Bunny’s POV:
The forest around me collapsed from the blazing
inferno which surrounded the area as far as they eye
could see. Several creatures including myself made
our escape across the scorched undergrowth. During
the panicked frenzy that ensued, out of the corner of
my eye, I caught a glimpse of small, bumbling koala.
Its fur grey with ash and soot and limping from what
was a burnt paw. Our eyes met for a split second and
in that instant, I could see it was falling into despair.
Looking down upon such a pitiful creature truly
makes one grateful. I bid the koala adieu, racing past
the sorry animal, and continued sprinting for a good
amount of time. All the while other animals dipped in
and out of my vision. After a while, I found myself
leaving the forest and entering a narrow clearing,
where the ground was grey and rockier than normal.
There were no flames to be found on this side for
now, so I decided to rest for the time being. Once I
began to loosen up, my body at once collapsed from
the exhaustion I had accumulated from the recent
events, as the need to rest finally caught up to me. As
my vision blurred, I saw a large figure approaching
me in the distance, draped in a layer of red. While it
got closer I noticed that the air got swelteringly hot,
and the orange-red flames reappeared, fueled by while
the few trees that remain of the forest on the edge of
this clearing .Within seconds the fire spread and made
its way closer to me, as did the large creature. As it
came closer, I realized it was a Human. This time I
decided to forget my pride and rely on it, I had no way
to escape and my body was in poor shape, so I
thought. The human picked me up and carried me
away into a place I was not familiar with. He
whispered, “You are safe.” Which made think to
myself, I won’t be the flame’s nosh anymore because
I am safe, just as the human said.
While all of this was being processed in my cunning
brain, I smirked to the thought of that poor koala and
decided to not waste my energy on that feeble thing,
tired as I already was.
I was taken care of, fed to, and made to quench my
thirst all while the other animals were suffering in the
forest of doom.
Fleeing From The Flames
I was injured and relying on Humans was the only
thing to do but the safety of my place kept me to think
how lucky I was, how lucky I was to be one of the
survivors of this destruction. So, I thank the Human
who brought me to this place, a place where I can
survive.
Truly not all Humans are made of the worst hearts.

Koala’s POV:
My eyes were beginning to droop, and my vision
blurred. The only source of food for us Koalas,
eucalyptus leaves, was dwindling at an alarming rate.
With my slow and clumsy nature, if I were to eat from
one of the surviving trees, surely, I would risk getting
caught in the fire’s path and I decided to not take that
risk. Water was even harder to get and flaming
vegetation surrounded the closest river, this was true
despair. My entire body ached, and my muscles
screamed from the effort of sprinting constantly for
the past few days. I was only known to two things,
sleeping, and eating, sprinting was never in my
routine!
But I want to live -I thought as I blacked out.

Wait...… No .... Mother! Don’t leave me… I want to
be with you, all of you!!! MOTHER!!
I try to chase after them, I extend my paw hopelessly
but it was all in vain as there images suddenly
disintegrate into thin air one by one Mother takes a
glimpse of me and says her final words with a smile
before she crumbles to dust…
“Live…you're going to be fine” Mother… I say,
unable to hold my tears back up.
Everything suddenly transitions to white and my
family is all gone. Big brother and sister, father,
mother, all…. Gone.

I then woke up to movement that was not mine. My
eyes slowly and tirelessly open as a surge of water
flowed within my body.
I see a Human!
Kind and with an expression I have seen only from
my mother when I get ill… worry.
The female human species fed me with water enough
to quench my thirst, which was a lot, I am wrapped in
a cool blanket that almost resembled fur and was
carried away. “You’re safe little guy” she says, still
holding on to me. I too, still wailing did my best to
control the pain within me. I knew that this Human
would take care of me, she already was.
I looked outside of the moving vehicle to see the trail of fire disappearing behind the horizon. A sense of
relief spread throughout my fur and so I closed my
eyes smiling not from happiness slightly but from the
fact that I am now freed from the flames.
I wondered about that dream and I thought to myself
as a tear dropped down my cheeks …
“I'm alive, mother.”

