Suspended Delusions

MY english assignment

Suspended Delusions

Written by: Latisha Sheather

I couldn't remember the last time I had this much fun, looking behind me I saw the smiling faces of my older brother and my parents. The sun was shining brightly, the birds were chirping, the tree's swayed gently with the wind and the waves were crashing on the shore, I didn't want this moment to end but nothing can stay bright and happy forever. Suddenly the sky had gotten dark, the sounds of the chirping birds and waves crashing on the shore had stopped, I turned around as quickly as my body allowed and saw that my parents had stopped moving. I wanted so badly to run to them but I couldn't move, looking down at my feet I could see tree roots wrapped around my ankles, looking up I saw that my parents had started to vanish.

The smile on my fathers face had vanished and was replaced with one of worry and panic, I tried so desperately to move but all my attempts were futile and that's when I remembered that Mark was here with us.

 

"Mark!"

 

He turned his head to face me.

 

"Please help them!"

 

I didn't realize that I was crying until a drop of water had splashed on my hand, bringing my other hand up to my face I started to wipe away my tears; I looked at my parents again and saw that they were getting lighter with every minute that passed, then I looked back at Mark who was just standing still, a evil look could be seen on his face usually expressionless face. I reached my hand out in a attempt of stopping my parents silhouettes but it was useless, they had vanished.

 

I woke up screaming; about a minute later I noticed my forehead was dripping with sweat. Once I woke up properly I started to adjust my breathing, telling myself to be calm; it was another dream, every night I had the reoccurring nightmare. Each night the nightmare would get worse and each morning I would wake up screaming; the only thing that never changed in the dream was the location.

 

The dream always occurred on a beach, the sun would be shining, the golden-white sand was so soft that you would leave foot prints behind you as you walked. There were tree's that would sway with the breeze, I would never see any animals in my dreams but I could always hear the birds chirping or on some occasions there would be a barking dog. The ocean was always a beautiful blue colour, it's waves would crash gently against the shore, when you looked out at the horizon you would lose track of time because of its beauty. You would see surfers paddling towards a wave and then when they caught it they would brag about how big the wave was and then you had the few who would return to the shore again because they had wiped out. If you closed your eyes just enough you would be able to see the Sydney Harbor bridge.

 

I untangled myself from my blankets and turned so my feet were hanging over the side of the bed. After stretching I let my feet drop onto the awaiting floor below and jumped a little when my feet hit the cold hard wood floor; I walked across to the other side of my room and stopped at the mirror that hung on my wall. Looking at my reflection I realized two things, the first was that my golden brown hair was tangled and knotted, the second was that I had dark bags under my eyes showing that I haven't had a decent nights sleep in weeks.

 

After getting dressed I slipped my blade into my jacket pocket and went to leave the house; I had a long journey ahead of me and I wanted to leave as quickly and as early as possible; once outside I scanned the crowed for my brother, who would be accompanying me on my trip, I found him three doors down talking to one of the adults.

 

"Hey, Mark!"

 

I smiled and started waving frantically; hoping he would see me because if he didn't then I would have to go through the trouble of finding him again and with a lot of people up it would take me all day.

 

"Hey pip squeak, you ready for our trip today?"

 

I wanted to take a jab at him for the short joke but I held my tongue and instead started to walk north-west; some times I wished Mark wasn't so tall that way I wouldn't have to put up with his lame remarks about my own height. It's quite obvious that Mark had gotten the tall genes of the family, the reason i say this is because I'm only 5'6 and he is 6' tall.

 

"Oi, big head! I bet I could beat you to the border of the city!"

 

If there was one thing I learnt by growing up with Mark it was that he was really competitive; he would take the most simple task around and turn it into a competition. I gave him my signature smirk, sure he was taller than me, he was probably faster and stronger than me as well but I knew my way around these streets like the back of my hand.

 

"You're on! But I'm warning you now, I'm gonna win."

 

My smirk turned into a grin.

 

"Alright on the count of three then!"

 

"1.....2....3!"

 

I had to think of something that would beat Mark, I couldn't lose this race, if I did Mark would never let me forget; I was about to run towards the car yard when I saw the Suzuki bike shop. I knew the perfect bike to use. I ran into the office and took the keys for the V-Strom 650, I took the pearl mira red/black bike, I always admired these bikes and this race finally gave me an excuse to use one. It is a middle class, dual sport bike; it's engine is absolutely amazing, it holds 22 liters of fuel (uses 4.4L/100km) and goes 65 miles per gallon, with this baby I was going to beat Mark easily.

