Rocket Science
British International School Shanghai Puxi, Louise Eloot, Fiction: Group 5
C
rash! I awoke. I couldn’t see anything accept for sand. I couldn’t feel anything except:
hot, Hot, HOT! I was in the warmest place ever. The tiny bit of wind was pushing the
sand towards me. It took a few minutes to figure out how to stand up and look what
else was around me. I saw cactuses. Loads of cactuses and a plane. A broken plane that
looked like it had crashed. Auw! The dreadful sound of pain was coming from behind one of the
doors that came off during the crash I guessed.
“Sam help!” The person who talked was lying on the hot, burning sand.
“Who is Sam?” I asked. He didn’t have enough strength to answer. “Great …” I thought to
myself. I’m in a desert in the middle of nowhere, I don’t know where I came from or if I was in the
plane while it crashed. The only one who could answer all my questions was the person I didn’t
even know. That is why I needed to help him and myself.
It was already a day that I was walking and I had gotten nowhere. The setting was always
the same and I still didn’t see anything in the distance. The body I was dragging was very much
alive, but kept on blacking out. I now think that he was just pretending and that he clearly had
something to hide. I wanted answers because I wanted to go home. I had a home with a family
that loved me. See how much questions I had. Oh, now I was talking to myself. I couldn’t take it
anymore, I had to wake him up. I didn’t have any water so I did it with sand. I took a handful of
sand from the burning ground and threw it on him. “What happened? Hey Mister who are you?”
“I’m soldier 1821 out of the Royal Air Force and I came here on a mission.”
“Can you translate that into English please?”
“I’m a soldier that came here on a miss… wait you should know this, you’re one of us actually,
you’re my boss Sam.” I didn’t remember or believe anything he said. Me? In the Air Force? I would
never! I looked back in my head for anything that I did in my life. There was nothing. It was just
a black hole.
Mr. Air Force man was back to normal and a real chatterbox, at least he kept me company
and helped me look for some water. I was sure I was going to die any second or collapse on the
sandy floor. I needed something faster than my feet. Mr. Air Force AKA Mr. Thomas told me a
story about people surviving in the desert without any water for 6 days. I said it was impossible.
At least I saw myself as a tough young man who was the boss of a whole group of older men that
I can boss around, but on the other side I can’t remember any of that, I now seem kind of shy, I
don’t even think I can survive.
Suddenly Thomas began to scream and his eyes almost popped out, but before I could ask
what was wrong I felt a sting in my neck and tears of blood came dripping out of the hole it made
and dropped on the sand nearly matching the color of the burning ground. “How bad could my
luck be?” was my last thought, “first a plane crash and then stung by a black widow spider?”.
When I came back I found myself on a furry animal, an animal with a big bubble on his back.
I was on a camel, a stinky one too. The man leading the camel was wearing pretty odd clothes. It
was the kind of clothing I wore on Halloween in the year 1987. The costume my friends laughed
at. I was completely on their side though. My mom accidently sewed pink in the cloth and then
decided to make it for girls. I didn’t want to make her unhappy so I wore it. It was supposed to
