Survivors

Chapter Eight: It's Finally Here

Where were you the day it hit? Well, I guess it depends on where in the world you were when your it hit. The day it finally hit I would have to say that I was in school and, yes, it did start off like a normal day. School started in Ms. Rios's class with a Literature lesson concerning The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare. Though quite a few of us understood the lesson, it just didn't make sense on why exactly we were learning this.

Tyler asked during the lecture, "How exactly is this going to help us in the future?"

Ms. Rios replied, of course, "The skills you learn while reading this play are to help you get a job."

"But the war?"

"The war is no concern of yours and it will never affect you so you have absolutely nothing to worry about." I suppose that the teacher can still be taught....

After recess, Eighth Grade headed to math class. We were to start learning about the graphing method. Everyone in Table Six looked around at each other (all except for Jackie of course who wanted nothing better to do with us than I wanted to do with her) with our usual glances that expressed our true feelings for math: "This is pointless; no one gives a shit."

It was maybe around the period's halfway point when the first signs of it happened. Ms. Judy, the office manager, had started, "Drop, drop, dro-" and she was cut off and replaced with static. No one had to ask; the earthquake had started and my first guess was that something, something heavy, had fallen on top of the PA controller and possibly even Ms. Judy herself. Without a word, our entire table who had done what we were always told to do (drop under the desk and curl up there, leaving all vulnerable places under the most protection) began our plan while everyone else panicked under their desks. Each of us crawled with the desks over us as our cover to our assigned closets with Helayna and Liora in the first, Tyler and myself in the second, and Ali by herself in the third (Jackie never cared to pay attention to our note-passing which turned into her downfall) and closed the doors discreetly. Tyler and I threw down as many backpacks onto the floor as possible to cover ourselves from the chemicals we knew would come next. In the time the earthquake continued, we stared at each other knowing what must be happening outside.

When the earthquake finally stopped, I couldn't believe I was still alive and that my plan had actually worked; I didn't think it really would and that it would only spare us some time before the earthquake actually did us in. Then, for a split second, I heard a really loud noise and there was some very violent shaking. I felt the impact of the bomb when it crashed, not knowing how far, exactly, the bomb landed.

"This is it," Tyler whispered, "time to see if your plan actually works or not." Then we passed out due to the fumes.