I wrote this story for my language arts class, it was supposed to be about global warming…I didn’t know it was going to be entered in a contest. I got third place out of all sixth graders in our county!!! All the sixth grade winners came from my class. We told our teacher, Mrs. S., that she must be a great teacher!!!
Hope you like it!
*****
Over the next fifty years, scientists will manage to skip over all the signs of global warming. The temperature will grow warmer and warmer each and every year. Major glaciers will calve. Various kinds of transportation will been invented, with the creators believing that they are helping the Earth’s environment, not hurting it. Polar ice caps will retreat. Many of the worlds loved animals will begin to disappear off the face of the Earth. Droughts will occur more and more often. The waters of the five oceans will gradually rise. And if the people of Earth don’t act soon, they will suffer a terrible death.
This is the story of a girl who was caught in the middle of this, the middle of this dreadful event….
Jupiter Florida, elevation 3 ft
July 7, 2059
Strange things have been happening lately! Like yesterday something that looked a little like a giant piece of ice floated by the house! Mom took the hover jet out there to investigate it but when she returned she wouldn’t talk or tell us anything. I thought I heard her say, “We have to get out of here.” But I just figured it was my imagination. Another strange thing that happened was that the water in the bay had risen 10 feet in the past month. I began to worry if it will overflow the sea wall that surrounds our small town.
July 8, 2059
Mom said scientists predict that a major hurricane will strike soon. I don’t remember the last time we had a hurricane but mom said there was a huge one when I was just one year old. She claimed the whole house had collapsed, and it looked like a toxic waste dump. I asked her what a toxic waste dump was and she just laughed and said it was a major issue in the past. She ordered us to pack our belongings in our vacuum bins. I made sure I packed everything I would need including my brand new microscopic camera with everlasting batteries. I put our robot dog, Coyle, in my pack, gave him a gentle rub on the neck, and locked my bin. I started to wonder if I’d ever see my house again.
July 10, 2059
We loaded in the roomy hover jet and headed north. Mom set the jet on auto pilot and sat in between me and my sister, Tabatha. “Sorry we left in such a hustle,” she said as she gave us a gentle squeeze. Then mom went back to the front of the jet to take control.
July 14, 2059
Over the past few days we’ve been traveling. It’s boring and traffic is heavy. There are hover jets flying this way and that way. Mom takes the short cut and hovers over all the other jets. Coyle has been acting strangely the past four days in the air. He’ll bark east but grow quiet only to turn north, yip some, and repeat. After a while mom told me to shut him down so I flipped the switch and he immediately collapsed. I almost cried. A few long hours later we stopped. And I began to realize all the jets had halted. People began to get out and stare blankly in the opposite direction. We parked the jet and hoped out. Now I’m staring at the same blur everyone else is. It is hurtling toward us as I jot my last note. No scientist could ever see this coming. No high tech computer to warn us. No holographic TV to tell us to take cover as the huge tidal wave comes to take our souls. If I hurry I might just have time to tuck my journal next to my precious Coyle in my vacuum bin. Maybe someone will find them someday…..
Pikes Peak Colorado, elevation 14,110 ft
September 12th, 2065
“Mommy, mommy! Look! There’s a box floating in the ocean!”
Down
Descending, descending, descending down a never ending black hole. An abyss. An ocean trench. This must be my fate. My ending. I could feel the pressure of the water crushing my body. My lungs were eventually going to have to give out on me. They hurt as I released the last of my breath. My head was spinning as I spiraled down the trench. Something slipped past my leg. It was slimy. I looked down to see a light the size of a small rubber bounce ball. It was too dark to see any more of the fish. More lights came and they gathered under me. My feet hit something. Ground?
***
I waited to board the submarine, my friend Alexandra, at my side. I couldn’t concentrate on what was ahead of my life just what was behind it. A scary, treacherous life.
It all began when the “aliens” (as my mom called them) arrived in Port Angeles. They claimed this land as theirs, pulled out weapons, and told the unlucky people of Port Angeles to stay off their land, but many refused to leave and a war broke out in the north. The aliens had technology nobody even knew existed so we never won a battle. The President tried to work out many peace treaties with them but failed all attempts. The war continued for six months and many Americans fled the country. But many more couldn’t afford to. Then the President left us alone. To fend on our own. My mom decided it wasn’t safe here anymore when she heard battle broke out in Indiana, where our beloved friends lived. She called them up and they came down to Florida to live with us. We put our money together and had enough for all of us to flee the country. The two merged families had to drive to Ohio to purchase the tickets. We parked at a tall, tan building. When my mom asked if we wanted to come inside everyone went except for Alex and I. We waited in the car for everyone to come back. While waiting, we heard a bomb hit the building. The bomb that killed our families. I shuddered at the thought of that.
“Are you okay?” Alex asked, studying my facial expression.
“Yah,” I lied.
As we boarded the submarine I noticed the name of it in careful, fine print on the side, THE ALVIN it read. Interesting name.
“Tickets please!” said the cheerful voice of a blond 25 year old.
