The Collapse

Up and at 'em

I was shaking with silent sobs. I had no tears left. I slowly rose to my feet. I turned away from the wreckage. I walked very slowly, I got about five feet, and vomited what little was left in my stomach and fell to my knees. I stared at the ground and caught my breath. "Okay then" I said to myself "up and at 'em." That was something my mom said in the morning when she woke me up for school. I pulled my self to my feet. "What do I do now" I said out loud. My stomach growled. I hadn't eating sense yesterday. And clearly throwing up what little food was left in my belly was not helping my hunger. I was thinking of where I could find food. "The suitcase" I thought. We did pack a bit of emergency food in there. And water too. My throat felt dry as sandpaper as I remembered the bottled water we stored in our suit case. My legs where lead as I walked towered the airport. I made my way up the tunnel and put my shirt around my face tightly. I remembered the concrete dust. I made my way over the the lean-to I had been trapped in earlier. I crawled in side and saw my bag. I saw the piece of metal it was caught on. I grasped the bag by its handle and leaned back with all my weight as I pulled. There was a tearing sound and it came free. I dragged it out of the lean-to, and carried it by its handle to the tunnel and pushed it down. I ran down after it, I jumped the last 5 feet and landed with a thud. I saw that most of the clothes had fallen out the huge hole in the side of the suitcase, the cloth made part that held the holes was the part that tore. But thankfully the plastic part stayed intact. I unzipped the top and found the water bottles. I pulled one out, twisted the top off, and chugged half of it. The heat from the sun was beating down so I poured the rest on my head. I no longer felt tired and depressed, I felt energized...and hungry. I dug through the bag until I found a slim Jim. I unwrapped it and chewed it slowly. I thought about what I was going to do next. I poured all the stuff in the suitcase on the ground to take stock. I looked over everything carefully and made a list
-nine slimjims
-three bags of crackers
- nine water bottles
-two pairs of shoes (that would fit me)
-four pairs of socks
-six pairs of jeans
-one jacket
-one coat
- six long sleeve shirts
-one flash light
-robe and t-shirt I was wearing.
It was not the most impressive stock, but hey, if it started snowing in the middle of summer Id be set. I did have one other thing, I had a small pocket knife my dad had given me the day he was sent to fight in the war, he was to be infantry, stationed somewhere near China. It had a bottle opener, a few screw drivers, a tooth pick, and a two and a half inch knife. More of a luck charm than a tool when he gave it to me, I imagined it would be useful later. I realized that I had been in my underwear this hole time, with only a robe covering me. I blushed and felt embarrassed, and then shook my head. "It's not like anyone can see me" I thought "and my robe covers my underwear anyway." But the robe was warm, and it was extremely hot out. I took off the robe and put both my t-shirt and my robe in my suitcase. I took out my pocket knife and proceeded to cut off the extra length on a pair of jeans so I could make shorts. I couldn't cut through the tough material with my pocket knife, so instead I tried a stabbing motion. That worked, the knife punched through the material. I pulled the knife out and put my fingers into the cut. My arms strained with effort as I tore the material, I had been a huge fan of Lacrosse, and I was stronger than most other 16 year olds. I ripped off the extra cloth from the jean leg, and repeated the process with the other. When I was done I pulled them on. I stood there, shirtless, cut up, in torn shorts, covered in white dust from the concrete. "Well, now I look homeless" I thought. But then it accrued to me, I was a unknown distance from my house with no family, or transportation. So in a way I was homeless.