A Ray of Hope - S. M. Bowes (fun to read .txt) 📗

"A Ray of Hope"

It all happened so fast. The warning siren had just started to blare and I just had time enough to make it down to the basement before all hell broke loose. Everyone pushed and shoved against one another as they rushed down the stairwell in their panicked flight to make it to safety. It was almost as if Satan himself was at our heels. Perhaps he was, for the unrestrained fury that was unleashed that day was beyond what anyone could have ever imagined.

All those reports I'd heard about tornados was right. It does sound like a freight train coming towards you at full speed; the wind eerily wailing loudly like an enraged banshee. The apartment building I resided in started to shake violently as if we were expericening an earthquake. The pressure that had built up inside made my ears pop. Then I heard the windows exploding inwardly sending their shards of death towards anyone within reach. The screeching of the metal girders’ that supported the framework of our building were being twisted and torn apart; allowing the concrete to break free from the beams and come tumbling down around us. The floor beneath me suddenly dropped from under me as the high-piched screaming of terrified people filled my ears; one of which I'm sure was my own. Then the rumbling from the falling construction joined with the frightened screams as huge chuncks of coalesced particles covered all of us beneath with its tremendous amount of weight. Plumes of blackened dust clouds rose up and filled the air and the once bright day turned into night. I couldn't breath the air was so thick. That's all I can remember happening before I blacked out.

I'm not certain how much time had elapsed before I awoke, but it mattered little to me because I felt excruciating pain in my back. I tried to move my limbs in order to free myself, but it was useless as the weight of the concrete was too much. Terrified, I screamed for help at the top of my lungs, but all I heard was the muffled moans of others pleading for the same.

I thought of my family as I lay there helpless. Were they still alive? My wife Deynah had left not ten minutes before the tornado hit in order to drive our daughter Roberta to school. I wondered if they had found refuge from the destructive force of nature that ravaged all in its path; or if they were now confined inside my wife's car - just as I was pinned under our home? I prayed to God above begging for their safety, offering my life in their stead. It appeared that the Lord was going grant my wish as I waited for someone to come to my aid, but the lack of sound from above gave me little hope that anyone was going to come to my rescue. I soon felt myself slowly slipping into unconsciousness once more. I was more than grateful for this because the pain in my back was more than I could bear.

I don't know how long I lay there, but when I awoke I no longer felt pain in my lower extremites. I surmised this was due to the weight that pinned and numbed me; instead of the loss of the use of my legs. I heard no other cries for help. I could hardly utter a sound myself because my mouth was dry as the desert sand from the dust I'd ingested. I became aware of something dripping on the top of my head. Was this the precious water that I needed in order to sustain me? Were these droplets from a broken water pipe? I twisted my head as much as I could and stuck out my tongue. I discovered that it was indeed water. It tasted of metal mixed with mud, but I paid no heed. To me it tasted sweeter than sugar.

As the hours wore on without a sound besides the constant drip, drip, drip of the water, I wondered of my fate and that of my family. Were they suffering as much as I was? And what of those that had been buried along with me? How many people in all had been buried under other collapsed buildings as well? It appeared that Mother Nature could be a very cruel parent. Had we gotten her so angry at us that she cared so little for her children? I guess I couldn't really blame her for taking revenge against us, for we'd brought this upon ourselves. We'd been warned that global warming would bring devastation in the form of more powerful storms due to the rise of carbon dioxide we continued to pump into our atmosphere. The rising temperatures would cause the glaciers to melt and raise our oceans along with them. Hurricanes would increase in number as well as intensity; the same would happen with tornados.

Experts kept warning govenments about the impending danger the world faced if we didn't stop poisoning the ozone layer, but industialists held politician's ears and they ignored their pleas. Most of us went about our daily lives without a thought to the generations that would follow. Ecologists urged us to change our way of life and told us that this event would happen slowly, but it appeared that these drastic changes in our weather pattern were happening quicker than anyone had perdicted. We were told that there was still time to turn back the clock in order to save our home planet, but what if we had already past the point of no return? Was I suffering this fate because I was one of the billions that didn't do all I could to stop the burning of fossil fuels that would bring about the end of life as we knew it? Blessed sleep finally came to my overwrought mind and put an end to these horrid thoughts about our doomed race.

When I awoke again I saw a small ray of light that filtered through the blackness. Night had turned into day. After a while I heard rubble being removed from above, as well as the voices of my saviors. Due to Deynah's persistance, my locaction was discovered by the emergency teams and I was carefully pulled from the twisted wreckage. The brightness from the sun that assaulted my eyes was shaded by someone's hand and I couldn't help but notice the carnage around me. I don't know if I wept for all the dead, or because I still lived.

I was rushed to a nearby hospital and my wounds attended to. I had two broken legs and my left arm was broken. Three of my ribs had been broken, as well as my right wrist, but I was spared of any internal injuries. I was truly amazed that I'd escapsed being serioulsy hurt and had not ended up paralized. I thanked God for saving me.

While laying on a cot in the hallway of the hospital, my wife and child rushed up to me. Thankfully they'd been spared any real harm, only sustaining minor cuts and bruises. I was one of the lucky ones, they told me. Of the one hundred or so families that resided in our apartment building, I was among the limited few who had been rescued.

It has been over a year now since that terrible day that changed my life forever. Deynah and I have moved because of my fear of tornados. Though they also have cyclones in the easten portion of our nation, they are not as frequent as those in the mid-west. I often wonder if our choice was wise. We reside in the western portion of Connecticut which seldom experiences the wrath of tropical storms, but I can't help but worry if we will be any safer here. Is the eastern coastline to now suffer through increasingly powerful hurricanes, or rising sea levels due to our neglect. Do we have time to change our fate? I cannot allow my daughter to suffer this danger because we are destroying our world due to global warming. I vow that I will do all I can to make everyone aware of the risks we are exposing ourselves to if we don't start using other means to supply our planet with the energy it demands in order to maintain our lifestyles in comfort. What comfort will be left if we cannot change?

Publication Date: 02-01-2010

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