Volcano

Heat spreads across the ground singing my sneakers, and smoldering. I am currently a quarter mile from the base of the volcano, I have time. Running I look desperately around for my parents, they are nowhere to be seen. Max pants, nearly choking behind me. I turn, pet him, and continue our sprint. The volcano was said to erupt in an hour when I left home, I spent 15 minutes trying to find my parents and the other sprinting down the side of the mountain. I had thought about taking the car, though I am only thirteen and have not yet even ridden in the front seat, but knew traffic would stop me soon enough. So I ran. Max is choking now so I stop and pull out the precious water from my bag. He must know how important it is because he catches every drop on his tongue. Where are mom and dad? Wh...Boom. 

Ash explodes from the volcano behind me erupting so loud I suddenly can’t hear. Max is ahead of me and behind a tree so he does not get any impact from the blast. I, on the other hand, am dying. There is so much ash in the air I can’t see, much less breathe so I pull my shirt over my head. I feel in the blackness for the tree max was behind, and accidentally trip over him. I can almost feel him choking and whining. I strongly rip out a piece of my shirt and tie it behind his ears, struggling from loss of sight. 

I push and pump my arms through the air as I stumble downwards, and then feel my feet hit the street. Someone grabs my arm and pulls me and Max through a door. Where are we? My elbow bumps something HARD. Owwwww I scream. Someone  pulls off my homemade face shield. Mom! She is clean, the air is clean, the car is clean, dad is clean. She talks but I don’t hear her. I tell her this and she stops talking, hugging me. How? I think, they must have walked from the clinic home when they heard the news and started driving down the mountain looking for me. They even have our camper attached to the back of the car! We get to the base of the mountain and drive late into the night. We finally stop at a hotel about fifty miles from home. We flip on the T.V. and watch the explosion and commentary multiple times before heading to bed. 

At night I snuggle in with my parents, and laying next to my mother she says the only thing I have heard all night, “I love you”