Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 274

Sumatra's Sunken Ships
The Independent Schools Foundation Academy, Tang, Rosalyn - 12
It’s been a few years since we started the first journey to the unknown. Although I really liked being one of
the ‘Ming Treasure Voyagers’ (that’s what we dubbed ourselves), the past few days have really started to tire
me out. Each day, we had to wake up earlier than the sun and toil through the night, even when we feel
like we can’t walk one step further.
My eyelids drooped as I stumbled through the halls, finally being able to get a few hours of peaceful sleep.
Halfway down the hallway that led to the cabins, I heard loud snoring coming from the cabins on the left
and shook my head. How was I supposed to sleep with that racket?
I continued my walk to the end of the hall, careful not to wake anyone up or step on any of the people who
had just decided to drop unconscious in the hallways. Finally, I reached my cabin and my bed. Ah, my bed.
My beautiful, comfortable bed. I ended up going to sleep with half of my body still on the floor.
After not long, the deafening sound of the morning bell reached my ears. CLANG CLANG CLANG.
Just a little longer… I thought as I reached for an imaginary pillow to cover my head as thundering footsteps
filled the hall. Sleep was the only thing in my half-conscious mind. But the bell still stubbornly rang on.
Reluctantly, I rolled out of bed.
I opened the door groggily and the stench of sweat blasted me full force in the face. Flinching, I wondered if
I smelled better than them. Probably not, my mind chided. You really need a shower. Strangely, instead of
being sleep-deprived zombies like my fellow shipmates usually were, I heard commotion buzzing on the
main deck.
The long wooden hallways all lead up to a common area, which was the place where we had meals. Long,
splintery wooden tables stretched from one side of the room to another, but still leaving enough space for a
straight path which led to the stairway that led up to the main deck. Despite being one of the 238 smaller
vessels that surrounded the big treasure ships, our vessel was still pretty huge.
I headed up to the main deck, where sailors were looking into the distance. The view was truly
breathtaking: The clear blue sky reflected in the peaceful ocean, and our fleet of ships, cruising across this
vast space. It reminded me just how powerful China was. From where I stood, I could almost see Zheng
He, our leader, standing on the deck of the main ship. But now, if you looked close enough, there was a
tiny stretch of green in the distance: Sumatra.
We had arrived at our next destination.
By evening, we had traded with some of the merchants near the coast and were returning to our ships for
dinner. If everything went well, we would head inland tomorrow. Who knows what we might discover?
Walking back to our ships, I anticipated tasting those new things called ‘peppers’ that we got today. We
rowed back out to sea in the direction of the fleet, but the ships were gone.
“What? That’s impossible! Our ship was right there.” a sailor cursed. Our boat bumped into something just
under the surface of the water, but it was hard to see in the dark of the night. Then something floated over–
the silhouette of a man, clinging on to a piece of driftwood. It was one of my shipmates that had stayed
behind when we explored the land. Thankfully, there was still a faint rise and fall of his chest, indicating that
he was still alive. We quickly pulled him up on the boat, asking him questions like ‘What happened?’ and
‘Where is our ship?’. Unfortunately, he was unconscious.
After a few splashes of seawater in his face, the sailor woke up, startled.
“Finally. You’re awake.” I exclaimed. “What happened to our ship?”