It took just two minutes for me to lose my childhood. I still thought about it at night, when the others were either asleep or pretending to be. I think we all relived that day in our minds.
"Hey Tim, Jenna, see that light?" I pointed to the distance where a light as bright as the sun burned. But that made no sense – the sun was behind us.
"What do you think it is?" asked Tim.
"It looks scary," shuddered Jenna. Our dog Perry just barked.
Suddenly, the light got brighter, like it was coming to us. Mom and Dad noticed it too, then everything went wrong.
"It's aimed right at us!"Dad cried.
"Protect the kids!"Mom yelled over the frightened screams of the villagers.
The ground started to tremble, and Mom and Dad pushed the three of us kids away. The next thing, the beam of light had cut the ground open just in front of us. I didn't see Mom and Dad fall: the next thing I knew, I was holding onto Dad by my fingertips. What happened next is burned into my mind: I tried so hard to hold on, but Dad slipped out of my grasp. A few seconds later, Mom fell from where she'd been holding onto Jenna's fingers. We three watched, as the parents who'd kept us safe fell into the depths of the Earth.
"Mom!!!"
"Dad!!!"
When the shaking had stopped, the three of us and Perry ran to the village square for help. We cried, we shouted, but nobody came to help us. Finally, two people came – but they were children like us. Emma and Toby said that their Mom and Dad had covered them when the light hit, and that now they weren't moving. Then Nessie ran in, crying that her parents had pushed her out of the house before the light destroyed it. The six of us huddled together, unable to find any adults in the square. We went round the village, now so silent, trying to find somebody who could help. We all jumped when we heard a noise, which turned out to be two more village boys and their dog. Ollie and Eric were still crying, saying through their tears that their parents had forced them out of the way before the light hit them. They came with us as we kept searching for somebody, anybody, to help us.
In a house near the edge of town, we finally found two more people. At 16, Duane and Katarin were the oldest of us kids. Now Katarin was in tears, and Duane looked like he'd been crying too. Their parents had died too. I think it was then that I lost hope. Duane's father was the village elder – if he was gone, and all of our parents were gone, who was left? We did try, though. Duane stayed with Katarin, but the rest of us went through every house, calling, searching, crying. Nobody was left to hear us.