Vivid - #JustWriteIt

1

We ran and ran toward the ship, skirting around craters in our way, there was screaming and shouting, drowned out by the explosions all around us. There was another explosion, causing gravel to rain down on us, tangling with my brown hair blowing behind me as I rushed toward the ships. I couldn't see my parents but, just as my mother had told me, I kept running. Some people would help me over small craters or catch me when I fell from the shock waves. I could see the ship and started towards it, picking up pace. As I approached a close bomb went off. I heard yells of "get on the ship!" and "let's go! Go!" then, before I could see what was happening, I felt myself pulled up and off my feet. The kind stranger carried me onto the ship in half the time my 5-year-old legs could carry me. Seconds later, the door shut and the ship shot into the sky, dodging more attacks on the defenceless earth.

That day was the last time I saw my parents. Some people tell me that they simply didn't make it off the doomed Earth, others think that their ship was destroyed as they fled. But I know the truth. One year after landing on Vivid, I was sure that they were dead. That's when one of the missing ships landed. Only a few people know that this happened because, upon landing, the ship was blown up by the ruthless tribe known as The Hunters. I was there when it exploded but the explosion came only seconds after I saw my mother's face, smiling at the window, glad to be on the same planet as her daughter, if she didn't recognise me with my shocking hair full of red hues and my blood-coloured eyes that the new conditions caused. I' not the only one affected by the strange atmosphere on the new planet. Not many of us show visual changes but here are a few. Kids with multi coloured hair, strange coloured eyes and even a few with brightly coloured skin. Other people have new powers such as the ability to change their skin or hair and eye colour, control of the elements and even the rare power of mind reading and manipulation or visions. The powers and strange looks were only granted to kids and teenagers though.

My name is Alex. Like I said, I am a girl with striking red hair and eyes. I am one of many orphaned children but my parents' death wasn't an accident it was a murder. A murder in cold blood. And I'm going to avenge them.

Ok. So by now you know almost everything but you're probably wondering why Earth was under attack and evacuated. The answer to that is probably out there somewhere but no one on Vivid seem to know, believe me, I spent a whole two years after the landings asking that very same question, among others.

Vivid is nothing like Earth was. It's a few solar systems away and completely barren except of the few farms and forests that house edible berries, fruit and veg. We didn't have time to collect any cattle for farming when we evacuated Earth and there isn't any other life on Vivid so the whole human race has gone vegetarian. This would be great for animal lovers, if all the animals hadn't been destroyed alongside Earth and a large fraction of the human population. The sky here is a bright orange in the day and a deep purple at night. There is always a misty veil from the gunshots but that is just something that is left in the wake of The Hunters tribe as they trail the planet, fighting the other tribes for domination of Vivid.

Its 10PP (post planet) and this is the year that my promise will be for filled. I swore to myself that I would avenge my parents by the time that I turn 16 and that is just what I am going to do.

"Isn't it a beautiful sunset?" I fall out of my day dream to a familiar voice behind me. I turn to see Haze standing behind me, watching the sky go from Orange to Pink and then Purple. Unlike on Earth, the sunsets and sunrises here are very quick and over in a couple of minutes.

"Yeah. Where did you go?" I ask, facing him and marvelling at his shocking blue hair and electric eyes.

"Over there, to set up fire." He says, pointing towards our camp for the night.

Haze is a year older than me and he's an orphan as well, his parents were on the same ship as mine. We have been traveling together for over two years now and are getting closer to The Hunters tribe and closer to revenge. We don't really have a proper plan yet, but we need to get even closer first.

As the last strip of orange fades to purple he pulls me over to the pile of wood and, showing off, sparks a blue flame on his hand and lights a twig. Within seconds the whole pile is alight, warming my face. I don't have any power but I wouldn't care if Haze didn't keep telling me to try and active a power that I don't even have. I slip back into a dreamy mind as I watch the blue fire and Haze plays with the flames as if they are small children. I smile a little as the fire casts shadows across the dusty ground. Haze comes to sit next to me and I rest my head on his shoulder, enjoying his natural warmth as I drift into a light sleep, dreaming of flame children running through a fire then I realise that it's a red, Earth fire as oppose to a blue Vivid flame. That's what tells me that I'm dreaming but it's also what pulls me out of the beautiful hallucination.

I stand up and brush my jeans off, tossing a few more logs into the fire and pulling out a pot to fry a couple of vegetables for dinner. I look down to see Haze, fast asleep on the dry, cracked ground, very close to the fire. If he didn't have the fire link, I would be worried about him burning his brightly coloured hair.

I wait a few minutes then pull the cooked food from the flames and kicking a drowsy Haze awake.

"Oy. Fire boy, wake up. Food." He sits up at the mention of food and immediately scoffs his share without even looking up.

We sit for a while as Haze plays with a tiny flicker of blue in his fingers. I pull out my sketch book and pencils to sketch the bright colours of the fire in front of us.

I smudge the final stroke of blue and snap my book closed, lying down on my backpack with a yawn. It's been too long for me to even miss sleeping on an actual bed.

I think about everything that has happened since we moved planets and, as I drift off, my mind moves on to think about all that will happen in the coming months. I made myself and my parents a promise.

And I intend to keep it.