Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 407

A Great Escape from Desolation
Harrow International School Hong Kong, Li, Jaimee - 12
Once upon a time, in a troubled, forlorn, desolate kingdom far, far away called the Earth, there lived a girl with
flowing stygian black hair and coal black, piercing,inky eyes. This is her tale.
“The end is now. The end is coming. Don’t try to stop it for the end will stop you.”
One sentence was all it took for Zelda’s mother to rush her into the forest, where the wind snatched at her skin,
trying to make a purchase, where the air whispered a song of mischief, and where the big bad wolves slumbered
silently. They were in a hurry, Zelda could see, with frantic hisses of “pack this , pack that,” but why couldn’t
she bring her dolls? Zelda now clutched at her mother’s body, threadbare, worn, damaged scarf biting at her
skin, making it almost impossible to breath, but still, she carried on and didn’t say a word. Please. Let me out.
The ancient , horse drawn carriage, saviour of so many runaways, rattled down the crumbling cobbled
road with drab, mustard yellow lace barricading the dreary light from flooding in. It had seemed so long ago that
this very carriage was glacier-white, with pristine, smiling leather seats and glistening, crystal windows…
Outside, the peasants howled with misery,shaking their trembling fists and screaming like banshees at their
misfortune as the Necropolis virus slowly stroked them, roaring with undisguised delight at the trouble it had
caused. The peasants had an eerie glow to them now, like living corpses as the sky and ground seemed like
jagged lines shrieking with malice. The smoke seemed to reach the sky, spiralling up and billowing upwards with
sorrowful sighs. The party had been stuck here for uncountable days, each one passing by like sand in a bottle,
trickling by with moans of agony. There was no food, no water, no anything for them to eat, and as they all
huddled together for warmth, Zelda felt the wheels of the carriage singing her name “ Zeld-aa! Zeld-aa!”
begging her to come and play a rousing round of “catch” with them.
“Just what do you think you’re doing? The world is crumbling and you’re obsessing over a mundane
photograph of what, your mother?”
“ I… I… I don’t know!” stumbled Zelda nervously, sweat beginning to run down her forehead. Life
had not been kind to her during the recent years. She and a million other people were the only survivors of the
Necropolis Virus, and sometimes it felt as if the gods had punished her with bad luck, making her life miserable
in a hundred ways. It now felt as though a million hands were starting to tug her towards the ground, willing her
to melt like ice on a hot summer day.
“Just go back to work. It’s a trying time for everyone, but pull your socks up.” came her boss’ curt
reply. With that, he turned on his heel and swaggered off, bopping his head to some foreign, silent music inside
his brain.
“ It will be alright. Everything will be just fine.” “ NO! get out of my head!” For months, Zelda had
been troubled with visions from the past, from her mother’s sweet, docile, voice to those petrifying, gutwrenching
days in the ragged, splintered and disintegrating carriage that had presided over her childhood. Just
stop. Please. Lost in her thoughts, Zelda continued down the hallway, silently, nostalgically reminiscing about her
childhood.
Suddenly, as though an omen from the gods had blessed her, a sheaf of paper floated down from a
windowsill, moving through the dust filled air like jellyfish in a trance. It was creamy vanilla white, and the
words on it almost made Zelda cry. “ Come to a whole new world !” it screamed “ The Greater Bay Area! A
shining new city, rising from the ashes like you will never know! Come now, or forever hold your peace!” Her
heart began to pound; and she reached for the papers with trembling fingers. Zelda could hear her heart in her
ears like the beating of a thousand drums tantalising her with beats of “ Come on, you can do it!”, and before she
knew it, Zelda had signed all the necessary papers and rushed out of her miniscule apartment into the dangerous
streets below.