Survival Mode

chapter 2 The Bomb

When I was done eating, I took my bowl and spoon to the sink and washed them, I did the same to my mom's bowl. I walked towards the sofa and sat down, I beckoned her over. Once she sat down I said,"  Mom, do you ever miss dad?" "Yes, I do, all the time actually, do you?" she replied " Well..." I faltered as the ground shook beneath us and we heard a bloodcurdling scream. I ran to the window and my eyes widened in horror, what I saw through the window was    exactly what I saw in my nightmare. There were people pointing to the sky and running around.

Everyone was carrying there children and and taking there most treasured possessions.I looked up at the sky and saw an aircraft specifically for dropping bombs hovering above our village. My heart started pounding in my cheast, my palms grew sweaty, and all I wanted to do was huddle in a corner and cry. " This cannot be happening." I said to myself. I snapped back into reality and realized I needed to get my mom and go. I turned around to grab her and saw that she wasn't there, I started to panick. "MOM!!!!!!! Mom where are you?" I ran towards her bedroom and saw her kneeling on the floor gathering everything she could find. "MOM, LET'S GO WE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE!!!" She started frantically grabbing everything within her reach," One second," she half whispered-half cryed, barely audible above the noise coming from the aircraft. I ran towards her and  pulled her up. I practically had to drag her out of the room as she started to sob. " Mom, listen to me, get out of the house and wait for me outside of the door. Don't go anywhere." I tryed to speak calmly to keep her from freaking out. " Where are you going?" she asked as I sprinted  over to the kitchen.

" GO!!" she eventually left and I grabbed the bag of food I had just bought earlier. I opened the closet and  grabbed as many waterbottles as I could and shoved them in the bag. I ran towards the door and slammed it open, to my relief my mom was still standing there. I grabbed her hand and led her  towards a small bomb shelter we had, in case for emergencies. I stopped when I saw there was no more space. I walked over to one of the people in the front that was huddled against all the others. It was a short, frumpy, about 50 year old man. His eyes were filled with fear and resentment, I've never seen him before. " Sir, can you please squeeze two more in there?" I asked with a hint of urgency. " No, only two more people fit in here and those two are my wife and daughter, they are on their way." My hope faded away and I began to feel desperate. " Maybe... If you could just-"  "NO!! NOW SHOO!!" the man yelled. My eyes filled with tears and I thought to myself," This is the end we're going to die, any minite the pilot is going to drop those bombs and we'll be blown to peices." I looked at my mother and suddenly I felt a bit of courage, she looked so calm as if she knew nothing was going to happen. " Mom, I'm finding us some shelter." I then looked at the man, who was staring at us angrily and said," You are very cruel not to let a pregant women and her daughter enter a shelter meant for everyone." I wiped my tears, grabbed my mom's hand, and began searching for some shelter. We were looking around for a while and I started panicking. My mom started walking around looking for some shelter, when she stepped on a pile of leaves and I heard a clink of metal. I bent down, swept the leaves away, and found a rusty old sewer. I lifted the lid, which left rust on my hands and saw an old ladder running all the way down. It was pretty dark down there and my mom and I both looked at eachother to see who would go first. " I'll go first mom." I said  " Be careful" she said, worry in her voice. I lowered myself into the sewer and carefully placed my feet on the rung, after continuing this process for a while, my feet finally hit the stone floor.  I yelled," Come on down mom, careful."  A little later my mom was by my side and said," That ladder was a lot more sturdy than I thought it would be." "Well now all we can do is wait." I let out a shaky breath and my mom smiled encouragingly and rubbed my back. " Thanks to you we're safe." " No, thanks to me we're stuck in a dark and wet sewer hoping that once the bombs fall, we can get out." " At least we're in here and not out there." I could'nt respond to that one and the silence gave away my defeat. The only thing I could give credit to myself for was the bag I brought from my house with the basic things we would need. I reached into my shirt and pulled out the necklace Emily gave to me, I rubbed the stones picturing them in my head since it was too dark to see. I relived the moment I met her including all the questions I asked and answers she gave. The one that stuck out the most was the way her parents died. I do recall a time when almost everyone was sick and we had to lock every door and shut every window for two weeks. I was only thirteen and I remember I had to attend a lot of funerals. I quickly started doing the math in my head, if I was thirteen then she was four when her parents died. I wonder how she survived, I awoke from my daze and randomly went to the pocket of my sweat pants. I could feel something but I did'nt know quite what, I pulled it out and started feeling it. I realized it was the pen my dad gave me when I was little, but it was'nt just any old pen, it was also a flashlight. I clicked it and I bright light shone through, I pointed it to where I guessed my mom was. She was hunched over and taking big gasps, I slowly walked towards her and saw that she was crying. She looked up and noticed I was there, she immediately wiped her face, sniffed and smiled.

I felt a tug at my heart as I realized she was having a hard time too and that she was being the best mother she could be in order to give me hope. " Mom, you don't have to be ashamed of crying in front of me." "I know, it's just that,  I am the mother I am supposed to stay stay strong in these situations not crying." she said "Then you wouldn't be a human if you don't experience fear, distress, or any other terrible emotion." She kept on swallowing and I could see she was struggling to contain herself. She tryed to smile but all of a sudden it crumpled and she burst into tears all over again, but this time louder. I knelt beside her being careful to keep the light on her. I pulled the hair out of her face and wiped the tears off her cheek. " What, are you going to tell me there's no reason to cry?" she said in between gasps. " No, I'm not going to tell you that because you do have a reason to cry, but I do want to tell you that I'm her for you and I am your shoulder to cry on." She gave me a damp kiss on the cheek and put her head on my shoulder, I wrapped my arms around her and I put my head on hers and before I knew it we were both crying, taking in what has happened to us. As silent as the night the bomb fell, aiming towards it's target, preparing for the impact it would have when it hit the ground. As we sat there, we heard a couple of scuffles from people finding cover at the last moment, and then silence. Usually silence was a sign of peace and tranquility, but this was a deadly silence making your heart stop for a moment and making you realize that at any moment the bomb could hit. BOOM!! The ground shook beneath us and we both fell from eachother's grasp, my head smacked the floor and I dropped the flashlight. I scrambled towards the only source of light and picked it up, I aimed it all around, my hands shaking so much I could barely hold it. I finally found my mom sitting down leaning against a wall with her eyes wide open in shock, she did'nt move. I ran towards her and shook her by the shoulders, she finally snapped back into reality and immediately began telling me something that was when I realized my ears were tingling and all I could hear was a faint high pitched noise. " Have I become deaf? " I ask myself   I point at my ear and shake my head to signify I can't hear her, she seemed to understand and she opened her arms to give me comfort as if her her mere embrace was enough for me to forget what was happening. Before I could even touch her, BOOM!! My head hit the floor a second time and I could only see dots, the gravel scratched my face, and the fabric on my knee had torn. This time I managed to hold on to the flashligt but barely, once my sight had cleared I pointed the light towards my knee and saw a bloody gash across it. I brought my knee closer and I could see peices of gravel inside my flesh, I got chills all over my body just looking at it, not used to the blood. I knew I had to do some thing before it got worse but all I could do was wrap it for now so I scooted over to the bag of  supplies and grabbed the knife. I carefully cut from wear the pants were ripped and used the peice of cloth as a bandage and wound it tightly around my leg, leaving exposure  from my knee down. I got up with some difficulty and shone the light towards where my mom  was last, I could barely hold the flashlight at what I saw next, my mother was sprawled across the floor, blood everywhere.