The Day America Died

My parents and I were living in Albuquerque New Mexico living the good life or should I save average would be more accurate we had what we needed but we were in no way wealthy but were not poor either.

For the last year or so my parents had changed. They stalking up on things like canned goods, water and survival gear like doomsday preppers I guess you could say. I think some of my friends thought they were going crazy, but they called themselves Preppers. They did talk a lot online to others that were preppers, and my Uncle Dan was one of them. I thought he was kind of crazy after all he did live in a bomb shelter in Kansas that he had purchased a few years ago. I had more important things to think about I was in high school, and boys were my top priority and studying of course.

I will never forget the day I came home from school to find my parents frantic loading their van and Trailor with all the supplies they had been saving ... My mom yelled at me to gather a few of my favorite things and throw them in a light bag I said why mom? She said we are leaving to your Uncle Dans as soon as we get this stuff loaded honey no time to explain and bring your bedding too put it in a trash bag and take it to dad.

Before I knew it my parents and our supplies and our dog and I were all in the van and we were on our way to Kansas. She would not even let me call my friends and tell them goodbye or anything. Along the way I was asking a million questions about what was going on heck I was 16 and I felt like I had the right to know. All they would really tell me is that tensions were high with another country, and they wanted to make sure we would be safe so we were going to my uncles and that a few families from around the country would be going to my uncle Dans also.

While we were driving, I did notice other vehicles loaded with stuff and it seemed like they were doing the same thing my parents were I just kept telling myself that we would be back home soon and to try and look at this as a vacation.

When we arrived at my Uncle Dans we were all exhausted, but he insisted on giving us a tour of his home that was above ground and of course the huge bomb shelter he had purchased. Uncle dan said we would be staying in his above ground house until we learned more about what was going on with the tensions with the other superpower country. We finally went to sleep and the following day my parents and some of the other families that had arrived were all talking about the threats being made by this other country, but they were trying not to let us kids hear them. Another family had arrived while we were sleeping, and they had a son about my age his name was David it was nice to have someone there my age and it was even better that he was super handsome!

David and I talked a lot about what we thought was going on and at one point I said to him “I always knew both our countries have red buttons, but do you think either one of us is stupid enough to push it?” His answer did not make me feel better he said, “he did not know’. I think this was the moment things really became surreal to me! He took me in his arms and held me tight he said let us pray it does not come to that!

David and I became closer and closer over the next few days running around my uncle’s property and laughing and trying to pretend things were normal as our parents stayed planted to the television waiting for news.

One day David and I were running around he was chasing me, and he caught me and he gave me a kiss and that kiss lead to another. then he looked at me and said let’s go check out the bunker I said don’t you think we will get in trouble he said no they probably won’t even notice we are gone, and we won’t be long. So, we went down in the bunker kissing along the way when all of the sudden we felt the ground move. I asked him if he thought that we had an earthquake and he said if so that was one hell of a earthquake! We waited a little while then decided to go peak out of a special peak hole with super thick glass and when we did everything was gone we both started crying I just wanted to try and find my parents and so did he we did not understand what happened or what to do. I remembered my uncle had these special gas masks and suits we could put on, so we decided to put them on to be safe. I kept praying everyone was okay it was hard to see outside maybe just a Kansas dust storm.

We went out the hatch closing it behind us I had also grabbed one of those things that tells you if there is radiation around, but I was not sure how to work it, so I gave it to David, and we started walking to where the house was. we found only a small part of the house left I could not believe it where were my parents where was Davids parents and everyone else and where was my dog. when we got over to check closer, we started finding the bodies of everyone. When I found my mom, I fell to my knees crying trying to wake her up thinking this all had to be a bad dream, but it was no dream. David found his parents to, and I found my uncle and my dad. We held each other crying. I looked back over to my mom, and I saw the heart shaped locket she always wore so I walked over to her bent down and took it off her and whispered, “I love you mom”. David said we need to go back to the bunker, so we did. We took our suits off when we were inside and left them in this special room my uncle had, and David cleaned my mom’s heart shaped necklace for me then he put it around my neck and kissed me on my forehead. Our loved ones were gone and all we had now was each other.