It all started when we were eating dinner; it was just a normal three dish dinner, half a ham sat next to the rolls with sweet carrots at the end, closest to Mother. My little brother, Ethan, energetic as usual telling mother all about his day at school. Father sat to my left reading the newspaper oblivious to anything we said. Mother sat on my right smiling while Ethan practically bounced in his seat across from me. Father had laid the paper down to grab a roll from the basket that sat in the center of the square table. Before he made it halfway to the basket I grabbed a roll and handed it to him. He smiled at me and returned to his paper.
Less than a minute later we were running out the door. My bare feet were scratched by the cold, icy snow. Ethan, in father’s arms, had started wailing. Mother was already a few feet ahead of us ushering us inside the dark cold square shelter.
When I stepped inside I felt the colder air rush to my body. I shuddered trying to warm the air around me but the cold air clung to me. Father was calling my name but I could barely hear over the deafening sirens.
“TAKE YOUR BROTHER!” Father bellowed as he shoved Ethan into my arms. He turned away immediately only to run back outside. I looked at mother as she shut the iron door, leaving only her and father on the other side. I rushed up to the door and hit upon it with all my strength.
“MOTHER! FATHER!” I screamed.
BOOM! 
The ground shook violently and the shelter rattled and clanged as small objects hit it from the outside. Ethan and I were silent.  A bomb went off, and it was close, the closest we have ever experienced. All was hopeless now they would never hear us with the bombs going off. I walked to the corner of the shelter, with Ethan in tow where there was a pile of old, scratchy, uncared for blankets. I grabbed one and bundled Ethan tightly. Then I grabbed another one and bundled myself. I sat down and beckoned Ethan next to me.
The tremors shook the ground and the sirens wailed signaling bombs had not ceased to stop but neither mother or father had returned. I was starting to assume the worse had happened. I looked at the walls surrounding me, hooks mounted held items useful for dire situations; there were only two gas masks suspended on the wall.
Gasping I cursed to myself as I got up, Mother always told us ‘Rule number one, Get inside the shelter. Rule number two, secure the door. Rule number three, Put the gas masks on.’ I pulled off the gas masks and took wide steps back to Ethan. I grabbed Ethan’s head and positioned it. He cried out in pain as I put the mask on. I yanked mine over my head and stifled a scream. These masks pulled at my hair and made it hard to take a deep breath, but at least they kept us safe from the mustard gas.
I settled back into my blanket. I dozed in and out of sleep with Ethan sleeping next to me, his breathing was short and labored. Then the sirens went quiet.
I gently shook Ethan awake. I took his hand and led him to the door. I tried pulling it but to no avail, then I remembered that the door swung outward into the cold, icy snow. I pushed with all my might. It didn’t work. In frustration I kicked it.
Snap!
I jumped in surprise and warily pushed the door once again. The only difference was that this time it opened, two broken pieces of wood laid next to the door with glass shards embedded in them.
Even though the gas masks were on our face the cold air turned our breaths into steam and greedily took our warmth despite our best attempts with the blankets. I grabbed Ethan and put him on my back. The cuts on my feet which had temporarily closed opened up again. The only difference was this time the ice layer was cutting the insides of the cuts and it hurt even worse than the time that I broke my leg in grade six. I continued to the house except all the windows were blown out and shards of transparent glass covered the ground by the windows.
I pushed the wood door open with ease. The house was a mess; glass everywhere, broken vases, pictures had fallen on the ground. The walls were barren, slightly larger holes replaced the places where nails held the paintings and pictures.
I grab the wooden frame on the floor. Leftover glass fell onto the floor. I turned it around and saw father’s smiling face looking at me.
“Father!” Ethan yells into my ear.
“Ethan! You don’t have to yell it’s just a picture.” I said in fierce whisper.
“No, father’s there.” he pointed at a limp figure just in reach of the single flickering light.
“Father!” I yelled as I put Ethan down. ”Don’t move from this spot.” I pointed to the only clear spot free of glass under him.
I planned my route to father making sure to avoid any glass scattered on the ground. I only slipped once making me fall backwards and cut my hands on the shards of mother’s prized Aztec vase. A loud groan was the product of my stifled scream.
“Annie!” Ethan shrieked and started to follow my steps.
“Stop! I-” Taking a deep breath I continued.”I told you to stay there.”
He froze and I turned to him to make sure he understood.
“Do you understand why I want you there?” I asked biting my lip. He nodded and I returned to my standing position. Grimacing I yanked out the shards of the vase that had not dislodged already. Looking at my now ragged dress I knew I needed something to staunch the bleeding in my hands. A quick survey around the room proved that my dress was the only thing currently available to me. My gray knee high dress was fairly clean I only wondered if i had enough strength to rip it to shreds.
I only tried three times and I had wasted all my energy. The only difference was now my once all gray dress was a dark brown-red at the slightly frayed edges.
“The glass” I heard Ethan mumble. Why hadn’t I thought of that earlier was beyond my imagination. I crouched to grab the largest shard of glass available to me with my blood covered, throbbing hands. I brought the shard up to three centimeters above my knee and grabbed my dress pulling it away from my body to avoid puncturing my legs.
The finished result ended in my hands covered in sections of my blood stained dress. The blood that pooled from my feet made the ground slippery and unstable. I cut six more pieces from my dess making it now almost to mid-thigh. I carefully tied the strips of dress around my feet. Wincing I bit my lip, harder that I intended and made it bleed.
