Destruction

I gasped for breath; in the darkness I could barely make out the edges of the rubble crushing down on my chest. I could feel the warm streams of blood running across my face. Every breath was labored, and I could feel the dust biting into my throat with every inhale. I wanted to cough but I could not the rubble was so heavy against me. As my other senses started to work, I could hear the sharp screams in the distance cutting through the rubble, energy weapons firing and crackling amidst the dwindling screams. The only thing I could think about was how I needed to survive not only for myself, but for my parents. I struggled to lift my head from the sharp stone beneath me only to glance down at my palm, in the dim light I could barely make out the heart shaped locket my father had left in my hands only moments before they came. I found myself trying so hard to move but I could not, the rubble pushed deeper into my stomach as I tried to wiggle out of it, I could feel it biting deeper into my body. With every movement the rubble was crushing me along with my hope to escape.

The realization was sinking in that for the first time, my parents were not here to save me. I must do this; I must free myself from the rubble that was once my home. I moved the locket carefully to my mouth and grabbed its cool metal with my parched lips and readied myself. This was it; this is the end; I must do everything I can to escape, or I will expire here. One day in some distant future someone may find my withered and beaten corpse and feel sorry for me, wonder how I came to be here, but they will not know me. My time will have come and gone. I will not go out like that; I do not want to be forgotten.

With all my strength I pulled at the rough biting rubble pinning me to the ground. I grabbed cement pieces and roughly threw them next to me. It seemed like an eternity, I could taste the salty sweat mixed with dirt and blood as it dripped down my face. I could feel my fingertips were raw, they burned but it did not matter. With all that effort, all the strain I felt like I had gotten nowhere, all the energy I had… drained and for nothing; I was going to die. I felt myself fall back onto the sharp rubble beneath me, I knew I was a goner, I waited for the darkness to close in. I closed my eyes knowing the truth, then a light, blinding, bright, warm. Is this the end? Is this the light at the end of the tunnel, or the beginning? I waited, but nothing happened. Squinting my eyes against the light to see it beaming through a small crease in my tomb of rubble. Outside, that is the only thing on my mind, and I knew I was no longer going to die, and I needed to get out.

I stuck both of my hands into the small pocket leading to the outside and pulled outward forcing the rubble to move, I would finally be free. As the hole in the rubble became larger and larger, I managed to summon up the strength from somewhere deep inside me, not much but enough to push and pull myself through the hole. As I climbed out of the remains of my home, my eyes began to adjust to reveal the familiar purple sky, white wisps of clouds drifted far off. But closer, black smoke rose in plumes up to the sky. The sight brought me back to reality back to the distant sound of screams. I painfully pulled the heart locket from within my mouth, it dripped with blood and saliva. I realized in all my effort I had bit the chain apart. Gingerly holding it in my hand, I used my thumb to wipe the dirt and blood from the front of the locket to reveal the initials A.S, Aaron Summers, my name. I managed to smile before falling to my knees. My body and mind drained utterly, there was nothing left in me. I had no energy; I was so tired. What happened, where is everyone I asked myself. That though alone gave me just enough to drive to move. I knew I needed to be strong, for my family, I needed to find them. After wiping the dried blood and mud from my face I slowly stood, realizing everything was destroyed. As far as I could see was rubble. Torn apart houses once bright and beautiful now lay in piles like I had just crawled from. My home, my neighborhood gone in mere minutes. I turned in circles looking up and around at the desolate wasteland where I used to play. All the memories… now nothing. I looked down at myself looking at my dirt and blood caked clothing. I looked back to see my fallen home, a once beautiful blue my mother and father had argued about painting. My father wanted a deep blue like the ocean, my mother wanted it bright, alive, almost reflective in the way it caught the rays from our suns. As I returned from the memory, I noticed an odd shape in the dust and rubble… it, it was a hand. I limped there as fast as I could and pulled and threw stone, cement and brick. Red hair began to poke through the rocks, and as I lifted the last bloody stone my worst nightmare came to pass. There at my feet, my parents, clutching to each other crushed beneath the home they had built in love. The realization sank in…. I was alone.