Chapter One

In the city of London, at about midday, there was a group of teenagers mucking around in a park. In the distance, people in distress were screaming. Christina was trying to think where the screaming was coming from.

"Hey guys, can you hear that?" Christina questioned the rest of the group.

"Yeah, shall we go and find out what's going on?" I replied

As the others agreed to stay at the park, Christina and I walked towards the screaming. As the screaming got louder, the teenaged girls were thinking what has happened. Like a blanket, the thick, black smoke covered the centre of London. Christina stopped and stared at the gloomy smoke.

"What's wrong Christina?" I said in confusion,

In panic, Christina ignored me and carried on running. I kept on asking Christina what was wrong but still Christina rushed ahead. Suddenly, there was a massive explosion, Christina screamed and stopped running, when I caught up, Christina hugged me with a really strong grip.

"Please tell me Christina, what the hell is wrong with you?" I said whilst I was in Christina's tight grip.

In horror, Christina said, "It's my mum! The smoke is coming from the same building that she works in!"

After Christina said that, she started to drag me down to the floor, I was wondering, why she is dragging me to the dry, grey concrete.

Very faintly, Christina was trying to speak. The only words I could hear really clearly were, "I'm losing feeling in my body!" At this point, I got my phone out to ring an ambulance just to find out my phone died. I got Christina over my shoulder and carried her closer to where the black smoke was coming from. As I got closer, I heard lots of sirens. I pushed through huge crowd to try and get some help, I got to the front of the crowd and I tagged on a paramedic sleeve and asked for help.

"Excuse me, please help me!!" I asked the paramedic

"Ok, wait a minute……" the paramedic got called over to where there was a load of rubel, which would be where the entrance of the BT building would be.

A group of paramedics started pulling out a body and I looked at the body's face, in shock, I shouted out at the paramedics,

"I know that person!"

In the meantime, a paramedic got Christina and placed her on a bed they had outside the building. I couldn't stop staring at the body's face. A tall policeman came over and said,

"Could you identify who this body is, if what your said was true?" he said it in a very posh tone.

"She's my friend's mum. Her mum's name is Anita, she's about 38 years old." I was really shaken because I've just seen my best friend's mum being dragged out of a huge pile of rubel.

"Thank you Madame, we will need to speak to later." The police officer replied. Deep down, I was really hoping that Anita was live, but there was something in me saying, sorry but she's gone.

The paramedic, who took Christina to the bed outside the building, came over to me and asked to go into the ambulance and go to the hospital with Christina. I tagged along still hoping and praying that Anita and everyone else, who she didn't know, would still be alive. When we got to the hospital grounds, five or six doctors and nurses came stampeding out the hospital and Christina was rushed in. The hospital was really cramped, there were people with bloody dripping of their faces, arms, legs. People were reaching out at me thinking I was a doctor or nurse. Christina was pushed into casualty and suddenly, one of the doctors said to me,

"Sorry but you can't go any further than this. Please follow me to one of the relatives' rooms."

"But I need to be with her when she wakes…." The doctor was pushing me in the directions of the relatives' room. I kept on saying to the doctor that I need to be with Christina and tell her something.

"Please, I need to be there with her! Her mum has been involved in an explosion."

"Ok, we'll get the police in and have a word with you." The doctor slammed the door behind. I was walking around like a headless chicken. The door handle was pushed down by a police officer, then the handle snapped back up and the police officer walked off.

The time now was 6:30. I have been waiting for the police for 3 hours now. I've heard no news about Christina or her mum.

"Are you Jasmin?" said a deep voice in the doorway of the relatives' room. I turned round and it was Christina's dad.

"Kevin? How did you get here so quickly? And who contacted you and said that Christina and your wife were in hospital?" I said feeling a bit confused. Kevin was about 5 hours drive away from London. He walked over to me and hugged me. He started to cry and he said to me,

"I'm really sorry, but……" I stopped his sentence and replied to him, "Anita is dead, isn't she?"

"Yeah she is and unfortunately Christina is in a coma!" My face dropped and I started to cry again. There was a knock on the door, the doctor walked in and politely said,

"You may now visit Christina now, if you may?"

I looked at Kevin, then he nodded his head and we made our way to the bed where Christina was laying. I looked at her lifeless body thinking about why did she just collapsed. I was watching her lifeless body and started to whisper questions to her saying why did this happen? Why did you collapse? And how am I going to tell you that your mum was killed!