Cursed Dust

Hello, my name is Hamid and I would like to tell you the natural disaster of Lomus. I used to live there until it was destroyed by the "Whistling Sandstorm". It was the natural disaster and sandstorm that wiped Lomus away from the face of planet Earth. Everything started many years ago when I was just 11 years old. I was simply walking to the candy shop from school. That was a hard school day. Professor Gregor, our math teacher, gave us an algebraic worksheet that we had to complete in only 15 minutes! My heart was beating rapidly, with a lot of tension. The questions were very complex. They were 5 step equations. School at Lomus was very tough.

As I approached the Shop, I felt a soft breeze pass next to my cheek. I ordered many Orange flavored candies and a few sweet cherry biscuits for my mum. My dad had sadly died a few years before my birth. A desert assassin killed him. As I was walking, I heard a whistling sound behind me. It was getting louder and louder. I quickly glanced behind me as I saw a colossal cloud of dust rummaging towards me and the city. I quickly ran home and warned my mum. We immediately ran towards our Jeep, the Jeep my mum used to go to work. We hopped in, fastened our seat belts and drove quickly out of town, leaving our home, forever.

Without minding the speed limit, mum squished the accelerator under her feet, as we rapidly drove on the Ruby Bridge, a famous landmark or Lomus. Behind me I saw different cars on the bridge that managed to escape like us. I was thinking about the people who lived near the sandstorm. Poor them, they must have all died. We kept driving for many Kilometers, and you couldn't see the Sandstorm anymore. We stopped at the capital of Egypt, Cairo, and we visited the Fire-Station. We didn't know where else to go to ask for help. We report everything and while we were chatting with a few of the Firemen, we saw some neighbors near our house in Lomus. We greeted them, while the firemen were calling the Civil Protection to prepare a few tents. They also notified the Government. They felt that all Egypt had to know about the disaster.

In a matter of half an hour, a few trucks came to transport the very few survivors remaining to the tents. We were only about fifty. Lomus was a small village, but it was a rich province as well. We finally reached the tents. They were settled in a park close to the Fire-Station. They were blue tents, and they had small transparent parts to make light filter. In each tent there were stocks of food for 1 month, so we wouldn't have that many food problems. Anyways in 1 month, they would find a residence where each family could live. Some people of the United Nations came in the settlement to heal some of the injured survivors. Some news reporters came too, and they started interviewing me. I precisely described the main events in front of the camera and the microphone: the walk towards the Candy Store, the running towards Home and finally, the Voyage me and mum took to survive. At least we still had the Jeep. A vehicle we could use. We also had my mum's driving license and a bit of money from my mum's wallet.

After the interview, we could finally rest a bit. We could decide to eat, now that it was dinner time, 7:00pm in the afternoon. Luckily there were a few money donations from the United Nations, to support us. I felt much calmer now, but I was restlessly thinking about the wonderful calm village I used to live in. After eating, me and mother decided to look around the tent. There was a Radio, a TV, a very big Basket full of water bottles and fruit. There were also Baskets containing the food. Me and mum finally thought of watching TV. We went on the News channel and you could see some of the News Reporters at Lomus, describing the scene. There were only very few people left in Lomus.

We slept after watching the news. We slept on very comfy and soft sleeping bags. They were blue like the tent. We locked the tent to make it safe and we switched of the lamp that illuminated the whole room. I had a dreamless sleep. The next day I woke up. "This isn't life in the past, this is a new life!" I thought. These words echoed in my head continuously. Everyday I thought of the same words continuously, booming in my head, convincing me to go one step forwards in life continuously. Everyday I helped mum clean the tent. Finally one month had passed and we finally got our new house. It was quite big, I didn't expect such a large house. As an extra, the United Nations would pay all the electric and water bills for us and the other families that survived. We still had a lot of money remaining for the food.

Finally, after that long month, I could start living a regular life, a life similar to the old one, but a new life. I felt as if I was born again. Now we could live in peace and happiness, leaving what was in the past. I had to start a new journey.

Here in Cairo, 25 years later, I decided to become a doctor of the United Nations, to help people in need. Now I can finally help the world, just as it helped me. A few months after my new job, there was a natural disaster in Luxor, very close to Cairo. There was a sandstorm as well. The Jeep of the United Nations brought us there. The sandstorm wasn't as powerful as that one in Lomus, so the city was still intact but there were many injured people. I saw an injured kid. I sprinted towards him. His knee was mortally wounded. You could see the bones and the blood dripping. He must've fallen from some stairs by running to fast, trying to not get caught in the sandstorm.

I quickly got the first aid kit in the van, dripped some disinfectant on the knee, and wrapped it in a special cloth for drying blood. The kid thanked me in his Egyptian Dialect and I went away to heal other people. My other colleagues started arriving in their Vans, with some tents. There were about five grey vans with tents and food baskets. After many hours, we healed all the people we found and we called the Patrol Helicopter to search for other dead bodies or injured people. For now my work was done. For sure I would've come to action again in many other situations. There will be many other times I'll help, and I'll be grateful, as the world has helped me, and now I'm helping it.