The Stranded

• Bart Stephenson, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2013

I awoke in a daze, my head throbbing, my eyes glance up a huge ball of flames erupted from scrap metal, ringing starts in my ears and charred bodies surround me there were some missing limbs. A loud scream approaches: it was a young girl clambering away from the wreck. I push myself up but my legs give way. I crawl to her grasping her in my arms. Another eruption occurs the girl’s body stops moving, I notice a big chunk of metal sticking out of her back and blood gushing out. I turn away at this horrific site and crawl for safety 20 metres away where the tree line starts.
I lay behind the trees staring up at the smoke filled sky, my heart thumping like a thundering elephant I close my eyes and try to remember what happened but the throbbing in my legs were too painful. I look down to my feet noticing my left leg was covered with bruises the size of tennis balls. Night was closing in the temperature dropped rapidly, cicadas started singing. I looked for something to cover me against the cold, I scanned the area there were some big wilted palm leaves and scattered sticks, some small twigs and some quite large, I grasp the tree that I am laying against and use it to put me on my feet and hobble towards some sticks, I gather them up holding them tight in my arm and then limp towards the palm leaves I grasp two leaves and pile them together, I dropped my sticks on the ground. As I kneel down my knees crack. I search through my sticks for two forked ones one has a v intersection through it and another has a branch sticking off the main one, I snap the sticks down to about 30 centimetres I force the sticks into the soft ground 2 metres apart from each other and lay a palm leaf on top which creates a kind of roof. I lay the other palm leaf on me and crawl under the hammock thing and closed my eyes the uneven ground was hurting my back but I quickly fell asleep.
I awoke to the bright blue sky the sun was shining on me and the leaves above shook in the light wind: my skin had a very slight frost on it. I sat up rubbing my eyes the shelter that I had put up the night before laid beside me. I shoved the palm leaf off me and stood up I stumbled over to the sticks that I had collected before and looked for bugs in them. I found a couple of ants but nice to eat. So I walked to a light brown tree which had a deep hollow in it hoping for some animal inside. I put my hand in and feel around I grab something I thought it was a lizard as it squirmed in my tight hand, I pull it out, it lets out a huge hiss as I throw it on the ground, I knew that it wasn’t a lizard as soon as had it out of the hollow. The snake black like night sky rears up ready to strike I stumble back trying to grab a stick the snake strikes like lightning a excruciating pain starts in my leg I look down and two bleeding pin pricks appear my eyes close uncontrollably fast: I cannot keep them open…….