Pyro Bomb

• Aiden Hadley, Grade 8, Clare High School
• Short Story
• 2016

Excellence Award in the 'Word Zone 2016' competition

“Mmmm, smells good Mum.”
I complement my Mum on her cooking. I live with my Mum, Dad, my two little brothers and my little sister. I live in Watervale.
We’re having some Family Friends over for a BBQ lunch. There’s the Bryksys, the Parkinsons and the Parkers. They’ve been living here for a while.
“Great day for a Barbie,” Dad said just as I entered the kitchen.
Suddenly, a very distinct smell drifts through the house.
“Um, dad. Is something burning?” Dad immediately stops flirting with Mum.
“The meat!” He ran through the door.
As you can tell, Dad is still cooking the meat. I walk back to my room. A couple hours later, as I’m right in the middle of listening to my favourite song...
“AIDEN! TURN THE MUSIC OFF AND SET THE TABLE!” Mum shouts from the other end of the house.
“OK MUM!” As I gather the cutlery, I hear a loud thud right before someone starts crying. As if on cue, Seth runs into the kitchen with Wyatt hot on his tail.
“MUM! Wyatt pushed me into the wall!” Seth sobs.
“I did not!” Wyatt exclaims angrily, trying to prove his innocence.
“I don’t have time for this,” Mum pipes up. I leave the situation and set the table just as the Bryksy’s arrive.
“Hey guys,” I say as they walk in.
“Hey Aidey,” That’s Bec. I never really understood why she called me that.
“Hey Bills.”
“Hey Aids,” Billy says.
“So what do ya wanna do?”
“I’m in the mood for some Rampage.”
“Rampage it is,” I open the cupboard with Dad’s old Nintendo 64 inside. Billy and I both take a controller each. The television plunges into darkness as I insert the Rampage game cartridge. We select our character. I choose Lizzie and Billy chooses George. Not long after we begin, the Parkers and the Parkinsons arrive and we would pause the game, greet them and resume our game. After some heated insults and some city destruction...
“Meats ready!” We pause the game and hurry to the barbecue, grabbing our food and wandering back to the console while everyone else moves inside. That’s where things go shaky. We realised that something was off when we heard a beeping coming from the direction of the barbecue and it exploded… and a foreign signal hacks into the T.V.
“Citizens of the globe, I am Cyrus Feararch. I am the rightful ruler of this world and many others,” he continues on while I talk to Billy.
“Billy, who the hell is this?!”
“How should I know!”
“...as you probably saw, your barbecues have just exploded and I’m here to tell you that I did it.”
BOOM!
The screen went black and we hear gunshots and a body flopping to the ground, yelling in an inhuman language.
“Don’t worry citizens, the CIA have taken care of this predicament,” the agent explains, but Billy and I are speechless, too busy registering what the victim is saying. This obviously proves that we really aren’t alone.