Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 385

The Outside
Dulwich College Beijing, Xu, Zong - 13
I opened my eyes, everything was blurry. Pain was dominating my entire body forcing me to squeeze my eyes
shut again. I tried again. Failure. Again. Finally, I was able to see. Smoke. Fire. Piles of something. I looked
closer. Then it struck me. Piles of bodies. At that moment, a bolt of lightning shot through my body, making me
jump. Still lying down, I looked around me. More smoke. More fire. And. More corpses. Then. I looked down
at my legs. A huge, deep cut was on my leg. I was terrified. I saw the pain. But I didn’t feel it. What was going
on? Will I feel something? Then, after ten seconds, agony streamed through me, with the wound as the source. I
was screaming now. Screaming like I have never done before. Shaking. Sweating. Something trickled from my
head down to my nose. Praying, I touched it and looked at my hand. It was red. It felt warm. Scared of another
wound, I slowly touched the top of my head. It was covered in a liquid. However, I couldn’t feel a cut. Was the
blood mine? This thought was glued to my brain like an everlasting curse. I wondered what I could do. There
wasn’t much hope. Almost none. But then, I heard it. A faint, distant sound. I couldn’t make much out of it. But
there was a sound. It was getting louder. Just by a bit. But it was getting louder. “An…one…me!?” I could figure
out some words. Not that much. But it was getting clearer. “Can…one…ear…me?!” Come on, say it one more
time, just one more, “Can anyone hear me!?” It was so close now. Help at last. I was about to shout but
something came into my mind, what if this person was just trying to see if there is anyone still alive to then kill?
Incredibly nervous now, I noticed my body was still. No movement at all. What should I do now? Silently
debating in my head, I decided to call for help. “Here! Help!” I shouted. I heard the person start running towards
me, gradually getting faster. “Here, I’m here,” I informed the person. After that, he walked in front of me. It was
a man. A strong, tall man. He had bandages wrapped around his left arm. There was blood visible behind the
bandage, damping it slightly. He was about to say something, but then saw my wound and immediately started to
get medical equipment out of his bag that he was carrying. After about a minute, he poured a liquid on to the
wound. It burnt so much, like as if my leg was on fire. “It will be gone in a bit, it’s disinfecting,” He said,
noticing the agony on my face. While the pain was slowly dying away, the man got out the same type of bandage
that he had on his arm, he ripped off a huge piece of it and strapped it around my leg.
“Tha…thank you,” I gratefully told him.
“I’m John,” he added.
“I’m Ben.”
“Do you think can walk?”
“Yes, I think I can.”
“We got to walk for about five kilometers until we’ll reach my shelter.” Five kilometers, why does that sound so
far? At that point, I became aware of that my throat and mouth was extremely dry.
“You got some water?”
“Yes, at my shelter only though.”
“Alright, lead the way.”
We walked on for approximately an hour until we reached a small man-made shelter built with pieces of metal.
Inside was a table, seat, some food and water, leftovers of what used to be a sofa and a radio. “Help yourself, but
make sure you don’t drink too much,” John warned. Next, he went to the radio and started adjusting it. Loud
cracking noises filled the silence as I walked towards the water. I saw that there wasn’t much left. I drank some.
The water rushed through my throat reviving all the drought and dryness. I looked outside; it was getting dark.
“You should get some sleep, you can go on the sofa,” John uttered, still trying to get anything out of the radio.
“Thanks,” I replied and got on to the sofa. I wanted to ask John what was going on, but my body refused. I was
too tired. It wasn’t so long until my eyes closed, and I got some sleep…
HISSSSSSSSSSS. A sudden noise woke me up. Confused, I tried to figure out where it came from. HISSSSSSS.
“To……all……survivors……” someone or something spoke constantly being interrupted with a hissing and
cracking noise. “Walk…… towards…...Macau……” I looked all over the place. I saw it. The radio.
“John, wake up! Wake up!” I shouted at him. He was slouched on one of the chairs. He suddenly jolted up,
wondering what was happening. “John, listen!” I was praying that it would play again.
HISSSSSSSSS.
“All……survivors……walk…...towards……Macau……there……you……will……see……a……building……
with……a……red……circle……on……it……that’s……where……we……are……” Then the sound stopped.
“Do you think it’s real?” John asked.
“We can’t just stay here, it’s our only chance,” I replied.
“We don’t have much food and water though.”
“We got to try, we’ll run out of food and water here anyway.”
Silence. I could feel that John was thinking hard.
“Ok. Let’s go,” John finally stated.