Wombat’s POV:
The smell of dew, the sky punched with clouds
giving it variety and shape, the lush earth, the plants
that bear fruits, the warmth of the sunlight hitting
every inch of the soil and the leaves, everything
seemed so lucid. I could hear the songs of the birds
flying in flocks, loud enough to be able to hear the
chorus underneath my burrow. I climb out of my
burrow after a harmonic slumber to get my first meal
of the day although, I really did not have to go so far
to hunt. Somehow, a pile of leaves was placed in such
a mouth-watering manner right in front of my tiny
eyes. Without hesitation, I quickly went up to the stash
but as I did, it started getting further and further away
from me, so, I ran. I kept running. The chirping of the
birds stopped, actually, they disappeared and instead,
dark clouds started to flood the sky. I turned around,
ignoring the fact that my grub was running away from
me, to see the horrific sight of my burrow and my
neighbors too, on a rampaging fire. I stared into the
pits of hell when I noticed yellow-black sparks below
me. My eyes slowly fell to the sight on my paws that
tell me…. I am on fire.

I had just woken up from a dream and when I did my
sight gazed upon the soil above me in terror of those
vivid scenes playing back in my head, repeating
themselves to remind me of the horrors in life. I then
sat up straight and looked at my paws that were
shivering and…sweaty? It was getting hotter and
hotter and I got more muddled than ever. Why can I
hear the sounds of birds screaming and cows yelping
and why is it that my burrow tremors? Is it because
animals have been darting over my home!? I
questioned myself tried taking a little peak over my
burrow only to perceive that my guesses were right
but that played only a small portion of my worries.

What I saw, was my dream … come to reality.

I then went back in my hole to be in an even more
apprehensive state. I curled and lied down, quivering,
when another wombat poked its head in my burrow to
make it plain to me that I was going to die if I did not
join them in the marathon of barely surviving and then
he left.
My thoughts flashed back to my dream and at once
climbed out of my home to see that I was already so
far behind every animal. So, I started running. I ran
without any remembrance of my home and food, just
like in my nightmare, I ran thinking about how I
wanted to live more than anything in the forest right
now.
Even though I tried to bolt away from the flames, it
kept catching up to me. Slowly but surely. I could still
make out the distinct sounds of animals being
engulfed into the wildfire that was so giant, it felt as
though it could swallow millions in one go which
sadly, I was to witness that happen in front of me. My
neighbor who came to warn me burnt his paw was
sadly prey to the blazing, orange monster that could
easily take the spot of the king of the forest as it
asserted its dominance over the entire animal
kingdom. I looked in horror in that moment, shock,
fear, and every negative emotion spread through my
body. But the death of my own kind made it clear… I
did not want to die!

Survival within these fires was tough, but time
seemed to pass by, and the fiery beast calmed down
and I was able to call myself a survivor, one of those
who lived. No food, exhaustion, blisters, and racking
pain in the body. I collapsed onto the still hot ground
and started to breath profusely. My eyes, even if I did
not want to, shut down although I was still conscious
of my surroundings, to everyone I must have
looked like I went to sleep. The scenes started to
play back again in my head making it harder to forget
that hell did not pay us a visit but then again, how
could I forget it. Not aware of the time, I still lied
down on the earth when suddenly I could feel hot
drops falling onto my black fur coat. This feeling
eventually got heavier by the second to the point when
I finally got my eyes to open, I was half submerged in
water.
A part of me was happy that the intense flames were
out of the way even though my home, food, and my
pals were mostly gone, but the other part of me was
back in survival mode knowing that I could suffocate
to death if I do not swim back up. Water is not my
weakness, so that got my confidence to life back, but
little did I know what was to come next!
The rain did not stop, and I was too tired to keep
paddling my way out to a lower ground. I quickly held
onto to a burnt tree that I thought was enough to keep
me out of the water for now and rest. Alas! everywhere it was wet and slippery, not
allowing my paws to grab hold of the tree and at once,
fall back into the water making an immense splash
due to the height of my fall. While swimming back
up, I noticed the corpses of many animals floating and
drifting away so I closed my eyes, trying not to
imagine myself in their position, held my breath, and
swam away.
I than drifted to a nearby hilly area where I saw a few
of my own kind. So little, I could count them if I
knew how to count but they had some food, enough to
share and that was all that mattered at that particular
moment of time. I approached them and I sat down
tired and soaked up. Them having no problem in
sharing and knowing the current situation we all were
in , gently slid their leaves (that were a little soggy but
edible ), toward me as well as some herbs they found
while swimming up here otherwise, everything else
was burnt to a crisp.
We shared our end of the stories to each other while
the rain kept flooding the lower grounds. We were
safe for a good amount of time.
We were not alone.
Still. Everything was petrifying

