“Earthquake!” hollered my dad.

We were rushed into my house and told to drop, cover, and hold on to anything secure. My little sister was crying, not knowing what to do, for it was her first earthquake. My dad had always been a leader, telling us what to do. My whole house began to shake, picture frames and cabinets began falling, and even parts of the roof began crashing down. After two hours, the shaking began to die down.

“Is everybody all right?” my dad asked us.
“Yeah, Dad, can I go outside and look at the damage?” I asked him.
“Sure, but be careful of the broken glass, bricks, and other debris on the street. Stay close to the house,” my dad instructed.
I had not known yet, but a tsunami was heading right towards my hometown, San Francisco, following the massive, 7.6 magnitude earthquake. As I was walking down the streets, I saw people crying at their destroyed belongings. Then, out of the corner out of my eye, I saw a giant wave rushing towards me. I sprinted towards my house, but I was too late. The wave swallowed me up. I was lucky that I had taken swimming lessons because in that class, we learned how to breathe underwater for two minutes. The water pressure from the wave was so strong, the tsunami sucked me in and dragged me away from my family. That was the last thing I remembered before I found him.
I woke up coughing and gasping for air. The tsunami had been long over before I woke up. I got snagged up in a tree, which hadn’t been completely destroyed, with debris all around me. The roads were all flooded. It wasn’t a high flood, but high enough not walk in. On the right side of the road, I saw a fluorescent green sign portraying, “Daly City, Population: 101,123.” I knew from Social Studies class that Daly City was south of San Francisco.
The damage toll from the earthquake wasn’t as bad in Daly City, so there were some buildings standing upright.
“Hello?” I screamed out, trying to get a response from anyone.
I kept repeating the word until, out of my left ear, I heard a faint noise. It sounded like another child. I looked to my left to find a boy on top of a nearby building. I raised my hand to signal that I had seen him. I quickly scampered out of the tree and over some debris to get closer to him.
“I’m Caleb,” said the boy, shyly.
“I’m Dalton,” I replied, still a bit confused from the tsunami.
Caleb told me that he was an orphan, and he had been living in an orphanage for three years. I explained to Caleb that I had been washed away from my family after a large earthquake. I also told him that I was from San Francisco and needed to try and find my family. Caleb gladly offered to help find my family. From that moment on, I had grown fond of him.
We had come up with a plan. We were going to construct a raft consisting of sticks and mud. We would hold the sticks together by setting mud between the sticks. We would meet up back by the building we met at. Once we split up, we each gathered supplies. I gathered many branches from fallen trees. The raft took forever to building because Caleb had to keep going back to gather mud, for he had nothing else to carry it with except his hands. After a while, the tiny raft was completed, with two stick paddles. We began our journey upstream towards San Francisco.
On our way towards San Francisco, Caleb and I shared stories with each other.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but how did you end up in an orphanage?” I asked Caleb.
“Well, when I was young, my parents went on a trip to Hawaii. I stayed at my grandma’s house. Anyway, on the way to Hawaii, the plane my parents were on had engine trouble, and the plane crashed into the ocean,” sniffed Caleb.
“I’m so sorry,” I replied.
I decided not to mention anything else about Caleb’s past life. After a swift, five-hour trip, we arrived at the edge of San Francisco. I knew the city inside and out, so I knew how to get home. It was challenging to maneuver through the city because of the debris. My spirits were down because mostly all of the city was demolished. I was surprised though, because throughout the whole trip, the raft never broke apart. That thought was on my mind, but then suddenly my heart dropped.
I witnessed it. My house, along with the rest of the neighborhood, was completely swept away. All I could see was the cracked road and musty water. I was speechless. I just lied down on the raft, trying to make out words, but I couldn’t. I collapsed on the raft and began to sob. Caleb just sat there, not knowing what to do. I knew in my heart that my family was dead, either drowning in the tsunami or being crushed by fallen debris. I kept sobbing and sobbing, while Caleb turned the raft around and paddled away. After a while, he knew the right thing to do was get me out of there. He paddled back to Daly City, all the way to the building where we met.
Caleb told me to just relax on top of the building to help forget about what happened. For food, fish from the Pacific Ocean managed to swim into the city because of the flood. Caleb got on the raft and caught fish with his bare hands. We had nothing to cook it with, so he brought the fish back up to me, and we had to eat it raw. As darkness drew nearer, we decided to go to bed early. It was hard to fall asleep, because we were both damp, which worsened the situation, considering that it was very chilly.
When we woke up, we really didn’t know what we were going to do. As we were deciding on what to do, I noticed something out in the distance. It looked like a group of people. As the people grew closer, I waved my hand to let them know I had seen them, and to let them know where I was located. I knew at that time that those people were my family! I screeched at the top of my lungs and thanked God that I had found them. When they grew near the building, I helped my dad, mom, and sister up on the building. I hugged all of them to death and didn’t let go. I had taken my family for granted, and I truly did know the importance of a family.
“I thought you were dead!” I shouted towards them.
My mom replied, “I know. I’m so glad we found you!”
Caleb just sat on the other end of the building for our privacy, but I ushered him over towards us. I explained to my family who Caleb was, and that he didn’t have a family. I told them that he helped me on my journey. After that, my dad told me that we were planning on moving out to the east.
“Dad, can Caleb go with us?” I begged.
“Of course. You didn’t even have to ask,” my dad chuckled.
Caleb thanked us, and we began our journey to the east. My dad said we would get off the raft after the water was all gone and continue to walk on foot towards Nevada. From that moment on, Caleb and I became the best of friends.