Rowan and Alexis made their way past the doors of the crowded high school, Aidan still following close behind. A slight tint of cherry red was still evident on his soft cheeks. All three of them spotted the big yellow bus parked directly in the sun of the parking lot.
What seemed to be the last student had got on the bus. "Crap!" Muttered Rowan, watching as the doors of the bus began closing. Rowan sprinted for the bus making her black hair flow carelessly behind her.
"Come on, we are going to miss the bus!" Shouted Rowan, motioning for Aidan and Alexis to catch up. Aidan caught up to Alexis who seemed to be beating him too the bus. The careless teenagers raced each other to the bus, forgetting about the annoyed parents and stressed students driving cars around them.
'Damnit!' Thought Alexis, as Aidan ran past her giving her a quick wink as he arrived beside the bus that was about to leave. "Really? You could have gotten run over!" Complained Rowan, rolling her eyes at her snarky, witty, careless sister, and her sisters Cunning, Ambitious, careless best friend Aidan.
"But we didn't," corrected Aidan, earning a quick blush from Alexis. Oh how Rowan hated when Aidan stood up for her little sister. "Whatever," sighed Rowan, not bothering to argue with them about their safety, they would simply never listen to her go on about her worried big sister stuff.
Alexis earned a few quick smirks from Aidan as Rowan attempted to get the bus drivers attention. Rowan began knocking on the doors of the bus and shouting, but the bus drivers mind and gaze was focused on something else.
"What's he looking at?" Questioned Alexis, putting her face against the glass door of the bus, squinting at the scared bus driver that just sat in his chair gazing out of the window. His facial expression almost seemed dead, or stunned. Aidan quickly caught on to the suspicious situation.
Aidan turned his gaze in the same direction the bus driver was facing. Panic flooded his veins as the ground began to rumble. Buildings were moving back and forth like rag dolls being thrown around. Screams echoed as teenagers ran for their lives.
"Alexis, Rowan!" Shouted Aidan, trying to talk over the frightening sounds of terrified screaming teenagers pushing past them and buildings shaking. All three of them searched for their balance as the shaking ground increased sending them all into shock.
"Crouch down!" Screamed Rowan, grabbing Alexis's arms. She finally shook into reality and took her big sisters hands and sat beside her. Rowan held her close to her in fear she would lose her in crowds of teenagers.
Aidan crouched down beside them leaning his athletic back against the side of the yellow bus. Rowan held her shaking sister close to her and she closed her eyes trying to wake up from what she hoped was a dream.
Lamp posts, the sides of buildings and signs fell to the ground, disguising into the rubble surrounding them. The bus shook back and forth making Aidan hold onto Alexis' shaking cold arm. The sound of screams echoed in the background enough to send shivers down your spine.
The sound of crying parents calling for their children played in the background, it was a horrific sight. The parking lot floor went silent. The buildings around them stopped shaking.
The world around them seemed safe again. Rowan opened her eyes hoping hoping what she would see next was the end of what she felt was never going to end. The powerful sound of waves crashing over took the sounds of crying teenagers stuck under rubble. Alexis quickly stood up.
She thought it was safe to investigate, she was wrong. "Guys, I think it's saf-" it was too late, the huge tidal wave hurtling towards them seemed unreal. It towered over them like a giant. "NO ALEXIS!" Screamed Rowan, attempting to latch onto her naive sister's arm, but it was too late.
Alexis turned around at the wave about to sweep her frightened body away. Alexis screamed and held up her hands up as the wave swept her innocent feet off the hard ground. The water pulled her under silencing her screams.
It was too late for Rowan to even process the image in front of her. The daunting powerful wave pushed the bus over, hitting Rowan and Aidan with impact enough to knock them out cold.
Rowan struggled for oxygen as the pressure of the swirling spiraling waves pulled her down, as pieces of brick and tree branches hit her at full force making her scream in pain and agony.
No one could hear her, she was being dragged down by the pressure of the waves, starving her struggling water filled lungs of air flow. No one was in sight, not her sister nor Aidan. She was alone, under water without a single breathe of oxygen.
She opened her green eyes but all she could see was the daunting pitch black dark water beneath her. The pressure pulling her down soon stopped, giving her a chance to rise to the surface. She screamed and hyperventilated as she attempted to flail her damaged arms around in the deep water in hopes of getting a breathe of air.
The cold wind of the damaged, broken world around her hit her cut and bruised faced. Her lungs finally relaxed as they breathed in the stale cold air. "AlEXIS!? AIDAN?!" Screamed Rowan, turning back and forth around her but all she could see was the top of what was left of the place she once called school.
Broken, crushed car pieces passed her as the tide pushed her further in land. Soft tears dropped down her cheeks making the fresh cuts she was now featuring on her face sting. Her tears were masked by her long black wet hair and the horrified look on her face.
Dead trees passed her struggling broken body luckily missing her cut open sides. The realisation started to hit, this wasn't a dream. "ALEXIS?! AIDAN?!" She screamed again, her voice muffled by the salt water splashing in her face. Debris floated past her as she spotted a palm tree branch close to her.
The branch was big and heavy but kept afloat. She allowed the pressure of the moving current sweep her away so she could swim closer to the branch. Her blood covered fingers attempted to latch onto the branch but it was too far.
This branch was her only hope of survival, only hope of ever seeing her loved ones again. Her only hope of making it out, alive. She tried again, lunging her whole body forward. Her fingers only just gripped onto the edge of the dead tree branch.
She pulled her broken body forward. She screamed in agony as the deep cuts on her body pushed against the sharp bark of the tree branch. She got one leg over and she took a deep breathe. She was in too much pain to even process the world around her, the people she lost, the place she called home, was broken.
'I can do this!' Thought Rowan, as she pulled her other damaged leg that was covered in blood up and over the log. The log was slippery and covered in seaweed. She misplaced her leg on the slippery log covered in sharp branch stems.
Her foot slipped and dropped back into the polluted ocean water making her thigh slip and catch on the end of a sharp branch stem. She winced and screamed in pan as the stem seeped into her skin sending waves of pain throughout her tired body.
The stem dug deep drawing blood. Rowan attempted to move her leg only making the blood stained stem dig deeper into her cut open skin. The blood pooled into the ocean water creating the smell of a crime scene.
"SHIT!" She screamed, using her spare hand to hold her fleshy leg. The dark blood ran down her leg as she scrunched her face up in pain at the feeling of salt water entering her fresh cut. She used her hand to pull her leg up, losing the strength to use her own foot.
She was numb, her feelings were numb. She sat herself up on the log, holding her thigh tight. She finally found the strength to let the true realisation of the world around her hit. Nothing but floating crushed cars and destroyed buildings drowned under water.
She gazed up at the sun beating down on her broken, abused body. At first it stung her skin but she soon found warmth. The memories of running around on the beach with her younger sister hit her like the same tidal wave that took her loved ones away;
The sun beated down on the two girls as Alexis stole Rowans ice cream. A goofy smile on Alexis's face as she ran away with her sisters ice cream in one hand. The smile she felt was replaced by the memory of Alexis's face as the big powerful, hungry wave swept her away, silencing her screams.
The kind words she only remembered soon replaced by the screams of 'help!' And the sounds of her drowning sister invading her consciousness. A cold tear ran down her face, making her eyes glossy. She laid down fluttering her eyes and the broken tears left her green hopeless eyes one more time.
She closed her eyes feeling her body lose the only hope and blood still oozed from her wound. Her mind and soul taking over her tired almost lifeless body. She was exhausted to even react. She was alone, her sister was dead. Her family was gone. She had nothing, no one. Her mind slipped into unconsciousness.