Running Wild: Tsunami

 For literacy, we have been reading 'Running Wild' by Michael Morpurgo. We have to write a story about a tsunami, based on the tsunami from Running Wild, from our point of view. We had to describe the the scene as it unfolds. Below is my story.

Tsunami

I was on the beach when it happened. I was enjoying the sun, yes I was tanning, because where I come from there isn’t much sun. It’s very dull when all you can see is grey, depressing even. So this vacation was just what I needed. Although very soon I wish I didn’t come here. I wanted to become a traveller, which I couldn’t do because I’m broke. This is the closest thing I’ll get to travelling. My Mum and Dad paid for the expenses as a Christmas gift. God I wish they didn’t, of course parts of  me loved them for it Anyway, I was just changing positions in my chair when I heard a commotion with an elephant trumpeting and kids yelling somewhere to my left. I didn’t think about it too much, considering that it was probably an elephant. I knew they were pretty tame here and the kids would be fine. That commotion brought me out of my stupor. I realised, just where water was gently lapping gently against my toes, there was nothing. I sat up and took off my sunglasses and gasped at the sight before me. 

The water was receding quickly, as if it couldn’t wait to get away from me, and it was already so far back you could see the fish flopping around, gasping for air, or well for water - you know what I mean. I looked up from the receding water to see a huge wave coming towards me. I tried to scream, but the sound caught in my throat. I was frozen, which wasn’t good considering there was a huge wave rushing towards me. A tsunami. I’ve seen enough movies to know that’s what it was. My body unfroze slowly, like it was thawing out. The moment I regained feeling, I did what every sensible human being would do, I ran. Away from the wall that was descending on me, away from my doom.

I wasn’t a runner, I hated running. So you could say I wasn’t the fastest person running, but I definitely wasn’t the slowest. The tsunami had caught everyone’s attention and people were running for their lives. I could hear a siren going off somewhere, but the pounding of my heart in my ears eventually drowned the screeching, screaming and crying of everything around me out. Everything except the tsunami. 

I could hear it coming. My thoughts were running wildly in my head and I could not control, did not bother. I knew the wall of doom was gaining on me, I heard it rushing past cars and buildings, knocking them down, taking people with it. The temptation to turn around, stop running and just let it absorb me was strong. But thoughts of my parents and my family and my friend came to the forefront of my mind, and I knew I had to keep going. 

I was in a crowd of people running for their lives, but we weren’t all squashed up together. There was space to run, and flail your arms. The occasional people  fell, and I'm not proud of it, but I left them. I only thought of me and my family, yeah it was selfish but I couldn’t take away any running time from myself. My legs felt like lead and I knew I would collapse soon, my heart was pounding with quick, frantic beats, and my right side felt like it was on fire. It would be so easy to give up, but I had to keep running. 

Soon, I spotted a car that looked abandoned, so I decided to take the risk and check it out.  I hoped desperately for four things. 1. That it was unlocked; 2. That it had the keys inside; 3. That the gas tank was filled and 4. that I wouldn’t die. I ran up to the car and grabbed the handle. It was locked. I checked inside, to see if it was worth smashing the window, and guess what? No keys. I wasted ten seconds doing this, it may not seem like much, but ten seconds was a lot when it came to being chased by the ocean. I left the car quickly and ran, regretting to check the car. I heard a thundering overhead, but didn’t pay any attention to it. I didn’t know what it was at that moment, but I later figured out that it was a helicopter, and I didn't care. 

Rubble was falling everywhere, along with buildings and lampposts. Luckily most of that was behind me, but I could see mounds of rubble and chunks of buildings in front of me. Once I started looking ahead a bit more, instead of what was right in front of me, I noticed pain in my feet. I thought it was from the running, so I ignored it. But the pain got deeper the more I moved on. I figured there was glass in my feet. I was worried, thinking they would get infected, but then I remembered I was about to die so it didn’t matter. 

I heard the tsunami slowing down, which I was grateful for. Hopefully that meant when it hits me, I knew I wasn’t going to outrun the tsunami, that I maybe wouldn’t... die? Then, before I could get my hopes up to high, something slammed me in the back. The air that was still inside of me before, which couldn’t have been much since I was running full speed, was immediately gone. I felt as if I had been hit by 100 football players, the biggest ones, all tackling me at the same time. Black spots swam across my vision and I was barely aware of the debris swimming around me. I couldn’t breath, my eyes stung, and my ribs were probably broken. I was in the tsunami. I blacked out.

When I woke up, I immediately knew I wasn't in heaven. My head was throbbing, and I barely saw people standing over me, talking about how lucky I was, putting bandages on my ribs. My back was uncomfortable and it hurt with every slight shift as if it was broken, but it couldn’t be, I mean I’m alive, aren’t I? My ribs ached and every breath was pure pain, but I was alive.