Beth

Every time the sound of another piece of hail or rain hitting the window echoed through the room, I cringed and moved closer to Josh's side. And every time, he would squeeze my hand tighter. Another storm. Another flood. Another tornado.
Another person dead.
I guess you can’t help but wonder who it will be this time; who will die and leave us even more alone. I turned my head toward Josh and looked into his deep blue eyes. I saw fear, and I’m sure he saw the same when he looked into my eyes, too. “Will it be okay?” A stupid question, I know, but I needed the false reassurance from him.
He knew this. “Of course, we’ve always been able to make it through storms; I doubt that this’ll be any different.” He gave me a small smile and looked away. I leaned into his side to try and hide from everything around us.
And then something happened.
All of the windows around the room shattered; spraying sharp pieces of glass all through the room. I screamed, and buried my face in Josh’s shoulder. He grabbed my hand and ran, as fast as he could, dragging me behind him. “Where are we going?” I yelled into his ears.
All around the school hallways, you could see kids running and screaming, trying to avoid the glass blowing about the room. One boy had a piece of glass slice into his head, and he fell over. I looked away as fast as I could, but I saw that. We might already have our first death, if someone hasn’t already died. Been killed by the storm.
I saw that Josh was pulling us toward the doors. I looked at him incredulously.
“What are you doing?” I screamed to him.
“Getting us out of here!”
“How will that help us? I’m sure it’s just as bad out there as it is in here!”
“I don’t care! It seems like our best choice!” He was probably right. I’d much rather go hide under some bridge, or in a family’s cellar, than hide in our school and watch while students and teachers were cut to pieces by shards of glass.
“Fine! But where are we going?”
“Anywhere! I can barely handle this, I know that you feel the same!” Why is he always right?
We were almost to the doors, and then he pushed them open. You could never imagine what we saw.
All around, there was mayhem. Most of the houses had been ripped apart, and people were running, desperate for shelter. I suddenly wanted to go back into the school, but when I looked around, I saw that the school building had completely collapsed in the short time since we escaped. All of the students and teachers… there’s definitely no way that they could have survived that.
Josh sighed, and began running again. Debris and…body parts… were flying through the air. He pointed his finger toward something and I turned my head to see. A bridge. Not exactly the best place to hide, but it was better than nothing. I nodded my head and began running faster. Once we got there, he quickly pulled me under.
“Are you okay?” He whispered quietly, slightly out of breath.
“I think so… Are you?”
He gave me a little grin. “Better than ever, punk.” Punk. Since when did he call me that? And in the middle of a life threatening storm… Nice. I knew he was my friend for a reason.
“How much longer do you think it’ll last?” I asked him quietly.
“I have no idea… maybe minutes, maybe days.” I sat back, and put my head on his shoulder. We might not make it, I realized. Hiding from a tornado? A hurricane? Lightning? A flood? Under a bridge.
“Why am I so scared? I mean… we’ve gone through this so many times, we’ve always been okay, and honestly, I’ve never been this scared. Why now?” I said, closing my eyes.
I could hear him sigh, and I imagined his frown. “I don’t know. I can’t even give you a good guess. I’m sure it’ll be fine-”
“I don’t believe you.” I don’t know why I said it… but I did. I’m scared, and I honestly don’t think that everything is going to be okay.
“I don’t either…” I heard him whisper. I turned around to look at him. His eyes looked tired and sad, he was beat. I grabbed his hand and held it close, squeezing it tight. I buried my head in the crook of his neck and tried not to cry. He wrapped his arms around me and he sighed.
I want everything to be fine.
Suddenly, something flew by us, and I turned around quickly. A tree. An entire tree, just landed a few feet away from us. Carried by the wind. I looked back at Josh, my eyes wide.
“Bethany, we need to find better shelter. We can either risk staying here, or risk running and finding somewhere safer.” Running is not smart, not at all. Staying here though, isn’t much better. And plus, the two of us have always been risk takers.
“Run.” He grabbed my hand, and we ran.

Josh

I pulled Beth along behind me, looking around to make sure that nothing was flying toward us. So much for a good day, huh?
I don’t know where I’m going to take us… but I’ll find somewhere, anywhere, to keep her safe. And then I saw it.
An old cellar, at an old house. Probably isn’t in the best shape… but it’ll have to do. I turned quickly, almost making Beth trip, but I caught her.
“What?” She screamed loudly.
“Over there!” I pointed to it. She nodded.
We ran straight for it, we were so close, when she fell.
She completely tripped, blown off her feet by the wind. She screamed loudly, and it seemed like she was falling in slow motion. I caught her by the wrist and pulled her toward me. Nothing was going to hurt her. Once I had her safely in my arms, I continued running. I slammed through the doors into the cellar, pulling her along with me. She fell on top of me, and the door banged shut behind us.
I stood up slowly, then looked down at her. She was grinning.
“Well… that was fun.” I laughed at how stupid that was and then pulled her up. She held tightly onto my hand and we looked around the room. There wasn’t a room where we were, there were just four small walls, and a bunch of steps going down.
“Classic cliché horror film, huh?” I turned my head to look at her. “Horror film? It isn’t that bad…”
“Coming from the guy that used to wet his pants when the circus clown gave you a balloon…”
“Love you too, Beth.”
“I know.”
We laughed. Stupid time, I know, but I think that it helped everything. We took a step toward the stairs, and began going down. The moment that we were in full darkness, Beth squeezed my hand so hard that I’m surprised it didn’t break.
It wasn’t very far down, it was made so that we would know when the storm was over. But it did the job.

Beth

Josh and I waited down there for a long time. I don’t know if it was minutes, or hours, or maybe even days. But I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him.
Once the wind stopped, we waited a little while, then exited the cellar.
It was complete mayhem. Every single house was destroyed, nothing at all was left standing. I took in a quick, shocked breath, and looked over at Josh.
“Where is everyone, Josh?” I whispered quietly.
“I don’t know… but I’m sure it’s going to be fine.” And, unlike last time, I believed him. I know for sure that there were multiple deaths. A lot of homes lost and families destroyed. I don’t even know about my own family, yet; or his. But as long as I’m with him, as long as I have my best friend, I think that everything will be fine.

Epilogue-Beth

A Year Later

One hundred thirty-five people died that day. Half of them were from the collapsed school building. Thinking back we could have been a couple of those who lost their lives.
The mess is cleaned up (for the most part), and life is as close to normal as it can get after that. Josh and I went home to find that no one from either of our families had died, thank God, but there was also no home to go back to. Every building that the storm hit, especially those in the path of the tornado, was demolished.
Josh and I started dating (big shocker there, yeah?) And right now we’re helping rebuild multiple homes with the people of the town.
I guess I was right. I wouldn’t be alive right now if it wasn’t for my best friend, and I know it will be a struggle, but everything will be okay.

Impressum

Texte: Me
Bildmaterialien: Google Images
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.11.2012

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To everyone who's had to sit through a storm, and wonder if it'll be their last.