A Chance Of Rescue

• Georgia Baker, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2022

A text came up on my phone, it was from Edoline.

Hey, you hear anything yet?

I typed out no and hit send. Seconds later another notification popped up. This time it wasn’t from Edoline, it was a reminder from them. I heard a howl in the distance, you could almost feel the rise in tension throughout our area.

My area is Non-Spe, there aren’t many people from my area left, there are about 20 or 30 of us. We thought we had a chance against the Governments’ monsters. Bzz... Another two texts from Edoline.

Nvm, got the notif
You ready?

I laughed at her. Ready? As if they care. I sent her my elaborate response of ‘yes’ and started my walk over to her house. As I walked I was on high alert, who knows when one of those…things could strike. Some people believed the monsters were descended from wolves, which would explain things like the howling.

I knocked on Edoline’s door, but our friend Licht answered instead. I smiled at him and we walked to the living room silently. He isn’t the person he used to be, especially since they took Patrick. I know how bad he misses him. But Pat’s gone and Licht’s skinnier now. He’s unshaven and his hair pokes out at weird angles. ‘KAM!” Edoline yelled “We’ve had some breakthroughs with the plans”

“Without me?” I said, pretending to be hurt, “What’ve you got?”

We spent the next hour or so running through the plans;
One, get in unseen.
Two, get Patrick from the point we’ve successfully tracked him to.
Three, get out unseen.
Seems simple enough. We said our goodbyes to Edoline’s family and set out on our (definitely not dangerous) mission. We could hear the monsters behind us as we ran, almost reminding me of Patrick’s disappearance.

There was panting behind us, Patrick and I pulled out knives. We turned around slowly to see one of the monsters- no two, no three. They all attacked us at once, it was a fight for our lives. They growled at us and bit. Damn, I just got rid of the scratches from last time. They stayed on us, trying to drag us to wherever. I slashed one of them in the leg and managed to get away.
But Patrick didn’t.

There’s no time for reminiscing now, we ran down through the woods by the river. I saw it up ahead, a huge cube of cement…The Government’s Box. gh, it gives me the heebie-jeebies. Creative name though, right? We reached the secret entrance, it took us ages to make. We walked through silently, it was damp and musty. It smelled like dust collecting on carpet and the air was thick. Licht sat down in his chair and started connecting to cameras. We worked fast, and getting in was easy. We got Patrick with minimal violence needed, but on our way out something had changed.
It was different this time.
The monsters knew where we were.
It’s a seventy-thirty split but I’m pretty sure it’s over for us.
Damn it.