Uncharted - The Drowned City

• Sebastian Gray, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2022

There is an uneven balance throughout the earth. National monuments are disappearing just waiting to be found. There was someone destined to restore peace and be an amazing explorer, but just waiting to be found.

”Beep, Beep!” The alarm clock screeches loudly. As my heavy hand plunges down onto the clock I make a deep growling noise. As I swiftly put my clothes on with my rough, leather gun holder strapped to my side. I walked through my family's house looking at all the half drunk beer bottles lying all over the place. I called up to my brother Sam.
“Sam, mate, get down here and have some breakfast. We’ve got to go before Michael Moncarro comes, He’ll be looking for us.” With a deep sigh then a groan, he slowly got dressed in a singlet and some sandals. He came sulking down the stairs with his dirty blonde hair flopping all over his face like loose flip flops on a child’s feet. He quietly ate the Coco pops on the table and cautiously walked out the door. I followed silently and hopped in the jet boat.

Suddenly a loud “BANG” shot out from the jungle. The loud sound of a helicopter emerged from the jungle behind us. Sam hit the motor and went through the shallow waters of the Amazon. He signalled to me to be quiet with his fingers on his lips as we got out of the clearing. I looked up anxiously as I heard some loud muffled voices coming from the soldiers' radios. They were as loud as a lion's roar. After we heard the radio screech “ALL CLEAR, SIR.” we breathed a sigh of relief.

After the chopper was long gone we started to get a move on. Carefully we went through the jungle narrowly avoiding the cypress trees with their branches swinging at us like a baseball bat. We made our way to the ‘The river of Darkness’ as we glided through elegantly our bout suddenly rumbled and then a tremendous shake put us off balance. Sam looked intently at the water only to see a ripple. Then suddenly a huge Crocodile sprung from the water and had a go at Sam’s head. Luckily Sam pulled the lever on the motor and we sped off but the crocodile's mammoth jaws narrowly missed his target.
As we left the crocodile behind there was a huge sigh of relief and an exchanged look of shock. After a couple hours, the console adjacent to me started to screech a beeping sound . I looked down only to see a control which told me the coordinates. It had numbers flying all over the page then had a Pi symbol next to an infinity symbol. Sam interrupted to say we were at our destination. We looked around and houses half filled with water to surround us. “This is the drowned City!”

Sam was trying to stay calm but I could interpret he was trying to control his excitement. “This is where Columbus’ ship sank; it went along with the city of João Pessoa. Columbus was coming back from a secret expedition to try and find the Gold of the Amazon. He was slayed here by the residents of João Pessoa who were exposed to the gold for too long and became psychopathic. So we’re here to find that gold and to cure it of its powers.”