Player

• Emielia Jansen, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2017

Sunrays lit my body up as the sun peeked over the early morning horizon. I groan as my scratched body aches. I was on a remote island. But where? I fall back, pushing the sand deeper into my wounds. Memories flood back to me. I stand almost urgently when the memory of my friends pops into my mind instantly. Four of us were in a boat, on an ocean flatter than a flat soft drink, no islands nearby and no help anywhere close. Suddenly there was a gigantic wave as big as a 12 story building and that was all I could remember. I looked at my hand bleeding out. I needed to stop the bleeding, now. I limp into the jungle and start ripping off leaves making a mixture I learnt in survival camp to sterilize my wound. The sun shone high through the jungle canopy, I need to find my friends. As I left the jungle, a symbol carved on a tree catches my eye, it’s an ancient symbol meaning player. I stick it into my mind so I don’t forget. As I race down to the beach, I see someone, Thea? I see one of my friends. I run to her and notice that she has a cut in the same spot as me, on her left palm. I explained everything as we go searching for our other two friends, Tom and Don. We luckily find them before the rainbow beams of the sunset struck. Each of us has a cut on our left palm, now that couldn’t be a coincidence. I unwrap the leaves from my hand looking between the dry, cracked blood, the symbol I saw on the tree, Player. But what does it mean? Questions that will have to wait until tomorrow. So we all go to sleep letting our dreams reanimate todays journey. I wake up to chains on my wrists, mud and sand scratched into my face. Where am I? I cough sputtering out a mixture of sand and blood again and again. I looked around, I’m in a cage, the only way out blocked by two blue-skinned muscly men. ‘What the? Aliens?’ I say to myself. There was a clank from the cage next door, then a scream. “Thea!” I shout screaming and banging on the cage. I slide down, tears running down my face. I fall back as the door opens, men grab my shoulders and drag me out into an arena. Suddenly I realise, that’s what the symbol on my palm means. We are all players in their pyscho entertainment. There stood Thea with a knife, covered in blood, two bodies either side of her. “Tom and Dom,” I whisper to myself. People cheer as she comes at me. What do I do? I hit Thea, knocking her out. I throw her over my shoulder and run! I don’t stop until I find our boat and we are safely off the island. It’s not long until we see the coastline of the city. We’re finally home.