The alarm went off at 6 a.m. as usual. I looked at myself in the mirror: a girl with brown and yellow highlights on her hair, and green eyes appeared. I gave a big stretch and put on my slippers. I opened the curtain and what a surprise! I ran towards my parents and pulled them outside; we all gasped.

The sky was green with a tone of orange. The wind blew so hard that it made noises, and all the dirt from the ground rose—some of it got into our eyes. We knew something was going on. My parents looked worried, they went inside, turn the radio on, and started listening to the news.

At that moment, I saw my horrible, dumb dog running towards us. He’s a Labrador Retriever, the only thing he does is bother me. I’m the only one of the family who hates him, and I’m the only one who thinks he is annoying.

A few minutes later my eight-year-old brother David appeared. He had a tired and confused face. “What’s going on?” he asked. My parents suddenly said, “Hurry up, pack up food!” “Clarisse,” my mother said, “Get the baby, hurry!”

I ran towards the crib. Every second, I got more and more nervous. I didn’t know what was going on. But anyways I had to follow her orders.

I took Melanie, accidentally waking her up. My parents were hurrying me up. I gave Melanie to mom. Melanie started crying, the dog was barking, the wind´s noise was getting louder, the house started shaking, and the last thing I remember was pieces of window coming towards me.

I woke up, with a huge headache, I placed my hand in my head, I felt a strange liquid. Blood was covering my fingers. I started recognizing the place I was in. I turned around. My parents, sister, and brother were there. We were in the basement. “What happened?” I asked my parents. They said a tornado was outside and that we were waiting for it to go.

My dad had the radio on, but no signal was coming. We were all so nervous and quiet, especially David, when he tried to talk no words came out of his mouth. Our parents tried to calm us down, they said everything was going to be ok, we tried to trust them. This was my first time experiencing a tornado. I thought it wasn’t this scary, but now I’m trembling like the house was minutes earlier. I wonder what happened to the house. Is it still there? Is it gone?

We waited and waited, I could hear loud sounds, as if things were crushing, but after a while everything became calm, absolutely calm. We didn’t have any news about what was going on outside, but since there were no sounds of danger, we prepared to get out.

We all stood up, grabbed our things, and got ready to go. My dad pushed the door, pushed harder and harder; the door didn’t even budge. “Is something wrong?” I asked. “Well,” my dad said trying to hide his desperate and nervous feeling, “I think something is blocking the way out.”

“We’re trapped!” my brother and I said at the same time. “I think so,” mom said. “But what are we going to do now?” David asked. No one answered. Hours and hours passed, there was no food left, and neither was there hope.

After a while we heard a dog barking. “It’s our dog!” David immediately said with joy. “How are you so sure, he wouldn’t be able to survive outside,” I said. “Yes he would, and I do recognize his barking”, David said.

I can’t believe David actually forgot the dog outside. I thought that was the most important thing for him to take care of. Oh well, at least he’s alive, probably, maybe.

I started feeling sick, seeing everything a little black. My stomach didn’t stop making sounds. David felt the same way. If it wasn’t for the light my parents brought, everything would be really dark in here.

A few moments later, the barking started again. The dog kept barking and barking, he didn’t stop. The barking was so annoying. This is one of the reasons why I hate him. Suddenly we heard men’s voices. We all opened our eyes really big, sat up straight, and started listening very carefully.

The men’s voices were getting louder and louder, like they were coming towards us, but we couldn’t understand what they were saying because of the dog’s barking. Finally I could understand what the men were saying, “Come here, come here!” I told my family I heard that.

We all started shouting to get their attention, to let them know we are stuck here. Moments later, we heard loud sounds, and men’s voice, plus the dog’s barking. My family and I cried with joy. We knew we were getting help.

Suddenly “BOOM!” The door opens...