August 15th Memphis Tennessee
Suzan Hatfield- civilian
Three days, you get the call and you get three days to gather everything you own and flee for yourl life. You pray to Jesus it doesn't happen to you, that message on the TV, pray that it doesn't happen but then ya'll watch your TV and the message comes on, sorry ya'll you got to leave your home, Bard's coming to destroy the city. It wasn't fair that we were going to lose everything. We packed up everything we could. We had so much stuff and I wanted to save it all, it was all vanity. If I had spent more time reading the good book I'd known that Jesus would provide but I was so obessed with material possessions, with our stuff.
My husband kept saying it doesn't matter, that the insurance will take care of it, he fought me on it, get out while there's still time. Eventually he got fed up, on the second day he grabbed our two girls and bolted out of town. I hated him for that back then, so I continued packing continued to try to save all this useless stuff and the message comes through, he's here, and I'm trapped in the city. I went into the basement, and hid. It was then that I realized my husband was right, that I was a fool. Then the noise started, I tried to clamp it out, but I felt pain, sickness, and everything else and then a popping sound and more pain.
That was my ear drums exploding, I'm on the ground in pain, screaming and I can't hear it, I can't hear the noise but I can feel it and the whole ground is shaking and quaking, my eyes hurt, just hurt and then I can't see anything, because my eyes had just been destroyed and then I feel things pelting me and its just pain. I was dying, dying because of my pride, because I wanted to save some trinkets. The vibrations stop and now it's just pain and the growing feeling of weakness. I didn't know it but I was still screaming, still begging for help. I got lucky, someone heard me and saved me. I was put on something and driven to the place where their healer was.
The pain stopped, I could see and hear again and I was rushed out. I didn't get a chance to say anything to him. Too many people needed help, and then as I walk around I see the destruction, every window is broken, I see tarps over the bodies of the people who didn't make it. I made my way home and... it was destroyed, the car filled with all of those so called priceless things was a ball of scrap metal. I just kind of sat there and stared at the wreckage. Then I just laid down and cried, because I lost everything.
I don't know how long I was there in front of my house before I saw those lights, my man was in his truck, the kids were right inside and I just stared at him. He turned off that old car, got out and I expected a fight. I expected the words 'ah told you so', and you know what he would have been right. I could have killed all of us, instead he just gets down and gives me a hug and ah realize. It ain't about stuff, you can always replace stuff, but at the end of the day it's family that's important.
Memphis was hit hard, but the insurance companies paid to get our house fixed up, my man did a bunch of construction jobs and we got back on our feet, and I went back to waiting tables. Food got... well with the war going on 2004 was when they started the rationing. Yah see even with the biodieselm gas was limited, which affected farmers, and the whole world was getting hungrier, so the high mucky mucks get this Thinker Accord and tell him to fix it.
So no one's going hungry anymore, whole worlds getting fed, but what you buy at the grocery store got limited. Chicken was easy to get but steak got more and more expensive. We had ourselves a C ration card, so we could go out and get some sweets every now and then. Some people were angry about it, I know there was a riot back east but most people grumbled and accepted it. There was a war going on, a global one against aliens that wanted to murder us all and after Memphis, well it was personal now.
I don't know if we will win this war, but I pray to jesus that we do.