I woke up in a cold sweat. I was shaking uncontrollably and my vision was blurry. I covered my ears with my hands and closed my eyes, trying to force the awful dream out of my memory. I gave up after a few minutes and saw my clock on the floor. I must have knocked it off of my night stand. 5:34 in the morning. I sighed and jumped out of my bed and walked into my bathroom. I splashed some cold water in my face, pretending that the cold, refreshing water would wash away the terrible nightmare. I shivered once I thought about the dream again. I looked in the mirror and studied my face. I looked at my jet black hair and my pale skin, almost paler than the moon. My dark brown eyes stared back at me, a dark reminder of my past. I sighed and went back to my room to get dressed. My school uniform was laid out on my dresser, like it always is. Every day from Monday until Friday I wear a pair of black pants, a white shirt, and a dark blue tie. I hated my school. I can hardly sit still for the full eight hours, and I never paid attention. My grades were quickly declining. My mom says it’s because of my Dyslexia. But we both know what’s really bothering me, my father’s passing.

As I walked down the hall I whipped out a piece of paper from my Math notebook and I wrote a note for my mom like I do every morning and then I set it gently on the table. My mom has many superstitions. One of her biggest ones is “today might be the last time you ever see your family, so you should always say goodbye and I love you before you leave.” As I left my home, something on the wall caught my eye near the kitchen. I tip-toed over to the wall and saw a small note on the calendar from my mom. She wrote that she was sorry she wasn’t there to wish me a happy birthday or make me breakfast. She had to leave early for work. No need for my note then. I crumpled it into a tight ball and threw it
straight into the garbage can. Wait a sec… it’s my birthday? I looked at the calendar. March 11th. Yep. I took a deep breath and walked into the doorway, embracing the world outside of my window every morning. As I stepped into the Tohoku sunrise, I had two things on my mind; my mom and my empty stomach pleading and yelling at me to feed it something.

School is so long. And boring. I was trying to finish up last minute work on my paper about The United States when my eyes swept over my watch. 2:45 pm. 15 more minutes. Then you can head home and… an alarm interrupted my thoughts. My teacher stood up from her desk so fast that her chair fell over and one of the legs broke off and snapped into two. I kind of thought something like this would happen, she’s been on edge all day long. She yelled at all of us to go under our desks. I was really confused. Until I remembered one day, last year I think, we had a drill for an earthquake. It was just a drill, nothing happened. But that was then and this is now.

Right after we were under our desks, the ground shook violently and everything was tossed from the shelves. The world as I knew it seemed to cave in as I wondered about where my mom was and if she’s ok. I wanted her here with me, not at work. I needed her to assure me that I was safe and nothing would hurt me. I was scared. No, not just scared. Worried, horrified, petrified and probably about to die. I heard a deafening crack, then everything went black.

I woke up in complete blackness. I heard yelling and the sound of rocks tumbling and hitting the ground. A few pebbles padded harshly down on my face and then I saw a crack of light. I tried to plea for help,. But my voice just sounded harsh and rough, but I continued to plea anyways. I heard a loud, booming voice saying, “We found a survivor!”. I heard more moving and pulling, then I was pulled through the bright opening. I was saved. More people crowded around me, unfamiliar, dirty faces, and I was propped up against a rock. Wait, not a rock. A building. My school.
I felt a warm, sticky liquid on my head and tasted bitter blood in my mouth. I closed my eyes because my head was pounding and screaming at me to stop looking at lights. I heard a lot more yelling and crying. I couldn’t remember what happened. The school collapsed…but why? What happened? Fuzzy images of earlier came rushing into my mind, but none of them made any sense. Then, I saw a crystal clear image and sounds along with it. The ear blasting alarm. The deafening crack. Thinking about…my mom. My mom! I tried to sit up and look around, but I was strapped down. When had they strapped me on a gurney? I felt hot tears running down my cheeks. I blinked them out of my eyes and looked up at the dirty faces looking down at me. I heard a weird howling noise, almost like the earthquake’s…but different. I tried to snap my head into the opposite direction, but I couldn’t. My head was bleeding too badly.
The person the was closest to my right arm, or I think it’s my right arm…, flicked their eyes quickly to the person on the other side of me, worry and fear clouded their eyes. More sirens sounded in the distance. I heard a weird thumping noise in the sky, then felt a powerful burst of wind and the gust made my eyes water even more than before. I was being pushed towards the huge gust and then I was engulfed by blackness. A mask was put over my mouth. I felt instant relief and exhaled the breath I didn’t know I was holding.

