YAFF 2019 – 6th Grade/ 6ème First Place – “Run” by Liam Ross

Below is the wonderful story Run by Liam Ross, that won 1st place for 6th Grade/ 6ème in the 2019 Young Authors Fiction Festival. We will be posting winning stories from the 2019 YAFF regularly for the next few months. Enjoy the stories!

The 2020 Festival is now open and stories can be submitted online via the YAFF page. Deadline to submit is 1 April 2020 by 22h00.

“Run” by Liam Ross
1st Place – 6th Grade/ 6ème

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, bullets whistling by my ear. A bullet barely missed my ear. I was quite lucky that I hadn’t been shot yet. I was one of the few survivors. It felt like my legs were slowly turning to lead. I had been sprinting for the past five minutes. I hoped my pursuers were tiring. I glanced back at them, they were hardly sweating at all.

“Great” I muttered. I looked down at the grass flying out from under me, my sneakers destroying it with each step. I veered to the right looking for somewhere to hide. “This park is huge” I thought, “There’s got to be somewhere I can hide”. I was getting desperate. I tried to come up with a plan. Just then another bullet whizzed right through my legs. I would have spent all my ammo shooting back at them, but a few minutes ago I had run out of it. There was no point carrying the gun around so I had ditched it. All of a sudden an idea popped into my head. I could run by my house and grab my bike, the new model that I got for my 11th birthday last week. Then with some luck, I could outrun (outbike?) them. If I sprinted I could probably get to my house in 3 or 4 minutes. I ran straight towards the exit of the park, right past a very startled family, although luckily they were the only people in the park, probably because it was around six, when most families ate dinner. Anyways, I accidentally bumped into their kid. This was a kid who, I honestly had no idea if it was a boy or a girl. It was one of those kids who had long hair, and their face didn’t tell you a thing. The parents turned their attention to their kid, but not before the dad gave me a dirty look. They were so preoccupied with their kid, that they didn’t notice the bullets whizzing by me. I kept on running. I dashed down my street. I still had a block to go. I almost tripped out of surprise when a bullet bounced off of the ground and nearly hit me. Luckily it didn’t, or I would have been a dead duck. I finally arrived at my house. My parents were at the grocery store, and my sister was at a friend’s house, so none of my family was home. No point going inside. I ran towards the gate leading towards my backyard. I flung it open and saw my bike sitting on the porch. I dashed up my porch steps, three at a time. I grabbed my bike, picked it up and raced down the porch steps. My pursuers were getting closer and closer, the details of them becoming clearer and clearer. I stumbled with the weight of my bike, dashing towards the gate. I opened it, hopped on my bike and pedaled harder than I ever have before. I kept going like this, my pursuers getting farther and farther away. Finally, after I couldn’t see them anymore, I stopped. I looked around me, gasping for breath. I saw a narrow street with a large dumpster leaning against the side of a building. The dumpster was big enough to hide me and my bike. “Perfect” I thought. I walked towards it, dragging my bike along with me. I slid next to it, so that my pursuers couldn’t see me. About a minute later, my pursuers dashed right by the alley without so much as a second glance. I let out a sigh of relief.

“Don’t celebrate too soon” someone said. I whirled around, right into the barrel of a nerf gun. “Oof” I moaned, rubbing my stomach. I looked up into the eyes of my pursuers. “Hey Ben” said Mike. “But…. I just saw you guys run past this street” I said. “But luckily Chip”… I looked at Chip. He grinned. … “saw your bike sticking out, so we took the back way here, and found you hiding” Said Mike. “But we still haven’t eliminated you from the game yet, have we?” “Good Game, Ben” he said. He cocked the nerf gun. I stuck out my hand. “OK, just shoot me and get it over with.” And he pressed the trigger.