When the earthquake struck

Wednesday 2 Dec 2015 around 2:15 , Everything was going just fine. We were celebrating my best friend Jack's birthday. He had brought in lollypops for the class, the singing of happy birthday rang through the air. Suddenly, like thunder, the ground shook. Violently and unpredictably the ground moved under my feet. Joyful chatter turned into shrieks. The book on the shelf behind me came cascading down as I dived for safety under the table.The carnage kept coming as the class room was stripped of its life. I could feel the air tightening around me,a rubble wall surrounding my only escape.

"Stay under the tables" cried my teacher as the white board came crashing down.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHH”,some one gave out a blood curdling shrill that sounded like a siren of death. Things had just escalated- the horror of one of my classmates being hurt- or worse jack- was to bad to bare. The earth, still shaking under my feet, felt like a stampede of bulls .

CRASH!!!.... a brick came through the old table and right onto my head.... .A streak of blood trickled down my cheek, my head ached  my vision went all blurry, but I just tried to remember that i was not the only one hurting. I dragged myself away from the hole in the table top where the brick had fallen down. Now curled up in the corner of the the pile of rubble under the table head still aching i fell unconscious.

I woke up with a start, the ground had stopped moving, everything was still. There was an eerie unearthly silence over the whole room. Battered and bruised I crawled through the rubble. I remembered the gash on my head. I looked at my shirt it was covered in blood. That was when I realized how important it was for me to get out of here and get help. I slinked out of the hole that the brick had made. What was my class was now a lifeless bomb sight, like the Gallipoli battlefield. A wasteland of light fittings, glass, bricks, stationary and wood. Small patches of blue red fire litted the ground. No longer was this a learning zone it was a place of destruction and sadness. The east wall was down, the roof was half on and the other half was heaped on the ground- the class that had been there was no longer.

I stumbled through  the mess, I could hair the faint sound of sirens in the distance. I needed to get to the assembly point on the field, that were the rest of the class would be. As I walked I thought about my friends and my family, where are they now?  Are they safe?  Are they looking for me?  All these questions kept running through my mind. Then I got stopped in my tracks... there lying unconscious was Jack!  I ran over to him. His leg was over the other side of a pile of rubble.... wait.... that was to far to still be connected to his knee. I dug through the rubble with my hands as fast as I could. A piece of glass cut my hand but I kept digging. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I was right, his leg was too far away to be connected. I stared at the lifeless leg next to me, dead flesh, muscle and bone coated in blood. "Jack mmmy best friend ttthis cccccant be true," I stutterd.

It took me a moment to get my head around the situation, I knew he was still alive because he was still breathing but if he lost too much blood he would die. I ripped off my top and wrapped it around what was left of his leg, I saw this in a movie and just hoped it would work. Without thinking I picked Jack up on my shoulder and scrambled to my feet. Looking around me trying to find a way out of the waste land. My only thought was to get to the fire exit closer to the field but it was nowhere to be found. I headed for a hole I saw in the wall before I saw Jack.

It was grueling work getting over the rubble let alone carrying Jack on my shoulders but I knew Jack would do it for me. As I walked across the room I thought about what Jack's life with only one leg and the struggles he would face, that is if he is still alive and keeping him alive was up to me. The sirens grew louder as I emerged from the hole. I could see the school gathered on the field, an ambulance and several police cars were parked at the back gate. One of the girls in my class yelled out. The class turned, my teacher hobbled over to me and he gasped when he sore Jack. He signalled to some paramedics, three of them ran over to me. Two took Jack off me and lay him on the ground.

"He had lost a lot of blood he said but he should live," exclaimed one of the paramedics as they rushed him off on a stretcher.

"Are you ok?" asked the paramedic.

"My head" I spluttered.

"Your head will need stitchers" he informed me, "come on let's get you to an ambulance" he said.

My teacher looked at me and said "you are very brave to have helped Jack, you saved his life you know".

As we set off for the car park I reflected on what had just happened and the situation I was now in- aching head, Jack with only one leg, the school destroyed, not knowing where my family was but my biggest fear now was the after shocks to come.

(4 years latter)

As I sat down at the back of the ambulance it happened again the ground moved under my feet the ambulance rolled down the hill and crashed through a fence sending me flying. I hit the ground with a thud. The ground kept shaking like a never ending storm, everything was moving around me, houses came crashing down, the ground opened up right beside me.  I tried to scramble away but it was too late, I fell into an endless void of darkness. Screaming I sat up and looking around the room, I realized where I was- my bedroom. I lay back and reached up and felt the scar on my head, the constant reminder of that day the earthquake struck.