Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 396

Journeys to the West West Island School, Genee, Pascale - 11 “R eady?” Chuyu asked , “As I’ll ever be” I replied nervously. I’m Meilin, Chuyu is my brother , I was fourteen, working age. Being born into the Zhu family meant I was part of the family business from a young age, bandits. It was a good living. That night our scouts had reported a big caravan travelling. I was put into the raid, since I was small for my age I was with the children crawling into the main caravan to get goods. We heard the signal and saw the band rushing towards the caravan. In the chaos of fighting it seemed like they had a lot of soldiers. Close up, it was clear we were losing the fight. At that moment I could have escaped, but I didn’t, instead I dove right in. I remember ducking and dodging and eventually reaching the goods, but by that time it was too late. I heard voices coming towards me! I hid behind some sacks. People from the caravan came into view, there was a finely dressed woman and two guards, they didn’t seem to notice me. I breathed a sigh of relief only to realise Chuyu hadn’t had time to hide! They would definitely notice him crouching down next to spice sacks. I had to create a distraction so that Chuyu could escape, they were moving away from me. I got up and started to sprint towards the carriage door, only to be caught by the guards. “Bandits!” the guard shouted “I can see that” the lady replied curtly. “Put her with the slaves and find her companions” she ordered. My heart was pounding in my ears, I was terrified. As they searched the carriage for Chuyu I prayed silently to the gods I had always disregarded. They were nearing his hiding place, there was no way he could escape , he jumped up and ran for the door. The guards quickly caught him, we were tied up and left there. I heard the shouts and screams of the fight outside, Chuyu whispered anxiously to me “Do you think they’ll kill us?” I saw he was terrified. I tried my best to comfort him “Don’t worry, we’ll just be put to work with the slaves, and once we get to the trade point everyone will be so busy we should have a chance to escape.” At that moment I knew that most of the things I said had a slim chance of actually happening but I also knew that if we didn’t escape, we would be slaves the rest of our lives. Finally, a guard came in. “You are t