Emilie Hines, Year 12
Elina spent two hours scouring the forest for her friends. She had found nothing and was now on the point of despair. She collapsed on a log next to a bramble bush and forced herself to cry. Elina did not feel sad, but she did feel stressed. She cried simply to relieve the stress so that she could think straight again. It was then that Elina noticed a pocket knife half-buried in the mud at her feet. Elina stopped her crying immediately. She picked up the pocket knife, and inspected it. It was the one that Anna had taken with her. Elina’s eyes lit up. Elina got off the log and began to cautiously move further down the mud path that she’d been following. She soon picked up the distasteful smell, and it was not long before she found Anna’s corpse. Elina did not stay long to inspect it, but she did ascertain that the cause of death had been a bullet.
Elina now ran down the path. Her hopes of finding her friends had been renewed. As she ran, however, Elina sensed another presence running alongside her. Suddenly, Elina was shoved down on the ground by another human. The living human being was a girl with dirty curly black hair and dark skin. She was carrying a backpack and had a bandage wrapped around her arm. Elina did not recognise her, but when she spoke, Elina found it difficult to mistake her.
“Who the hell are you?” the girl demanded aggressively. She was waving a very big stick in Elina’s face. Elina scowled.
“Take a guess, Melissa”. Melissa immediately recognised Elina. She scowled.
“Why did you have to survive?” Melissa groaned sulkily.
“I was going to ask you that” Elina growled. Melissa huffed in frustration and got up out of the mud. Elina did the same.
“Who are you running from?” Melissa asked ignorantly.
“A smell” Elina responded bluntly “You didn’t see Tina Rodgers and Grace Stewart come this way, did you?”
“You kidding?” Melissa snorted “You’re the first living girl I’ve seen in this God-forsaken place. The only people I’ve seen since the crash are Russian soldiers”.
“Russian soldiers?” Elina repeated tiredly, not remembering her earlier encounters with them.
“Yes” Melissa responded in exasperation “There are Russian soldiers in the forest, and they’ve been sent here to kill us; I know it!” Elina raised her eyebrows. The two girls had started walking down the mud trail again, and more and more footprints were appearing in the mud before them.
“There were three gunshots around two hours ago” Elina stated bluntly, “Do you know what that was all about?” Melissa now raised her eyebrows.
“I don’t know” she sighed innocently “I guess some unfortunate survivor, or survivors, ran into the patrol; Tina and Grace, for instance”. Elina lowered her eyebrows and growled more ferociously than ever:
“Shut up” Melissa grinned a sadistic grin and decided to disobey Elina’s request.
“You know, I wish I knew how you survived. You weren’t in the front part of the plane, were you?” Elina ignored her. Melissa continued:
“No, you definitely weren’t. I was the only survivor. It is nerve-wracking stuff being the only survivor, you know”. Elina had stopped listening. Suddenly, a loud, desperate yell was heard throughout the forest. This was promptly followed by more yells, a gunshot and a couple of screams. Melissa had stopped talking now, and both she and Elina had gone down on the ground. Melissa was sweating and had started shaking. Elina grit her teeth and concentrated on whether the yells were male or female. She then picked up a distinct yell in French. Elina breathed a sigh of relief. It was the boys who were getting attacked, not her friends. A few more minutes passed. The yelling, screaming and gunshots continued until there were no more yells or screams left. Finally, Melissa spoke up.
“Are you sure Tina and Grace are still alive?” Elina told Melissa to shut up again. She then got up and scanned the green horizon. She could see nothing except for a very big spider on the tree next to her. Elina quickly turned back down the mud path, and Melissa promptly followed her. The two girls walked in silence for around twenty minutes before they suddenly found Tina and Grace. Tina was curled up in a ball under the branches of a fallen tree. Grace was sitting on the fallen tree staring blankly into space. Elina spoke first.
“Guys?” Grace turned around in complete surprise. Tina woke up and hit her head on the branch that she was hiding under. Melissa raised her eyebrows at the two new living beings that had appeared before her. No one said anything. Elina broke the silence.
“Why did you leave the river bank?” Grace still didn’t respond. Elina realised that Grace was tied to the fallen tree.
“Run!” Tina yelled at Elina from under her branch “run away!” Melissa responded quicker than Elina. Quicker than Quicksilver, she had disappeared back up the mud path. Elina stared at Tina for a few seconds before copying Melissa. Elina rapidly caught up with Melissa, and forced her behind a bush that had a view over where Tina and Grace were sitting. Elina and Melissa could now see clearly that the two girls down the path with the fallen tree were being held captive; and the prompt return of the Russian patrol, in response to Tina’s yelling, answered the question of who they were being held captive by. Melissa gave a loud sigh of exasperation. Elina clamped her hand over Melissa’s mouth. Melissa scratched Elina’s cheek. Elina thumped Melissa shoulder against a tree trunk. Melissa pushed Elina into the bush, kicked her hard in the stomach and ran off. Amazingly, this had all occurred with barely a sound. Elina let out a soft groan. She sat up and looked on as her friends were untied from the fallen tree, and were forced to walk further down the mud path surrounded by Russian soldiers.