Human’s POV:
I dare not say that my day went normal, no, not at all,
unless, if one considers waking up to an evacuation
alert messages spamming the phone, then maybe. But
it was not. Twenty minutes approximately after I read
the alert messages, which I knew was genuine due to
the undeniable weather outside, I immediately packed
up. Phone, laptop, emergency food and obviously, lots
and lots of water. I did not bother taking my house
keys, though to be honest, I did think of doing so but I
figured that by the time everything would settle down,
my house would be no more than a charred husk when
I get back. I got into my car and started the engine.
Everything felt hot and gloomy including the audible
and distinct cries of the forest’s animals.
It was miserable. As soon as I held the hot frame of
the steering wheel, my hands felt a little prick but
clearly, that was nothing compared to the real deal
outside, so I drove. I followed the pathway lead by the
police and fire fighters only to see burnt bodies, not of
humans but animals, enough to form a bridge on the
side of the road, though I would not want to imagine
that purely because it was revolting and I did feel the urge to chuck up as the sight of these corpse would
follow my sight no matter where I looked ,taking my
driving into consideration that is. The mist of smoke
was able to blind my vision however, it could never
cover up the carcasses of those creatures. While I was
giving my best shot at driving in this fog that felt like
a thick grey blanket really, I had finally reached the
evacuation spot. I met up with my neighbors who
provided me with a mask sufficient enough to keep
the smoke away from me while breathing. After a
healthy discussion about the situation which I believe
to be my first adult-like conversation I have had after
turning nineteen last year, I decided to get closer to
my car in case the police begin an emergency
evacuation. I looked above at the sky rather, smoke
and try to imagine what would happen after the fires
are out, hoping they do go out. For a good two days,
everyone kept driving to safer places which eventually
would get caught up in the blazing fire. Finally, when
we stopped by a beach side, I considered to pull over
and rest so that is what I did. Then suddenly, I heard a
really loud thud nearby.
The sound echoed from the forest, but it seemed as
though whatever fell down, was near. So, I instantly
followed the sound which brought me to a sleeping
koala. My body moved on its own and the result was
clear… I had to save it. I brought it into my car and
tried to quench its thirst knowing it had not had a drop
of water since the begging of the bushfire. Then I wrapped it in a blanket, I could hear it wailing like a
baby even though it was faint and drove my vehicle to
the nearest police car stationed and told the officer to
further drive it to safety, so the police officer told me
the directions to a clinic stall set up to supply first aid.
I went there as fast as I could and at once found a
nurse. I looked at it one more time and remembered
its tear drop to its cheek. I was relived. I found not
only the koala I sent in, but also a little bunny
sleeping soundly in the arms of a young lad. I went up
to him and started a conversation.
“Yours?”
“No actually, I rescued it from a fire on the last
street. The little thing was crying and hopping in the
fire”
“Must’ve been scary?”
“This whole situation is. I saw you bring in that
koala.”
“Yeah, same thing here, heck the bunny and this guy
might’ve crossed paths without even knowing!”
“Possible.”
We both laughed off the conversation and went back
to following the police to safety.The fires are being ignited due to our selfish needs as
humans and we place innocent creatures, fauna, and
flora, in pain.
I thought at that moment that, what if god gave us a
second chance to live… would we still follow our
desires. would we still follow our greed… will the
outcome remain the same?