Blog Mission Catastrophe 2019 Winners
By Young Writers | Winners
Haddonfield Middle School, NJ
Published in " Mission Catastrophe - New Jersey Stories " has won the
Young Writers Award of Excellence for submitting the best selection of entries
from the contest!
1st Place Student
Winner
Lindsay Kent, Radnor
High School, PA
Published in "Mission Catastrophe - Pennsylvania" has won an iPad and
trophy!
False Invincibility
The end began with cautious warnings. One degree warmer.
Scientists' pleas birthed protests and fruitless promises for change. Two
degrees. They wrote of an expiration date as if our planet was a milk carton.
Three degrees. We laughed.
Four degrees.
Irreversible.
We laughed, drunk on false invincibility. After all, we had survived century
upon century, ice ages, floods, and fire.
We laughed.
We were wrong.
Five degrees.
Waves ravaged coastlines, droughts parched farms. We buried ourselves beneath
the same Earth, whose landscape we had consumed and destroyed. And now we make
homes in self-imposed prisons, laughing only at our foolishness.
Student Runners-Up
Each student has won a $50 Amazon Gift
Card
Jaye Kaplan,
Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy, CT
Published in
"Mission Catastrophe - Tales From New England"
Winter
Winter used to
be my favorite. The snow, animals tucked into burrows, catching snowflakes on
tongues and coming home with rosy cheeks. I didn't understand when Mom told me
to stay in the basement. Not to look outside. Not to make a sound. I was five.
It glowed
green, the snow. Now I can feel my bones withering, creaking from radiation. My
mother is gone. My home? Empty. The snowflakes taste like death. Winter will
last forever, and there is no source of water beyond the glowing green. The
apocalypse is far too quiet. I don't like winter anymore.
Marie Cheng,
Dulaney High School, MD
Published in
"Mission Catastrophe - Maryland"
Ravenous
Hunger was a scaly beast constantly trailing behind me. It clawed at my sides, carving out ribs and sinew into my sallow skin. I sank to my knees, my aching joints sighing in relief. My time as a wanderer on this barren Earth could finally end. Well, not until that pesky creature stopped growling in my ear. I groaned for it to leave me alone, for once. It tilted its head and whined in response, kneading its claws into my back. Finally, I looked up. Something like a smile stretched my cracked lips. Just beyond the horizon, a campfire crackled...
Adela Palacios,
Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic High School, PA
Published in
"Mission Catastrophe - Pennsylvania"
Huitzilopochtli
It was the day
the sun fell. The light in her eyes was extinguished as the beautiful moon denied
her. The sun's pain reflected that of Icarus when he fell for her, wings of wax
melting. She was full of anguish as she descended from the sky, heart breaking.
Condemnation shook the Earth as the sun plummeted into the world that
worshipped her. As villages were ignited, people cried out to the celestial
goddess for mercy. They turned their filthy palms towards Heaven but wistfully
realized that a deity in agony showed no mercy, only morose closure in ashes.
Please note the authors retain the copyright of their own work.