Speechless

• Luca Drelincourt, Grade 6, Merewether Heights Public School
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

"What's up with those clothes, did you get them from the dump or what?!"
Lexie knew that voice like she knew her family, too well. Even though she had only been at North High for a month, the sound of horror had already locked in.
As her long wavy hair swayed in the wind her face crumpled as her chattering peers turned silent. Keeping her head down, she sat at her desk. Her eyes flickering, as if something was watching her. The sparkling baby blue eyes she had before seemed to have lost their gleaming colour. The crispy cold air flew into the room blistering everyone's eyes. She knew she wasn't alone.
Lexie hadn't been herself since the day of the accident. She knew moving out of town was the right decision, but she felt nothing more than painful sorrow. Slowly a heartfelt tear dribbled down her soft skin, soon to splatter onto the delicate marble tiles.
"May I be excused Miss?" Lexie mumbled. The teacher nodded quickly. She sped out of classroom 112. Searching through her bag, she finally found what she was looking for. Her phone. She got onto messages and started texting.
‘Hey mum. They're here!’
‘I'll be there ASAP.’
And that was it. They were on the run. Hurdling the mossy logs, ducking the branches.
‘BANG’ they weren't far behind.
As the gunshots got louder, the chances of living went down.
Suddenly they turned a corner and saw a large dome covered in vines. A glowing hole caught their eyes. "Over there!" Lexie yelled.
"SHHH!" Lexie's mum spat.
Wiping the saliva of her now gritty face, she silently squeezed through the gap in the rock, soon followed by her mother. They couldn't see much but small rocks, logs and an old box of matches. Her mum lit a match, scared that something would jump out at them any minute. As the sound of the old match scraped against the side of the box the room lit up. The first thing they saw was an old board game. Then to discover water, food, and a fire place, this was perfect.
"We can't stay for too long Lex, you know they will find us soon." Lexie's mum explained.
Lexie peeked out the gap. And there they were, stumbling outside, fully armed with guns. "They're outside." Lexie whispered.
Lexie's mum looked through a smaller hole to the left.
"When I count down from three we run ok." Lexie's mum hissed.
"But..."
"3, 2, 1 go!" Lexie's mum yelped, cutting of Lexie’s sentence. They sprinted once again, over the logs, under the branches.
"There!" Yelled one of the gunmen.
After hours of running they finally couldn't hear the sound of gunshots. Lexie turned her head.
"We've lost ‘em." Lexie puffed.
As they slowly walked back home, a sudden beaming voice came from the mountains above.
"WE WILL FIND YOU!"