know is how to mess around, use your brains! Shoo! Scram! You pesky rubbish finders!”
He shouted at them. Sam and the other three ran away, laughing mischievously, as they ran up to the
islands. They were used to the security shouting at them.
“Okay, what did you guys get?” Sam asked, “I got some hover-panels and suction boots and a
jetpack, probably unusable.”
“I got some tech-glasses, with information in it, I wonder whose is it?” replied May.
“We got none!” said Beth and John, in unison, “We kind of dropped them during the escape.”
Sam and his friends were mechanics and they could fix almost everything, almost.
All of a sudden, the jetpack whirred to life after Sam finally finished tinkering with it. “It works!
“said John, in awe.
“What do you expect?” Beth asked, “It dances?”
“I hoped it could produce more minerals like coal and oil, I haven’t even seen it before! Is it black
or is it white?” John replied, ironically.
“The glasses are projecting some words, shh!” said May, “R_ _ot _eve _o _io_! Do any of you
have any idea what it is?”
“Might be trash!” As Sam said that, he put it on, “It look great on me! Wait, there is a game inside
called ‘Journey’, should we play it?”
“Well, up to you,” John piped in. Sam decided to play and he clicked onto that button.
Sam noted, “Nothing is happening, I reckon it has broken down.” Suddenly, a green light
enveloped Sam and the others. “Ahh! Help!” screamed all four of them.
“Ow! That hurts!” yelled John as landing in a jungle. “Who am I? Why do I have a trident? What!
I have a pig nose! Oh my god! I’m a pig? I’m Pigsy from Journey to the West.
“So I’m the Monkey King?” asked Sam as he did a somersault.
“No! I’m a man! I’m Sandy!” yelped Beth.
“Me too!” said May, “I’m bald! My greatest nightmare has arrived! I’m Tang Monk!”
“Welcome to Journey. Our kingdom is in grave danger, we have no Wi-Fi, you must go to the
East and find the signal or else we will all perish.” said a voice from nowhere, “Board the helicopter and
jump off after five minutes after all of you strap in.”
“Oh no, we will need to use our wits and bravery to finish this!” cried John, “Let’s see our
strengths and weaknesses. My strengths are eating, sleeping and trident, weaknesses are speed, strength and
cake? How is cake my weakness?”
Sam replied, “Wow, I have somersaulting, pole-vaulting and sprinting as my strengths and
playfulness as my weaknesses, I feel like an Olympic athlete!”
After finding out all of their weaknesses and strengths, they set off for their first stop, Hong Kong.
“To find the clue, please go to Lok Fu. Get the red food, and have a happy mood!” said the voice, again.
As they found the next clue, which was in an Apple IPhone, they set off for the next city, as
known as Macao. The riddle was, “Search the cloud that stores data and never moves.”
“Ah! I know, it’s iCloud, the cloud that stores data and never moves!” May answered quickly.
“Smart one!” Beth smiled.
They finally set off for their last stop – Shenzhen, in search of Wi-Fi. After a long journey, they
finally reached their destination and retrieved the Wi-Fi, saved the world from a huge crisis. They got back
to the modern world and made a pact – destroy the glasses. As last, they had never heard of this game again.