Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 305

Treasure Voyages……with Disasters?
Ying Wa College, Chung, Yiu Him - 13
That day, when I was sitting on my ship, waves were splashing, and the sea was roaring. It was when I
recalled the day of……
‘It is getting more and more windy! Shall we stop, Captain?’ said one of the crew.
‘But we have to get to East Africa fast! We all want to go back home as soon as possible, right?’ I said.
‘Ok, but we have to be careful.’
It was a tough day. Almost a half of the crew were suffering from seasickness. Our ships were shaking as if
it was an earthquake. Suddenly, a gigantic wave, which was almost as tall as a tsunami, was running towards
the ships. In just five minutes, I was covered by a sea of water, and fainted.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying on a layer of sand, with wind breezing through my body.
Calm water was touching my feet. I stood up. I was on an island, with the widest and loneliest view beyond
my eyes. Only seawater and the sun were in front of my eyes.
‘Hello! Anyone here?’
No reply. Only the wind answered me,’ No.’
‘Come on! I am not playing hide and seek with you!’
Still, no reply.
I just gave up screaming out from my sore throat. I started walking. I saw some of the crew, also lying on
the sand. But when I touched their noses, I soon figured out that they weren’t breathing. The island was
dead, except me.
Am I trapped on this island forever? If yes, then how am I going to survive? I cannot die on this island!
My family, my house, my fame are all gone at this time.
Soon, I heard coughing sounds.
I turned around and saw somebody sitting on the sand.
To my surprise, somebody broke the loneliness on the island.
Excitement and hope quickly appeared. After a while, other crew woke up. It was shocking as I thought
everyone except me died.
‘All of you please come here,’ I said. ‘We probably don’t want to stay on this island forever, do we?’
‘Yes,’ said some of crew.
‘Then we have to leave here before another storm strikes us.’ I said.
We guessed that the ships were turned over by the gigantic wave. So we tried to find some ships which
might be pushed onto the island by the sea.
After we circled the island, we counted that there were only 10 ships. Some of them were upside-down,
while some of them were damaged. At the same time, I counted that there were around 80 of the crew
alive.
‘We should start fixing our ships.’
So, we were divided into some teams. Some of us went to chop the wood down the trees, and some of us
resembled the ships.
It was a lot of work and we could not finish it in one day. So, we built a campfire and decided to stay
overnight.
‘Is it safe here?’
‘How can we survive on the ships?’
‘Will there be any storms coming?’
‘Everyone listen, there will be no storm coming.’ I said. ‘We will start finding food tomorrow and we will
continue our journey. I know that you all, including me, have lost some friends. I am regretful about this. I
should not have ordered you all to go further. If we stopped at this island instead of directly facing the
storm, then we won’t be suffering from all of these. Have a good sleep tonight. Sorry to all of you.’
That night, I could not sleep. I was thinking: it was my entire fault. Originally there were a few hundred
people and about fifty ships, and also the presents that we would give to other countries. However they
were almost all gone because of my decision. Apart from the serious consequences that I will face after I
went back to my country, I have to carry the responsibility for all of the casualties and deaths. It was the
most terrible disaster that I had ever met.