Lachie's Journey

• Tom Quinlan, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2021

The Great Survival!
By Tom Quinlan

Lachie had been saving for years. He was about to cross Crag Mountain and get to the Daintree Forest to explore, this had been a dream for Lachie’s for years! Lachie was shaking with excitement when the car started to warm up. Eddie, Lachie’s younger brother, started to get a bit lethargic and the car started to croak. They were only minutes into their trip and already there was panic.

“What are we going to do Loch?” Eddie said sounding worried. “How about we push the car until we find a good bush to hide it behind. Then we will walk to Crag Mountain and we can find some food and hopefully some fuel to get the car up and going again.” Explained Lachie. By midday they were scrounging around in the thick dense forest on the mountain. Lachie and Eddie had long since split up when Lachie heard a tremendous yelp. Lachie jumped into gear and went around the forest bellowing Eddie’s name for minutes upon minutes but there was no reply. Lachie walked hours he felt like everything is hopeless until he heard another scream! This time he heard where it was coming from. He ran as fast as he could and came across an abandoned shack just of Kingsford Road.

Lachie creeped in. He had seen a glint of shining through onto what looked like a human. Another screamed bellowed through the house he was now in the room where it was coming from, it was Eddie! He had been screaming from a rat sneering at him. “Let’s get out of here!” said Lachie relieved from finding his brother. As they walked back on Kingsford Road Eddie pulled out his drink bottle full of black liquid. “Here is your fuel Loch” said Eddie cheekily.

They could not comprehend it; they had pulled of the great survival!