That night is stormy and I cannot sleep well at all. The forest by the road seems to be in a tumultuous rage. It is almost 1 am. I get out of bed and go near the window just in time to see the tornado, a writhing and thrashing mass of wind that seems to destroy everything in its path. I only manage to wake the others of my family before the pre-tornado wind begins to gust upon our houses. My first instinct is to leave all of them and find shelter. But I fight the urge and try to help everyone reach to safety. To say that we make it in the nick of time would be an understatement. As Dad closes the door of the storm shelter, we can hear the tornado begin to hit the area. We stay in the shelter huddled together for what seems like an eternity due to the low temperature (which seemed to have dropped considerably before the tornado). We can hear crashes and sounds of many objects shattering against the floor. Our house seems to have withstood most of the winds when suddenly there is a stronger and faster attack of winds. It is almost like most of the house is getting uprooted by the storm due to the strong winds by the sounds of it. Having never experienced things like this before, I am scared out of my wits. I do over and sit with my family, waiting for the time when this horrible moment will pass.
It is almost 3 hours before the storm blows itself over. And when we get out of our shelter it is worse than what I imagined. There are heaps of wood, concrete, and other building materials everywhere. There are no houses that stand as far as the eye can see. I can see inhabitants of the other houses coming out of their shelters as well. I feel my little sister Sophie come behind me and grasp my hand tightly. She looks very scared and her eyes well with tears. I manage to muster up a smile at her and say, “Don’t worry it’s all going to be alright.” We suddenly hear helicopters and army quadcopters approach and start circling above the damaged areas. I presume it is to provide the survivors with relief but I found out that it isn’t. Instead, the pilot of one of the helicopters announces something from the cockpit. I don’t make most of it out due to the static. But then his next words were clear and I hear him say “I repeat, this is a nationwide emergency. Stay inside your shelters. The worst is yet to come. Do not come out whatsoever. This is just the beginning of the cataclysm. More calamities are coming throughout the nation.”
There is a short burst of static and then nothing more. I’m frozen with terror and I can hear Sophie ask, “What does that mean buddy?”
I don’t answer. My mind is only able to form one clear thought.
“This is what some people would call an apocalypse.”
It takes several moments for me to be aware of what’s happening around me and get my bearings. I can see people running around in terror, trying to get to safety. I hear my mom come up behind me and take my hand. She starts leading me towards the main intersections of the road. “Where are we going?” I ask, still in a daze. She replies “Anywhere but here.” I follow suit. Knowing that our shelter won’t be able to handle another incident like this. But where do we go? My mind is whirling and I’m in a dreamlike state. We reach the interstate highway after what seems to be many hours of walking. Thankfully dad has his credit card with him so we find a roadside guesthouse and we settle in for the coming night. I lie in bed without so much as a snooze. Many different thoughts whirl inside my mind. The morning comes in what seems like only a few hours. I go to the others and we go down together for breakfast. I scarf down the food hungrily. Having my hunger satisfied, I feel I little relieved and clear-minded. I lean back and take a few deep breaths. I close my eyes for a few moments.
I hear tinkling and I open my eyes. The slightly chipped china cup is rattling in its saucer. Before I can even move the floor beneath gives a great lurch and everything around us starts shaking and falling to the ground. We all run towards the exit and get out of the building; I see destruction everywhere. Trees getting uprooted, building collapsing into dust. Its mayhem everywhere. We stand there, trying not to lose our balance and not knowing what to do. Suddenly the guesthouse we were in collapses too. Luckily, we are far enough to escape getting crushed. But still, the dust that escapes from all the debris buildings shrouds the surrounding air and obscures my vision. I could see maybe only a few feet far in every direction. It’s easy to lose our sense of direction in situations like this so I stay put till the dust settles. I start moving after the soot settles a bit. I hear coughing ahead and I go towards the sound. I think its mom or someone else but it’s not. It’s a stranger. I turn and walk towards other directions. But none of my family is to be seen. I panic. Where are they? I wait until the dust settles entirely. Coughing, I look around but I don’t see them anywhere. I shout, “Sophie!”, I hear no reply. “Mom, Dad!”, still no sound of them. I settle on a bench and try to comprehend what has just happened. “I can’t believe it!” I gasp. “I’ve lost my family!”.
