Jacob+Witham

 The warm air rushing through my hair, the smell of fresh-cut grass, the milky blue sky. It all seemed so normal on that spring afternoon in Northern California. I’d lived there all my life, never even been out of the state before. Cruising around the back roads on his long board trying to forget the immense fight his parents and I just had. The fight was the exact same as every other one. They yelled at me about smoking pot, not having a job, wasting away my life. What they didn’t care to mention was that I was the valedictorian of my class, I had straight A’s, and I was using my spare time to help the community. So what if I don’t have time to work a job that pays minimum wage, I was doing everything I could to help around the house, and help the world around me.  Anyway, I was riding my long board trying to forget what I had just been accused of, trying to get my mind off my inconsiderate parents when I heard a weird “whooshing” sound. I turned around but could see nothing. I kept going thinking it was probably a plane since the airport was only a mile from my location.  I turned around and kept going, but I heard the noise again. Only this time it was louder. I decided to turn home and see what the commotion was. Over the tree line a mushroom cloud appeared. Seconds later the shock wave knocked me off my board, and sent me tumbling down a hill. Scared out of my wits, I grabbed my board and ran to the tree line to hide from whoever just attacked my town. The vanishing cloud was a putrid yellow. It was not an average explosion. As I crept up the hill over-looking the town, i could see the effect of the explosion. Houses were swept away like the were made of straw, buildings collapsed like a game of Jenga, trees were thrown hundreds off yards like tooth picks.  Gasping for breath, I rolled over. I couldn’t believe what I saw. My whole life was tipped upside down. What was it that ruined my home? Why did they do it? Those were questions I could not even imagine answering at that point.  As I lay there staring at the sky, I noticed a disappearing vapor trail. It was a plane that dropped the bomb! “There is no way the military didn’t find out about this. They have satellites right?” I thought out loud. Then it hit me, my family, friends, teachers, everyone was in that town. Everything I’d grown to love and enjoy was gone. a lone tear ran down my face as I lay down for a long nap. I awoke to the sun rising just over the horizon, but there was an odd hue in the sunlight. Could it be the smoke from the bomb? There was no way of finding out now.  Laying on the ground, staring blankly into the green-yellow horizon. I was hypnotized by the thought of my family, my friends, my home, had been destroyed just over the hill. I slipped off into a restless sleep. When I awoke, there was a strange sensation flowing through me. A sensation that cast me off into deep thought.  “What was that?”, “Why did it attack MY little town?”, “What do I do now?” were some of the unanswerable questions I ran over and over in my mind.  I forced myself up, wobbling the whole way. I felt exhilarated, I felt great! Grabbing the long board that was feet from me, I jumped on and coasted down the winding hill, down to the wreckage that once was my home. As I cruised down the road, my feeling of euphoria disappeared. I entered the town, I saw my elementary school, in pieces, the grocery store where my girlfriend had worked, in piles, and then my house. The house that I called home, the house I grew to love, the house I wished one day I could move out of. At that moment I decided I had to make sure the government, the military even, knew what had happened.  I crawled onto the wreckage that was my house. Sorting through the debris hoping, praying, that I would find something that would be good news. I found what used to be my parents house. Their bed was crushed under the immense weight of the roof and surrounding walls collapsing on it. I knew that nothing could have survived such a horrific event. I fell to my knees, weeping. I whipped my head around. On the horizon, a small jet came into sight. I ducked behind some debris, hoping to stay out of sight. I peered out from behind the rubble, staring at the little dot that gradually grew. As it approached I recognized the markings on the side. It was a blue star inside of a white circle. The design indicated it was a military plane from the airport. I used to watch these planes do drills and maneuvers for hours on end. The plane was just about over the town when I noticed that something was attached to the bottom and the pilot knew. The jet was lurching left and right, doing barrel rolls, and flying extremely low to the ground. I watched as that plane slowly lost altitude and collided in a fiery explosion with the remains of the old library. I laid there astonished, what had just happened? I had got a pretty good look at the underbelly of the jet as it zipped over me, whatever had been under that plane was dark grey, metallic, and had spikes all over it. I ran back to my house’s remains and searched for my dads safety box. I found it. I fumbled around with the key for a few seconds, dropping it, nervously missing the keyhole. I got it open. Inside the box was a pistol, 2 magazines of ammunition, 3 flares and a large knife. I grabbed a backpack and loaded all of them into it. As I was walking toward the wrecked plane I noticed something odd, I hadn’t seen a body. I guess I wasn’t really looking for them, in fact I’d been avoiding looking for any. Now I was curious. So I tipped over debris, moved rubble, nothing. I did not find a single person in the town. Was there a mass evacuation? Did they know it was coming? I had only left my house an hour before any of that happened, there is no way they could have had everyone escape in that time. I moved on assuming they must have gotten everybody out of the town and they were all alive. Creeping along toward the flaming remains of the plane, I heard a weird noise. It sounded like Jabba the Hut eating metal. As I got closer it sounded more and more terrifying. I peered over a fridge that was lying in the road to see what was there. Just as I was about to see what was there a massive explosion knocked me to the ground. More fighter jets were flying above me, firing missiles right at the crashed plane! I was ten feet from the plane while missiles were being shot at it. I jumped into the fridge I was hiding behind. A few more missiles jarred the area, then the fridge was being moved! I could feel myself being swung back and forth for a minute, then I started going forward pretty fast. What was going on? Freaking out, I tried kicking, punching, yelling. Nothing worked. So I decided to wait and see what happens. I fell asleep to the steady swaying, almost as if I were on a hammock. It was nearly two hours when I awoke to a sudden jarring. There was noise all around me, welding, yelling, metal hitting the floor. All of a sudden the door to the fridge was ripped open. I was blinded by the light that leaked into the cramped up fridge. I saw a silhouette and tried to run, but I couldn’t go anywhere. I was surrounded by robotic-looking silhouettes. My eyes finally adjusted to the light filled room. They were human.