Risen

“Risen” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Gautham Chandra, Lammersville Unified School District, USA.

Risen

The sea was calm and the sun was rising above the horizon and the Grand Legend was slowly cruising along with the waves. People are lazily wandering around the deck, sipping coffee. Meanwhile, the captain was looking out of the bridge and he suddenly saw something shining.

“Change course two 23o northeast, maintain speed,” the captain commanded.

“Yes sir”

The ship changed its course but the shining thing only came closer and closer. He looked through his binoculars and what he saw made him shiver. Sweat started to roll down his forehead and his legs trembled with fear.

“Full speed ahead” the captain commanded, “it is the Royal Blood Army and they are here to capsize us. Everyone be on alert and tell the passengers to be ready to be boarded.”

“Sir, if you are planning to be boarded, then why are we going full speed?” his second in command noted.

“To get as much time as possible. Tell the commutations center to send a distress signal.”

“Yes sir” the second in command said as he turned to walk away.

To make matters worse, three warships came into view. These warships were lightly armed and could easily outrun the Legend. She had no chance of escaping the RBA.

“Sir, the ‘Legend’ is in our sights,” the watchman alerted.

“Good, we are on time and the ship is in the place where we wanted it to be,” the Commander of the lead ship ‘Viper’ grinned. A small smile escaped from him. “The captain would be proud of me to capsize a cruise.”

“Fire the warning shots,” the Commander ordered.

The shells fired by the ‘Viper’ hit the water around the ship, rattling it.

“Sir, the Legend is still maintaining her current speed, it is not slowing down. What shall we do?” the watchman exclaimed.

“Warn her to slow down or to be sunk.”

“Yes sir.”

“Sir, we got a message from their lead saying us to slow down or be sunk,” a person from coms center reported. “What shall we do?”

“Slow down the ship to 20 knots,” the captain ordered. “We can’t let her go down with all the passengers.”

Just as she was slowing down, a shell fired from the ‘Viper’ hit the ‘Legend’ extremely close to the fuel tanks, causing an explosion in the side of the ship. A few minutes after the impact and she was going down. The deafening sound of explosions and screams of the people filled the air. Oil leaked and the ocean was a mess.

It was a calm and peaceful morning. The birds chirped and the mist still hung in the overhangs of my house. The weather was cool and the climate was perfect for a morning run. I got up, and got ready. Today was a big day, my birthday. I have a lot of things planned out for the day and I can’t wait till my friends get here. But before we go more deep into this story, let me explain more about myself first. My name is Roy Hawkins and I am not an ordinary kid. Weird right? I am actually from another planet called Zron. From another planet being that I am also different from other humans. I am smarter and much stronger than them. Stronger means I have powers unknown to human kind. My real family is at my home planet and I am here on Earth to be a peacemaker. My parents saw that you humans were stripping Earth out of its resources and killing each other with no mercy in wars and fights. To us, human population is crucial for our existence. At first, I had no clue of what was happening when I got here. I had to learn for myself and to fit in with you humans. Later, a lovely family felt sad for me just stranded on the streets and took me in as their family member. From there, life got much easier. My new parents taught me essential skills, as I was only four Earth years old. I had learned Basic English before I landed but my parents enrolled me into a school and I was now a normal kid. Now, let me get back to what I was talking about, my birthday.