Boom! Thunder shook the ground as it rumbled in the distance. The wind danced through my jet black hair. Lightning illuminated the ground in the distance. The rain was coming down in sheets, and blurred my vision whenever I tried to open my eyes. I braced myself against the wind and rain as I tried to move, but my limbs felt like weights weighing me down to the ground. I heard a soft whisper in the rain, calling my name. “Satoshi. Satoshi,” over and over again. There was a rumbling sound in the distance, but it was slowly coming closer. The sound wasn’t like thunder… but like water rushing off a waterfall. I opened my eyes and saw a wall of water probably about 130 feet tall. It engulfed the whole land and eventually…me. I couldn’t breathe and I saw my mom in the huge wave, too. Her limp body being tossed through the wave like a feather caught in a tornado. I tried to call out to her, but I was underwater. I was running out of air, too. I tried calling out to her again, but there was nothing I could do…

I woke up in a cold sweat. I looked at the clock on my desk. 5:34 in the morning. I jumped out of my bed and walked into my bathroom. I splashed some cold water in my face, pretending that the cold, refreshing water would wash away the terrible nightmare. I shivered once I thought about it again. I looked in the mirror and studied my face. I looked at my jet black hair and my pale skin. My dark brown eyes stared back at me. I sighed and went back to my room to get dressed. My school uniform was composed of black pants, a white shirt, and a dark blue tie. I hated my school. I couldn’t sit still for that long and everything bored me to death.

I wrote a note for my mom like I do every morning and set it on the table. My mom has superstitions. One of her biggest ones is that today might be the last time you ever see your family, so you should always say goodbye and I love you before you leave. As I left my home, something on the wall caught my eye. It was a note from my mom. She wrote that she was sorry she wasn’t there to wish me a happy birthday or make me breakfast. She had to leave early for work. No need for my note then. I crumpled it into a tight ball and threw it straight into the garbage can. Wait, it’s my birthday? I looked at the calendar. March 11th. I took a deep breath and walked into the doorway. As I stepped into the Tohoku sunrise, I had two things on my mind. My mom was the first. The second thing was my empty stomach yelling at me to eat something.
School is so long. And boring. I was trying to finish up last minute work on my paper about The United States when my eyes swept over my watch. 2:45 pm. 15 more minutes. Then you can head home and… an alarm interrupted my thoughts. My teacher stood up from her desk so fast that her chair fell over and one of the handles broke off. She yelled at all of us to go under our desks. I was really confused. Until I remembered one day, last year I think, we had a drill for an earthquake. It was just a drill, nothing happened. But that was then, and this, is now.

Right after we were under our desks, the ground shook. Hard. The world as I knew it seemed to cave in as I wondered my mom. I wanted her here with me, not at work. I was scared. I thought it was just a drill! I heard a deafening crack, then everything went black.
I woke up in complete blackness. I heard yelling and the sound of rocks rubbing together and moving. I saw a crack of light, then another. I called out for help. I felt a rough glove grab my arm and tugged on it. I was pulled through the bright opening, only to be grabbed by more gloves and even louder yelling.
I felt a warm liquid on my head and tasted blood in my mouth. I closed my eyes because my head hurt so much. I heard a lot more yelling and crying. I couldn’t remember what happened. Something collapsed…but why? Then I remembered. The earthquake. I remembered everything. The alarm. The deafening crack. Thinking about…my mom. My mom! I tried to sit up and look around, but I was strapped down. I felt hot tears running down my cheeks. I blinked them out of my eyes and looked up at the faces looking down at me. I heard a weird radio noise and realized it was coming from a device on one of the people’s belts. It was another warning. A tsunami warning.
Someone spotted huge waves just a little ways from where we were, about 133 feet in height. Sirens sounded in the distance. I heard a weird thumping noise in the sky, then felt a huge burst of whip all the hair off my face and made my eyes water even more. I was being pushed into a helicopter and feeling the rush of taking off from the ground. A mask was put over my mouth. I felt instant relief and exhaled the breath I didn’t know I was holding. I put my hand on my forehead and felt something hot and sticky. I pulled my hand down, and my fingers were red. My head was bleeding.

I was close enough to the window to look down at the chaos that had occurred throughout the land that I love. I could only wonder if my mom was alive or not. Everything was totaled. Nothing remained standing. I saw smoke billowing from where buildings once stood. I realized I still had my watch on my wrist and looked at the time. 3:54pm. I should be at home by now. With my mom and celebrating my birthday. Then, the unthinkable happened. A huge sheet of grey washed over the land, and swept everything away. This is just a dream. None of this is real. This was the last thing I thought, before I was swept into oblivion. My whole world went black once more.
The next time I woke up, I was surrounding by blinding lights. My head throbbed and my eyes felt as if they were going to fall out of my head. I tried to sit up but my limbs felt stiff and hard, making it impossible to sit up. Plus, my head could hardly take the effort. I don’t think I would be able to sit. My eyes were adjusting to the light now. I looked around the room and saw people everywhere. In hospital beds, sitting in chairs with weary and tired looks on their faces, some people were even on the floor!

A nurse or doctor must have seen me trying to sit up and rushed over and gently pushed me down back onto the bed. When he hands touched my chest, I felt a searing pain and immediately cried out in pain. I threw my hand over my chest as fast as I could and clutched my side to try to help ease the pain. The nurse called out for someone and about 3 more nurses or doctors rushed to her side. They were all wearing the same outfits. A light blue button up dress and a white, pointy cap with a red cross on the front of them and a red stripe going down the width of them. I decided they were nurses.

One of the nurses said something and pointed to my head. Another nurses said something to me. I couldn’t hear them. I only heard a weird, buzzing noise in both of my ears. I stared back at them in horror. I cupped a hand around one of my ears. The nurse who yelled for the other nurses called again and a doctor came over. The doctor had hair the color of ash and wrinkles all over his face. He just wore a white science coat , a red shirt, black pants, and black pointed shoes. His expression was hard to read, but I could tell by the bags under his eyes he hadn’t had much sleep in the last few days.

The doctor touched my head and I winced. I didn’t feel his touch. He must’ve just touched my hair. I think I still would’ve felt his touch though. I put my hand on my head and felt a rough fabric. It was wrapped all around my head. I felt something wet, and before the nurse could grab my arm, I looked at my fingers and saw they were red. It took me a short time to realize my head was bleeding again. The doctor looked at me and his mouth moved. His lips did the same motions again. One of the nurses leaned in towards the doctor and said something into his ear.

He said something back and the nurses all ran off into the same direction. I looked around the room again. People were bandaged and hurt. My eyes settled on a girl. She looks familiar. Where have I seen her before? Wait….is that? It is! Her mom is with her! Her name is Yumiko Takahashi. She is in my class. Where was I when the rocks fell on me? Is everyone ok? Was I the only survivor? Where was my mom!? I had so many questions. They just all swirled around my head making my headache worse. Little lights danced in front of my eyes. I tried to blink them away, but to no avail.

The little lights soon turned to black orbs. They took all of my eyesight away, and I dreamt for the first time since the morning I had the nightmare about the tsunami.