Historical Narrative Alternative Assessment (CA2)

Title: The last message

-2008 Sichuan earthquake disaster

She prayed. She shouted with her entire strength. Her knees were on the ground, bleeding. She held her three-month-old son high up, letting her son to breathe in the foul air through the cracks of the roof top of her kitchen which had collapsed. She was exhausted, her eyes could hardly open. Despite of her tiredness, she forced her eyes to open wide and fixed on her baby son. “Zheng Yi, don’t give up! Please continue breathing!” pleaded Mei Yan as she watched her son who seemed to be struggling for air.

Mei Yan sank to the ground, exhausted and depressed. How could she possibly get rid of this devastated place? Untreated wounds and cuts were all over her body and fresh blood were flowing out bit by bit, showing that her body was going to dry up at any moment as a result of intensive blood loss. The injuries were painless to her; the only thing which troubled her was the breathing of her baby, feeble and faintly discernible. Every time when there was a pause in his breathing, her heart would seize a bit.

Hours had passed and Mei Yan could hardly breathe in any air. She was frightened and helpless as the suspense was killing her. When would she and her son going to be rescued? There was no way of her getting out from the trapped space and did she and her son destined to die at the next moment? No! That must not happen! She mustered every ounce of her remaining strength to push the large broken pieces of cement right above her head. The cement did raise up slightly but fall back to its original position after two seconds. She lay on the ground effortlessly. Her shoulders dislocated. Her spine was broken and her lung had punctured as a result of constant wheeze and gasp. She had used up all her energy.

Time passed by slowly and painfully. At the moment, Mei Yan could barely hear the distant sound of ambulance and trucks through the cracks and crevices of the broken cement. Her heart had brightened up. She was elated when she heard the rescue team shouted to check if anyone was trapped under the rubbles of the building. Her worries had replaced by hopes. She expressed her gratitude to her prayer who had blessed her for surviving through the past few hours. She could hear the shouting from the rescue team as well as the barking of the bloodhound. She knew that they were going to be rescued.

The sound of the rescue team was distinct. Mei Yan wanted to respond but she could not come out with a single sound. She was desperate. She tried to force a sound from her voice box but a searing pain shot through her throat. She had forgotten that the last attempt of shouting had taken all her strength and her voice box might have injured. Again, her heart sank. The only thing she could do was to wait and pray. Pray for the rescue team to discover their existence. She wrapped her baby with her red and yellow scarf. Her baby son, who seemed to be unaware of what was happening, slept peacefully and soundly on her lap. She brought her baby closer to her, making sure that her baby was not disturbed by the surrounding and did not wake up from his sleep.

The barking sound of the bloodhound was clearer now; perhaps it was heading towards where Mei Yan and her son were trapped. Mei Yan was effortless. She was exhausted and sleepy. Her eyelids were as heavy as stone and she knew that she was spent. With her remaining bit of energy, she found her mobile phone from her pocket and pressed on the phone button several times. She used her thumb to rub away the ashes on her son’s chubby cheeks and muttered a few words. At last, she was unable to resist the tiredness and she gradually closed her eyes.

The bloodhound managed to detect the scent of Mei Yan. It barked in restlessness to alert the rescue team. The rescuers removed the rubble which was directly above Mei Yan. They discovered Mei Yan and checked her pulse through the hole. They realised that she was dead. One of the rescuers banged on the rubbles and called out a few times, just to see if there was any sign of life. He got no reply. When he was just about to move on, he suddenly realised something.

He quickly came back to Mei Yan, checked again under her body. He felt a baby. After much effort, the rescuers managed to unveil Zheng Yi, who was laying unharmed under his mother's dead body. He was still sleeping quietly when he was found. A doctor immediately checked up on Zheng Yi. He then found a mobile phone stuck inside the scarf wrapped around Zheng Yi . There was a short message on the screen: "Dear baby, if you could live on, you must remember that I loved you."

(846 words)