Being awakened by the world being destroyed is not a fun way to wake up. It was the very strong earthquake that woke me up. It first felt like you were riding a boat being gently rocked by the waves of the ocean, but suddenly grew stronger in intensity until it seems to be on the verge of being capsized.

I sat up from a prone position all groggy and disoriented, until a few seconds later when adrenaline kicked in, and I hurriedly went to the next room to check on my mother and sister. They were also awakened by the strong shaking.

 “Faster! we have to get to our dining table,” I exclaimed. The said table was luckily on the same floor, albeit, on another section of the house.

It was very difficult to stay balanced while running to our sturdy table as the movement of the earth was really strong. Multiple things and appliances were falling down everywhere, while large visible cracks can be seen snaking on the walls.

We reached the dining table and stayed under it. I instructed my mother and my sister to take hold of the table’s foot to try to stabilize themselves and the table.

While we were huddled under this antique Kamagong dining table, we heard a huge cracking sound and a section of the wall of our house collapsed including the roofing on that area. It exposed us to the outside forces, and that is when we realized that the wind was very strong outside. Debris and garbage were being strung inside our house while we were holding on under our only safety net, feeling the sting of the frigid air on our skin. Huge forks of lightning can be seen illuminating the sky and surrounding areas, and extremely loud claps of thunder can be heard after every flash of light. The earthquake raged on and we were alarmed to see that the ground was literally torn asunder while the rest of the house was destroyed by the combined forces of the wind and moving earth.

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Fear was evident on all of our faces when we felt the sudden weakening of the biting wind and the shaking ground. We waited a few more seconds before coming out from under the table and observed the destruction it brought to our abode. Broken glass, cement, papers, and other materials were scattered all over. My room has been destroyed as it was part of the wall that came down. We carefully traversed this scene of destruction and went outside of our childhood home, utterly destroyed, and plaintive looking.

Outside, we can see other houses equally damaged, with fire and smoke coming here and there. We saw our other neighbors also beginning to go out of their houses. Some sporting injuries, which we immediately catered to. John, one of our neighbor was clutching his phone and was desperately clicking for the mobile internet, “I can’t even get a damn signal. What the hell?”

My family, being health professionals, continued to check up on our neighbors to assess their conditions and look for unaccounted injuries. I was splinting one guy’s arm, when we all heard this horrible and grating sound, we saw a flash of light in the sky. We watched as it grew brighter, until we cannot bear to look at it directly anymore. I remember the extreme heat it brought, and the fear that clutched my heart as I saw my mother and sister across me tending to their patients. The light got brighter and brighter, as the grating sound grew even louder--and then there was darkness and heat, and pain, and a searing feeling in my head until I blacked out.