Screaming Seagulls

Flying Wheels

 

An elderly man collapses onto me as the truck charges over a pothole. I am deafened by shouting as we come to a halt. The voices are foreign and full of rage. As one of the back doors swing open it is sprayed with bullets. The vibration of the bullets make my hair stand on end. Peering through a hole in the truck wall, I am startled by a dark brown eye full of secrets. Just as I realise what is staring back at me, he disappears.

The battered truck jolts forward propelling the frail man into the closed door. I feel my body lock up as a series of visions flicker through my mind: My cousin and I were so fixated on the television that we were oblivious to the sound of aircrafts. It was like we had come out of a trance when the ceiling caved in on us. My helpless body was ripped out of the treacherous sea of rubble. My uncle, the owner of a semi-trailer, immediately knew of the catastrophe and sprang into action. Like a cattle herder he gathered half the town within an hour.

The absence of my cousin left me at a crossroad. To search for him or to save myself. I knew leaving Australia was inevitable but I could not bring myself to just abandon him. How could I? You never leave family behind! The urge to go back for my cousin never leaves my side. Never before had I seen my uncle cry. It was only then that I realised just how serious our predicament was.

Bewildering thumps bring me back to reality. Someone is on the roof. What in God's name are they doing up there? I can see a pair of hands clinging to the doorframe. With no warning the stranger climbs in with us. Like a bat out of hell he starts stampeding through the mountain of exhausted bodies to my uncle. The truck instantaneously comes to a stuttered halt. The perturbed passengers stumble to their feet at the smell of hope. The stillness of my surroundings calms my racing heart. Every single grain of sand feels so soothing between my toes. A cloud of distraught screams rain over us. I never thought I would be so happy to see seagulls.

It seems that whenever I find the slightest morsel of happiness it is destroyed. My rare smile turns into a trembling chin as the bombs start parading through the sky. I am on the borderline of sanity. Whistles burst my eardrums as death plummets towards me. This is it...