‘Our Lost Home’ by Kaidence Chimene, age 13, Year 9, Soham Village College

Screams. Flashing lights.Fear.I became conscious. The last thing I remembered was
staring at the endless line to get into the safety bunker like a hungry animal. A blue
pixelated dome met my eye as I looked up.I sat up abruptly. Where was I? The noise
of robots murmuring and people screaming filled my ears like misplaced music. Then
I remembered…Run. I had sprinted from my past as a green fog coated what I once
knew as my home, my safe place.Home.Now a ghost town of possessively
poisonous gases.Filled with air that had abandoned us, Toxicated us, gassed us,
murdered us. Home.

Dazed, I observed the automated dome.It was completely digital, sprinkled with
mixtures of panicked humans and rigid robots.I watched the AI’s escort people into
two segregated, continuous hallways. I spotted my mum’s fearful face as my eyes
stalked her approach to a wide board.Cautiously, I left the testing chair and headed
for her direction. The neon sign called at me, lighting the whole dome.The words
flowed through my head in a panic. Strength unit went left, I watched as all the
intimidating bodies of people passed.. Intelligence Unit, my mum caught my eye. I
was UU. What did that mean? I desperately scanned the board for answers. Death.
My direction was death.I didn’t want to die! Before the realisation had made it to my
thoughts,I sprinted.Mum.Find mum. Don’t turn back.

I followed to the glass city towering above me. I reunited with my mum silently. The
whole place, silent. Filled with traumatised souls, stolen from their home. Each one
of us is taken to small rooms in sections of the large glass towers. Our new home.
The robots transferred across escorting everyone. All seemed lost. This was our new
home. But home did not feel like home.

‘WAKE UP!
Abruptly, my body jolted up. My eyes and body, not coordinated. My eyes slowly
opened to my mum rushing us all out the apartment. I watched as the line of people
stood in an ordinary fashion. What was going on? Each person was taken. Then me.
Confused, I followed to another chair. This could mean only one thing. As I came to
sit in the black chair and have the helmet out on, I knew they would know I didn’t
belong here. Death was my fate! I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to be dead.

A tight grasp was on my arms and legs. I looked around as I was being carried
through a metal tube hallway. Death. My thoughts kidnapped and brainwashed into
only thinking about how they would kill me. Then my senses became conscious. I did
the only thing I could possibly think of. Run. I leaped out of the reliance of these
technical maniacs and ran down the long hallway. I could hear the wheels close
behind me. I carried on. Out of the tube. Out of the dome. Out.