Education News
Writing from Room 9
Fire - Eadie B
Agonising heat pelts down on me from above. My throat is dry and sour. The bush around me is shrivelled up and dead. The gum leaves are dry with no nutrients. Why am I such an idiot, why did I ever venture off the stupid beaten track?
I was supposed to be home from school hours ago. Now I’m lost and alone with no home, no water and no chance of survival. My ears prick up, I can hear the distant sound of an engine, but it’s fading quickly. I bolt after the noise hoping against hope that I can catch up.
Soon I can see the car. It’s old and quite slow, the driver and I make eye contact. He looks about fifty years old and has a weird-looking stick thing in his mouth. He slows and rolls down the window.
He then throws the stick out the car window into a bush and speeds of into the distance. Rude, and he’s a litter bug I think to myself.
Woosh
The bush with the stick bursts aflame. I can’t take my eyes off the spreading fire, I’m paralysed. The flame immediately spreads to the gum trees and the dry bush. Soon I’m being circled by sweltering heat.
It’s not until the fire creeps up behind me and burns my foot am I able to move. My foot blows up red, the pain is like a hundred stabbing knives.
I’m still on fire so I stop, drop and roll. In the process I roll out of the ring of fire. The spreading flames is too big to contain so my best bet is to run, run away from the scorching fire. The chase goes on, like a cat hunting a mouse.
The smoke is getting to me now and I have to stop frequently to throw up. I’m forced to cover my nose and mouth with my jacket. I see a figure up ahead as realisation dawns on me. And all of a sudden, I know where I am.
“LOOK OUT, FIRE! FIRE!” I have to scream to get people to notice me and the growing flames, but once I do everyone starts screaming and running amuck. Soon my village is engulfed in flame.
My parents would be home from work now and my two siblings, Loren and Olivia, would have gotten home from kindergarten 3 hours ago. That means they are inside, unaware of what’s going on! I make a beeline for our house.
The roof is starting to collapse, trapping my family inside.
I must act quickly or my family will be crushed to bits. I look around frantically for a passage or opening in the wall and spot one near the potting shed.
I run over and start pulling bits of concrete and cement from the wall, yelling for my family to do the same. Loren’s head pops through the hole in the wall.
“Help!” she cries.
I yank her frail body out of the hole in seconds, clutching her tightly to my chest. I am still pulling off pieces of wall when Olivia squeezes through.
“Hurry!” yells Mum.
We’re running out of time; the roof is already collapsing. I can see Mum and Dad’s faces, scared and wet with tears. One of Dad’s eyebrows is bleeding and Mum’s dress is burnt to shreds.
How am I supposed to get them out in time?! I guess I will never know the answer to that question, I would never be prepared for what would happen next.
“AAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!”
That was the last thing I heard from my parents before they were crushed. Cries of pain, and then silence. Loren and Olivia burst into tears, screaming for Mum and Dad to be ok.
“Come on, we need to go,” I say, trying to be strong for them.
“Oo-ok,” Loren sobs.
I stand up, taking in what little is left of my village. That’s when I notice the dam.
“That’s it! If we destroy the dam then yes. It’s risky but it will work!”
So, I take a deep breath and scream at the top of my lungs, “EVERYONE HELP ME DESTROY THE DAM, IT WILL PUT OUT THE FIRE!”
Villagers’ heads swerve in my direction then to the dam. Everyone runs to the dam, tearing chunks of stone and brick out with their bare hands. My hands feel like they are on fire but I push on.
Soon the dam is broken, the fires are put out and everyone is rejoicing. Everyone except us. People ask what happened but I merely shake my head, trying to suppress my tears.
Mum and Dad are dead, the village is destroyed and I am to blame for it all, and on top of that I am somehow supposed to look after Loren and Olivia. My knees start to buckle, my legs start to shake my vision blurs and all of a sudden, I am on the ground barely conscious.
Loren screams, I think, she sounds so far away. A firm hand grips my shoulder, I clutch it as if it is my very life line. The world dims, darker and darker. But I don’t let go, I don’t give in to the darkness.
My vision returns, my heart beat slows and my legs stop shaking. Olivia’s hands clasp mine and helps me up.
I’m ok now, I want to say but my throat is so dry I can’t. Instead, I look up to see the hand gripping my shoulder…
“MUM AND DAD!”
The End
Autumn - Peppa
