Mission On Mars

• Pierce Boughton, Grade 7, Ku-Ring-Gai Creative Arts High School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'Write As Rain 2014' competition

The last thing I expected to see was the red ground of mars. I fell to the ground grasping my throat. I felt my chest tighten as the last bit of oxygen left my lungs. ‘So this is how I will die,’ I thought. Suddenly, everything went black.
A bright light seeped through my eyelids. Where was I? I lifted my head and looked around. I was in a dark room. ‘This isn’t heaven’ I thought ‘and I hope it isn’t hell.’ The only light was a bright torch shinning in my eyes. I tried to shadow my face with my hand, but it was strapped to the bed I was laying in.
A familiar man walked into the room. “You’re awake,” Drake snarled with an evil grin, “just in time.”
I cursed under my breath. “Why did you save me?” I asked. Drake turned to me revealing his scarred face.
“You know where something I need is,” Drake answered, “and you’re going to tell me where it is.” I couldn’t tell Drake where the crystal was, as it would mean the end of the world!
Suddenly the door flung open. A girl with lovely brown hair walked into the room. She walked over to Drake and threw a punch at his head. Her fist collided with Drake’s cheek knocking him off his feet. Drake fell to the ground and didn’t move.
She walked over to the bed and for a second I thought she would kill me. She raised her knife up into the air and quickly thrust it down smashing the buckles strapping me to my bed. “You’re coming with me,” she ordered. “We need to locate the crystal and destroy it.”
“Why would we destroy it?” I asked.
“It is too powerful and in the wrong hands could mean the end of mankind.” she answered. I knew she was right. We had to destroy it. “Follow me,” she said, “I think I know where it might be kept!” We ran through dark hallways (which were only lit up by dodgy lights on the roof) turning and weaving into different hallways. Just when I thought the hallways would never end the girl stopped.
Three green and black mechanical soldiers stood blocking our way. Standing next to each of them was a long pole with a ball of lime green electricity at the end. She made the first move, jumping into the air and swinging her back leg around into the face of the robot, knocking its head off. The next mechanical creature made its move trying to electrocute her with the electric pole.
She dodged it with only millimetres of clearance, and then swept her right foot underneath it knocking it off its feet shortly followed by an elbow to the head. Just as the last robot attempted to attack her, I pounced on it pushing it to the ground. It easily shoved me off it and pushed me to the other side of the hallway. As it was getting up I dived onto its electric pole and skewered it in the stomach. Electricity ran through its body then it started to smoke.
We continued to run across the hallway avoiding the mechanical bodies. We came to a massive opened door. Inside the room was a stool with a bright red gem. I ran over to it and took it from the stool. I turned around showing her the gem.
She quickly snatched it from my hand with an evil grin. I had just realised what I had done when her fist collided with my face. I had disobeyed the main rule. Never trust anyone. Now she could control everything with it. But there was no way I could stop her. It was lights out for me!