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The New World

by Savannah Henderson

By Savannah HendersonPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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'You might think that being alone would give you a sense of security..."

Chapter l

“If you are hearing this you are not alone…” my radio went off for the hundredth time this week. Those words, echoing in my head giving false hope but leading me along by journey.

Hello my name is Malin and, as of now I am one, if not the last of the human race. How I survived is a huge mystery to me as well. I know some basic survival and combat skills but that isn’t much use in the New World. I travel the lands searching in hopes of finding others, and seeking out where this radio broadcast is coming from. So welcome to my home, welcome to my life, welcome to earth.

It is currently somewhere around the year 3000. After the nuclear wars, toxic sicknesses, and natural disasters the world is finally coming to its end. It all started with the Great War of 2952, the nuclear radiation that came from that war made the air toxic, poisoned the waters and killed millions. After the wars came the floods, fires and other natural disasters. The cities became overgrown and underrun as fewer and fewer people survived. The summers became too hot to handle and the winters became frozen wastelands. Most animals began to go extinct and the new species that emerged were ones that hunted humans for sport.

These new creatures live everywhere, from the depths of the oceans to the tallest mountains, to the soaring skies. Some are bigger than an elephant others smaller than a mouse. These animals are more adapted and suited for life in the New World. Each new animal that develops to this world is more dangerous and deadly, than the last. Worst of all, is what they call, “The Reaper”, no one has faced one head on and lived to tell the tale. If you do meet one, pray that it takes you quickly.

I wasn’t alive when the war happened. However, my parents were and they had told me stories of how life was before. They said it was loud, crowded and every city was overpopulated. Scientists began work on finding a new planet for the human population to inhabit (which they would have ultimately destroyed anyhow) but they never found it in time and then the war began. Our previously overcrowded human population was nearly wiped out and the few who survived had the fallout of the war and the natural disasters kill them. My parents are both dead now, all I have left of them is my mother’s heart-shaped locket, and my dad’s axe.

Now when you walk through the city, it's eerily quiet and completely barren. Not a soul to be seen or heard. You might think that being alone would give you a sense of security but, that is not the case. In my travels to find others like me, I had walked through a deserted city and found new flowers and plants had started to grow. It gave me some hope and made the empty hole in my heart a little smaller, but after staying a night I left to travel on.

After what I figured was days of my journey, I found myself walking through a forest. Through the violence and destruction, there was a hidden gem whose beauty was a stark difference to the dilapidated city. I realized that with the lack of humans, the forests started to grow back and everything became quiet and natural all over again. As I walked through the moonlit forest, I noticed something. The forest was utterly silent, and still. Too silent and still. Usually in the woods you would hear the sounds of birds and maybe some other creatures, but there was nothing. I pulled out my sword and kept walking as I felt haunting eyes piercing into my soul. I moved on quietly and cautiously, silently praying that it was just my imagination. That’s when I saw it, those cold dead orbs of the reaper staring me dead in my eyes.

Chapter II

I could feel my hand start to shake as the creature’s undaunting cold gaze fell upon mine. As I stared back I could see an almost curious look in its eyes. The reaper took a small step towards me, I dropped my sword and took a small step back. This went on, it taking a step forward and me one back, before my back hit the rough bark of a tree. The creature continued moving closer and closer until finally it was right in front of me, so close I could feel its humid breath brush across my face. As we stood there, for what felt like days, I got enough courage to reach my hand out. As I was millimeters away from touching its face, the sun reflected onto my mother’s locket, the ray shining into The Reaper’s eyes scaring, the supposedly, deadly-beast. Sending The Reaper running, for the reassuring cover of the forest. Once I was positive it was far away, I slid down to the ground against the tree, relishing in releasing the breath, I hadn’t realized I was holding.

I sat against the base of the tree, regaining my composure, then I got the courage to get up pick up the items I dropped and continued on in my travels. As I walked on the sky started to fill with colors as the sun began to set, so I knew I had to find a place to rest for the night. I found a small empty cave and set up camp, I started a fire and laid out a blanket to sleep on. As I finished eating the food I had prepared for myself, I was exhausted from the draining day I had. As soon as my head hit the ground I fell into a deep sleep. As I slept an old memory came to me in the form of a dream.

A little girl was sitting at a table with her mother, while her father held a cake singing “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, and happy birthday dear Malin happy birthday to you”. Then the cake was placed in front of her with 5 candles on top of it. “Okay- Malin make a wish and blow out the candles” her father said with a wide smile on his face. Malin squeezed her eyes shut and thought of her wish ‘I wish for a new friend’ before blowing out her candles. As the little girl opened her eyes she saw her parents were gone, she was surrounded by the old ruins of her childhood home.

Malin jolted awake from her dream and looked at her surroundings. Her fire had smoldered out and the sun had barely began to rise. As Malin sat there she thought about her dream or was it a memory, she had just had? It was of her 5th birthday, the last one with her mom. Her mother had given her a beautiful heart-shaped necklace that day-one that she had worn as a young girl. She still had it to this day-her most prized posession. Her mother had passed away from a virus that had spread across the world, when Malin was 5, and only a hand full of people had survived it-leaving Malin and her dad all alone while the whole world had shut down during the virus and the survivors were isolated and alone.

As she glanced out of the cave, she saw the figure of another human. As she rubbed her sleepy eyes the figure was gone, she quickly got up and ran out of the cave and looked around, but saw nothing. “Hello is anyone there?” she yelled into the forest around her, but all she got back was deafening silence. “I must be going crazy” she said to herself before going back to the cave and started to pack up her stuff to leave. Once she got her stuff she walked through the unpaved road. Little did she know, that something or someone was watching her.

fact or fiction
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About the Creator

Savannah Henderson

My name is Savannah Henderson and I am in grade 11 at 33 Central School in Fillmore Saskatchewan. I live with my family my mom, dad and older sister Jacoba. I have 3 cats and a German Shepard. My favourite cat is Sundae.

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