I Am Alive

• Finn Whincop, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2015

A small noise coming from behind a broken down, rusted red tractor, grabs Apollos attention. He reaches for his gun off his back and slowly begins to pull it over his shoulder making sure to make as little noise as possible, for even the squeaking of a mouse could awaken what is hidden behind the desolated tractor. Apollo begins to move ever so slowly towards the shadows. Now holding his breath as if he where underwater and if he was to breath his lungs would fill with water. But then there was the noise, the noise that could bring him to his death… The sound of gunfire. He turned swiftly to search for the source of the ear splitting noise but is knocked to the ground depleting him of air momentarily. The smell punctures the gas mask, filling his nostrils with the scent of dried blood and rotted flesh. He tries for his pistol but his arm is stuck awkwardly under his chest. He can smell the breath of the creature now destroying his senses making him feel faint, though he is quickly awoken from the pain on his back. The creature has clawed at his back leaving a wound so deep that the blood begins to pool. Apollo bites his lip hoping to take away the excruciating pain though splits his lip filling his dry mouth with blood. He fights to free his arm but every movement aggravates the creature more making it dig its claws deeper into his back. He screams with all the energy he has for help, just hoping somebody does something to release him from the clutches of death. The help comes, the sound of gunfire can be heard again fills. The bullet decapitates the creature narrowly missing his own neck. With the remaining energy he has left, he painfully pulls his arm out from under his chest and cautiously rolls out from under the headless monster though when he makes it to his back the pain starts again. The canyons of blood and torn muscle fills with dirt and stones making him lift his body above the ground in pain and he rolls back onto his stomach. The second bullet is fired ripping through his skull, his head falls to the ground with a thud. The warm, crimson red blood poured through the hole in Apollo's deceased head creating a pool that he lays in, a pool of death.