The Red Death

• Caleb Mclean, Grade 9, Dubbo Christian School
• Short Story
• 2016

Excellence Award in the 'Top Secret 2016' competition

The Red Death
It was only a week ago that it all started it was horrible there was so much death. We were invaded by aliens. The first few days they were only there sitting in the sky. Hi my name is Jesse and I am one of the only survivors of the red death. Every morning we would go to see if they were gone or if anything had happened. Every night my brother Daniel would ask me if we were going to die. I would just say that I don’t know then tell him to go back to sleep. On the first day they attacked, the dark red aliens (we call them the Reds) came down firing weird guns and they killed my dad, my mum and my best friend, then everything went silent. After a while the military came and said they needed men and women to help them destroy the mother ship. My brother asked me to not leave him but I said that I had to. I told him to stay with grandpa but he kept getting upset. I asked if he could come with me and they said yes.
I told Daniel that he would have to fight these things but he seemed pretty cool with that (Got to love little brothers they always look up to us older brothers and do everything we do). My team or whatever you call it in military are all my age around 17 or 18, except for my little brother of course and one 16 year old girl who is really shy, but, damn, she’s pretty. Can’t wait to see if she’s any good with a gun. I am the sniper of the group because I am the fastest and the best at controlling my breathing. I am also not scared to take the shot when needed.
We just heard some information from the military: The reds have just released weird mind controlling parasites. They are horrible, they burrow through your ear then hack into your brain and use you as a soldier for themselves. They also cause you to release this toxin from your brain that makes you a super soldier, so not only do they make you work for them they also improve you for their purposes only.
We got to practise shooting all day today. It was fun, I didn’t know my brother could shoot. The shy girl can shoot really well. I hit centre every time and the shy girl winked at me. Daniel came up to me and said, “Hey Jesse stop flirting with the girls and start saving the world.”
We were attacked the day after the shooting. All my team is dead except me, Daniel and shy girl who really has opened up to me and her name is Chloe
We killed the mother ship.
I don’t know how but we did it.
We won but we also kind of lost.
We are looking for other survivors now.
Hopefully we will find someone.