New Tales of the Gobi Desert
St. Mary’s Canossian College, Chloe Chan, Fiction: Group 4
T
he boy with black hair cleaned his face and spat out some sand, and then he sat up
straight and looked around. All he could see was endless sand dunes and a bath of
unbearable heat. No sooner had he got up on his feet than he strained his eyes searching
for his company.
“I’m here, Tony,” A girl tapped his shoulder, panting heavily while speaking.
“You alright, Anna?” he asked.
Anna nodded. The visible heat hit them mercilessly, intensifying the atmosphere. As they’re
X-raying the unfamiliar surroundings, a scream pierced through the desert.
“Where’s Celia?” Tony asked with a panicky expression. “And where’s the man with the
headphone ….?”
Anna snapped before he could finish, “If you hadn’t hit the steering wheel, we wouldn’t have
taken an emergency landing here in the desert! I should be in Bayannaoer tonight to see mom and
dad. See how you’ve screwed the whole thing up!”
“We can just get out of the desert! Stop barking, okay!” Tony yelled. “I know it isn’t far from
the capital.”
“Well … easier said than done,” Anna retorted. “Where’s Celia? I can’t leave my sister here
alone!” She trudged through the sand, looking around, hoping to catch Celia in sight.
“Anna, help! Help me!” A girl was screeching with terror, jerking hard as if she had epilepsy.
Anna and Tony scurried across and squatted down next to the girl, shocked to see blood gushing
out of the wound on her calf, dying the sand in crimson red. Anna examined the wound with
deep concern in her eyes, frowning badly at the sorry sight.
“The copter nearly burnt half of my skin off!” Celia moaned.
“Luckily it’s not anything poisonous bite,” she murmured. “But it’ll get bigger and bigger, and
you’ll die of excessive bleeding.”
“How are we getting to the hospital?” Tony grumbled. “We’re in the MIDDLE of a desert.”
Ignoring Tony, Anna narrowed her eyes to take a glimpse though the horizon. The searing
sun, which caused her to suffer from sun blindness, made it difficult for her to focus. A few dome-
shaped figures appeared on the edge as if they’re waving at them. Anna and the boy propped the
girl with enormous effort, but the shadowy figures were so distant that Anna reckoned they were
nothing more than a mirage. Despite the intense feeling of hopelessness, they kept moving in the
hope of finding their way out before the night seeped in.
The silhouettes gradually revealed themselves as an ancient city as the trio came closer.
Deserted, the city still looked majestic and honourable, glorifying the breathtaking beauty of the
Gobi Desert.
Soon, they found shelter in a shabby shed. Celia, the injured girl, moaned again in agony, with
blood dripping from her calf roughly wrapped in a piece of cloth ripped off from Tony’s sweatshirt.
“She can’t stay long without the antidote,” a voice rang.
They turned around to find a girl and a boy standing right behind them, pitying their
misfortunes. The girl had coarse pitch-dark hair plaited neatly into two pigtails. Bronze-skinned,
she looked as though she had been staying under the sun for ages. The boy was charmingly
