Creative writing by Year 11 student Thomas Ryan.

Suddenly, the glass shattered and burst into a million fragments. I ran and dived for protection under the old battered kitchen table, petrified out of my skin. What was going on? I thought to myself. Everything around me was moving. I could feel the house swaying from side to side, with each sway of the house brought more rubble crashing down onto the surrounding floor. After several minutes of being shaken around wondering what I was experiencing, it eventually occurred to me that this was a huge earthquake…

Crack! Out of nowhere, an enormous wooden beam snapped from the ceiling above my head and came tumbling down landing directly on my left leg. The pain was unbearable; it was broken I just knew it. I tried to move my leg from under the massive beam but it would not move. I was caught like a fly in a spider's cobweb, hopelessly just sitting there waiting for another beam to come crashing down and finish me off for good. Lying there, I began to reflect, my life seemed to flash before my eyes, as if this was my last few seconds alive. I could sense tears rolling down my face, which brought me back to the reality of being stuck….

Nervously thinking to myself, is this going to be the way I am going to die? Was I going to quit? Or was I going to be the one who died trying? Dumb question, to me was this an easy answer. I frantically began trying to lift the beam with all my strength. I managed to move it just enough to take a little weight off my leg but not enough to get free. There had to be another way. I tried pushing, pulling, but nothing seemed to work and all hope seemed to be lost… Until out of nowhere the silence was broken with a huge bang as the front door was smashed open and three firefighters came running in with their flashlights yelling, “Is anyone in here?" By this stage I had no energy to respond, so I began banging the floor with my hands to get their attention. When the light came to rest on my face, I breathed a sigh of relief and slowly rested my head against the bitter cold concrete floor.

The next thing I know I was woken by a light shining in my face, at first I was convinced I was still in the destroyed house but then I realize I was in the hospital with a cast on my leg and doctors surrounding me asking me if I was alright. I thought to myself that I am lucky to be alive.

Written by

Thomas Ryan