Earthquake!

This is a story we had to write about what it would be like being in an earthquake. This is an idea formed by the recent Canterbury quake.
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I was having a great dream that I had just won an Olympic gold. I dreamt that I won a running race; my little brother had pushed me to the ground in excitement and had started jolting me around. I wake up. I find that my brother really is jolting me around, but then I open my eyes. I see that my little brother isn’t actually in sight but I am still being jolted around really viciously. What is happening?

I jump out of bed, quick! Peering though the window I realise it isn’t just me shaking- It’s the whole world around me. It took me a while to work out what was happening and at last I realise what it is. EARTHQUAKE! I tumble out of bed trying to remember what I was meant to do in a situation like this. That’s it! Get under something stable and FAST. There isn’t really anywhere stable in this old, rickety, five storey farmhouse. But still I wobble over to the door frame, bracing myself. I am wondering what to do next but the earth is still rumbling. I look around to see where mum is.

Looking into the lounge I spot mum cradling my little brother and they’re crouching low under the table. Finally, the shaking dies down and the rumbling silences. At last the worst is over-or so I think. My mum yells at me to go and find somewhere safe to go.

As I step outdoors, the whole world as I knew so well seems so foreign. Everything around me is falling to the ground. Rubble is everywhere. Mum is still cradling my little brother as she stumbles out the door and meets up with me looking through her worried eyes. What to do next?

The world suddenly starts rumbling again and now everything is shaking. Soil starts seeping through the ground once the shaking stops. CRASH! I turn around and see our brick chimney lying dead on the pavement. Taking a guess, I think that it lasted for about 10 seconds, but it felt like a lifetime.

I am feeling a bit sick now, like I have been travelling in the car for too long. But the worst certainly isn’t over, once again the world starts rumbling again. I take the chance to find somewhere safe to cower. Just in time, the whole world is moving like I am in a wild rollercoaster.

Now more people have emerged from their homes. We gather around and we gawped open-mouthed at the freshly ruined homes. It is one memory I will never be able to forget.