Re-Calibrate (an excerpt): Feature Fiction
I opened my eyes and I saw, smelt, felt everything. I turned my head to see my surroundings. A grey cell. Iron bars instead of windows. A guard standing outside. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t. I pulled my arms upwards, and saw the black bands holding me down. I tried my voice to call for help.
“Help… Me…” I squeaked, barely audible. The guard didn’t acknowledge my presence, so I tried again.
“Help. Me…” I said, a bit less squeaky. This caught his attention. He turned, wide-eyed. He raised his weapon and backed away.
“P-please… Don’t hurt me. I have k-kids and a w-wife. I need the m-money…” He stammered.
“Why am I here?” I rasped. He clicked the safety off his weapon. He was scared. Of me.
I kept running with the fear of being caught fuelling me. I turned a sharp corner and didn’t look back.
“HEY! STOP KID!” A gravelly voice yelled behind me. I laughed, the blood catching on my lips. I was still bleeding after the fist fight I had had earlier. I wiped the blood from my eyes and snapped open my wings. My jumper growled as it was ripped apart. I flung the strands of my long, chocolate-coloured strands away and began to run for a take-off. The wind caught my primary feathers and I pushed off of the mauve tarmac. I was getting higher and higher and began to think that I would get away. I thought wrong, very wrong. They had guns.
“God dammit, why didn’t I think of that?! Guns, pshh, of course they had guns, they’re cops for goodness sakes Ally!” I scolded myself. A bullet whistled past my ear, taking out a chunk of my lobe. I squealed in pain and forgot to flap, falling like a stone towards the ground. The police were still shooting, hitting me in several places. My stomach was now a painting of red and my legs were scraped raw. I fell faster and faster and the ground was suddenly much, much closer than I thought. Everything went black.
So here I was, stuck in a cell with a trigger-happy idiot pointing two bb-guns at me - one in each hand. I wanted to hold my hands up in surrender. But I couldn’t. Because I was strapped to a stone-hard cot.
“It’s ok, I-I’m not going to hurt you. Or your wife. Or your kids. Please, just let me go.” I pleaded. He was shaking as he spoke: “P-promise?” I nodded. I tried to hold up my pinkie to make a swear. He moved to my gate, but hesitated with the key poised a few millimetres fro, the lock.
“How can I trust you?” He asked suspiciously.
“I can’t make any examples now… but please, just let. Me. Go.” I stated firmly.
He pulled away, dragging my mind’s hopes with him. I suddenly remembered my wings. They weren’t strapped down, I could feel it. I lifted them slowly, checking mentally for any problems. I had a sharp pain in my shoulder blade, but it was fading. Probably a muscle cramp. I lifted a snow-white wing in front of my eyes to see if it was real. It was. I thrashed under the straps, lifting my chest higher and higher as my wings began to flap. Then, they snapped with a deafening crack and I was launched upwards. I banged my head on the ceiling and fell back, cursing as I held my eye. Great, black eye number three. I thought sarcastically. The guard realised what I was doing.
“H-hey! What are you d-doing?!” He said, shocked.
“I’m saving my butt!” I said sassily. Then, I bust down the wall.
To be continued ...
Book Review: Origin by Jessica Khoury
Origin is a book set in the present in a jungle theme. It is about an immortal girl named Pia. She has never been outside of the grey fence that surrounds her. Then, her life changes when she sees a hole in the fence. She meets Eio, an Amazonian boy. Together, they discover more about themselves than anyone ever knew. The plot is very well developed and it has many plot twists that keeps the reader hooked. This book is amazingly descriptive and makes you believe that you are really in the vivid and lush Amazon jungle. I was immediately interested when the book mentioned ‘immortality’. I would definitely recommend this book to others, it is an incredible read. The genre is science-fiction or adventure. The characters felt real as they were described as if the author was looking at them herself. This book is very original and has very little similarity to other books. The book has made me more aware of how precious life is, and if we bend it with our will, it might just be the end of us, the human race.
About the Author
KABOOM! Hannah is a nuclear weapons tester who has constant radiation poisoning and is subject to extremis hypernessis, a very, very rare disease. It is apparently so rare that she is the only one with it. Her lucky number is 666 and her birthday is Friday the 13th at 12:12:12. By her own admission, she is extremely annoying and always retorts with an extreme comeback. She has an Atlantean bird that eats everything.
