Kat's Era by Amy Fawcett and Taran Chahal (read aloud books .TXT) 📕

teacher in sight. They were on their own. Suddenly fear gripped her stomach. What were they going to do? She told herself that having survived this far, she would survive here, just the same. It might even be easier, without having to be silent the whole time, for fear of getting shot .

“Kat, come over here!” called Lily, snapping Kat out of her reverie. Lily appeared to be having a conversation with some other kids. Kat rolled onto her front, and forced her tired limbs to move.

One of them, the one that had thrown the piece of metal at Kat, seemed to have self-elected himself leader. She wondered if this was a good idea. He looked like a bully and he had the ego to go with it.

“Right! I think that we should split into work groups and build shelters, collect food, help the other survivors… and yeah…” his voice trailed off. Kat scowled. Who did he think he was ordering everyone around like that? He definitely needed knocking down a peg or two!

Kat and Lily volunteered to collect food and spent the next hour creeping around after small animals. They then returned to the beach and skinned the animals, unconsciously removing the fur and bones, then building up a fire and roasting them. After stowing some meat away in their bags, without saying a word, they walked over to the slowly collapsing, half shelter, handed out the food, and quickly put the shelter to rights, working so fast that Aleksy could only stand and scowl. They then walked off, to make their own shelter in the woods. They would keep themselves to themselves, and would easily survive on their own.

That night, when they had ensured that all of the others were asleep, Kat and Lily stored the food that they had taken and discussed their plan of action.

“I say we go along with it, help them out right now, I don’t really want to make any enemies” said Lily, in the darkness.

“I see what you mean, but I don’t like this Aleksy kid, from what I’ve seen, he likes being powerful, which could be dangerous ... I guess we’ll just go along with him unless we disagree with something he is saying...”

Kat trailed off. She didn’t really know anything about the other survivors and this would be a great weakness in the weeks to come.

☯

When Kat awoke, it was due to uproar in the camp. She ran with Lily towards the noise, to find Aleksy standing over Hitoshi, shouting and swearing. Kat blew angrily through her teeth.

“What a wimp!” Aleksy shouted “your sister croaks, and you go mental! Some of us have been through way worse and none of us have gone crackers! And then, when we prove you wrong, you still claim to tell the truth! Just who do you think you are?!”
☯

Earlier that day, Hitoshi had been searching for possible hunting grounds and fresh water whilst lamenting his bad luck, having lost a sister and a life when the ship capsized. Silent tears ran down his face which he had managed to choke back whilst in front of the others.
He sat down on the beach, knowing the only reason he had been given the job was that it was not at all useful, it was just a way of getting him out of he way because they didn’t trust him not to break down. He kicked the sand and stared at the frayed hem of his trousers in despair. What was he going to do? He was stuck on some desert island with a bunch of idiots. It was like one of those novels that he’d read from back in the carbon era. The lord of the flies had been quite similar, although none of the people here had any qualms about killing. And the leader here was a bully not a fatty.

He knew that not everyone on the island was an idiot - the girl called Kat and her friend Lily had obviously superior talent compared to the rest of them - especially Aleksy, who was just a vaguely intelligent thug. Hitoshi was aware that he was also nearer in intelligence to Kat and Lily that to Aleksy, but no-one so far had noticed. He liked to keep it that way, because when people underestimated you, they gave you an advantage.

Suddenly he heard someone rushing through the foliage behind him with light footsteps. They ran just like Kimi always had. For a moment he considered that it might be Kimi, but quickly brushed the idea away. All the same he ran off after her.

He burst into a clearing with a small freshwater lake, and lots of low bushes. It was Kimi!

“Nee-san!” he shouted, disbelieving his own words “I thought you drowned”

“sorry.” she said as she half-heartedly hugged him “I thought I did too... but... yeah, anyway, I’m starving”

“Okay,” He said, his shoulders sagging as the tension from the past two days was released “I’ll go back to camp and get food, then we’ll talk”

With that he sprinted back to the camp. When Aleksy asked him what he was looking so happy for, he quickly explained. That’s when the trouble started.
☯
Kat was shocked – Hitoshi didn’t seem like the kind of person who’d go mental, in fact, he seemed like one of the most mentally collected and self-aware survivors - along with herself and Lily.

Kat decided that, since he didn’t seem mentally unstable, and wasn’t the kind of person who would lie about something important, he was telling the truth. She wondered how Kimi had managed to survive, and why she had taken so long to get to the island.

Kat flicked Lily’s shoulder and ran off in the direction that Hitoshi had left. Lily rolled her eyes and followed, her stiff muscles groaning as she sprinted after Kat.

