Unknown Hero

• Andrew Patrick, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2009

The building had been standing there for nearly fifty years now. Overhanging on the cliff with the sparkling blue water hundreds of ft below. One would question the stability and the safety issues equipped with this house but Daniel wasn’t one to bother. He had built this thing 49 years and 67 days ago with his bare hands and trusted his own handy work with his life. It was built in the year of the panda or as others know it 2099, just after the greatest war where anarchy and broke loose and there was very little social structure. Daniel didn’t have much of a choice after all, his house, wife and children all perishing in those dreadful decades.


He woke up early the next day from his hole filled mattress and switched up the light switch. As usual nothing happened. But this didn’t stop him from everyday trying and hoping for things to go back to the old days. When humans still had electricity, structure and control. But instead our ancestors used, wasted and destroyed things as though they were going to last forever.
He was startled out of his trance by the painful ringing of the loud alarm bell.
He raced out of the rickety building to see the black figures of the rebels converging up the hill to the small settlement in which he lives.
Grabbing everything he has (which is little) he raced out of the room and began to run. Joining around 100 others fleeing in panic they ran as fast as they could as the tracers from their guns split into the ground around them. Many fell dead as the black soldiers bullets shredded them.

The soldiers were on a routine check of the land to find anyone trying to live like the old days. They strive for a totally renewed world where there is no government and where everybody can provide for themselves.
Daniel ran as fast as he ever had and his behind a rock in a thick shadow. Eventually the soldiers caught up to his location and kept walking past. Thinking quickly dan sprang up and grabbed the closest soldier from the shadows and quickly snapped his neck.

Minutes later a soldier re-emerged from the shadows holding the gun like an experienced assassin. He followed the others and tried to be one of them. Shooting at the civilians but missing on purpose. As they followed them around the cliffs dan would occasionally drag a soldier into the shadows when nobody was looking. When the number of soldiers was significantly damaged dan ran up to the mound by which they were running around. And when he felt it was safe he released a volley of searing tracer bullets into the soldiers. The remaining soldiers didn’t stand a chance as they were cut down within seconds. Dan threw down the gun and all the equipment he had stolen and returned to the remaining community to help with the dead and injured. The mystery of who killed the soldiers unresolved.