The Light In The Distance

• Rebecca Smith, Grade 7, Mornington Secondary College
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

I was running. I couldn’t let myself stop. I could hear it chasing me with it's ginormous feet. The ground was hard, covered with stones and glass. I
didn’t have time to check where I was putting my feet. I saw a house with lights on in the distance, it looked to be about 10km away. I had to get
there. It was about 30 meters behind me. I was panting running out of breath. My lungs hurt. I slowed down a bit, I knew this was the end. That
was when I thought about my husband and 18 month old daughter, I knew that I could not and would not let myself slow down. I choked. I just realized I was running with my mouth open. I shut my mouth
and all the bugs tasted horrible! It was still behind me showing no sign of slowing down, I bet it could run for miles and miles without getting tired
but I was tired. I had no motivation to run but I knew my will to survive was depending on if I ran or not. I was about 7km from the house, I was getting closer and closer. I knew if I stopped that it would pluck my hair off one by one, peel off my skin, barbeque my muscles and grind my bones and eat every part of me with absolute delight. Just the thought of me failing and leaving my family to survive on their own, where we live is about 100 km from the closest town, scared me. We live smack bang in the middle of the Northern Territory, Australia. Our closest neighbors are about 25km away so we have to drive a while if we need to borrow some sugar!
It started to pant slightly. I hope he couldn't hear me panting because I was panting loudly! The light was now about 3km away. I started to sprint as I was used to sprinting 5km to save my daughter get bitten by a snake!
The house was now very close about 1.5km away. It was closer than I thought, I quickly turned around to see how far way it was and it was close, really
close. It was 50 feet tall with spikes everywhere, big muscly legs and arms. It had it's teeth bared and you could see all the bugs on them. It had 5 eyes and big horns on top of its head which had 2 eyes on each as well. It had small ears and massive lips. You can’t really see noses very well on a
humans face when you are 20 meters away from them, well on its face it had a spike for a nose! The light was 100 meters away, I sprinted as hard as I
could. I was so close! I could hear voices, see their shadows out of the window! I was there. I was safe.
I then woke up.