This is a small one-shot that I wrote for English. Enjoy.
I do not own 'Tommorrow When the War Began' or any of the characters. Those all belong to John Marsden. I am posting this for fun only and I am not, in any way, gaining any sort of profit from this.
Deadly Shadows
It had only been two days since the other people we had been living with had left us behind in Hell, a remote hard to get to place surrounded by sheer cliffs. It was even less time since Kevin got the idea to leave Hell and catch a few ferrets for food while they were gone.
It was nearly midnight and as we walked to his uncle's farm, the one just past the Stratton turn-off, I started wondering why this war was happening. It just wasn't fair. Already people we knew had been killed and they hadn't even done anything wrong.
'Corrie, come back here.' Robyn's voice drifted into my thoughts. I stopped and turned around to face her only to realise that, while I was lost in my thoughts I had passed the turn-off to the farm. I jogged back to the others who were starting to wander off the road and into the light scrub on the side of the driveway.
We walked half a mile before the farmhouse came into our line of vision. It was an ordinary looking shack with a veranda running around to the rear of the house, a little weather worn and the cream walls had seen better days, but it was beautiful all the same. Around the back was a large field and many different eyes could be seen staring at us through the dark. We went inside the house.
I stared at the appalling mess in front of me. Although ordinary on the outside the inside of the house had been raided, glass lay smashed on the floor, furniture upturned, valuable objects gone and a dead ferret next to a large empty cabinet labelled nets. I heard Robyn gasp behind me and turned to see her and Kevin staring at the mess.
It was Robyn who broke the silence "But what are we going to catch them in now?" she was staring at the empty cabinet.
Kevin rolled his eyes "we'll have to use our hands." It was silent for a minute, not even the wind could be heard blowing the trees.
"Ew," that was me "but they're so disgusting!" I shivered at the thought of catching one.
"Oh, come on Corrie it's simple, I will show you," Kevin started towards the door only to freeze when a loud crash echoed through the house. I screamed.
We gathered together near the door and retreated into the surrounding bush like shadows, backing away about 20 metres before, with the back door in our sights we started to talk.
I was the first to break the silence, "what was that?" I coughed. Kevin and Robyn stared at me gasping for air, my own heart pounding a million miles a minute.
"Maybe it was a soldier," Robyn replied, it sounded more like a question then an answer.
"Nonsense," it was Kevin's turn to speak "what interest would they have in a place like this?"
"Oh I don't know maybe they saw us enter the house, or they might just be checking the place out," I panicked a little at the thought and twisted my red hair around nervously.
"Seriously it was probably just some lost ferret trying to find its way out of the house," Kevin argued.
"It might just be the wind," Robyn suggested. We looked at her blankly.
"Whatever it was let's just get what we came here for and leave before something bad happens," standing up from his position on the ground Kevin started to creep back towards the house, Robyn followed him.
I shivered before jogging to catch up with them I had a bad feeling about this, it felt like we were being watched. It was too silent, the air was too still and I noticed now all the ferrets had disappeared into their holes, something was wrong.
I tiptoed onto the veranda and glanced behind me, a flicker movement and a flash of light, I saw it in amongst the trees. I ran inside, where were the others?
A floorboard creaked and I screamed as something leapt at me from the shadows. I twisted and took all but three steps before I ran into something solid, I grabbed it to stop myself from falling.
"Ow," I looked up only to see I had run into a lamp, I stopped screaming and looked towards the door just in time to see a ferret scamper from the room and not two seconds later heard Robyn shriek. I ran into the next room to see Robyn clinging to the wall.
"Robyn shh it's ok, it was just a ferret." She blinked and looked behind her at the terrified animal now in Kevin's hands before laughing nervously.
"Well I guess now we have what we came for we can…" she started before looking behind me, "guys, did you see that?" Glancing around I saw nothing. Kevin shrugged and walked outside. I followed him and stopped behind him on the veranda.
"Can you tell Robyn we're leaving," Kevin looked at me before walking up the driveway.
I rolled my eyes not even bothering to answer instead I called to Robyn and started to follow Kevin.
There it was again, I froze as a twinkle of light reflected off something shiny. In the corner of my eye I caught a flash of movement. Robyn jogged past me and shot me a weird look, she didn't stop though. I searched the trees, heartbeat racing through my ears. Nothing moved, I spun around and started to sprint after the others. From behind me scrape of gravel on the road, it was out of place, out of place because the others were ahead of me.
I felt something pierce into my back before the sound of gunfire reached my ears. A shot echoed off the trees. I stumbled, and then collapsed in pain. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe, a large shadow approached me and I blacked out.
Deadly Shadows