‘Breathless’ by Gemma Perez Sanchez, age 14, Year 9, Soham Village College

Stepping into the cube-shaped machine, I wondered whether I was making the right choice. Then I thought of all the fights, all the ignorance, all the pain, and I pressed the button that would send me to another world. A better world.

 

Or so I thought.

 

I landed with a thud on dry dirt. I looked around. I would have thought it was nighttime if it wasn’t for the faintly glowing sphere behind the thick wall of smog, too bright to be the moon. The silence was deafening. Suddenly, I could feel my eyes watering and my throat beginning to feel irritated. Breathing in, I felt suffocated, like trying to inhale underwater. I started coughing and desperately gasping for air, the world slowly blurring until it went black.

 

My head pounded with pain. I tried opening my eyes but they were too heavy. What was happening? Then, I heard what sounded like voices, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. After laying down for a few seconds longer, the voices started getting clearer and my eyelids started getting lighter. I opened my eyes and pain shot through my head, making me close my eyes again immediately. “I think she’s waking up,” said a female voice, giving me another headache. A reply from a male voice followed her comment “the poor thing. What was she doing outside, knowing she could die!” feeling better, i tried standing up. I looked around. I was in a circular room with no windows, the only light was artificial. There were a dozen empty beds with white bed sheets around the room, each of them with a small bedside table and curtains for privacy. Was I in a hospital? “You’re in the hospital ward of the research centre,” the woman said, as if reading my mind. “Our group of researchers went out to gather food resources and found you unconscious. Where are you from?”

I replied saying I was from Cambridgeshire, England, planet Earth.

The next thing I remember was running for my life, running from a group of army men sent to kill the girl from Earth.

 

I reached the surface. My heart thrummed remembering how dangerous it was out here. I kept running despite my struggle for fresh air. I kept running despite my throbbing stitch. I kept running despite my burning legs. I kept running until a masked someone grabbed my arm and pulled me down some stairs and through a heavy metal door, saying I was safe.

 

I was safe.