I am currently walking on the beach with my little sister, Charlotte and my little brother, Noah.

 

“Carson, I want ice-cream!!”, Noah complained.

 

“I already told you no!!”, I replied

 

“Please?? I promise I'll pay you back for it!!”, He whined. I stopped and turned around to face him.

 

“Ha. Really?”, I said mockingly

 

“Yes, I swear!!”

 

“Ok. Fine. What flavor do you and Charlotte want?”, I said shaking my head. Noah ran up to Charlotte excitedly.

 

“Charlotte!! Carson said we can get ice-cream!!”, he exclaimed. Charlottes face lit up with joy.

 

“I want chocolate!!”, she exclaimed. Noah ran back and said that they both wanted chocolate. We walked along the beach for a while until we found an ice-cream stand. I walked up to the guy and asked for 2 chocolate ice creams. I looked over at Noah and Charlotte who were jumping around with joy. I turned back to the guy as he handed me the ice creams.

 

“That’ll be 1000 yen”

 

“Huh!?”, I said with surprise. Since when did ice-cream cost that much?? That’s ridiculous! Does he really think I have that much?? Ha! I'm out of here. I ran up to Noah and Charlotte.

 

“Hey!! Do you guys want to play a game?? How about I run, and you chase me for the ice cream?? Ok? Ready set goes!”, I said as I ran off with the ice-cream.

 

“Help!! That man is stealing!”, the ice-cream guy exclaimed.

 

“Wait what!? Huh!?”, Noah and charlotte said as they struggled to catch up with me.

We ran until I dropped to the ground, dripping with sweat. I was panting as hard as I did when I ran a 5-mile race. Ugh that was the worst. Noah and charlotte both dropped to ground behind me.

 

“Carson... I hate you... so much!”, Noah said in a raspy voice.

“Well, here’s your ice-cream", I said getting up while handing them their ice cream. It was almost completely melted but they didn’t care. We sat on the beach for a while and then fell asleep.

I awoke to a loud siren. I quickly looked around and noticed people running away from the water while screaming. 

“What's going on??”, I said to myself. I shook awake Charlotte and Noah. They both sat up quickly and were startled by the siren. “That’s probably not good”, I said worryingly. I got up and brushed the sand off myself. “Let's get out of here”, I said while gripping Charlotte and Noah’s arm. We all ran Noah and Charlotte both started crying about how much their legs hurt. We all sat on a bench, and I saw a guy quickly shoving things into a bag behind me. “Hey uh sorry to bother you sir but what in the world is happening right now?!”

 

“You don’t know!?” He said in an anxious tone as he finished shoving things into his bag

I shook my head, perplexed as to why everyone was so anxious and was hurrying to go somewhere. I mean like that siren was pretty startling but why are people still worried?

 

“There's a huge tsunami headed our way”, he shouted as he ran away with his bag.

 

“Huh?”, I said in shock. I looked down at Charlotte and Noah who were both still panting from all that running. I then looked towards the ocean which looked like it was retreating. I stood up in shock. 

 

“This seriously can't be happening”, I muttered in disbelief. I anxiously smiled at Charlotte and Noah. 

 

“Hey guys...! You ready for some more running??”. They looked up at me, still very tired. 

 

“No way!”, Charlotte shouted. I sighed and grabbed both their hands. 

 

“Carson stop!”, Noah exclaimed. I started sprinting towards our house but suddenly Charlotte dropped to the ground crying. 

 

“Carson I – I can't breathe!!”, Charlotte wheezed.

 

 “No no no!! This can't be happening!! This stupid heart disease!!”, I cried. I tried to pick up Charlotte and carry her in my arms, but she was too heavy. Charlotte’s breathing was becoming shallower by the minute until she just stopped. 

 

“Charlotte...?”, I muttered while shaking her shoulder. 

 

“Charlotte!! Please wake up!!”, I said while tears streamed down my face. 