 

I put the key in the engine and felt the bike come to life, I took off in an instant, I was going pretty fast when I turned the corner; it seemed I wasn't the only one who had gotten the idea to use a motorcycle. Mark was riding a sports bike, in fact he was using a BMW S1000 RR, his bikes engine was bigger than mine and it seemed like he was going to win this race. There was only one more turn left before we hit a road that went straight ahead, that's when I would make my move.

We were tied at the moment and the sign was in sight, I looked over to my left and saw Mark had speed up, looking back at the road I could see the words on the sign clearly now.

YOU ARE NOW LEAVING ALLEN TOWN.

 

At the last moment I hit my brakes and started to skid across the ground, this had allowed Mark to win the race and I knew that he would never let me live this down.

 

"Oomph."

 

The wind was knocked right out of me; I got up from the road and winced a little at the pain in my left arm, looking down I could see that I had grazed it slightly when I fell. Ignoring the pain in my arm I dusted the dirt and gravel off my clothes and continued walking towards my fallen bike. I didn't have to look at Mark to know that he had a smile on his face, instead I started my bike up again and continued down the high way towards New York.

 

I've always loved the thrill of riding a motorcycle down the open road, the scenery rushing past you; we would be riding for a couple of hours before we reached the rubble of New York and I was thankful for that because it meant I would have plenty of time to think of an excuse as to why I lost the race.

 

**1 hour 30 minutes later.**

 

I turned the key killing the bikes engine, hopped off the bikes seat and started heading towards a run down dirt path that lead to the entrance of a once eventful boat dock.

 

"I told you I would win shorty, never underestimate me."

 

I stopped in my tracks and turned to face him, my hands rested on my hips.

 

"You got lucky is all any other day and I would have totally kicked your butt."

 

I continued to make my way down the beaten path; I had left Mark in the city to find food and medical supplies for our community. When New York had been destroyed the air became unbreathable, the soil was so hard nothing could grow; people had left the city hoping to get away from the disaster. Mark and I were living with a little community that had moved to Allen Town, when we had gotten to the town it was deserted; we had come to the conclusion that the people who were originally living in Allen Town left, but we don't know why.

 

That was two years ago and although the fatal in conditions in New York have gone down no one has made a move to return; Mark and I would occasionally return to the city because we needed supplies. The soil is soft again and plants are starting to grow back through the stone and rubble; I slipped my hand into my jacket pocket and took out my blade. Mark and I both had blades, the reason for this is because many animals now lived in the rubble of the city and we don't know how many of them are truly dangerous.

 

I had finally gotten to the docks, the pier was broken into pieces, the windows of the old fishing factories were shattered. I looked out at the horizon and listened to the sound of the waves crashing on the stone cement; looking out at the sea for something that resembled a way out of this miserable hell but once again, just like every other time I visited the docks, nothing was there. I don't know what I'm hoping for really, maybe a boat or even a plane, something that could take Mark and I away from this place; from the rubble and destruction, but what was I thinking, it would never happen.

 

It was just a little girl's dream, a dream that I desperately wanted to believe in; I stared out at the horizon some more but I eventually gave up and retraced my path straight back to the city again. I looked to my right and saw Mark standing still, his midnight black hair hanging over his eyes, I don't blame him really; after all this used to be a home to us. I could still remember where everything stood; from the tall sky scrapers to the small book shop that was hidden away in the corner; but now it was nothing more than burnt down stone and rubble.

 

"Dad please don't go through with this."

 

He turned to look at me a small smile on his face.

 

"Ali don't worry I've gone over the plans for this new energy source nothing will go wrong."

 

I shook my head and grabbed his arm.

 

"No you haven't dad! I've seen the plans there is a major design flaw, you can't possibly go through with this."

 

"Ali, let go of me now, I have to do this."

 

"No dad! We shouldn't even be here! I want to go back home, back to Australia!"

 

"Alisa. Let go of my arm. Now you listen here, New York is our home now."

 

I shook my head in disbelief, letting go of his arm I ran over towards Mark.

 

"He won't stop the presentation Mark!"