Slowly moving forward I finally reached father. Blood puddled around him. His body was limp, and only four or five feet away was mother. She was limp also. In a weak attempt to wake father I shook him. He didn’t move. His back was facing Ethan and the light. I rolled him on his back to get a better look at his face and to determine if he was alive and breathing. I had not expected large glass shards to protrude out of the front of his body. I gasped in shock. Tears dotted my knees and the floor. His chest wasn’t moving.
“Father’s gone Ethan” I said as I rolled him back on his side shielding Ethan from horror I had just witnessed. I started to look past him but something stopped me halfway. My blanket. He had gone back inside to get my blanket. I cried harder. It was his gift for me when grandmother died. I was devastated by her death. We were closer than the fabric that held together my dress.
Wiping my face I made my way over to mother, grabbing my blanket on the way hopefully she had a better fate than father. I turned her body to the light. Blood pooled around her also but the puddle was bigger than father’s. Looking at her face relief faintly came over me, no glass punctured that area. It didn’t last for long, she wasn’t breathing either. I soon found the source of the blood puddle. A single large shard had stabbed her in the chest, robbing her of any chance of life again. Sadness came over me once again. Large tears fell onto mother. If I kept crying maybe her dress would be washed clean from the blood and she would magically be brought back to life.
“Mothers gone too.” I said softly but loud enough for Ethan to hear. I faced away from him to avoid seeing his distress filled face. I heard him slump to the floor. Ethan dragged something solid across the floor. I turned to face his tear stained face with mine. He brought the picture frame up to his chest and clutched it like a like it was the last life line to save him from a dark stormy sea. Fresh tears fell as I stood up and made my way over to him.
“Annie.” Ethan said softly to me.
“What?” I answered in an equally soft tone.
“Why?” He started sobbing. “Why us? What did we do to the bad guys?”
I pitifully laughed. “ Nothing. We did nothing. Here get on my back.”
“What about mother and father?” He asked as he climbed onto my back with the broken picture in his hand. Once he was secured on my back I put my blanket around us. The windows were broken and no longer protected us from the cold winter winds.
I walked over to the phone that hung loosely on the wall. I spun the wheel until my finger was on number nine. Then again and again. The operator answered asking us what the emergency was.
“Our parents are dead.” I said softly.
“How old are you and how many of you are there?” she replied in a pitying voice.
“I’m only fifteen and my little brother is eight.”
“I see, and there are only you two right?”
“Yes what are we supposed to do?” I asked
*Click*
The line went cold. A dull tone played on endlessly.“Hello? Hello! HELLO!” I panicly screamed into the phone.
“What happened?” Ethan asked staring at the picture in his hand.
“She hung up.” I said.
“What do we do now then?”
“Do you know uncle Sean?” I asked putting the phone back on it’s stand.
“Not really.” Ethan put his head down in the crook of my neck.
I wandered around the kitchen hoping to find a snack for Ethan and I. The food on the table had a thin blanket of dirt and glass covering it. It was not safe to eat. I opened the faded sea green fridge. A white-yellow cheese stood out to me first, for Ethan it was the milk glasses. I grabbed two glasses with difficulty. Wiping off Ethan’s chair at the table with my blanket I sat him down and gave him one of the glasses I had.
“Wait here, I’m going to get shoes and change my clothing.”  I said to Ethan who had opened his glass and started drinking the milk.
I sighed as I heard him continue to gulp his milk down. I walked up the stairs avoiding as much of the damage on the ground that I could. I went into the dark room that held all my stuff. I grabbed a dark green pair of socks out of my dresser. Then I walked over to my closet and grabbed a dark navy blue dress. Putting on the fresh clothes I felt better. I grabbed my black sandals and strapped them in place on my feet. I stood up and made my way to the door.
BOOM!
The whole house shook. I stumbled to the floor gripping the door for balance.  An old China doll I received from my grandmother fell from the shelf just above my. It hit my head.
Black. A big, blank, black, soundless space consumed me. Then I saw mother. She was standing next to father. They were smiling. I looked around. Nothing. I looked back to the area where I thought I saw mother and father but I only saw black. Then I saw Ethan. He smiled at me then ran to mother and father who suddenly appeared farther away from me. When Ethan reached mother and father the hugged. They looked at me and waved. They then walked away and disappeared.
I woke up gasping for breath. I was covered in dry blood and sweat. Broken china scattered around the floor around my head. I sat up. Pain seared at the back of my head. I gingerly touched the back of my head. Wincing as soon as I touched it I yanked my hand back in worry. It had to be bad if it hurt this much.
I went downstairs as fast as I could. Ethan had to be alright. He was all I had left.
I went into the kitchen and my heart dropped. I crumbled to the floor. Ethan laid lifeless on the floor. The empty milk bottle shattered. I felt blood trickle down my neck.
Slowly crawling on the ground I reached him. I shook his body like I did with mother and father. He was dead. Weeping silently I searched for the cause of his death. There was nothing on the front of his body.  I held his limp body. I winced quietly when a piece of glass cut through the makeshift bandages on my hand. Carefully I turned his body over. A long shard of glass pierced him. It was through his head, straight into the brain. The glass clogged the hole so there was no blood pouring out.
I cried. I cried until I fell asleep with Ethan’s dead body in my arms.