I was close enough to the window to look down at the chaos that had occurred throughout the land that I have walked on, lived on… and never thought anything like this would ever happen to Japan. I could only wonder if my mom was alive or not. Everything was totaled. Nothing remained standing. I saw smoke billowing from where buildings once stood. I saw bright green blurs near one of the people. I tried to focus more on them and realized it was telling us the time. 3:54pm. I should be at home by now. With my mom and celebrating my birthday. Then, as I was daydreaming we flew towards an area where a building was actually standing. We must have gone north, but we also went over a totaled area where the ocean should’ve led in to. A huge sheet of grey washed over the land, and swept everything away. Now, I thought this was just my imagination. Boy was I wrong. This is just a dream. None of this is real. This was the last thing I thought, before I was swept into oblivion. My whole world went black once more.

The next time I woke up, I was surrounding by blinding lights. My head throbbed and my eyes felt as if they were going to burst out of my head. I tried to sit up but my limbs felt stiff and hard, almost like weights, making it impossible to sit up. Plus, my head could hardly take the effort. I don’t think I would be able to sit. My eyes were adjusting to the blinding light by now, I looked around the room and saw people everywhere. In hospital beds, sitting in chairs with weary and tired looks on their faces, some people were even on the floor!

A nurse or doctor must have seen me trying to sit up and rushed over and gently pushed me down back onto the bed. When he hands touched my chest, I felt a searing pain and immediately cried out. I threw my hand over my chest as fast as I could and clutched my side to try to help ease the pain. Blood stained my arm and ran down onto my legs. The nurse called out for someone and three more unfamiliar nurses, or doctors, rushed to her side. They were all wearing the same outfits. A light blue button up dress and a white, pointy cap with a red cross on the front of them and a red stripe going down the width of them. I decided they were nurses.

One of the nurses said something and pointed at me. Another nurses said something to me. I couldn’t hear them. I only heard a weird, buzzing noise in both of my ears. I stared back at them in horror. I cupped a hand around one of my ears and clutched my eyes shut until it hurt. The nurse who yelled for the other nurses called again and a doctor came over. The doctor had hair the color of ash and grey wisps and wrinkles all over his face. He just wore a white pharmacist coat , a red shirt, black pants, and black pointed shoes. His expression was hard to read, but I could tell by the bags under his eyes he hadn’t had much sleep in the last few days.

The doctor touched my head and I winced. I didn’t feel his touch. He must’ve just touched my hair. I think I still would’ve felt his touch, though. I put my hand on my head and felt a rough fabric. It was wrapped all around my head. I felt something wet, and before the nurse could grab my arm, I looked at my fingers and saw they were red and sticky. It took me a short time to realize my head was bleeding still. The doctor looked at me and his mouth moved. His lips did the same motions again after I didn’t reply. One of the nurses leaned in towards the doctor and cupped her hand in front of her mouth.

He said something and the nurses all ran off into the same direction. I looked around the room again. People were bandaged and hurt. My eyes settled on a girl. She looks familiar. More fuzzy images flooded my vision. Where have I seen her before? Wait….is that? It is! Her name is Yumiko Takahashi. She is in my class. Or… was in my class. Where was I when the rocks fell on me? Is everyone ok? Was I the only survivor? Where was my mom!? Questions poured into my mind and I couldn’t stop them. They all swirled around my head, making my it pound in agony. Little lights danced in front of my eyes. I tried to blink them away, but to no avail.

The little lights soon turned to black orbs. They took all of my eyesight away, and I could feel my body starting to relax.
I closed my eyes and new images came. Good ones. Dreams…

I’ve been told news that no fourteen year old should never have been told. Maybe even no one for that matter. As I walk amongst the rubble that used to be my home, I remember waking up and seeing Yumiko sitting next to me, tears streaming down her dirty face and landing on her lap. Her head was bent down like she was studying the ground below her. I tried to say her name but it came out as a whisper. She snapped her head up, almost violently, and looked at me with huge, sad eyes. She was holding a Kleenex in one of her hands and in the other hand she was holding a tattered, torn up flag. “Wareware wa yuiitsu no monodeatta,” she whispered. We were the only ones.