I can’t believe it! Out of all the things that could happen I’ve lost my family. I feel scared. I look around, and shout out their names, hoping for a reply from them. This goes on for nearly an hour before I finally give up and sit on a bench that is not destroyed. Head in my hands, I try to think about what I need to do next but there is nothing else on my mind. I feel very miserable. I sit there for what seems like a couple of hours until I’m noticed and given help by one of the volunteer members of the relief camp. They take me to the relief camp and there I get some food and a blanket. I try to eat but I cannot bring myself to swallow. The recent incidents keep playing in my head. How did this happen all of a sudden? It was barely 20 hours ago when my mom tucked me to sleep but now, I’m here with no idea where my family is and how they are doing.
I’m so engrossed in my thoughts that I don’t see one of the volunteers eying me with concern. He comes over. I can make out his tag on his shirt and I can see that his name is Maitri. He comes and sits beside me. “Not hungry?” he asks, with a slight smile. I shake my head, “Not really.”
“What’s wrong?” he asks. “I’ve lost my family,” I say, barely managing to keep my voice straight. “How did you lose them?” he asks, shocked. I narrate everything that happened beginning from me seeing the tornado. He keeps silent throughout the narration but has a multitude of expressions displayed on his face. When I finish, he looks shocked and sympathetic. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he says, “that must have been painful.”. I don’t say anything. There is a moment of silence and then he clears his throat slightly and says “Well, I’ll be around if you need me. If you want anything, you can just tell me.” I nod, appreciating the gesture, and eager to end this day I go to sleep, extremely tired. The sky is light gray and the first signs of dawn are approaching when I wake up from my restless sleep. It’s cold outside so I stay huddled in my blankets for a while. After I get restless, I get up and go outside of the tent to have a look around. I see that Maitri is awake and helping in making medicine and the supply stations. He sees me then walks towards me. “Slept well?”, he asks me. I nod and manage a smile, “Yes, thank you.”
“Want to help with the construction? Can help you keep your mind off things.” He says. I agree and join the others. Maitri quickly introduces me to the rest of his friends. I give them all a smile and a nod and begin helping them. It turns out that it does keep my mind off things and is kind of a fun activity to do. It’s nearly midmorning when we have finished building all the posts and I’m hungry and exhausted. We go to the dining area together and have a good meal. This doesn’t feel too bad. If only mom, dad, and Sophie were here with me. I sit with the others in one of the open spaces in some chairs. One of the other volunteers named Saksham asked me where my family was. I see Maitri giving him a hard-eyed stare which made him fall quiet. Maitri hastily changes the topic and the rest of the afternoon goes fine. Its late afternoon when I go out and explore the surroundings for a while. I find a spot that overlooks the mass Arabian sea which is connected to the Gulf of Kutch. I close my eyes and let the breeze caress my face. I stand there for several moments when I suddenly hear a scream. My eyes snap open just in time to see a person who was near the beach get engulfed by the waves. And the worst is yet to come. The waves suddenly grow bigger and higher until I have to look up to see their ends. I’m terrified and run back to the camp. I rush to Maitri and tell him about the tsunami. His eyes are filled with terror. He rushes to the main tent and goes towards the control panel and presses the emergency button which activates alarms all over the camp. Hearing this, all the volunteers start making formations and start going towards different stations. “What’s going on?” I ask, bewildered. His eyes are filled with terror and fright as he says the words, “We’ve entered Phase 2.”
“Phase 2?! What is that supposed to mean?” I shout to Maitri as he runs around evacuating the camp. “I’ll explain later. But right now, you have to help me evacuate the camp. All of us are in danger.” I oblige and start going to each of the tents and tell all of them to follow me. I try to keep a calm head to lead the others to safety. We manage to gather everybody and we start leading them further from the sea. We don’t take our belonging with us due to the panic, but that turns out to be a mistake. Walking in simple clothing on a chilly day doesn’t feel so good. But I grit my teeth and carry on. Knowing that there is no other choice. We turn back maybe after half an hour of quick walking and to our horror, see that the camp has been utterly destroyed. Thank god we made it out in time. The addition of this tsunami adds more to my concerns. What’s going on? I ask myself. I’ve never seen a series of calamities happen like this before. And more importantly, where should we go now? Since the camp got destroyed, we have nowhere to go. I go up to the leading group and find Maitri, his teeth chattering due to the cold as he walks. “Where are we going?” I ask, “where are we leading all these people to?” Maitri remains silent for a moment then says, “I’ll have to contact the main branch and ask them for refuge somewhere else.”
