Narrative: Humanity

Beads of cold sweat drip down his pale face, leaving shining trails. His heart catches in his throat, as he hears his pursuer’s footsteps becoming louder, becoming closer. Arms pumping, legs aching, the boy forces himself to keep running, feverishly whipping his head back to glance at his pursuers. Breath coming out in gasps, he feels like his lungs might burst into flames at any second. Strands of dirty blonde hair obscure his vision, but he doesn’t sweep them away. His flimsy old sneakers crunch loudly on the gravel and he feels winded; the pain in his leg muscles screaming in his brain to stop. But he can’t stop. He can never stop.

It is the year 2097, and Australia is invaded by a foreign country. First came the soldiers, planes and submarines with their weapons of mass destruction. Then came the politicians, with their raving speeches about reforming Australia’s way of life. And lastly, came the settlers, masses of them arriving every day off huge ships, and crowding out Australia’s beautiful landscape with grey buildings and concrete. To sum it up, it was a massacre. Australia didn’t even stand a chance. The indiscriminative soldiers killed anyone who got in their way, even women and children.

They took him from his family, making him stand and watch as they killed

his beautiful mother. They took her away. They took his lovely sister away too. They sent him and his father to labour centres where they were forced to work every day. He remembers the day they whipped his father for being ‘uncooperative’. He remembers the seemingly never-ending cracks of the whip, the blood running in streams down his father’s back, the screams of agony issuing from his father’s mouth. He remembers the tears running down his own face as they made him stand and watch.

That night, he asked his father a few questions that had been bothering him, like someone hammering on the inside of his skull. Why do humans go out of their way to hurt other humans? Other animals didn’t...