 

“Carson, we got to go!! I think I can see a wave!”, Noah said as he started to sprint towards our house again. I slowly looked up and realized Noah was right, a wave was coming towards us, and it looked like it was moving fast. I got up and started sprinting. We had an old car parked at our house but we were never quite sure if it still worked since we found it in a garbage dump. We reached the house, and I yanked the driver's side door open. I searched around the car for a key while Noah jumped into the backseat. 

 

“Found it!”, I exclaimed while trying to jam it into the ignition. I twisted the key and the car surprisingly started up. I stepped on one of the gas petals and the car was set flying backwards into a fence. 

 

“Carson what are you doing?? Drive it properly!”, Noah shouted with fear.

 

“Well, I'm sorry that I'm 14 and have no idea how to drive??”

 

“Just go!!”, he screamed. I put the car into drive and stepped on the gas petal. We flew down the street heading for high ground. Noah turned around to look out the rear window. 

 

“Carson the water is rising and there's another wave coming!”, Noah said anxiously. I pushed the gas petal down even more and the car sped up. All a sudden the car lurched backwards and came to a stop. 

 

“You dumb car!”, I said with anger. I got out of the car and slammed the door shut. Noah did the same. We both started running again until we reached the top of a hill where lots of other people were gathering. Some people were praying, crying, or just hugging each other. I sat down and put my arms over my head. I started to cry as the thought of leaving Charlotte behind like that just didn’t seem fair. I wiped my tears away and looked towards the ocean. Waves just kept coming and coming and the water just kept rising. I took Noah’s hand as the water started going up the hill. It looked like it was going at least 100 miles an hour and wasn’t going to slow down anytime soon. The water reached us, and it swept everyone away. I started spinning in the water and just then a car came out of nowhere and pinned my leg to a wall. I tried to scream from the pain as blood streamed out of my leg, but no noise came out. I took one last look at the car and chuckled to myself as I realized that it was the car that I drove. I felt myself losing consciousness and thought to myself that this was the end. I closed my eyes and hoped that my next life would be a better one.

 

“Where am I?”, I cried out as I ripped the sheets off of myself and sprung out of bed. As soon as my right foot touched the ground A sharp pain shot up throughout my whole body. I collapsed to the ground as I screamed in agony. Shocked I looked throughout the room and noticed around 20 other people in bed, most of them had terrible wounds while some looked like they just had a few bruises. Just then someone who looked like a doctor came running towards me. 

 

“Hey! Are you okay?”, he said worryingly. He picked me up by my arms and slowly lowered me back into the bed. 

 

“Where’s my brother?”, I said desperately.

 

“Who?”, he said confused.

 

“My brother!”

 

“We’re still looking for bodies so please wait a while”, he sadly said. Bodies? What does he mean bodies, I thought to myself as I sunk into the pillow. No. Noah can’t be dead right? That a lie, right? 

 

“My brother is not dead!”, I exclaimed.

 

“Sir, please keep it down others are trying to sleep”

 

“I know my brother is not dead!”, I screamed at him as I sat up.

 

“Sir! Please keep it down!”, he exclaimed. I tried to get out of bed. I’m going to go search for him! 

 

“Sir I promise we’ll find your brother dead or alive so please stay in bed!”, he sternly said, gripping my arm. I looked him in the eyes. He’s right I’m in no condition to be searching for him. I sunk back into the bed. 

 

“I’m sorry…”, awkwardly said.

 

“Its fine”, he said walking away. Suddenly a radio on a desk beside me turned on. 

 

“This is an emergency broadcast! We are currently recovering bodies and we have just found the prime minister, Fumio Kishida! We are still in shock, and we will be holding a funeral later. For people who are looking for their family, we are still recovering bodies. We will start listing names for the people we have found, dead or alive at 20:00.” I closed my eyes. As long as there was hope that Noah was alive then maybe I’ll be fine.

            

“We will now begin listing off the names of the bodies we have found dead or alive”
 
 

I nervously listened as they started listing off names one by one until they finally listed off my brother’s name.
 
