I'm awake. Again. And yes, I open my eyes, slowly. But not because I don't want to keep them close, no, I bet I would continue sleeping in the apocalypse if I could, but because of the unpleasant smell of smoke. (not) Fun fact- you can't really sleep well when it stinks that much.
Only then am I reminded of the explosion, and aware of the fire, the pain in pretty much my whole body, the taste of blood in my mouth (oh, I so miss dear apple-pie- chan now!><), the table crushing me and the really messed up situation I'm in.
In retrospect, should I be glad the fork didn't stab me? Hmm...
A pang of pain shoots through my ribs, and I notice that the smell of blood and fire burning things feel really familiar. But how could something like that feel familiar, it's not like I eve-
No, that's not it, I weakly try to stop the probably correct thought, aware that this is not the right time for thinking about it.
To suppress the thinly-starting-to-grow panic (from this freaky situation, a tiny silver of claustrophobia and burning/getting crushed to death both being in my "Most Horrible Deaths" list), I start playing Pollyanna's happiness game to discover that I'm really happy to be alive and really very happy that the table isn't made of wood.
It hurts now, but it could hurt a lot more, tee-hee!!ヾ(≧▽≦*)o
Surprisingly (only for you), that actually helps. I calm down and think about what I should start thinking about. I should assess my situation and think of my next steps, while ignoring the pain and treating it as a positive reminder that I'm alive. I do exactly that.
My situation, let's see... I'm on the floor. A metal table is above me, crushing me quiet a bit, credit especially to the additional weight of rubble from the ceiling. I can see the ruins that used to be the room we were in through the space created from me getting in the way of the floor and the table.
Fire is burning in most of the room. In fact, due to the fire I can't see for too far, and I can't spot any people. One of the smaller worst case scenarios (the bigger ones are planet, galaxy or universe scale, it helps when you're in a bad situation and it makes you realize just how terrible it could actually be) goes through my mind, the one where everyone's dead and I survived because I was lucky and under the table... It couldn't be, right?
I next check my body. I have a headache, which doesn't surprise me, I can see the little patch of blood near my head and my right temple feels wet and sticky. From trying to move a bit I think I broke a few ribs. My right hand is broken in at least one place, but at least it's not twisted like my left one- the weird position really doesn't make me want to move it. Unexpectedly, other than unpleasant-looking bruises I don't think I've broken my legs. I want to shout hooray, but that's probably a bad and meaningless idea.
Oh, speaking, well, thinking of shouting, now I realize that I should try calling out for help. In consideration of my physical assessment, I believe getting help would be better. The table is very heavy and I'm quite broken.
I open my mouth to inhale air to shout, but the surrounding gas around me consists mostly of smoke along with some dust, so the inhalation starts a coughing fit which makes me feel like my throat and lungs are burning and sends renewed waves of agonizing pain from my ribs.
I decide that for the second attempt, I would be as careful as I could be. It helps, as I didn't fail the first step of shouting this time. "Help! I'm under the table!! Help me!!".
I belatedly realize that I don't know what to shout. Seeing that I'm not getting any signs of other living life forms near me I decided to first hope that there are some and try playing on their heartstrings. Meaning, I'm desperately shouting "Help!!!!! Help me!! I know you're there!!! I'm gonna die, helpppp!!!!".
When I finish this round of shouting, I'm left with only my breathless gasps. When even those are gone, the silence that stays as my response once again starts freaking me out, and this level of panic needs to be suppressed with more than Pollyanna's happiness game. So I laugh, the kind of crazy laugh psychopaths or desperate people usually make in movies and I sometimes do just for fun. That... helps. Should I be worried that it helps? Well, I can think about it later, if I get out of here alive.
Which brings me to my next revelation, which is me wanting to stay alive. I think of all the fun things I wanted to do, the dreams I wanted to fulfill and my family and friends. I also think about the sadder things and the difficult times I managed to go through and overcome. Overall it makes me cry a bit, but my already hoarse, sore throat is the first to protest, so I take a deep breath and calm down.
I decide that the only way for me to get out is by slipping to the direction of the outside world, which requires a bit of pushing, by first turning my head left, pushing with my right shoulder up against the table above, putting my right palm on the ground, swinging left shoulder so my twisted left arm passes underneath me with my legs pushing the rest of my body.
In a position of my knees, toes and right palm of the ground, my shoulder and back taking the weight of the table, I move out, barely keeping all my limbs from getting crushed by the now unhindered table which is frantically reaching for the dear old floor.
Of course, this process was accompanied by a lot of pain, screams, groans and sometimes even blacking out, which I'll spare you.
Before I could relax, I almost get burned by a flame that seemed to really like me. The feeling is not mutual, buddy, so f@*k off!
I decide that it's better to get up, another painful process that is a lot harder than you'd imagine, accompanied by a lesser version of the former symphony of pain.
When I look around, I can see enough to actually realize the situation. It seems that there were bombs in most of the floors, like this floor, and some got completely crushed, like quite a few of the floors under this one. I know that since the big window the size of a tall man shows the top of the row of trees about a meter below this floor, which looked a lot more distant before. Hey, staring out the window when you're bored is normal, and I do it.
Based on the very noticeable, large cracks I see, I also suspect that the walls are going to cave in soon, and crush me like the ant I once accidentally crushed in my notebook in geography class in the 7th grade from the surprise (R.I.P innocent little big ant, I'm still sorry :( ), which means I really need to get out of here. NOW.
I don't see firefighters although I can hear sirens from really far away, and oh, did I mention that the only (formerly living) human beings I can see are either charred or crushed bodies? Well, apple-pie- chan is already out of my stomach, unlike the images in my mind.
The walls start to tremble a bit, like a death sentence closing in on me, and the way to the door is obstructed by flames. I have no intention of burning to death, so there's only one way out for me.
Down.
Out of the thankfully ridiculously large window, by a jump that hopefully let's me pass through a tree to delay the impact with the ground. I'm scared, and I'll probably break my legs this time, but I don't even have to think to know that there's nothing to hesitate or wonder about, it's not even very likely that I'll survive, the least of my concerns is breaking a few bones.
My jumping line is the windowsill, and my goal is that tree. I clear the windowsill from glass shards and stones, finishing the preparation of the course.
I fire myself up (you know, the fire is starting to reach my brain) by starting to play in my head the most encouraging song I can think of right now, which happens to be Believer. I feel like I can relate to the pain part better now (smiling with a tear emoji).
So, for the maybe last time I'm breathing and running- "AAAAAAAH!!!!!!!". I roar with my painful vocal cords (but it sounds convincing enough), to steel my conviction, declaring my will to stay alive to the world, and start running.
Every step hurts in so many different places (and some titans from Attack On Titans run better), but I speed up until I reach my jumping line and plunge forward with every might and ounce of adrenaline I manage to summon.
I'm only aware of being in the air for a fraction of a second, before realizing that after all, the tree's just too far away for me. Starting to prepare to sacrifice my legs to stay alive, I hear a sound I never thought that would make me happy.
BOOM!! The floor I left behind me was crushed under the weight from the floors above it, and the recoil from the shock sends a blast of air that pushes me onto the tree, which hurts like hell but definitely slows me down.
I start falling through the mess of tree branches, and somehow manage to circle my arms and hug with my legs part of the tree trunk, which helps me slow down a bit before hitting the ground.
The adrenaline pumping in my veins starts fading and making way to the pain, which is about 10 times stronger than before, strong enough to make me almost instantly lose my consciousness, the little time only sufficient to see the previously ignored firetrucks and ambulances that were getting closer.
© 2021 Scarlet Embers