1st:Amy Chua
My Hero - Souper
It was yet another cold, grim Saturday morning and all I wanted was to stay in my warm, comfy bed. But Saturday mornings meant an eight o'clock start at the pool, an hour of walk-throughs and then two hours of tiring warm-ups and boring routines.As I lay in bed I thought to myself, this is not how a Saturday morning should be spent. I should be waking up slowly to a warm cup of tea and then be able to fall out of bed at my leisure and laze around the house. I want to be able to go out and have fun with my friends all Friday night without having to worry about coming home or being tired the next morning. Instead I have to drag myself out of bed, just so that I can turn up to an un-welcoming club and waste my time making up and running through routines that no one is even interested in. I wouldn't bother but the Christmas show is coming up and I really want to perform my solo in it. I've worked so hard on my solo and this could be my only chance to show it. I suppose I should get up then. Deep in thoughts and grumping my way out of bed, walking towards my closet, I felt a string of warm breathe behind my ears.
“Shh! Be still girl!”
The next moment I felt a sharp pain on my back. I peeped through the reflection from the mirror on my wall and immediately recognise the cold-blooded murderer standing behind me. Fear overcame me and I went stiff. I did not know how to respond. I summed up my courage.
“What do you want?”
“What do you think I want?”
The murderer held me close and I could smell the cigarettes under his breathe. I struggled and swung my head real hard on him and tried to escape. The man was too strong for me to resist. The next moment, I felt punches raining all over me and was thrown around in the room like a ragged doll and my clothes ripped. I felt a hard stab into my right arm and it was bleeding profusely.
“ARH!”
I screamed! Real hard! Yet all I could hear was myself screaming. It’s a Saturday morning and out in the countryside there’s no way to get any help.
I knew that this was the moment, where I had to fight for myself. I gave a hard kick toward the man with my both legs and the man flew off. I got up, picked up my phone and ran out of the house with all my might. I could see blood dripped from my hand. I felt weak. I dialled 911.
“Hello 911, How can I help you?”
“Someone is trying to kill me, please help me!..”
The cold-blooded murder was recovering fast. He fell on me and started stabbing on my back. My hand slipped and my phone fell. I screamed and cried for help.
“Hello?! Hello?!”
“Help me!”
I felt more sharp pain as the knife piercing through me
What had I done to deserve theses? Millions of questions went through my head. I could not bear it anymore. I felt weaker and weaker. I was overwhelmed. I thought I was going to die.
“Woof!”
I heard a loud hound and felt the murderer off my back. I turned my head and I saw Souper. A wild hound, which I always play with.
Souper!
I was lying on the floor in pain and blood was all over. Souper gave the murder a dead bite on his hand and the knife dropped. He started punching Souper but Souper gripped on his hands tight, would not let go. Souper was on top of him, biting him hard. The murderer was groaning in pain. He was resisting Souper and he tried to grab his knife…
My eyes grew heavier and I felt cold. I heard Siren coming from afar and I went blanked.
I woke up in the hospital and saw my mum seating next to me. She looked worried.
“Where’s Souper?”I woke up in the hospital and saw my mum seating next to me. She looked worried.
“He’s fine.”
Souper came to my rescue. I treated Souper as pet but Souper treated me as his master and saved my life sacrificially.
I would not be alive if not because of Souper.
2nd: Jerald Tan
Sinking.
“May day! May day!.........”
What rotten luck! The generator went flat. Not even single battery life. Honey scrapped across a road and was sinking. I had to abandon ship. With no GPS, no more battery life, I was unable to ask for help. Before my coordinate was recorded, my intercom with the marina went flat.
This was definitely not the moment which I would like to be in. If given another chance, I would not had fallen asleep, missed the northern cardinal and got myself scrapped across the rock.
Honey, 32 footer monohull sail, scrapped across some rocks and the craft is seeping in water fast through the port hull.
There’s no brainer to abandon ship. Immediately, the life raft was inflated and I jumped into the raft. With some warm clothes, blankets, all the water, extra food and medicine supplies. I took my wife’s photo and set sail in my life raft.
It was a stormy night. The sea was rough and the waves were huge. My future looks blink. I am uncertain if I would ever make it to shore or to land. I turned and saw Honey sinking fast into the ocean. My memories sank together with Honey. Looking up in the sky praying that God would send someone to save me.
