2001 School Magazine

Es 2:2 : original works

Tomorrow

Australia 2900

The red dust rose against the white sun in the busy market place The time. 2900 After Darkness (AD) 'Two o'clock in the morning and already the place is packed, " thought Angel, my guardian. Dragon (better known as Pep) came striding down the street, people falling into place along the lane to let him throu h. Pe had been born with a deformed growth mechanism that helped him to rise a metre higher than most of his fifteen-yearoid friends. 50 he was eas to ick out in a cr d He stopped outside our fruit stall and dropped a big box of 2195 on the bench. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a newcomer in our town. This was n I After the year of total darkness, caused by a Before Darkness scientist called Jack Flint, fire had sprung out of the ground and c clones ra ed on earth. No-one came to our town as it was known as the danger zone and only people who survived the darkness that took over the world. in this hellish place, could sta here alive Another unusual thing about this strange boy was that he was staring at Pep. No one ever stared at Pep, because AD deformities were so common; almost ever one had at least one At once I decided that I had to meet him and right on call, Pep persuaded Angel to let me go. I ran over to the boy and looked into his dark e es, conve in the message, "Hello, who are you?" The boy stared and said. "How did you do that7" The whole market place stopped and stared. Since AD, no one had spoken. The Darkness had given us the power to speak throu h our minds "Come on, "I thought. "Wed better go somewhere private to talk:' I grabbed his arm and thought very hard about my secret cave in the mountains and all of dd we were standing there it had taken me a long time to perfect this skill and I was pleased to see that the boy was awed by it "Where do you come from?"I asked "Oh, so you do speak. "he answered "Yeah, sometimes, "I shrugged casually I come from the time before darkness, " he said and I knew he wasn't lying. This had happened before, though not to me, but how did he know about the Darkne ? "!t's dangerous for you to be here. you could get struck, " I said. pushing these thoughts to the back of my mind 'I know, "said the boy with a lop-sided grin, "that's the whole fun of it " "So you've been here before?"I asked "Only once, a very long time ago " "Which hole did you come through? I must get you back there before your hour is up, " I said. suddenly realizing the dan er his visit could ut him n "in the market place, right where I was sting. "he answered looking searching Iy at me I was surp!ised. as holes were not usually in busy places; there was something weird about this boy "Right, "I said, "1'11 take you back. " I grabbed his arm and again we appeared in the market place He sat down on the wooden seat and a blue 11 ht en if d h "What's your name?"I cried after him ,ack, Jack Flint" And then he disappeared Only after the day had gone, did I realize the significance of the name. it was the name of the Before Darkness scientist who had cast the Darkness th b h his experiments. I walked over to my window and looked out over the scorched, battered, desert plains. Should I tell Pep or Angel? No. the d an IC Had I said something that would influence him to create his experiments? I knew what I had to do it was dangerous to walk alone at night, as animals whose minds had been deformed could easily attack and kill. but I had to take that risk. I walked Ihrou h th empty market place and sat down on the wooden seat and thought hard about the past Noth!rig happened. but something cau ht in e e. Two Ieces of a er were tied to the tree beside the seat The first read . Timeis o force over which you have no contrd. You cannotchonge the pot but ou con chon e the future to 11 is myour own bonds. it is whatyouinokeitondifyoute nothoppy chon9eit The second read Whenlvisitedyour world 1100ked for someone who could undo whorldid. ichonged the world for the worse, but 10nly wanted to makeit better. idled in the e I I that coused this mess andyou, with the help of this book, con make the world better ond help me to restm peace J. F I looked helplessly down at the leather bound book that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere Inside there were pictures of trees and flowers and I f it I d I didn't need science experiments to do this. That was the mistake Jack Flint had made I knew what I had to do, but it was somethin that I couldn'I do alon Tomorrow I would call a meeting of the whole town. Together we would make our town a better place and hope that some da , our ha iness would s read throughout the world Suddenly, I felt at peace. This wasn't going to be easy, but right now I felt like I could take on the world!

Monpue Row!es 8 England 2001