“Nani,” I asked breathlessly. What?

“Dare mo ta ikinokotta,” she answered me. No one else survived. I laid my head back down as I took this all in. Yumiko and I were the only survivors from the whole school. Why us? What did we do so that we survived and not anyone else? I was angry at myself, and at mother nature. How could something like this happen to us?!

“Ga atta kyodaina nami,” she whispered and she started to shake as another, more powerful, round of tears came. The was a huge wave.

“Yumiko..” I tried to calm her, but my own tears didn’t help. She clutched my hand and pain shot up through my arm. I winced and clutched my teeth shut, but didn’t yelp or scream. She looked up at me with large, round eyes. She looked scared. Horrified. Angry. I looked her back square in the eyes and told her, “Sore wa daij¬obudeshou.” It will be alright.

Later that day, I was able to try and walk around. Yumiko helped me. She put one of her hands on my chest and another on my back, and she let me lean on her when I tripped or felt like I would fall. Her touch was soft and kind, almost like a frightened child’s. But yet, at the same time, it was supportive and sturdy. We walked around the hospital and got a good look at everyone. They were all beaten up and weary. So did Yumiko. Something was different about her. She looked paler than the moon and her blue eyes were cloudy, and the blue was almost a bright, brilliant sky blue. Her normal eye color is a very dark blue.

I looked at her face closely and saw scratches and a bandage on the side of her face. Her arm had a bandage wrapped tightly around the top half of it and on her other arm, her wrist was wrapped. Little red dots could be clearly seen on her arm’s bandage. She must have seen me looking because she said, “Watashi wa genkidesu.” I’m fine. I looked down at the ground, studying my feet. We walked back to my bed a little while after that and I feel asleep. A few days later, I asked to see my home. They said they would let me. They let me because of what happened during the earthquake. They wouldn’t tell me, but I put it back in my mind to question them later. I tried to ask about my mom but no one would answer me. When I tripped over some rubble, I was snatched from my day dreaming and shot back into reality. Yumiko caught my arm and help pull me back up.

“Anata wa iiyo?” Are you okay?

“Un, watashi wa genkidesu.” Yeah, I’m fine. Yumiko nodded and I went back to the monstrous pile of rubble that used to be my home. Yumiko followed. I stared at the rubble for a moment and relived memories that I made here. Some were wonderful and full a happiness, others where sad and full of hatred. Something shiny caught my attention in the pile of rubble. I walked over to it and crouched down. I carefully dug through the rocks to get the shiny object loose. I gripped it tightly and pull on it gently and slowly to get it out. I was a necklace. My mom’s necklace. Something else was holding onto it, not wanting to let go of its grasp.

My mom never took off this necklace. She was here. My mom was in the house! I started to dig through the rubble and my damaged hands started to bleed again. One of the assistants who flew us here rushed over and tried to pry me away from the rubble. Yumiko stood there, staring at the pile looking very sick and sad. Sad I was used to by now… but sick? I settled my eyes on the rubble and saw something purple. I lashed out at the assistant dragging me away. I bit him in the arm and he screeched and his grip loosened. I took the opportunity and ran back towards the pile of monstrous rocks. Yumiko dropped her knees and yelled my name, tears streaming down her face.

“SATOSHI! Teishi!” She pleaded at me. Satoshi! Stop! I ignored her and kept on digging. I flung away more rocks and once I moved a small bolder sized rock, I screamed and tears flew from my face as I flung myself backwards. A purple arm lay there, limp and beaten, the hand clutching my mom’s necklace. Two more of the assistants rushed over, both of them were women. The other two men ran over to the rubble and started throwing rocks off the pile. They uncovered more of the body and after what seemed like an eternity of heart-stopping moments. Looked up at each other with grim looks written all over their faces.

Yumiko ran over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck and spoke into my shirt, “Watashi wa watashi mōshiwake arimasen,” over and over again as she clutched my shirt. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I just stood there and watched as the assistants pulled a small radio looking machine up to their mouth and said into it, “Wareware mitsuketa bodi.” We found a body.