“How do we contact them?” I ask.
“We need a phone.” He says. I turn back and ask everyone in the group in a loud voice, “Does anybody have a mobile phone?”
“I do!” I hear someone shout somewhere behind. I quickly find the girl whose name I found out is Sumitra and ask her if we can borrow her phone for a call. She obliges so I take the phone to Maitri and he immediately dials the hotline. After maybe 10 minutes on the line, he cuts the phone and says, “Well, the nearest refuge center is maybe 15 miles from here, and we probably have to reach there before sunset.” I agree and inform the news to everyone. No one seems to have much of a problem so we quickly head up towards northwest where the refuge is. After many hours of walking, we all take a break and rest. We all are exhausted and too tired to continue but Maitri tries to keep us going by telling us all that the refuge is not that far and that we will reach pretty quickly. I try to compel the others too. Reluctantly they all get up and we make our way towards the refuge.
The sun is setting low on the horizon and we all are exhausted by the time we reach the refuge.
There is another team of volunteers who welcomes us at the gate and then they lead us inside and show us our quarters. Many of the refugees fall asleep immediately. I should sleep to but I don’t feel like it. Instead, I join the others and then I help Maitri and the others to narrate the incident.
They sound surprised when we tell them about all the incidents that happened and that reminds me of the hurried sharing of comments I and Maitri had earlier. I suddenly turn around and ask him, “What were you saying about Phase 2?”
Maitri gives me an uneasy look and tells me, “It’s a long story, we will talk about it later. For now, you need to get some sleep.”
I’m reluctant. “No, I’m not sleepy. You have all night to tell me what is going on.”
Maitri takes a deep breath and says, “Alright fine. Sit down, this will take most of the night and a lot of brainpower to understand.”
“Ok. Just tell me.” I say. I pull up a chair and then sit next to him. He takes another deep breath and begins. With every word he says, I get more and more intrigued by his words. It sounds impossible but on the other hand, it makes so much sense. As the sky outside darkens, he explains to me what’s happening and the news is shocking.
I suddenly open my eyes. I don’t remember falling asleep, but I’m warm under the covers. I prop myself up on an elbow and survey my surroundings. I’m in the volunteers’ cabin. I look around, everybody is asleep. I get up and move noiselessly toward the tent flap and go outside for some fresh air. As I open the tent flap, a blast of chilly air hits me as I go out. The wind is so cold that the tip of my nose is numb within a few minutes. I head back inside to the warmth of the tent see that the others have started stirring awake and have started getting up. I see Maitri stirring up too. I go over to him.
“I don’t remember falling asleep last night,” I say. “Yeah, you fell asleep at around 3.” He says.
I nod, not knowing what to say. Suddenly all the incidents that occurred last night come back to me. I process it in my brain.
Maitri told me last night that these incidents were a series of events happening. Now, there were a lot of possible reasons theorized by people as to why this is happening. Some say that judgment day is coming while others say that this has something to do with the Himalayan Range Fault. They say that there is a huge fault in the Main Central Thrust. This fault is a major area for earthquakes and that this fault ranges over 2200 KM. They say that this recently has had a major breakdown and that it is causing a lot of different faults and major earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or tsunamis. But the main question ringing in my head was “How?” and “Why?”. Maitri took a deep breath and started to explain.
He said that scientists have recently measure heavy seismic activity all around the world and there has been an unusual spike is natural disasters. People all over the world have suffering and facing damage and losing properties. With permissions from headquarters, he showed me footage of destruction everywhere. It was chaos. People dying or losing their families. It was very saddening and frightening to see.
After many hours of discussion, I ask him, “What can we do now?”
Maitri replies, “Nothing.”
I stare at him. “Surely there is a solution to this mess,” I say. There has to be.
He takes a very long breathe and looks at me. And the next few words that come out of his mouth are, “There isn’t a solution, it’s just a matter of how strong your will to survive and how long you do.”
Parth Bhetwal
Kathmandu, Nepal
This Article is Written and Submitted by Parth Bhetwal, Age 13 from Nepal