 

“Noah Hall. Dead”
 
 

“Wait what”, I thought to myself. “Noah can’t be dead, no…”, I muttered. I squeezed the radio, clenching my teeth. “This isn’t true!” I grabbed the radio and smashed it into the ground in an act of rage. Pieces of the radio went flying everywhere as it made a crackling sound. I got up out of my bed, wincing at the pain in my leg. The pain is way more tolerable than it was a few hours earlier. I grabbed some crutches that were leaning on the wall next to the bed and I started making my way to the door. A women ran up from behind me and put herself between me and the door. 

 

“Where do you think you are going?”, she said as she grabbed my hand. “You should be in bed.” She sternly said. 
 
 

“I’m going to the bathroom”, I said as I ripped my hand away from hers. I tried to move around her, but she just moved Infront of me again. 

 

“The bathroom is right by your room, I’m sure you would know that”

 

“Well, I’m going to a different bathroom”
 
 

“Yeah, mm sure”, she said as she grabbed my arm. She dragged me back to my bed as I stumbled behind. She told me to lay down and I did. She later explained that if I stay in the hospital for around 2 more weeks than my leg would be healed, and I would be free to go. I guess staying wouldn’t be that bad, I mean like I have no one to return to anyway.
 
 

“Do we have any food?”, I hopefully asked. I was starving as I haven’t eaten for a couple days now.
 
 

“We do not. We will be receiving some crates of food in a few days though”, she sadly said as she walked away. I turned to one side of the bed and closed my eyes. Might as well sleep since I have nothing better to do.

“Ok everyone please back up!”, the nurse shouted. Everyone backed up. “We have received 20 crates of food from the city, please line up to receive breakfast.” I was the first in line. The nurse opened the crates and handed me a bowl of rice with a can of miso soup. Finally! Some food! I hurried over to my bed and opened the can. I ate the rice and miso soup within a minute. The taste of the miso soup was like heaven in my mouth. I threw the can and the rice bowl in a garbage and laid back down in bed. A nurse came over to me and checked a clipboard by my bed.
 
 

“You’re discharged as of today”
 
 

“Wait really?!”, I exclaimed as I jumped out of bed.
 
 

“Yes, you may grab your clothes out of the drawer beside you and leave”, she said as she walked away.
 
 

I hurriedly grabbed my clothes and changed into them in the bathroom. When I came out, I checked back in the draws to make sure I didn’t leave anything. I rummaged through the hospital clothes and felt something that felt like money. I pulled it out and to my surprise it was a stack of money. I looked over my shoulders to make sure no one was watching and then I shoved the money into my pocket. I mean like finders’ keepers, right? I walked out the door and began heading towards the city.

 

When I arrived in the city it looked like trash. Cars were wrecked to the point they looked like a hunk of metal. Buildings were half gone and the streets looked like a meteor had crashed into it. As I walked around there were a lot of people cleaning things up like taking apart cars that were beyond repair, grabbing random scraps of wood of the ground, and some were even trying to repair the buildings. That looks like too much work though if they were getting paid, I would totally do that. I walk over to a stand that people are crowding by. I tap the shoulders of one of the guys waiting.
 

“Hey uh do you know what this line is for?”
 
 

“It’s to sign up for cleaning the city, you get paid pretty well I hear”
 
 

“Oh really? Thank you!”, I say while getting in line. I wait in the crowd until I get to the front. I sign a few safety wavers and get straight to work. I worked for a few hours until I couldn’t even lift a shovel. I headed back to the stand, and they gave me 2000 yen. It’s not a lot of money but I’m pretty happy with it since its better than nothing. The sun is starting to set. I should find a place to sleep. 

 

I haven’t been able to find a place to sleep yet. It’s completely dark outside now. I walk over to an alleyway. It looks a bit sketchy but I’m sure I’ll be safe. Well. Maybe until tomorrow at least. I curl up in a ball and pull a piece of cardboard over me. The ground smells of seawater but its bearable. I shut my eyes as I enter a dream.

 

“ow”, I mutter as I rub my hand and look down. The person who slapped my hand seems to be a kid no older than 8. 

 

“These are my clothes! Now get out”, he yelled as he shoved me into the street.

 

“Alright I’m going I’m going”, I annoyingly say. The kid disappears into the alleyway. 

