earthquake

A Story by Julia

a girl is stuck in an unscheduled earthquake whilst taking a bath

The ground began to tremble, my birds began to screech and the water in my bathtub begins to form waves. I can hear my heart pounding; I can feel the blood pulsing in my veins. Then the roof collapsed and buried me under a pile of rubble and water.

Coughing and spluttering, with water up to my chin in my small air hole under the rocks. My first earthquake, my first near death experience, and I might just die yet. I move my arm slightly and realise it can only move a couple of centimetres, but it is just enough to reach my phone. I try my best to dial any number, any number at all, as my wet dusty figures skim over the bumpy keyboard, I realise that I was lucky my mum bought me a crap second hand phone instead of the IPhone I’ve been begging for. I feel for , typing a new number time, hoping I correctly type 000. I feel around for the call key and the speaker key and when I hear the dial tone I sigh with relief, accidentally gulping a huge mouthful of bathwater. When the phone answered I was still coughing loudly and I sounded like death. I heard a feminine voice tell me ‘it’s okay; I will send you threw to the head of the clean-up committee for the earthquake. We will find you thanks to your call.’ why is it that all I can think of is that the woman who answered found me threw a call, were they actually able to track phone calls? I thought that was just a joke for spy movies. I hear a dial tone and a static sound as the phone is switched to the head of clean-up. A raspy voice answers ‘are you okay, where in the building are you?’ with a surprisingly croakey voice I answer ‘I….live…on…the 8^th….floor’ coughing between every word.

‘Okay, is there anything you need, or want when we find you?’

Water splashes into my face and I struggle to say ‘i…need…clothes, i…was…in…..the bath.’

‘Oh, okay when we find you we’ll make sure its woman helping you out to make sure you’re not feeling compromised’

‘Thank….’ my phone stopped working and I don’t feel good, I feel like going to sleep but I’m too afraid the shallow water will drown me.

Hours must’ve passed. my throat was dry, my mouth was parched and my head felt like a thousand drumming men were sitting in my brain. Then my first glimpse of hope shone as I felt fresh air on my left hand. The cool feeling of some ones clammy fingers holding onto mine made me cry out with relief. Then I heard muffled mumbles and felt more parts of my skin becoming free of the sharp rubble and the small amount of water that hadn’t absorbed into the dirt. When my face finally saw light I had to close my eyes, but it felt so amazing to be free of the prison of bricks and plaster. I felt a sheet fall over my naked breasts and legs and hands groping around my waist arms and legs to lift me free of the garbage around me. I could hear loud sirens, I could hear shouting, I could feel nails digging into my arms; but I really don’t care. IM FREE! I am not going to die in a mountain of rubble, I am not going to die naked. A person attaches what feels like an oxygen mask to my face and I welcome the feeling of fresh air being forced into my lungs, I have never been this happy to be alive in my entire life. And as I slowly open my eyes I am being lifted onto a white hospital stretcher. The bumps and thumps of every move doesn’t even register in my mind. I can see the sun, I can see real people… The happiness floods out of my system as I am loaded into the ambulance and every part of my bodies aches start to flare up. I start to feel wet clothes cleaning my body of dust and blood and the stinging of the cloth and water is highly unpleasant and I cannot exaggerate the pain. Finally fatigue takes over my body and I fall into a long, illusive sleep.