When I finally regained consciousness, all I could hear was the clutter of voices and sirens in the distance. Sirens were blaring through the night, a thin white smoke surrounded me, and voices in the distant grew indistinctly louder as time passed by. My eyes were now completely wide open and now slowly adjusting to the darkness surrounding me. But in the process of my eyes opening wide, the feeling of a sharp pain suddenly surged throughout the lower half of my body. As my eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness surrounding me, I finally saw what was started the sharp, intense pain. It was pieces of heavy rubble laid on top of the lower half of my body. In that precise moment, fear had finally kicked in. I struggled to get out of the rubble, but it was no use. The more I struggled, the more intense the pain was to bear. As the thought of struggling free from the rubble left my mind, I started to see more debris everywhere I looked. Looking to my left, a cut electrical wire laid lifelessly on the ground. The smell of burnt rubble underneath the electrical wire made me realize the line was still live, so there was no point in grabbing it to free myself from the rubble. As I looked towards my right, I saw a female lifeless body under some smaller rubble. I looked at the body for a few seconds, it seemed that the girl was unconscious or worse, dead. But as I thought about it, a cold chill then ran through my spine. What if the person is actually dead? I then pushed the thought aside and hoped for the best.

“H-hey,” I first yelled out, “Can you hear me?” I yelled out.

There was no response for the first few seconds, and so I thought of the worse situation. But out of nowhere, I finally saw the body moved and groan. The girl groaned even louder as she finally regained consciousness.

“What the h*ll?” She first asked as she looked around, “Oh my God, we’re buried alive!”?In that very moment, the girl continued to babble on, freak out, and panic. So it was an earthquake that put us in this situation. To be honest, I really couldn’t blame her freaking out. I would have done the same. But it wasn’t long until I couldn’t handle it anymore,

“Hey, listen to me,” I yelled at her in order to calm her down, but it didn’t work. “Look, we’re stuck here until someone can come and rescue us. Panicking now would only make us lose how much air we have left, so please,” I said as I breathed some air in, “calm down.”?A moment passed and the girl was unable to calm down. She began to hyperventilate. Silence came soon after while the girl became dizzy, and this was now becoming dangerous for the two of us. Also, it seemed that she wouldn’t be able to calm down on her own. Because of this, I decided to try and calm her down myself, “Hey, we have to keep talking,” I told her, “Or else one of us might fall asleep.”?

She then looked towards my direction, “What’s wrong with falling asleep?”

I then yawned, “If one of us fell asleep under these conditions, we might not wake up,” I said while trying not to alarm her.

“Oh, okay.” She said as she started to calm down very slowly.

“All right,” I said with a sigh of relief, “So umm, what is your name?” I asked her to start a conversation.

“My name,” She murmured while remembering her name, “My name is Shannon.”?

“Shannon,” I said out loud while letting the word ring through my mind, “That’s a very pretty name. Well Shannon, since we’re here for who knows how long, tell me about your life.”

At first, she hesitated in telling me her life story, but then she agreed and started talking. In that very moment, she told me everything that had happened to her in her life. She was about the same age as I was. Not only that, she was an EMS student in training wanting to be a nurse. She was in her third year in college. As she continued to tell me almost every detail about her life, I was a little surprised. I was a complete stranger at first to her. But now, I felt like I knew her for quite some time now. And I had a feeling that she felt the same.

Without warning, she stopped talking about herself and took a breath.?“Do you think anyone will find us?” She then asked me.?

“Let’s hope they do.” I responded.

?Then, something amazing happened, “Hello? Is anyone still alive around here?” a muscular-toned voice yelled somewhere in the vicinity.

“Y-yes! We’re still here!” She yelled out frantically, “We’re over here!”?

Sometime later, the muscular toned voice was heard again, this time he yelled out towards his fellow colleagues that he found some live people, “Hang on! We’re coming to get you!” he yelled at us.?

As a few seconds passed, Shannon then spoke to me, “Can you believe it? We’re going to live!” She said excitedly. A God sake miracle I thought to myself.?As time went by, we both heard more and more voices coming towards our direction of where we were buried. It seems like I get to live out my life some more. In that moment, I vowed to live life to the fullest and get to know Shannon the proper way. When time passed by again, I started to hear rubble move in some part of the area we were at.?“Here they come,” Shannon said excitedly, “Oh I can’t wait anymore.” But in that moment, a thought ran through her mind, “Oh that reminds me! I totally forgot to ask you something.”?

“Well now that you remembered,” I said while yawning once more, “Ask away.”?

When I finally finished my sentence, I started to feel the need to sleep more and more. In order to fight the need to sleep, I closed my eyes once more as Shannon asked me her question, “What’s your name?”