 

“What a weirdo”, I say as I walk back up to the dumpster. I grab as much clothes as I can carry and run off. Most of the stuff is kid’s clothes but its whatever. I go into an alleyway and look at my choices. I either get to wear a hot pink hello kitty shirt or a plain grey shirt. I think the choice is obvious. I change into the grey shirt and toss the rest of the shirts to some kid sleeping by the sidewalk. I realize I’m starting to get pretty hungry as I’m walking down the street. All the grocery stores were destroyed by the tsunami. I see some stands set up by where the grocery store used to be. Some stands are selling fruit or canned goods. I go up to the fruit stand. There’s not that many people over here. I greet the guy standing by the stand. There are plenty of options to choose from here. The most appealing option is a box of huge strawberries. I grab the box of strawberries and head over to the guy. 

 

“How much are these?”, I say pointing to the box of strawberries.

 

“Depends”, he says with a smile.

 

“What does that mean”, I say while I dig in my pocket for my money. The guy doesn’t say anything, he just keeps smiling waiting for me to hand him some money.

 

“Alright alright whatever”, I say while I hand him half of the money in my pocket.

 

“Thanks for doing business with me!!”, he yells as I walk away. What a scam. No wonder no one is buying from them. I open the box of strawberries as I sit down on a broken bench. I pop one in my mouth and then spit it out. It’s so sour?! I sigh while I force myself to eat the strawberries. I guess it’s better than no food. When I finish them, I throw the box behind me and get up. What in the world am I supposed to do now? The city is being rebuilt at a pretty fast rate so I guess I could maybe try and get an apartment but then again, I don’t even think I have the money. I don’t even have enough to pay for good food. I guess I’m just going to be homeless now. I walk over to an alleyway and grab a piece of cardboard to sleep on. I lay down and start to think of Charlotte and Noah. Why did they have to die? I can’t do this on my own! I guess it’s better to not think of this right now. I should just focus on surviving. 

“Get out of here!”, he says as he kicks me hard in the back.
 
 

I roll over coughing. I look up at him, he looks like a very old grumpy guy. I slowly crawl away from him and onto the street. “Ah… this sucks…”, I groan. I pull myself to my feet and brush the dirt off of me. I smell like a garbage can. I need to take a shower. I walk around the city; a lot of the roads have been rebuilt already. The buildings are also starting to get rebuilt. I walk past a group of people with flyers. They’re all yelling something about jobs. How annoying. Wait. Jobs?! I walk back over to them. 
 
 

“We’re hiring people 13+!”, One guy yells while waving flyers around. I go up to him and he hands me a flyer. I look down at it. Hiring people to work at a restaurant! Paying 1000 yen an hour! This seems like a great opportunity but is there really a restaurant around here? I thought everything was destroyed.

“Thanks!”, I yell out to him as I walk away. I head towards the address on the paper. When I arrive there, it honestly isn’t really a restaurant. It’s more of a restaurant mixed into a hospital. The walls are just long pieces of cloth hanging from a wire. There’re two entrances. One says “hospital” and the other says “restaurant”. I walk into the restaurant and to my surprise its fairly busy. Most of the customers look like hospital patients though. I slowly make my way up to the counter while looking around. 
 
 

“Welcome!”, some guy yells as he jumps up from under the counter.
 
 

“What the-?!”, I say jumping backwards in surprise.
 
 

Where did this guy come from?! I look him up and down. He looks to be around my age. 
 
 

“Are you here for a job?”, he asks excitingly.
 
 

“Uhm yeah??”, I say awkwardly.
 
 

What a weird guy! He’s so energetic and for what?
 
 

“Great! Sign this paper and then come over here!”, he says with a big grin on his face.
 
 

He starts making his way towards the other end of the restaurant. I hurriedly sign the paper and run to catch up with him.
 
 

“This is the kitchen”, he says as he walks toward a very old looking oven with a small countertop. 
 
 

“Uh huh...”, I mutter. This isn’t a kitchen?! What is this guy saying!

 

“You’ll be working over here”, he says while pointing to a sink in the corner.
 
