Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 52

The Labyrinth
Bradbury School, Moi, Leah - 10
Walking through the hallway and into the library, robots were shelving books around her. An excited but
quiet voice welcomed her into the library. As Katie walked through, a robot asked her: “How may I help
you?” and she responded, “I’m just looking thanks!” The robot said: “If you need help, just ask one of us
robots!” She walked next into another room, this time a classroom, however, there were no students. Just a
teacher on his phone. She asked the teacher: ‘Where are your students?” He told her to shush by putting his
fingers on his lips, then showed her the screen. A class of maybe twenty-five students were all on a call with
the teacher, hastily writing answers. The teacher mouthed: “The students can’t come to school, they live
too far away” on the whiteboard, then she understood why everyone on the video call looked like they
came from different countries, Australia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Philippines, all from different races, but they
still got together for a lesson every day, however far away they are. They may never get to actually meet the
teacher in real life, but the parents do not care, education is all that matters. Next there was a group of
children playing football. Katie hesitantly joined in, not wanting to ruin their fun, however, they were
playing amazing football, with whipped free kicks, some amazingly bent corners and a series of bicycle kicks.
Then the sky turned dark, the kids started becoming stony-faced and she went home. She then realized
that the time had come, and that the prophecy was fulfilled. The gloomy sky matched the feelings of the
Greater Bay Area residents. Due to the fact that the stone of creativeness was stolen, everyone was a robot.
Katie were standing looking out of the window when a text arrived: “Sup, meet me at Main Hall, pack
your bags ready for a few days…. Bring some food.” She looked at who sent the message, Aaron. Her best
mate was NOT feeling less for sure. She grabbed her bag and start packing. A hoodie, jacket, scissors, rope,
knife and a pack of tissues later, she was done packing, running out of the door, she finally remembered
food. She ran back into the house and grabbed some chips, made a few sandwiches and grabbed her water
bottle. She grabbed her wallet and ran out of the door again.
In the main hall, she was met by Aaron, Mark, Amy and Sam. “In here!” Ushered Aaron. He opened a
hatch in the wall, “Why are w-” Started Katie, only to be pushed into the room. “The stone of creativity
has been stolen, we have to save the GBA, to do that we have to hunt down Donald Slayer, the man who
famously escaped the Alcatraz prison. He is the one that stole the stone.” Katie gasped in excitement, and
everyone nodded grimly. Aaron continued, “Donald Slayer is currently in the labyrinth, the one that no one
has escaped from, except for Theseus and Daedalus of course, however, there’s no reason why we can’t do
it! One more thing, without the stone, GBA will be nothing, this is the final part to the puzzle of the GBA,
we have to save it, this is our home, we can’t let someone ruin our home.!” Katie looked at him, then
nodded. Mark, Amy and Sam handed Katie a skateboard, and Aaron walked out of the door, motioning for
them to follow, he snapped his fingers and suddenly everyone was falling down through a hole……
Katie looked up, a sign read, Parthenon- 200 meters in Greek. Katie had studied Greek in school so knew
perfectly well what this meant, she saw another sign, this time Λαβύρινθος- Greek for labyrinth, Aaron
asked: “I know you studied Greek at school, what do these signs mean?”
“Parthenon and Labyrinth, Parthenon on the right, 200 meters away, Labyrinth on the left, 2.4 km away.”
“We are going to the Labyrinth…. Everyone, to the left we go!” After an exhausting 2.4 km, everyone was
tired.
“Are we there yet?” Someone would ask every 2 minutes, it was only after 15 minutes did they come to a
halt in front of a door. It read: Do not enter unless you wish a painful death, or unless you are Theseus or
Daedalus. Aaron hesitated, then walked in.
A sudden smell hit Katie full in the face, the sewer smell was fetid and Katie couldn’t stand the smell,
covering her mouth and her nose, she chased after a blur that ran straight past her, she sprinted after them,
and caught up after 2-3 minutes,