Kat suddenly stopped short behind some shrubs. Lily skidded to a halt and was about to ask her what she was doing when Kat put a finger to her lips and beckoned her closer. Lily silently went over to where Kat was crouching and, through a hole in the bush, saw Hitoshi, and to her surprise Kimi.
Hitoshi looked quite upset, and Kimi looked agitated, and slightly uncomfortable as though she knew something that she shouldn’t.

“I don’t get it” said Hitoshi “Why did you hide? All the other survivors think I’m going crazy or something!”

Kimi looked anxious and stared at her feet. She looked like she wanted to say something, but couldn't.

“Look, I could’ve died then, when I got shoved into the water.” she said carefully, “prob’ly should’ve too, but... but these people saved me”

Hitoshi stared at Kimi for a moment, with a worried expression on his face, as though he could tell what she was going to say next.

“Which people?” he interrupted. Kimi looked pained.

“Ni-san, I can’t tell you” she said “Because they said, if I told you, they would everyone – I wasn’t even supposed to let anyone see me!.”

Lily and Kat exchanged looks. Something was very clearly wrong here. Why had these saved Kimi if they only planned on chucking her onto an island, where she was likely to die anyway? And who were these people?

“You could’ve warned me!” Hitoshi exploded “I would’ve got beaten up for it, but Aleksy only had a chance to shout at me before Kat and her friend stepped in!”

Lily scowled at the floor. She didn’t particularly want to be thought of as ‘Kat’s friend’ - It wasn’t that she wasn’t Kat’s friend, but she was an independent person and didn’t like her name to be forgotten.

“HEY! HITOSHI! KIMI!” she shouted, jumping out of the shrubbery, into full view of the twins.

Kat groaned. It was just like Lily to announce her presence like this. She picked herself up and strolled out of the shrubbery and surveyed her surroundings. Kimi and Hitoshi looked shocked and slightly panicked at the sight of the approaching Lily.

“Hey guys” she said calmly as if she and Lily hadn’t just charged out of the bushes. “Sorry, but we heard it all. Hope we’re not going to get killed now.”

Kimi glared at her brother as if to blame him for not being more careful.

Kat sat down on a rock. She had suddenly remembered a conversation that her and Lily had recorded on the ship the day before it capsized. ‘Of course, it will only need one small explosive to blow’ ‘they’ll never know what’s hit them’. She came to a startling conclusion. Had the Master ordered the capsize of the ship? If so, was it him that had saved Kimi, and planted her back here on the island?

“Uhh... Kat?” said Hitoshi, bringing her to her senses “you okay?”

Kat looked up to see them all looking down at her worriedly. She scowled at them.

“It’s nothing” she said, giving Lily a glance as she got up that clearly said ‘I’ll tell you later’. “We should be getting back, or he others will get suspicious... Kimi? ‘You ‘Kay with staying here? I’ll bring you food later, and we can discuss stuff”

With that said, she walked off. Lily gave Hitoshi and Kimi an apologetic smile, and then followed Kat without looking back.

Later that day, after the other survivors had gone to sleep, Kat, Lily and Hitoshi went to where Kimi was camping. She had built herself quite an impressive shelter, although it wasn’t as good as anything that Kat or Lily could’ve done. They gave her some food that they had stolen from the survivors earlier, then sat around the fire and planned.

“Before you all start spilling secrets,” Kat warned “we’re probably under surveillance”

Kimi nodded mutely. She looked so sad that Lily felt sorry for her, and glared at Kat for upsetting her. The atmosphere in the small clearing darkened, despite the fact that the fire had just flared up. Kat sighed.

“Sorry for the serious attitude” she apologised “It’s just that it seems to me that we’ll be lucky to escape from here with our lives intact”


☯

After a few uneventful days, it became clear that the island lacked something. That something was food. They were running out of prey. It seemed strange, but that could only be because the animals hadn’t originally lived on the island, and hadn’t had time to build up a full ecosystem. But how could that have happened?

“so.” said Aleksy glaring at the others around the circle “you all agree then?”

Everyone looked round uneasily. Then, when Aleksy began to stand up, over half of the survivors nodded guiltily. They’d all had enough bad experiences at the hands of Aleksy.

“Right then,” said Aleksy, with a mad glint in his eye “That’s over half of you. Now we will vote for the least useful survivors. Do not worry. If you do not put up a fight, we will kill you humanely at least. It’s for the greater good.

Everyone had voted on who were the three least useful people. At the time, no one had realised what Aleksy had been building