The Tsunami

 Hello Readers! Long time no post!!😅😅😅 I was busy with some other stuff like you know...the usual...starting a YouTube channel and engineering rocket motors. ;)

Anyways, enjoy this little story I wrote for you...kinda sad. Just kidding its really sad. 

The Tsunami

The ground shook beneath us, the rumble of the earthquake was more intimidating than any I had ever experienced before. Despite that, it was gone as soon as it had come. Everyone knew what followed - a tsunami.

One of the downsides of living on an island with pearl white pristine beaches and beautiful blue water waving at us from the sea, is tsunamis. An earthquake and a tsunami is that couple you are so familiar with here yet so terrified of. As they sometimes bring with them their children - fear, death and devastation.

I knew it was different this time, the group of 5 was hungry this time. They wanted more this time. Our city’s defenses were puny against them today. I felt it in the rumble and my suspicions were confirmed by the sound of the sirens piercing through the still, silent air. A moment of silence, the periodic blinking of the massive red light casting ghastly, moving shadows all around. And then all hell broke loose. People grabbed their prized possessions and ran, rushed to the nearest shelter, rushed to find high ground, rushed to find safety.

Earthquakes had come and gone, the air stank of fear and the other 3 were soon to come, soon to kill, soon to devastate. There were a few things I did not know then, I had no way of knowing, I wish I had known. Everybody I knew - dead. Only I survived to live with the loss.

We rushed with the others - My wife, son and mother. Off to find shelter, high ground, safety. Fear was strong in the air and I could hear the smell of panic breath, I was listening to the smell of his footsteps. With much difficulty we found a local shelter and went in to find that it was packed with people. People with looks of pure terror on their faces, children crying or on the verge of crying, mothers trying to comfort them. I felt guilty, reducing their chances of survival by adding to the already exceeded weight limit of the shelter, but alas I was not guilty enough. The 4 of us found a place and settled. My wife, from an islamic family, turned to the west and chanted her prayers, something she had not done in years. Even my mother quietly joined her hands and prayed. My son was too busy struggling with his breathing problem. We did not have enough oxygen or ventilation in this room for this many people. Perhaps my son would have survived if I had not procrastinated his treatment from yesterday to a week later. I saw him die right in front of my eyes and I could do nothing about it. Not even my enemies should experience something like that. I wasn’t even capable of feeling remorse at the time. Little did I know God had more sorrow in store for me that day. And worst of all - guilt.

A few moments later the water hit. I heard the wall of water bang against the insufficient protection our defenses offered and heard the defense crumble like a piece of paper. Then it hit the shelter, a long structure with sturdy legs and a tin can room at the top, where we were at that moment. The sheer force of the water made the metal creak and groan as the sturdy metal legs were strained with the immense amount of force at play. Then we heard a loud snap, so loud that the sound shook the whole tower. I would find later that the snap was one of the legs breaking and it was not the sound that shook the tower.

A little while later the entire tower gave in, it tipped and we enjoyed a few seconds of zero gravity and then the deceleration. It made the bones come out of my body and knocked my teeth out of me. Luckily, or unlucky, my fall was cushioned by my wife’s lifeless body. Mom drowned but I knew a little bit about swimming to live. I was an olympic swimmer by profession.

When it was all over I was one of the less than 30% of people in the city that lived. I was lucky they told me - I didn’t think so.

I was left to live with the guilt of being alive, having the will to live when my family was dead and left to live with the guilt that had I not been lazy about my son's treatment, he might be alive, he might be me. Perhaps I lived so that I could write this tale, perhaps this was my destiny. It is fulfilled now. I have no reason to live now. Which is why I am ending my life...

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oooooooooooo...That was quite the plot twist wasn't it? If you liked it then comment below to let me know and subscribe for more.