I prayed I wouldn't be found.

I prayed that whoever was above me wouldn't find my hiding spot. Slowly, I placed my hand on the trigger of the rifle. How could a simple supply run have gone so wrong? I faintly heard the roar of an engine from inside my damp and dark bunker. A man closer to me called out, and was followed by the sound of scraping. Probably the rest of my supplies, I thought bitterly. I placed my hand protectively over what I had gotten.

Suddenly, a deafening howl pierced through the air. Someone cursed as the vehicle roared to life and began driving away at full speed. I silently wished that I could also hop in a car and drive away too. I recognized that sound. And it wasn't anything friendly!

I knew that I had limited time. Swiftly, I flung open the latch that had kept me hidden and bolted towards the massive forest in front of me. It was my only hope of survival. The colony had more than enough firepower to kill the beast. I sprinted past the ten story high evergreens and through a puddle. I ran until I couldn't run anymore.

I looked back to see if I was being followed, my first mistake. The monster leaped out of darkness revealing it's deadly fangs. It landed on top of me, stabbing its claws in my thighs and ribs. My second mistake was trying to knock it out instead of shooting. All I could do was keep it from decapitating me with my barrel. I looked into it's horrible, blood red eyes.

Suddenly, I saw something whiz over me and hit the beast. The monster went limp as a line of blood trickled from its neck. I tossed the corpse of the creature aside and turned on the ground to face my saviour. Standing right in between two massive trees was my sister, Stacy.

"We were beginning to worry about you!" she exclaimed, "If it wasn't for me, Barry, you would have died! At least this was a really small one."

"I can handle myself!" I argued back. "Besides, it's not my fault that raiders showed up at the supply point!". She waved off my argument and mentioned to head back to the colony. We continued through the mutated forest and I began wondering how all of this, humanity's downfall, had happened.

CBC Books asked students to give us a glimpse of the great Canadian novel of the year 2168. They wrote the first page of a book set 150 years in the future, with the protagonist facing an issue that's topical today and set the scene for how it's all playing out in a century and a half.

Two winning entries — one from the Grades 7 to 9 category and one from the Grades 10 to 12 category — will be chosen by bestselling YA author Kelley Armstrong, most known for her Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising series. The winner will be announced on CBC Books on March 11, 2020.

Both winners will receive a one-year subscription to OwlCrate, which sends fresh boxes of books to young readers across Canada on a monthly basis. In addition, each of the winners' schools will receive 50 free YA books.