“Here you go,” I said in monotone as I handed her the tickets.
“Thank you!”
“You’re welcome,” Alex said back.
“Seat 24.”
We stepped inside. It wasn’t what I had expected at all. It was bright and colorful inside. Odd looking fish were painted on the walls and the carpet was turquoise with navy blue bubbles. It looked like they took the walls and floors of a 5 year olds room and stuck them in here. We walked past the seats; the numbers on the right were even, the left odd. We walked by all the seats on the right watching the numbers pass. 2, 4, 6, 8. A hundred pairs of eyes watching us as we whispered the numbers to ourselves. THE ALVIN was quiet. Too quiet.
“24,” Alex stated pointing at a booth fit for two.
The booth surprisingly was orange.
“Wow!” I exclaimed pointing to a tray on the mini pull-down table in front of us.
It was filled with cookies and pastries. Sweet treats for us. We ate until a voice came on an intercom.
“Thank you for boarding THE ALVIN! We will now be leaving.”
We watched out our port hole as it changed from a sky background to a water background. The fish that had gathered around the sub scattered, startled. We slowly propelled forward. I could tell this would be a long trip. An echo of ohs and ahs was heard when we passed a school of rainbow fish swimming in unison. But they faded when a much larger black fish ate one and the rest scrammed, the black fish following. I thought about our foster parents on the other sub. They weren’t the nicest but they were okay. Our dad was plump and jolly his golden hair always glistening. Our mom was a skinny bean pole her black hair always pulled in a bun. The voice came on the intercom again.
“Our attendants will be coming around to take your lunch orders.”
“It’s eight in the morning!” I exclaimed with a curious edge to my voice.
“Yah but think about it,” Alex said, “they have to make at least a hundred lunches. They would never finish making all of them if they started by noon.”
“Oh,” I said. I felt stupid.
We sat for fifteen more minutes watching fish swim by our window their colors bright as ever. I chose my favorite one, carefully; it was yellow with a single stripe of purple near its eye. Alex’s was a tiny blue one with a gold tint.
“May I take your order?”
We turned to see the cheerful blond lady from the ticket booth.
“Sam?” Alex suggested turning toward me her eyes gleaming.
“Um… What do you have?” I asked looking up into her bubbly blue eyes. She seemed annoyed.
“Well we have ,”
I stopped her there, not wanting to hear the long list of uninviting foods. Alex threw me a grateful glance.
“Do you have spaghetti?”
“Actually, we do. What to drink?”
“Water”
“Okay and you miss?” Her eyes left mine and moved to Alexandra’s.
“The same,” she answered quickly.
“Alrighty then! Your food will be out momentarily!” she chirped and moved on to the next seat.
Most of the morning I stared out the window. The beautiful fish seemed as if they were putting on a show for the crew and the passengers. They twirled and hopped, twisted and gleamed, showing off their beauty. A single one stood out among the silver ones it was white with a single red eye. I began to wish I was among the graceful fish.
“Your food is ready!” said the blond lady as she replaced the empty pastry tray with the tray of two bowls of spaghetti and two glasses of water.
“Thanks,” Alex said a fake smile spread from ear to ear. I sat quiet. Alex nudged me in my rib with her elbow.
“Thank you,” I said in monotone.
“Anything else?”
Alexandra opened her mouth to say something but shut it.
“Yes there is something I would like,” I opened my mouth without thinking. Stupid. But I continued to talk, “your name.”
“M- My name,” she stuttered, “Is Shelly”
“Alright Shelly, how long is this going take? The sub ride?”
She hesitated.
“Not sure,” she said and disappeared.
“Rude,” muttered Alex.
I threw her an ungrateful glance.
We ate in silence. The spaghetti was delicious and the water was ice cold. Yum. The voice came on the intercom yet again.
“We are now going over a seamount. Said to have the most exotic fish.”
Alex and I looked out our port hole to see a glowing orange school of jellyfish. Then a single silvery-blue fish wiggled by. I though it was a tuna but never could be sure.
Shelly came by and picked up our empty dishes.
“Anything else?”
“Nope,” Alex and I said at the same time.
Shelly was off. All of a sudden the submarine shook. An earthquake? Alex and I turned to look out our port hole but, it was blocked by something. Something red. There was screaming and crying, dishes fell and broke as they hit the bubbled carpet. The voice automatically came on the intercom.
“Do not panic! Do not panic!”
But that only made it worse. More screaming and crying. I turned to Alex with a worried expression on my face. Hers was more worried and tears rolled down her cheeks. The port hole was still covered by the red blob. I stood up to look and see if the other port holes were covered by the red thing but, a hand pushed on my shoulder and made me sit. It was a man’s hand. Alex and I both turn to see a tall African-American man with dark bushy hair. Probably in his mid thirty’s.
“I’m Samuel,” he said in a calm, deep voice, “I’m going to help you.”
Help us do what? Our expressions turned from worried to curious.
“To help us do what?” Alexandra spoke up. I made room for him to sit next to me. I noticed he was in a crew uniform similar to Shelly’s.
