2 days, 2 weeks, 1 month, 1 year
What happens when ear-screeching sirens break through a peaceful Tuesday night and a disease called MSI turns your world into a fight for survival?
In this episode, Willow chronicles the collapse of civilization through a diary format that marks time in devastating increments: Day 1 (the outbreak), Day 2 (infected at her door), Week 1 (many people dead), Week 2 (meeting Velvet), Month 1 (hunting rabbits), and finally Year 1 (the cureâand the choice).
Armed with only a sharp stick, a lighter, and a few tins of beans, Willow navigates abandoned huts, filthy snickets, and deep woods while collecting mysterious torn papers that read "Chemi?" and "Don't go in the hall, it's not safe." When she meets Velvet, a girl who thought an infected lived in Willow's hideout, everything changes. Together they hunt rabbits, dodge swarms of infected, and piece together a cure from scattered instructions.
But when they finally make it, there's only enough for one person. And Velvet makes a choice that changes everything.
Raw, honest, and emotionally devastating, this is a story about survival, sacrifice, and what happens when friendship means more than your own life.
This story proves what one Year 6 student told us: "The only superpower you need is imagination."
About the Story
Story Type: Post-apocalyptic survival diary with time-jump structure
Themes: Survival vs. humanity, sacrifice, found family, hope in collapse, the weight of choice
Setting: Bradford and surrounding valleys, abandoned huts, deep woods, urban ruins
Key Elements:
- Diary format with time markers: Day 1, Day 2, Week 1, Week 2, Month 1, Year 1
- Disease outbreak: MSI (mineralcis SI)
- The panic: half-empty shops, traffic jams, looting
- Survival inventory: blankets, food, lighter, hair brush, bobble, warm clothes, sharp stick
- Mysterious torn papers forming a message: "Chemi?" and warnings about "the hall"
- Meeting Velvet: mistaken identity leading to partnership
- Hunting rabbits, sleeping in abandoned huts, running from infected swarms
- The devastating choice: only enough cure for one person
- Velvet's sacrifice: tipping the cure into Willow's mouth and running off
- The hopeful ending: making more cure, the world becoming normal again
Why This Story Matters
Willow has created something remarkably mature: a post-apocalyptic survival story that understands pacing through time. Notice how the timestamps accelerateâfrom days to weeks to months to a full yearâmirroring how trauma compresses and expands time simultaneously.
And those details, "a hair brush, a bobble", are devastatingly real. When you're fleeing infected at your door, you grab what makes you human, not just what keeps you alive. The fact that Willow packs a hair brush tells us everything about a girl trying to hold onto normalcy in chaos.
But the most powerful moment is the ending. Velvet tips the cure into Willow's mouth and runs off. No dramatic speech. No prolonged goodbye. Just action, sacrifice, and the horror of being saved when you didn't ask to be.
When children are given complete creative autonomy, they write stories with moral complexity that adults often shy away from. This isn't a story where both friends survive through clever thinking. This is a story where one friend makes an irreversible choice, and the survivor has to live with it. That's grief. That's guilt. That's what makes Willow's final act, making more cure, returning the world to normal, a form of honouring Velvet's sacrifice.
This child understands that survival stories aren't about winning. They're about what you carry forward.
About StoryQuestâ˘
StoryQuest is a validated methodology that achieves 100% engagement across all learners, including reluctant writers, boys, and students with SEND. The approach is simple but profound: give children complete creative autonomy over something that truly matters to them.
Resources & Links
Bring StoryQuest to Your School:
Visit my-storyquest.com to download the curriculum guide and discover how your students can become published authors.
Start Friday Night Storytelling at Home:
Download Gabriel's StoryQuest Family Kit at theadventuresofgabriel.com
Read Gabriel's Adventures:
The international #1 bestselling series that started it all, co-authored by Kate Markland and her son Gabriel Khan. Available at theadventuresofgabriel.com
Connect with Kate:
Website: katemarkland.com
Share This Episode
Know a teacher struggling with reluctant writers? A parent whose child says "writing is boring"? A school leader looking for proven literacy solutions? Share this episode with them.
Because every child has a story. And when we give them the freedom to tell it, extraordinary things happen.
Keywords
Child authors, creative writing for children, literacy education, reluctant writers, StoryQuest, student engagement, children's storytelling, authentic writing, educational innovation, child-led learning, post-apocalyptic stories, survival fiction, sacrifice stories, Bradford UK, diary format, dystopian fiction, UK education
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Production: StoryQuest
"When given complete creative control, children don't just create great stories, they discover their voice. And that voice deserves to be heard." â Kate Markland