For the next few days, I was quite happy with the supplies I had in my life raft. I could see helicopters flying past but they were unable to see me. Saw a super tanker and let go of a flare guns. The tanker sailed past without stopping. I felt disheartened. Realised that I am all alone in this world. Would God send angels to save me?
My food supplies reduced as days goes by. At Day 15, my food supplies went out and I started using hooks to catch fishes and used the canvas on my raft to make my own water. Applying the knowledge learnt in school, condensation takes place when cool air touches warm surfaces. I used the canvas to make it into an inverted bowl for trapping water. Every morning, I would get fresh water supplies from the condensation of water.
Never really like sashimi style but I had to eat my fish raw. The rest was used as bait to catch bigger fishes. My stomach felt really uncomfortable. A few times I vomited after eating the fishes. Sun rise, sun set, for miles I travelled, there was no one.
A lot of thoughts went through my head, of all the horror stories of people dying in the ocean. I felt hopeless at times and felt like giving up.
Day 60, there was a stormy night and my raft capsized and a lot of my supplies felt into the ocean. I was devastated. I constantly looked at the picture of my wife, for courage and determination to hold on. Thinking for the day to reunite with her again, my heart felt warm.
Life became harder. Drifting at 1.5knots towards my destination, my hope felt blink.
Day 89, I saw a 40 footer catamaran and I stood up and shouted frantically! I saw the craft drove further away from me. My heart sank. Once again disappointed I went back into my raft.
While I was hiding in my raft, I heard an engine sound driving towards my direction. I peeped my head out of the raft and saw people coming towards me in their dingy.
I was elated! Beyond words, I jumped into the water and swam towards them.
“Man overboard!”
God did send me angels to save me! I am glad that I held on. I learned an important lesson. No matter what life throws at you, never give up. There’s always hope as long as you continue to fight on.
My days of agony and hopelessness have ended. I shouldn’t be alive.
I should not be alive at all. I was only alive because of luck. Ironic, isn’t it? I only survived because people died in order to keep me alive. Their last hope. I came back with a lost left arm. Here’s what happened.
I was on a plane to Alaska when the plane crashed in a blizzard. Many did not survive the crash, though 3 adults and I survived. We packed as much things as we could carry, and we left the crash site. I instructed the remaining survivors to make a fire and then I went scouting, in search for anything that could help us when I stumbled across a corpse- with a wolf feeding on it. The wolf blinked once, and it pounced on me. I struggled for a while, then wiggled the knife out of my pocket and slashed at the wolf’s throat. It gave a snarl then it died. I staggered back to the campsite and gasped, ‘Run! We are in the wolves’ territory! Get out of here!’ Everybody scrambled up to their feet andran. We could all hear the snarling of the wolves. We did not stop running until the snarl of the wolves faded away into nothing. It was already night by the time we stopped. At midnight, a howl pierced through the still night. Everybody got up and grabbed whatever weapons they were carrying. We saw a massive group of wolves surrounding us and a giant one stepped forward. Henderson yelled, ‘Get out of here! Alex and I will hold them back!’ So saying, they charged forward at the wolves. The remaining 2 of us ran away. We heard yells of defiance suddenly cut off. I blinked back tears as the 2 of us stumble through the woods, trying to get away from the wolves. The remaining two of us stopped to rest at a lake. Mason asked, ‘Can we even survive the wolves? There are only two of us…. We’ll never survive.’
A wolf erupted from the forest and charged towards us. I grabbed a piece of driftwood and swung it at the wolf. It staggered, snarling in rage and then it let loose a howl. ‘Calling for reinforcements.’ Mason said. ‘Are you ready?’ Wordless, I nodded. I gripped a knife in my right and a driftwood in my left. Yelling, we charged. We drove the wolves back but… Mason collapsed, looking at me. ‘Go… Leave me. There’s an airfield near here… 2 km to the south. I will buy you time.’ I nodded and turned, starting to run when a wolfflashed past my left, ripping my left arm. I collapsed. The wolf started towards me when Mason came and gripped the wolf and threw it off me. ‘Go!’ With a roar, he charged the wolf. I ran south as fast as I could. I remembered stumbling on a road, and people coming to help me… I never saw Mason ever again…
After that accident, I swore that I will follow the footsteps of Mason. His brace sacrifice made me feel this way. If not for Mason, Henderson and Alex… I would already be dead.
No comments:
Post a Comment