Wakedea

Prologue:

     I woke up sweating, screaming, and crying. This was normal for me on most nights. My mother ran in like she always does when this happens. "What's the wrong honeybee?" she asked. I didn't know how she still was calling me honeybee or why she even said the wrong instead of what's wrong? I told her I had the usual nightmare, I would get this a few times a week. It's dark, gloomy, everything looks different; off. It's just my brother and me, we can't find our mom and dad. I looked at him, we just knew they were gone. I get so worked up thinking about what it would be like to not have them around, and it makes me so upset in my head that I always end up waking like this. I tear up just thinking about it again with my mom holding me singing, she always sings me back to sleep. I am safe, I told myself drifting back to sleep.

     I sat down at breakfast the next morning with the usual eggs, bacon, and cute pancakes with chocolate chip smiley faces (my dad's special). I look around our house, content, and forget about the dream until next time. I grab my bag and get ready for school, out the door, on the bus, and then to the learning.

     Next week is my birthday, I'll be the 'Big 13'. My mom and dad always joke to me about how they're not ready to deal with a teenager, although I'm literally the most well-behaved kid ever. My brother is just one year and a few days younger than me, it's always an exciting time around our birthdays because we get to do stuff for the both of us. This weekend, my mom said we would get to go to the water park (my favorite), and then we get to go to the movies (my brother's favorite). We both get to pick a place out to eat and what we want for breakfast on our special day.

     My parents are so great at making us feel special, you know we've never really cared about presents that much. We just liked to do stuff as a family. They'd always ask us what we wanted for our birthdays and we've always responded with activity, and they just figure out a present to get us on their own.

     I'm afraid I'm not listening to the lesson on fractions anymore and I'm off in my own world. I couldn't wait for next week. Little did we know that morning was the last time I would ever get to see my parents and this world.

     A roaring noise interrupted our lesson, everyone ran to the window immediately to see what was going on. My teacher turned on the television in our classroom and all we saw were news stations on every channel. "Please get underground, we are being attacked, t-the bombs, oh god, it's finally happening." the new reporter started to tear up. "Jenna, Preston, and Julie, Daddy loves you." the tv cut out. Everyone was panicking, I ran out into the hall to find my brother; I grabbed his hand and we ran out of the school. "We're going home," I told him.

     The run seemed like hours although we were a few blocks away, the houses started to disappear the closer we got to home. They had been wiped out (must be the roar we heard earlier). We got to our house and the basement cellar was still there. Our house was gone. We wanted to go into the house but we heard another roar coming and we got in the cellar just in time for it to be impacted by the force of air above. We're there for four days before we could come out, living on what was left of the movie room food we had stashed (Popcorn, candy, and soda).

     When we didn't hear a boom for a whole day, we decided to go up and look at the world. "We have to find mom and dad." My brother said. We searched the rubble for hours with no luck. In the closet, right outside my parents' room, I saw a small box intact from the destruction. I opened it, it had a necklace that said HoneyBee on it. This must be for my birthday, I tried to put it back but my mind told me to put it in my pocket. So I did. I looked deeper in the closet and saw another box, a leather bracelet stamped with Champ this is what mom and dad call my brother. I put it in my pocket as well. I'll let them give it to him later.

     It was tough, but we had to break down some rubble pieces in front of mom and dad's room to look in there. Once the pathway was free was the day our lives changed again. On the floor in front of a collapsed bed, mom and dad lay together. Holding hands, cold. We fell to our knees at their side and knew they couldn't make it to the cellar. I hugged my brother, screaming in sorrow, and this was the first time I've seen my brother cry. We walked away and never looked back.