Life After Time
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Melody Wardle, Grade 8, Home Schooled - VIC
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Short Story
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2013
Finalist in the 'Written in the Stars 2013' competition
Keeping tabs on Earth is quite hard; you have to make sure nothing is wrong, that everyone is nice to one another and so on. If just one plant is dying, that person caring for that section gets punished. He or she could even be sentenced to death, that’s how brutal our time is now. Sometimes they send them onto another planet, one that they've never heard of and you never see that person ever again.
I'm the daughter of the King and Queen but I am not yet a princess. I have to have my coronation before I can become a royal member. At the moment I do all their dirty jobs because they only wanted sons and one daughter, me being daughter number two complicates things. Maybe that’s why they sent me to an unknown planet that I’m going to take care of until my last day on Earth.
This planet has amazing creatures and the most extraordinary plants. I've learnt my way around this planet, it has become familiar to me. I don’t know how long I've been here but… I don’t care. Maybe if I survive and come back to my homeland, they might actually consider making me a princess. I know they watch my every move, how I interact with the animals, plants, everything. I’ve made this place my home and it will forever be my home.
I feel connected to this land somehow, it’s like I've always known about it in my dreams but never in reality. I found some other people and we've become friends. They are mostly my age but we don’t talk about why they have been sent to this wonderful planet. We go hunting together for our food and water, the most essential things needed to survive.
More strangers have arrived at our campsite and I know they are here to murder us. There are families here and they will just kill them as if they are nothing but pests. I don’t think they are, they’re more than that. They stick together through anything; they’ll die for one another. I know that the strangers aren't here to murder them; they are here for me.
And I will let them take me, as long as it keeps them safe.
I will let them kill me out of my parents’ request.
And I will allow them to.
I will forgive my parents for doing this.
And I will die remembering that I had lived the most exciting life any girl could ask for.