Near Death Experience

• Asha Filleul, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2019

N ear D eath E xperience
The bomb came hurtling to earth, landing metres from me, and I was knocked out cold.
If you asked me to tell you what I remember from that horrific time. I was scared; scared I could die. That would be all I could tell you, I was in a coma for three good solid days. I say good because nothing bad happened while I was in blackout land (the void of death like sleep); and if anything did, I wouldn’t have a clue.
After those three days had finally ended I awoke, and what I saw could only be Hell on Earth!
Previously, in the early hours of that morning I’d been safe; safe from harm. If only I could turn back time; turn back the clock and change my mindset to go for a walk. But I couldn’t, even if I tried; and I ended up walking down Unlucky Street in a little town called ‘Un fortune ate.’ I was miles from home, in the middle of nowhere, the sun peeking up over the horizon behind me; when suddenly, I heard a noise. The distinct sound of a bomb! From that moment I knew my life would never be the same again. Then the bomb had landed, and I’d been knocked out of reality.
Bodies, bodies lined the streets for as far as the eye could see. Fires were blazing in every nook and crevice. Glass littered the long roads, and as I looked down I saw bullet casings; they were everywhere. What had happened? I couldn’t think straight; my head began to bead with sweat. Then I heard a noise; the noise that could only be the groaning of a war tank. I waited for the sound I had learnt to expect; the firing of GUNS!
As I glanced down the road in front of me, I saw the tank curve so sharply around the corner it knocked over the town’s library, setting it on fire. Without even caring it drove out of the rubble and began to gain on me. The war tank drove so determinedly I jumped up with a start, just in time for it to crash into the buildings behind me. I ran for my life down the road, just as I was about to turn the corner bullets went flying past my head. The tank was shooting at me! I dodged the bullets, but they hit the towering house in front of me, showering glass everywhere. The building shook and with a heave it began to fall. I closed my eyes and held my breath; waiting for death to take me. But just when I thought there was no hope left; a motorcycle came roaring through the fog. My saviour half dragged half pulled me up onto the vehicle and we sped away into the distance and up over the horizon just as the sun was setting, creating a glamourous backdrop. THE END.
By Asha Filleul.