“Ding” goes the doorbell. “I’ll get it” Mark yells. Mark runs to see who is at the door. He opens it and sees Jake. “Want to go to the park and play basketball?” Jake asked. “Sure”, Mark replies. They walk across the soft green grass to the hard blacktop. They start to shoot and decide to play horse. “So listen, my family is going to Hawaii on July 12th and my parents and I were wondering if you wanted to come along with us. We got an extra ticked that came with ours.” “Sure, that sounds like fun.” Mark replies. After a while Mark and Jake walked back home.

“Mom Jake and his family are going to Hawaii on July 12th and invited me to go along with them. They are taking a cruise ship and I really want to go. Please?” Mark says. “I will talk to his mom about it, and it is fine with me.” Mark goes upstairs and decides what he will take with him. Marks mom walks into his room. “I talked to Jakes mom and it sounds like fun. You have two days to pack and you will take a plane to California that will take you to the cruise ship. It will take you to Hawaii.” “Cool” Mark responded.

Jakes car pulled into the driveway. Mark grabbed his stuff and walked out to the van and Mark puts his bags into the van. After saying goodbye to his he parents hops into the van. It dives away and they start their journey. “You know they have basketball courts on the ship.” Jake says. “That’s going to be a lot of fun.” Mark says. “The airport is thirty minutes away from us, so it shouldn’t be long.” Jakes mom says. Mark looks out the window and watches the grass blow in the wind and the suns reflection off of the rear-view window of the car. He watches the clouds slowly move across the light blue sky. Mark and Jake pull out their I-pods to pass the time.
“There it is” Jake says. They find a parking spot in the packed lot. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. They all hop out of the van in the parking lot and walk into the airport, along with the luggage. They wait in the long and everlasting lines to drop off their bags and find the right plane to board.
“You can leave your bags with us and walk down to gate 13. Your plane leaves in 25 minutes. You may board in 15 minutes.” “Ok.” They all respond in unison. “If you have to use the restroom now would be a good time, unless you want to use the ones on the plane, which I don’t recommend that.” Jakes mom says. “I don’t” mark says. “Me either”, Jake says. They all go to the gate and wait to board the plane. They all take a seat in the blue metal chairs. They all have a small shiver as their arms touch the cold arm rests of the seats.
The intercom comes on and announces that gate 13 may board the plane now. A line forms as everybody on their way to California waits. The attendant checks all of the tickets and hands them back after scanning it. Mark hands his ticket to the attendant, she scans it, hands it back, and Mark walks on behind Jake and his family.

They rumble of the engines makes some people jump in their seats. “Everybody buckle your seats for takeoff.” All of the seatbelts make a ‘click’. The plane shakes on the runway. The plane picks up more and more speed until the wheels no longer tough the ground and they are in flight. The plane gains altitude. Jake falls asleep and Mark looks out the window. “Wow” he says. He sees the suns reflection off the wing of the plane and the cars that look as if they are ants crawling on the ground. Mark eventually dozed off as well.

“Beep”, the intercom comes on. “Fasten your seatbelts once again for landing.” And once again they all make a ‘click’. Mark wakes up and shakes Jake to wake him up. “Ugh. Five more minutes”, Jake says. The wheels of the plane make it shudder. Jake slowly stands up and they wait for their turn to exit the plane. “There is a bus we are supposed to ride that will take us to the cruise ship.” Jakes mom says. They all walk to the front of the new airport. There is a bus with a picture of a cruise ship on it. “That must be for us.” Jake says. They all climb onto the bus and take a seat after throwing their luggage into a seat next to them. The bus leaves after picking up a few more people. “15 minutes until we reach out destination” the bus driver says. They arrive and grab their luggage and get off of the bus. They walk around a building and the rear of the white cruise ship comes into view. “Wow.” They all exclaim.
They all walk to the gate that will take them on the ship. Once they are on they are showed to their cabin by one of the workers after they show their tickets. They all drop off their luggage and the boys run off to find the basketball hoops. They are on the bottom floor of the boat. They run down the stairs. Once they reach the bottom floor they hear a siren that sounds the start of their journey. They start shooting. “Wow there is even a flat-screen down here. The news comes on and all of the stories of the day come on. The breaking news comes on and the top story is that there is volcanic activity in the Pacific Ocean. The boat is 10 days away from Hawaii. They spend all of their days in the swimming in the pool, playing basketball, and playing in the game room.

The final day comes and they are in the process of docking in Hawaii. The breaking news comes on once again. “An eruption has occurred on a major fault line in the pacific. Tsunami waves were sent out and are approaching land as I speak.” The news anchor says. Everybody rushes to get off of the ship. Some people go to the helicopter pads where they will evacuate them to higher ground. Others have to wait in the crowd of people crushing towards the three gates. Mark and Jake watch as people rush to buses that will drive them to higher ground. They are get smacked over and over into the side railing until the reach the gate and run off. They wait for Jakes parents to get off who were right behind them. They get off and they all get on busses to evacuate up the mountain. The bus is moving 55 MPH on the road busy road. They start to go slower and slower as they go up the hill. They see the marvelous plants and trees separated by the road. The waves reach Hawaii and cover the beaches behind them. The houses closest to shore are being splashed with water as big waves continue to come. The waves crash against the road. Cars are covered. There is terror on everyone’s faces on the bus. Waves still come. They continue the chase up the hill. People are still screaming all around them. Water splashes against the back window of their bus. The speed slows down as the cars approach the top.
They are almost to there. The waves slowly back down and go down the hill. The bus reaches the top and pulls off to the side. Everyone hops out and looks over at the flooding left of the tsunami. All of the rich green leaves and tall standing trees all whipped out and gone. Pieces of houses and random debris float on the water. Cars are coming into view as the destructive water backs down. Rescue helicopters come into sight of the people.
Twenty large National Guard helicopters land. They put supplies for people and they have some board the helicopters to take them safely past the damage in California. Jake and his family, along with mark hop onto one. It leaves and they are taken back to California.
The helicopter lands along with a bunch of others. They stay in shelter until Mark’s parents come to take them all home.