Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 537

Gliders
Island School, Leung, Renee - 13
CLASSIFIED
Dear Director,
Here are the files you requested, the video transcripts and the original files that were found in the ruins, parts
were damaged so severely to the point my team could not restore them, they are cut out and left as blank for
your convenience, luckily they were not footages of much importance. We believe the tablet we retrieved
the files from belonged to one of the victims.
CATALINA BAY. SSN 173-420-9775 STATUS: DECEASED.
We speculate the videos were video journals meant to be sent to “Ceri,” as mentioned in the transcript. It
was truly a shame what happened. Annotations added by my scribe will be written in italics, excuse some of
his… comments, he’s disposable, they will be in italics in case of confusion.
Have a good evening,
Noam Bay
The message will self destruct in 3...2...1…
The me e will sel ruct in 3...2...1…
e e will sel ruct in 3. ...1…
sel n 3. ...1.
1.
.
2300 {GMT+8) . 31-12-2022
The image is tilted, with the moonlight spilling over the windows casting dark shadows all over the small
room, packed to the brim with computers and notebooks. An old neon sign hung limply onto the sidewall,
spelling out “CATA.”
Clad in a black hoodie and bright leggings, Catalina took a break from the computers and reached out,
grabbed a bag of sour patch watermelons- I didn’t know those things still existed! and plopped down onto
her swivel chair and spinned around.
“Hey Ceri, Happy New Year! Noa’s still not back yet. How are you doing over in the Maldives? I wish I
could go with you.” By the way, Mr Meowsers is alright if you were wondering.” She halted her spinning
and reached down under the messy desk.
With a grunt and what sounded like a deranged cat scream, Catalina pulled a scared-looking Mr Meowsers
off the ground and shoved the poor cat in front of the camera.
“Don’t worry! He’s perfectly fine, I just tried to braid his hair that’s all.” Cata smiled cheerily as she petted
Mr Meowsers and put him on the ground.
“I miss you boo,” she said as she stuffed three sour patches into her mouth. “Gonna go gliding today, go see
the festival or something, it’s been two years since this so-called country was made, apparently. The
higher-ups are probably dancing in their fancy chairs right about now, wonder if Noa’s with them. Pfftt-”
Painfully accurate, Just last week those old geezers were dancing all over their room because of tax increase
and I was the one who had to clean up that mess.