Accepted Not Rebounded.

• Alyssa Chao, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2021

As a kid I’ve always steered myself down these winding paths, disregarding the ones which may have made the crying clouds hover above me. Though, the past 18 months, I walked a steeper pathway into the arid surroundings that showed no sign of human existence, nor livelihood. Pacing myself through these cracks within the ground allowed me to familiarise with such a stranger-like environment. To my left I saw danger through the kangaroos isolating themselves in the bottlebrushes, almost to the point where they felt as if the chances of survival became a threat to society. To the right, there lay countless koalas with their eyes shut tight, unable to speak out movement of any type. Below me, the ground shook in response to the helpless state I was experiencing, even that was a sign. Taking hundreds of years back, us humans performed the act of violence against the opponent on the battlefields, which had led to the many deaths we mourn for. Today, it is a different story, a story that could not be explained to the future, but a story that haunted many lives just by stepping foot out into the open. The further my legs took me, the more my mind swirled in dizziness around the present time that I happen to facing. I stared around in apprehension, waiting for the next animal to be set free from the trap that not only they were stuck in, but also the accumulated global population. I managed to seat myself on a log within the swaying trees, but within the span of a few hours there was always an outburst of thunder above me, ones that triggered instability within us all. Regardless of where you were, there was no sunlight. I had to keep pushing through these extreme days, months or even years, for the sunlight was to be determined.