Two Is Better Than One
The International School of Macao, Stella Preece, Fiction: Group 3
H
ai was tired, his feet blistered and bleeding, blue from the cold. He wasn’t the only one.
The other young girls and boys were just as tired, hurt and scared. They staggered
along in a limping line, metal chains tying their hands together. They had been
brutally taken from their yurts or villages, enslaved to be put to work in the mines in
the far away mountains.
“Faster, you slugs!” boomed a guard, slashing a whip at them. Of course, the guards
surrounding them were all dressed warmly, riding on their sturdy ponies with whips clutched
tightly in their hands. Hai did not know where they were going, only that they were traveling
down the Silk Road, in the Southern Gobi desert. When he struggled against his bonds, he
received a long slash down his bare back by one of the snake-like whips. Hai closed his eyes and
whimpered in his head. He could feel the warm blood trickling down his back.
“Hai!” A scream pierced the cold air. He spun around to see his younger sister, Ai, fall to her
knees on the frozen ground, blood and tears streaming down her face. With a tremendous roar,
Hai tried to break free, receiving another slash down his cheek. Pain blinded him as he collapsed.
“Let’s rest,” said one guard, prodding Hai’s limp body with the tip of his boot. “These
weaklings will all die if we don’t stop soon. I didn’t come all this way to return to the mines
without new slaves.” They made camp in silence. A heavy-set, tough looking guard rammed a
long stick into the ground and attached the prisoners’ chains to it. The guards then slowly ate
their provisions in front of the famished children. When they grew bored of their taunting, they
disappeared into their tent and went to sleep with full bellies.
They had been traveling for days, with very little food shared between the chained children.
Hai had already lost what little meat he’d had on his bones. He moved his hands as best he could,
back and forth. To his surprise, the handcuffs no longer felt tight on his arms. Five minutes of
careful wriggling later, he quietly pulled his hands free of the bonds. He stumbled to his feet and
tiptoed through the darkness, taking care to make no sound as he looked for his sister. Ai was
even skinnier than Hai and after a brief struggle with the metal around her wrists, Hai hauled her
to her feet. They leaned against each other in silence. What now?
“I’ll start on my shift.” The guard’s voice suddenly cut through the icy air, as sharp as his
whip. Their bodies reacted and before they knew how it happened, Hai and Ai were running,
stumbling, running again, further and further away from the light of the camp, into the night
and into the desert itself. They ran until they could run no more. Then they lay on the ground and
waited for their hearts to slow down. Fearful, they strained their ears but all they could hear was
the wind.
Ai burst into tears and Hai held her tight.
“Now what are we going to do?” she wailed.
“We will lay down and hug each other to keep warm,” Hai replied, not as calmly as he
had wanted to. They huddled on the cold sand and clutched each other tightly. They were so
scared, so alone, and they missed their parents and warm tent more than anything. They cried
themselves to sleep.
“My feet hurt!” Ai groaned as they trudged through the sand.