“Not sure,” he said surprisingly curious,”I guess through any difficulties we stumble across.” His voice still calm.
Another shake, stronger than the one before, jerked Alex at the window. She knocked her head loudly on the glass and fell to my lap with a thump. I screamed.
“Alex, Alex? Alexandra get up!” I screamed.
“Calm down,” said Samuel, “she just knocked her head; she should be up in an hour or two.” What!?
“An hour or two,” I said claiming his words, “are you insane?” It was a rhetorical question but he answered any way.
“No,” he scooped her in his hands and cradled her like a baby, “follow me.”
I did as told without a word. As we walked past seat 22, I looked out its window. It, too, was covered by the red thing. I decided to call it Bob. Bob covered all the windows from 24 to 2. (I didn’t bother to look at the left side, afraid of what I might see.)
“In here,” he said nodding at a door that read, EMPLOYEES ONLY.
He kicked the door open with his foot. Inside the lights were dim and dull. The walls were white and the floor was blue tile. On the right was a bed like the one you saw at the doctor and a large first aid kit underneath it. On the left side was a mini kitchen. And forward was yet another door that read, LAB. Samuel laid Alex on the bed and pulled out the emergency first aid kit.
“She’s got a bleeding head wound,” he said urgently.
I went over to examine Alex’s head. It didn’t look too bad. But it was bleeding. He dug through the contents of the kit and found what he was looking for. He held up a roll of thick, white gauze.
“Wrap it around her head,” he ordered, “be sure to cover the wound good.” He walked over to the mini kitchen and put some tea on the oven. I did as told. It wasn’t perfect but it worked for now.
“Good,” he said as I placed the remains of the gauze back in the kit.
He came over, closed the lid, and set it back under the bed.
THE ALVIN shook once more, knocking the tea and Alex to the floor.
“Get the tea, I’ll get her,” ordered Samuel. I pulled a rag out of a basket and cleaned up the tea. I put the pot in the mini sink. I turned to see Samuel strapping Alex in.
“What…” I stopped, realizing that he was strapping her in so she wouldn’t fall when the shake came again.
“Come on,” he said pointing to the door that read, LAB. I went in ahead of him. Inside were three long tables, on them were broken beakers, test tubes, wires, tubes and more. Different colored liquid covered the tile floor and the tables. It reminded me of my 6th grade science lab. On the far side was a blank door.
“I thought this was a travel sub?” I finally said.
“It was actually designed to explore ocean depths but, when the war broke out, we thought we could make some good money taking round trips from America to Asia,” Samuel said in monotone. The answer made me curious.
“When was,” but I was cut off by yet another shake. This time it didn’t stop. I ran back through the door and stumbled to Alex’s bed. Red lights started to flash. She was awake. She was early. I turned to call Samuel but to my surprise he was behind me. He unstrapped her. She got up and stumbled around, then mindlessly asked,
“Where am I? Who are you? What?”
Amnesia. Tears streamed down my face.
“I’m Samuel, this is Sam, and we’re in a submarine.”
At that moment THE ALVIN gave. It thrust to one side then the other, it squealed and honked. The noise was ear racking. The room flipped upside down and before I knew it the lights killed and I was hopeless on the ceiling with no light. Water rushed around me. It was cold. Bob must have been turning the sub around. The screaming got louder. I heard babies squealing and moms crying.
Emergency lights flashed, but not around me, above me. I then realized that I was sinking. Alone. I struggled to swim but it was no use, the water pressure held me down. I was descending. I was falling down; no I was floating down an ocean trench. I could still hear screams but they were faint. It was pitch black now. My head had an aching pain. It hurt. My lungs had to give sometime. I wished this was all a bad dream. That I would wake up screaming. But I didn’t. Descending. Now the pressure of the water was intense and I couldn’t move a muscle. My lungs felt like they were dwindling in my chest as I let the last little bit of oxygen out. I thought I saw a light the size of an eye. I was probably hallucinating. But the lights accumulated under me then my feet landed on something solid and slimy. Then to my surprise I was going up. I don’t know how but I made my way to the top. I looked down once more at my feet and saw the lights still there. I was about to breathe in the sea water, but I hit air. I breathed in and out hyperventilating. I’m alive, I thought. I lived. I looked around but the shiny, glow fish were long gone.
There were very few people at the top amongst the waves, but out of them I saw Samuel and Alexandra swimming toward a life raft. I weakly swam to the raft and climbed onboard. There was more than enough room considering very few people managed to live. Next to me on my right a women with a baby sat, next to her was a man in only shorts, next to the man sat three girls. Twins about 8 years old. Next to them sat a teenage boy with almond colored hair, next to him sat Alex and Samuel.
“Well as long as we’re together we may as well know each others names,” said Samuel, “I’m Samuel and this is Alex.”
“Kale and baby Shaun.”
“Will”
“Holly.”
“Polly.”
“Molly.”
“David”
They sounded off in order one by one.
“Sam.”
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