7/11/18 Jo Cotterill https://jocotterill.com

7/11/2018

It was hot, so hot that every breath Riyad took felt like an effort. Sweat dripped into his eyes, and he scowled. Weren’t eyebrows supposed to protect you from sweat? He rubbed his arm over his forehead but it made barely any difference: within seconds the sweat was pouring into his eyes again. He crouched down on the bracken and reached for his water bottle. There was only an inch or so left. How long had he been out here? It couldn’t be more than an hour or so. Riyad groaned. He should have rationed his water. Or brought more with him. Or stayed by the wreckage of the plane.
Too late now. He couldn’t find his way back to the plane if he’d wanted to. Every single direction looked identical. Huge green leaves, vines, tree trunks so tall they surely touched the sky. And a constant buzzing and hissing of things in the undergrowth; things he couldn’t see but which could definitely see him…

7 Comments

Adrian Thompson

7/11/2018 09:34:51

Africa, he thought, wasn’t a place he really liked. He’d thought it was a good idea to visit when his mum had suggested it – visiting his dad in the jungle research centre seemed like a brilliant idea – a chance to see somewhere really different, and a great place to write a school project about. Now he was stuck in the middle of the jungle with something stalking him. Or maybe someone…
A stick cracked, Riyad spun. In front of him was a silver grey mountain gorilla, as tall as his dad. Silver hair ran down its back - “A silverback”, Riyad whispered to himself. “That means…”. From other sides of the clearing came more gorillas – a smaller adult, and three younger ones. Riyad backed away, but the Silverback came towards him, reaching out to rub his face. The soft paw strangely reassured Riyad, and he relaxed. One of the young gorillas took his hand in its paw and walked off, Riyad following.
After a dizzying journey, Riyad was pushed into another clearing – this one full of a gorilla’s nest. The gorillas took their places around the edge, Riyad was gently pulled into place next to the silverback, and sat.
“What is your name, human child?” said the silverback, its voice reverberating through the clearing. “It’s talking, “ Riyad thought “IT’S TALKING!”

Louise & Vicky

Lara and Lauren Woolmer Hill school

7/11/2018 10:28:53

“Wh- wh- why my names Riyad of course, please tell me where I am and what I’m doing here.” Riyad looked around in confusion at the other gorillas. Suddenly a deep voice replied:
“Hello, Riyad, my name is Triyad. I can tell you exactly where you are, but first you must listen to me. I have some important news to tell you. I am a human like you.” All the other gorillas laughed and shook their heads. On the far side of the circle another gorilla stepped forward.
“I’m sorry about that. He thinks he’s like you, you see. As an infant he suffered a major trauma, he was dropped on the floor when caught in a fire that destroyed his family home, and sadly took the life of his mother.” As the gorilla spoke Riyad
stood and thought about is mother, who too died in a tragic fire only a matter of weeks ago. Then all of a sudden a loud, defening voice came from somewhere deep in the jungle.
“TRIYAD, TRIYAD WHERE ARE YOU, HAVE YOU WONDERED OF AGAIN?” Riyad stood in shock as he slowly came to recognise the voice. It was the voice of his father! Abruptly, the man appeared on the opposite side of the circle.
“Son, is that you? Are you really there?” as he struggled to see past the blinding light that shone through the trees. He stood there glued to the ground in fear
“Yes, Dad, it’s me. What are you doing here?” Standing there, Riyad slowly became aware of how thirsty he was, and was in desperate need of some water.
“Son, I came here to get away from the truth, but now that you are here I must tell you, I cannot hide it from you any longer.” He announced, his hands shaking. He sighed heavily and mumbled under his breath
“Triyad is your adopted brother” Riyad looked at him weirdly.
“I’m sorry dad what did you say, you mumbled again”
“I SAID TRIYAD IS YOUR ADOPTED BROTHER!!!”

Mungo, Rory and Robbie The Beacon

7/11/2018 11:42:27

His first night was drowned with exquisite sounds until he realised the “exquisite” sounds were his dad snoring. The immense shrieking shrivelled up his ear drums and rattled the tree that he dwelled in, until he had adapted to it, so much that he got a precise time of 3 minutes sleep. Morning had risen and so did the gorillas, expect for Riyad himself and Bull Head, Triyad’s arrogant cousin, who believed that the whole world revolved around him. In celebration of Riyad’s arrival they sung him happy birthday, despite his birthday wasn’t until another 8 months. Everyone was friendly except for Bull Head, who led the hunting squad to an ox. Sadly, Riyad’s Father seemed to have gone missing, the news of his disappearance sent the whole country into a deep depression and controversy. As expected, Bull Head stepped up to the challenge of being leader of the troop, although Triyad put himself forward as well. Such an event had never occurred before, and in usual gorilla style, must be settled with a fight to the death…

Nikki Heath

7/11/2018 14:23:32

Everyone entered the arena- it was run down, looked like it would fall apart at any moment and seemed like something from ancient Rome. Riyad fiddled with his thumbs – he was concerned about his adopted brother’s life, after all it was a fight to the death. The silverback gorillas entered from opposite sides of the arena. All of a sudden there was a moment of silence and then the whistle blew. Suddenly all around there were screams and shouts from the crowd supporting the fighter they wanted to be crowned as the leader of the troop.