 

“I’ll be washing dishes?”
 
 

“Yeah! What else did you expect?”
 
 

“Well yeah that makes sense never mind”
 
 

“Great you start today!”, he says as he hands me a sponge with a cloth. Well great. I’m now a dishwasher. I walk over to the sink. It’s piled with dishes and the sink looks like it’s been through some tough times. I start scrubbing the dishes. “Well, hey at least I get money”, I mutter to myself.

 

After working for several hours, the other guy tells me I can leave. I leave with very sore hands. I sigh as I walk out into the street. I head into an alleyway and lay on the ground. As soon as my eyes close memories of Charlotte and Noah flood my head. We all are playing happily on the beach and then all of a sudden it switches to Noah and Charlotte crying. I reach out to grab them but they both push me away. 
 
 

“Why did you leave us Carson? Why did you leave?”, they both start chanting. 
 
 

“I didn’t leave!”, I try yelling. Nothing comes out. I curl up into a ball as their chanting becomes louder.

 

“Why did you leave? Why did you leave? Why did you leave us Carson?!”, they chant louder. I wake up screaming. I’m panting and sweating. It was just a dream? I sit up. My head hurts. I wipe the sweat off of my face with my shirt. I look around. Its pitch-black outside. It’s probably around 2am I’d say. I lay back down and close my eyes again. “I’ve got to be well rested for my job tomorrow”, I mutter as I drift off into sleep again.
 

 

“Good morning”, I say sadly. I’m still having flashbacks of Charlotte and Noah. I can’t help being sad.
 
 

“You’re fired”, the guy says as he pats my shoulder and walks away.
 
 

“Huh?”, I say in a confused tone. Did I hear him correctly?
 
 

“Hey uh sorry I didn’t get that”, I say as I run up behind him.
 
 

He stops and looks down at me, “You’re fired”.
 
 

I blankly stared at him for a few seconds. The realization of what he just said hits me.
 
 

“Wait no you can’t do that?!”, I exclaim while I grab him shoulder. He shakes my hand off and walks away.
 
 

“You look too depressed. The customers don’t like you!”, he calmly says.
 
 

“Well then who will take my job? You need someone!”, I desperately say. He can’t just do this. I need to keep this job!
 
 

“Don’t worry I already found someone now get out”, he says with a stern tone. He looks at me for a few more seconds and then turns away. He goes to greet some more customers with a big grin. I bow my head down. What in the world am I supposed to do now?! It’s not like I can just get a new job! I make my way towards the entrance of the restaurant and as I’m about to walk out the entrance I glance at the guy. He looks at me and gives me a cold. It looks like he has no emotion. I look back down at the ground and walk out. “What did I do wrong…?”, I mutter to myself as I make my way down the street. I keep muttering to myself as I keep walking. Some people glance at me strangely as I pass by them. I don’t care. They should all just mind their business. I sit down on the curb of the street and sigh. There’s no way this is fair. I’m pretty sure I was doing my job correctly! Is there even a way to be bad at washing dishes? I look at all the construction that’s going on. These guys look so happy to be doing their job.
 
 

“Ah jeez… it’s so hot out here!”, some guy says from behind me. He sits down beside me, and wipes sweat from his forehead.
 
 

“Oh, uhm hi”, I say startled. I observe his face. He looks to be in his early 20’s?
 
 

“So, uh kid what are you doing out here?”, he says.
 
 

“I got fired from my job…”, I say looking away. Ah this is so awkward.
 
 

“Oh, is that so?”, he says while grabbing a water bottle from a bag he was carrying.
 
 

“mhm”, I nod. Is this guy here to make fun of me? He hands me the water bottle.
 
 

“You look thirsty”
 
 

“Thanks…”, Is he trying to poison me maybe? Well, whatever. I am thirsty. I open the water bottle and chug the water. I give the bottle back to him and wipe my mouth. He looks a bit surprised.
 
 

“So, you’re looking for a job?”
 
 

“Yeah?”, I say confused. What does it matter to him?
 
