Harry P

OASIS

Chapter 1: The Hunting Trip

I saw it just beyond the rocks. The dingo could smell me, I took my small but powerful rifle and shot. POW! I missed and hit the ground next to it and now the mutant dingo definitely knew where I was. It came running at me with all of its six legs.

I tried to run but I tripped on a rock the size of a bowling ball. “Dad!” I shrieked as it bit my hand clean off with seventy razor sharp teeth.

My dad kicked the dingo off me then turned its head to mash with a metal baseball bat. I was losing blood fast, my dad picked me up and ran for the settlement. The whole world was turning fuzzy. I wondered if I should relax and let myself die or keep fighting for life. Before I could make that decision everything went black. All I could hear was my dad saying, “Toby you're gonna be ok”.

Chapter 2: An Empty Settlement

I woke up on an old mattress, what I presume was two or three days later. I started to rub my eyes but I felt something cold. I opened my eyes and saw my hand was made of metal it was a bionic hand. I decided I should test this out. I punched the wall and I couldn’t feel a thing. Before I could try any more stuff I realised I hadn’t eaten anything in days. I walked to the settlement water supply out the back. I turned on the tap but nothing came out. I tried and tried again but nothing, so I broke a hole in the tank and all that was in there was a bit of dirt.

I ran out to tell everyone but there was no one there. I looked everywhere, in all the huts and tents but there was no one.

Chapter 3: Leaving Home Land

I grabbed a knife, a rifle and a bandanna to keep the sand out of my face. As I walked out of the settlement I wondered if l would ever see my family and friends again.

After about an hour of walking I saw a cave eroded into the side of a wrecked skyscraper. I walked inside and saw an old woman sitting next to a camp fire.

“Hello Toby,” she said slowly.

“W... what... how did you know my name,” I stuttered.

“I am Baneeba… Baneeba knows all”, she said.

She told me that she knew I needed to find food and water. She gave me a black metal compass that had a strange pattern on the cap with waving lines and dots.

Chapter 4: Going Up North

“Use this compass and travel north, there is an oasis that has great riches,” she whispered with her wrinkly, dry lips. I looked down at the compass figuring out where north is but when I looked up again Baneeba was gone.

I walked out of the cave and started going north. After many days I realised it had gotten significantly hotter so I knew I was pretty far north. I walked longer, and longer until later that day I realised I was in a place I was taught not to go.

The whispering sand dunes.

Chapter 5: Gang Trouble

I learnt that the whispering sand dunes made you see mirages which were a type of vision or hallucination. After hours of walking I saw it, the Oasis, I ran closer and closer until… Bang! It was a mirage. I had bumped into a car with a machine gun mounted on the front.

Suddenly a middle aged man with a bushy beard going down to his stomach looked out of a window. “Oy what are you doing here,”snorted in a piggy voice.

“Shann, Shann come there’s a kid, shall we take him as another slave,” he said again.

Suddenly a tall, slender man with pitch black eyes peeped out.

“Hello child…. come into my van and we will keep you as a slave forever,” Shann said in a snake like voice. I knew I was in trouble, I didn’t want to be a slave. I grabbed my rifle aimed and shot. I missed him and hit his hand. He was angry now.

“Don’t bother keeping him as a slave, kill him!” He shrieked.

About five men took aim at me, but suddenly I saw a man on top of a rock towering above me. He had dark skin, a white curly beard and had a revolver in his hand.

He took aim at the cars and shot all of their gas tanks except for one. All the cars blew up in a fiery show except for Shann’s car, he glared at me and the man than drove away.

Chapter 6: A Savure

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I am Sa, Sa means desert because I roam the desert,” he said. I told him my name was Toby and that I was looking for an Oasis that was in the northern wasteland. Sa looked very surprised. He said he was looking for the oasis too, he had the same compass and had also met Baneeba. Luckily he had a car so we could get to the oasis faster.

I looked around in his car, it would still take a long time I thought but luckily his boot was stashed with canned food. I hopped in and we set off.

After driving for about a week and a half with near to no talk, just than we saw the Oasis but it had barbed wire and fencing around it. Then I saw Shann was there.

Chapter 7: The Final Battle

Sa parked the car and loaded his revolver. I was about to pull out my rifle but then I realised that I suck at aiming so I pulled out my knife, “I’ll have to use this,” I said with the knife right in front of my face.

“Chaaaaaaaarge!” Shann shouted. Suddenly many men came running out with all kinds of weapons. A man came swinging at me with an axe but I dodged it and stabbed him in the leg. I was dodging bullets quite well but I wasn’t going to kill anyone with just a knife. Then I noticed that they were blindly following Shann’s orders so I knew that if I killed Shann they would stop.

I took my rifle out, took a deep breath in. Everything felt like it was in slow motion.

I took aim and fired. It went right between his eyes. All of his disciples looked very confused. They dropped their weapons.

Chapter 8: End

I walked into the oasis and opened the cages that they kcept all the child slaves in. I asked a short, blonde girl why Shann was so evil. “When Shann was a kid World War Three still going on. When he was twelve his town was bombed by North Korea, both his parents died and he got nuclear waste in his eyes and they are now black. Lots of kids bullied him for it so when the world went to ruin he found the Oasis and ruled over it, any people who came by joined him and would do anything for water.”

Sa and I established a new settlement. I grew old, had kids and made a utopia.

Water became a part of daily life and unfortunately we started wasting it.

I was fifty eight and I was hunting.

I saw It just beyond the rocks, the dingo could smell me. I took my small but powerful rifle, took a deep breath and shot. This time I killed it.

Blurb

Oasis is an exciting journey about a boy called Toby who embarks on an epic journey in a post apocalyptic world. Toby must fight the heat, sand and gangs before he can get to the northern Oasis. Do you want to discover more? Then read it.

An exciting roller coaster ride, it is an honor to read a book of such quality.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD