Found in the Rubble

Survivors

The man rushed over the broken concrete hoping – praying that his search wasn't in vain. The dust settled slowly, not wanting to surrender its hazy filter over the catastrophe. This was the most lethal earthquake that he had ever known. Everyone that the Search & Rescue teams were finding had fallen victims to the quake, leaving the lucky survivors very few and far between.

The air was dead silent, broken only by the man's footsteps crunching on the dirt and grime of the shattered buildings. But then a single cough broke the thick iron curtain. It was a child's cough.

His head snapped in the direction of the sound, stopping dead in his tracks. A large slab of concrete was being held up by a single rod of rebar on one corner, the entire piece tilting precariously. I found one. His heart stopped. I found one! His thoughts were racing. Not daring to waste another second, the man hurried to the little cavern hoping he wasn't too late to save the child. As he neared, he started to hear cries coming from under the large remainder of a building.

"Help! Help, I'm under here!" a girl's voice called.

She can't be older than five! The man slowly raised his hands, the concrete chunk leaning back and away from the child. As soon as the slab was starting to fall away from them, he looked down at a toddler laying on her stomach in the dust. Her bare arms were caked with dirt and grime, her frizzy black hair seemed grey, and her bright pink glasses were cracked. Tears ran down the glass and her cheeks. Coughing again, the girl attempted to curl into a ball, wincing as she tried.

Quickly, the man swept up the little girl in his arms, comforting her and wiping the dust off of her arms and out of her hair. She clung to his uniform like a baby koala clings to its mother, not daring to let go for even a single moment.

"It's ok. It's ok, you're safe now," the man said to her. Raising his voice to his colleague, he added, "Nate, I found one!"

A faint "Got it!" echoed from somewhere behind the rubble.

Making his way back to the stationed ambulances, Mayson continued to console the little girl. She continued to cry, burying her face in his uniform.

"I'm scared," she sobbed. "It looks scary."

"What looks scary?"

She paused for a moment, risking a glance at her moving surroundings. "Everything. It looks ... broken."

I can only imagine how this must look to a child. Is she able to comprehend what happened? He adjusted how she was resting on his hip, the girl hiccuping with his efforts. What must it have been like for her to experience that earthquake? His thoughts paused for just a moment. Where are her parents?

"There's a monster back there," she squeaked, hiding her face again.

Oh yeah, her glasses.

"Hey, look at me." She turned her head towards Mayson. He carefully removed her fractured glasses and placed them on himself. Looking back down at her, he smiled. "How do I look?"

She giggled. The purest laughter a child can give.

"Silly!" she laughed.

Eventually they made their way to the ambulances, a small group of medics rushing towards them when they saw the girl. She squirmed under the scorching attention of the EMT's, trying to return to Mayson. She started to cry again, her tears cascading down her dark cheeks.

Mayson turned back to the rubble but one of the medics walked up to him. Stopping, the woman chuckled.

"Pink, huh Diggz?" she commented. He was still wearing the girl's broken glasses.

"Shut it. You will tell no one of this." Facing the girl again, he handed them back to her.

"I promise you that I will find your parents," he declared. She kept her head down, somberly studying her broken glasses. He smiled. "Hey, can you do something for me?" He took off his hardhat, not waiting for a response. "Can you be brave for me?" He plopped his hardhat onto the girl, the white-and-orange plastic leaning lopsidedly.

The girl looked up at him, lifting the helmet away from her eyes. Enthusiastically, she nodded, eyes scrunching shut and smiling wide. Leaving her in the care of the medics, Mayson went back to the destruction, hoping that he could live up to his promise.