 

“Well then you might be in luck…”, he says as he stands up. He lends his hand to me with a big grin on his face. 

 

“I guess I am”, I say smiling as I grab his hand. If I had known what would happen next, I would've never grabbed his hand.

 

“Oops uh sorry…”, he looks at a half-collapsed building and walks in. I follow him inside. This place looks a bit sketchy. It’s dark and there’s a bunch of stuff on the floor. He walks into a room, and I follow. I’m starting to feel a bit anxious. He sits down on a metal chair. 

 

“Go line up with those guys”, he says. 

 

“Huh?”, I say confused. There’s no one there. I turn around and then I see them. There’s around 4 other people in a line. The darkness makes it hard to see them or I guess anything. I make my way across the room and line up. The guy gets up from his chair and hands everyone a metal shovel.  

 

“Everyone here will call me boss”, he says while pacing the room. I raise my hand. 

 

“Uhm boss? What am I supposed to be doing?”, I say nervously. He stops pacing and faces me. 

 

“Digging, isn’t that obvious?”, he says. Well thanks sherlock that really helped! You don’t just drag me all the way here to dig for no reason. He walks out of the room, and I look over towards all the other people. They look pretty big and muscular. They all start digging in place and I figure I should do the same. I grab a shovel and start to dig for what feels like hours until the guy comes back.  

 

“Ok everyone stop”, he yells out. I get out of the hole and line back up with the people.  

 

“Everyone here knows why we’re practicing this right?”, he says. I raise my hand. 

 

“Uhm, I don’t…”, I say awkwardly. 

 

“We’re going to be digging for treasure” 

 

“Huh? Treasure?” 

 

“Well, more like money and jewelry but just think of it as treasure” 

 

“I don’t think there’s any treasure buried in the ground…”, I say confused. I mean like come on. In a city? This guy wishes.”

 

“We’re taking money and jewelry off of dead bodies from the tsunami”, he says as he starts to look at our holes we dug.”

 

“Are you crazy!?, I exclaim. I’m leaving! I’m not dealing with a crazy guy like this! Taking money and jewelry off of dead bodies?! I refuse, I’ll never!”

 

“Say what you want, you need money yes?”, he says as he walks over to me. He looks down at me with a smirk.”

 

“Well yes I uh…”, I mutter. This guy is bad news!”

 

“You can leave if you want just know that if you tell someone I’ll make sure you regret it”. He goes back to the other side of the room and starts explaining plans. When he’s done everyone walks out but before I can get out the door, he grabs my shoulder. “Hey kid. I just want you to know I wouldn’t even hire you anyway. You’re terrible at digging holes”, he says. I glare at him. Who does this guy think he is? I could dig holes way better than anyone if I wanted! “Don’t glare at me like that you brat”, he sneers as he shoves past me through the door. Tch. What a weird guy. I walk outside and find myself a nice broken car to sleep on. I get on the roof and close my eyes. Maybe I’ll get a job tomorrow. 

 

I need a job. If only I didn’t get fired! I sigh as I begin going around asking people if they’ll hire me, but they all just give me the cold shoulder and walk away. How rude! I sigh as I sit down on the curb. I guess there’s no hope anymore huh? I’ll just be homeless from now on, right? I look down into a puddle and stare at my reflection. I chuckle. “What am I even saying? I’m sure it’ll work out!”, I say to myself. I get up and keep walking, asking every person I see if they’ll hire me. At the end of the day no one hired me.

 

I gave up on searching for jobs. I’m just wanting to find a place to sleep. There’re so many buildings that are rebuilt now though they look abandoned. I walk into one and close the door behind me. I walk around and my vision starts to get blurry. “What in the world?”, I mumble. I collapse onto the ground. It must be exhaustion. I was running around for hours today so I guess that makes sense. I can’t even move anything though. I sigh. I feel so tired all of a sudden. Maybe I should sleep. I look up at the ceiling. Maybe this could be my new home. It seems pretty sturdy. Charlotte and Noah would’ve loved this! I feel myself losing consciousness. “Seems like I’m more exhausted than I thought”, I whisper as I drift into a dream.