Bull Head and Triad ran at each other screaming battle cries. Triad dodged a blow and tried to land a punch in Bull Head’s stomach. Bull Head side-stepped the punch and kicked Triad to the floor. By now Triad had a cut across his face and another on his leg. He stood up, a glint of anger in his eyes and grabbed Bull Head’s arm and judo flipped him. A painful grunt escaped Bull Head’s lips. Triad started punching him until he was a bloody mess on the floor. As Bull Head gained consciousness Triad had a lot of support from the crowd and was now encouraged to keep fighting. He landed a final punch and Bull Head bled to death as the crowd went crazy……

Magdalena.C and Emma.M, Werneth School

Yan Xi, Abbey, Tallulah, Gurdit (Wirral Grammar School For Girls)

7/11/2018 15:20:00

Triyad collapsed in exhaustion, when a loud cry was heard from the entrance of the arena. A hundred furry faces turned their heads, almost forgetting the dreadful death of their fellow primate. From the depths of the jungle, Riyad’s father emerged, wounded and covered in his own crimson blood. Riyad’s heart skipped a beat upon seeing him. Immediately he ran towards him. Riyad’s father refused to show his wounded face. “Dad, are you okay?” asked Riyad, quivering at the sight of his own father’s blood. Turning his horrified face to his son, the crowd gasped as Riyad’s father spoke two words, and two words only. “They’re coming!”
The gorillas ran through the trees with one goal. To escape the hunters sat on their monsters of metal, with jaws of steel, ready to kill. “Those hunters,” cried Riyad. “They are the Blood Spears!” He said, recognising the gruesome spearheads, crossed and embroidered onto their jackets. “They are ruthless, killing whatever they catch, animals and humans alike. Run! Run!” Panicked and scared, the gorillas ran aimlessly through the trees, just trying to escape the hunters’ wrath. Sadly, none succeeded, and Riyad stood alone with the only survivor- Triyad. Realising they were out in the open, Riyad grabbed his adopted brother and dived into the nearest bush. Two hunters strutted towards the arena.
“We are so lucky we found this group.”

Samrael S. Madisyn M. Robert E Lee Junior High School

7/11/2018 16:46:21

The hunters had an abundance of guns and knives. They started slicing, dicing, and shooting at any gorilla they saw. One of these gorillas included the father. Triyad started sobbing,”I just got him back, now he’s gone forever.” Soon after Riyad was crying too. Riyad said, “ we cannot let this affect us , we still have to get out.” They started running towards the jungle , thinking that would save them, but they were mistaken. Several hunters came swarming out of the trees. Triyad and Riyad were panicking , “ Where did they come from!” The hunters attacked Triyad. Riyad tried to save him but they both were taken down. As they were struggling to get away from the hunters grasp, all of a sudden, Bull Head tackled one of the hunters. “ I thought you were dead” said Triyad. “ I thought you bled out” said Riyad. “ My mission was to come here and save you.” said Bull Head. All of a sudden, the hunters started fading away one by one. “What’s happening?” said Triyad. Triyad came awake from his unconsciousness, he was still in the arena. He was lying on the ground with a pool of blood surrounding him...

Ashley K. & Shannan S. Robert E. Lee Jr. High School

7/11/2018 20:45:16

“Triyad,” Riyad called out to his brother, “Triyad, we need to get out of here.” He cried, trying to pick up his brother off of the arena’s damp floor.
Triyad looked up at his struggling brother, “Riyad, look at me, I’m just about dead. Even if you did manage to get me out of here I wouldn’t be able to live.” Riyad bore his eyes into Triyad, knowing what he was suggesting,
“No, No, there is no way I’m just going to leave you here to bleed out all alone. You’re my brother and I-I need you to be there with me.” Riyad started to sob, “I-I love you.”
Riyad pulled his brother over his shoulder and started off farther into the forest. Triyad was in terrible pain as Riyad readjusted him on his shoulder. Riyad started running faster and faster into the darkness as he got farther away from the arena.
Riyad saw a shiny glint in the and assumed it was an animal and crouched low to the ground. He started to crawl away until he looked up at it again and saw a long, thin wing of a plane.
“The plane! The one I got off of when I landed here.” Riyad started sprinting towards the plane, not caring about whatever Triyad was trying to tell him. Riyad knew that there was plenty of first aid kits and other things in the plane that he could use to help his brother. He ran up to the entrance and started to rummage through the rubble after setting Triyad down on the ground.
“No...no...not what I need, no… Aha!” He started at the half roll of gauze he found in an exploded first aid kit and started to wrap up his brothers wounds with the gauze and cotton that he found. He tried to be gentle but knew that he had to move fast.
“Riyad, Thank you so much. I’m glad you took me back and tried to save me because now I’ll have a fighting chance.” He hugged his brother with his strong arm and lowered his head onto the ground.
“I’m here for you, Triyad.” He sighed looking down on him. “I’m here for you…”

7/11/18 Jo Cotterill https://jocotterill.com

Leave a Reply.

Author

Archives

Categories