Samantha

• Andrew Ward, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2014

It was a dark gloomy day, with the clouds swarming above the parched, muddy, barren wasteland filled with infected dead bodies wanting only to feed on your flesh. Samantha knew she wouldn’t last forever.
Samantha was someone very special and had the potential of a god. She knew what happened. She also knew how her parents died. It made her cry thinking about it. Samantha’s parents weren’t killed by the infection, but were killed because they were too close to the explosion of the bomb to survive. Samantha cried for days and days on end.
She was the only survivor left.
Samantha was standing outside of what used to be a barn. Its paint was gone and most of it has been destroyed. Samantha spent two weeks creating a hideout inside the barn which she used to tender to sick and injured people - until it came. Samantha was away gaining supplies - food and water, when it destroyed the barn, the hideout and everyone inside.
Samantha came back with the supplies, as soon as she saw the sheer damage she fell to her knees and hands, with her long brown hair dipping into the mud. Drops of tears fell into the mud as it started to rain. She stood up shaking with sadness and walked into what used to be her home.
She turned her head to the door that looked like someone boarded it up with mud. She looked at it with the feeling like she had no choice of what to do. She stood up, still sad and picked up a shovel. Not just to bury the deceased bodies, but to remove the dirt blocking the path to her memories. After she removed all the dirt, she remembered all the days with sensei, training with her blade in the lovely spring time right below the beautiful tree full of pink blooming flowers. She picked up her sword, and turned to see a small cupboard. The cupboard was old blue and dusty. Like the barn, most of its paint had peeled off.
Samantha walked slowly to the cupboard that she felt compelled to open. She opened the door and saw pictures of her and her sensei together many years ago. It made her cry. She put the sword down, where she found it. She decided to go to the park.
She walked to the park were her parents used to play with her and it was the first time she went fishing in her life. It used to be a large pond with a long seat next to it. And a playground used to have many kids happily playing on it. She walked through the playground absorbing memories that had long left her. And then sat down at the long seat. The luscious green reeds were now dried up dead reeds. The fish that would swim around and greet her from under the water were now all dead. She sat there, and waited for nothing to happen.