 

Dad had gone onto the stage and was talking about how this new energy source would save us from having to use fossil fuels, he then presented the machine that produced this so called 'new energy.' He started explaining how to use it and then something went terribly wrong, before I knew it the machine had exploded and my father had died.

 

"NO! DAD!"

 

I tried to run towards him but Mark held me back.

 

"Come on Ali, look at me."

 

I struggled some more but eventually gave up and looked up at Mark, I saw the sadness in his eyes, that was when I remembered I wasn't the only one who lost some one in the explosion.

 

"We have to leave Ali, this place won't be safe."

 

I nodded my head, to many people had bought this new energy and only a few knew how bad it really was; we had to leave before we died as well.

 

"Ali we could have changed things, you know made a difference and all that."

 

I snapped back into reality, his voice held traces of anger but I couldn't blame him, I understood what he was feeling and I could take a wild guess at what he was thinking. Dad had worked for some big time company in Sydney; they worked on trying to find a new energy source, one that would stop us from using fossil fuels. The boss felt that dad had done his job in Sydney and wanted him to go to New York and help out with the search for energy there and so our family was transfered. The city was burnt to the ground because of this companies research; dad had shown Mark and I the plans for the new machine, we had seen the formula's and noticed plenty of errors but we never thought the company would go through with building it.

 

We were wrong though, the company went straight to work on it and by the time we had found out it was to late and things had gotten out of hand; the only reason we didn't point out the errors to dad was because it was one of the few things that made him happy after mum had passed away.

 

"Mark we both knew it would have been pointless to try and stop him, once dad started planning he never stopped."

 

"Ali! RUN!"

 

I did as Mark told me and started to run, some building were falling to pieces, others were on fire; I had to get out of the city. I stopped, looking behind me I saw Mark was helping some children who were kneeling next to their parents bodies. I knew I couldn't do what Mark told me, I had to help those kids, I had to help Mark and with that I ran back towards him.

 

"Mark! What do you need me to do?"

 

His head whipped around and looked at me, a look of disbelief on his face.

 

"I told you to run! Do you want to die?"

 

"I can't leave you and I can't leave these kids, you're stuck with me, now what can I do to help?"

 

"Take the kids and get them out of this city don't worry I will be right behind you, now stay safe."

 

I gave him a quick nod and turned to the kids, I had to be quick, the building in front of us wouldn't last much longer. Both of the kids looked like they were at least seven years old, Mark passed me the little girl and then took off with the little boy. Following his lead I ran through the havoc and got the little girl far enough away from burning city.

 

Mark and I traveled with a group of survivors who fled the city and after a two day walk we came across Allen Town where we decided to settle and start up a community with the other children and adults. Mark and I would always be stuck with having to look after the kids in the community while the adults went out to work in the gardens, so we would tell them stories about Australia. We explained surfing, the beaches, the war heroes; everything we could remember about home and how it differed from New York; I constantly told the kids of my plans to escape and one day return to Australia but until then Mark and I would have to set a example for the kids in the community. Mark is 18 and I'm 17 the youngest child in the community is 5 years of age.

 

I never wanted to go back, never wanted to stand in amongst all the stone and rubble of New York City again but I knew no matter how much I willed myself to stay away I would always go back to see if anyone came looking for us.

 

"Come on Mark, let's head back there's nothing useful here."

 

We turned and went straight to the motorcycles that were waiting for us, I turned the key and revved the bike before taking of towards the community.

 

One day my dream of returning to Australia will be more than just a dream, it will be a reality.

 

Some day Mark and I will be able to return to the beautiful land that is Australia; back to the sports, the surfing, and the dusty red planes of the outback. To the place we call home, but until that day came we will stay here in Allen's Town and we will continue teaching the younger generation everything we know.

Reviews

[Trigorin]

Not bad, and you've presented your story well. I'm not entirely sure what message you're aiming to get across with this, if any, but it's still a fun little read. One thing I'd suggest would be to offset the italicized segments a little more, as at present it looks like one blobby mass of text, which isn't really appealing. Other than that, well done.

[Hikaru01]

Thanks :) The assignment was just supposed to have mentions of australia and stuff in it so there is no real message to it. I was in a rush when I posted this and forgot to space it out but thanks for pointing it out i've gone back and fixed that now.