Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 - 2 | Page 175

A Race Against Time
Victoria Shanghai Academy, Lam, Isabella - 10
I sighed as I sat on the deck of my boat. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sea! But charting whale activity and
other boring stuff was not how I planned to spend my break. As the boat moved across the silent night sea, I
stared out at the distance, wishing I was home. Suddenly, the boat lurched, and I was almost thrown
overboard. The other crew members ran out in their pyjamas, confused. One of my men ran to the prow
screaming, “What on earth is that!?” Following his gaze, I looked, and what I saw chilled my bones. We
were being lured farther and farther into a swirling vortex of water. “Whirlpool!” someone shouted, but I
could barely hear them over the ear-splitting sound of water. This was our end.
Praying to god, I quickly gathered everyone and told them all to go below decks. No one was going to be
left outside to the ocean’s wrath. We swayed from side to side and crashed into countless objects as well as
each other. There was broken glass everywhere and just as I was thinking of what to do, I heard the sound
of shattering of glass yet again. Many of our crew were hurt, I knew we couldn’t hold much longer. Then
suddenly, as quickly as it had started, it all stopped. The boat stopped swaying, the sound of crashing waves
died. Suddenly, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Carefully, I stood up and brushing past the
broken glass, I walked up to the deck.
For a second, I stood dazed staring at the strange sight. A group of men were standing on the deck. No way,
I told all my crew members to go downstairs and we didn’t have nearly as many people. As my eyes got
used to the darkness, I saw the figures of strongly built men, holding wicked sharp swords that glittered in
the dark black night.
Instinctively, my hand moved towards the door handle behind my back. But suddenly, there was a flurry of
movement and before I could speak, a sword pressed against my neck.
“Who are you?” I demanded. “What are you doing on our ship?”
“Actually,” replied a voice from the pitch black, “Who are you and what are YOU doing on our ship?”
“What do you mean?” I said confused, “This is my ship, not yours.”
“Stop joking around,” he said. “We are the Ming treasure fleet and though we are famed for giving
valuables away, we also keep military forces and we do NOT like thieves on our ship.”
I was bewildered.
“Hold up.” I said. We are not thieves, we got sucked into a whirlpool and landed here”.
“The blue flurry!” They exclaimed
“The what?” I said.
“It is a special hurricane that appears once a century and sucks ships from their time to any time in the past.”
The captain explained.
“So what year is it?” I asked
“1423.”
Time seemed to slow down. My heart stopped. If they were being honest, then that meant over 20 young
men and I were currently stuck 596 years back from the current time.
“No, it can’t be!” I exclaimed.
“It’s happening,” they replied.