Holding Their Own: A Story of Survival by Joe Nobody Read Free Book Online Page A

worked. He discovered his left arm wasn’t responding well, but it felt like shoulder pain and not a broken arm. There goes half of my sex life he thought. It hurt like hell to breathe. He managed to get up and check on Rita, but it was obvious she was gone. He sat down and covered her face with a sheet after giving her a kiss on the forehead. That’s from Terri. The blast had killed Rita instantly; and in a way, Bishop was glad it had been quick. He immediately felt guilt at his sense of relief and then pushed it out of his mind. He decided he would just lie back down and wait on help to arrive.
     
    When Ali’s delivery truck had exploded, the blast shattered every window for three blocks. There was a crater in Fannin Street over 20 feet in diameter and 10 feet deep. Several cars and trucks on the street had been blown over or set on fire. Houston General Hospital lost the stone facade for its first three stories. The entire first floor was devastated. The office building across from the hospital suffered similar damage, and one corner looked close to collapse. Bodies littered the street in both directions. The blast set off car alarms as far away as NASA. Some thought Houston had been hit by a nuclear bomb because of the small mushroom cloud that rose over the scene.
    Bishop, of course, knew none of this . He was gathering his wits to stand up when he smelled something rotten in the air. What is that? It took his mind a few seconds to register the odor. GAS! Adrenaline pumped through his body, and he managed to get to his feet and start moving away from the area as fast as he could. He could hear the whine of sirens close by and expected to see help arriving at any moment. Instinct directed him to put distance between himself and the blast zone. He suddenly remembered the truck was parked nearby and headed in that direction. Two police cars went roaring past, followed closely by an ambulance. Seeing that help was arriving actually gave him more strength. He could now hear an orchestra of sirens in the distance. It sounded like there were hundreds of emergency vehicles descending on the area. Bishop was almost to his truck. He reached in his pocket for the keys when his shadow became very intense, and suddenly the entire street was flooded white with light. While this blast wave didn’t knock him down, he could feel the heat and heard the roar as the ground shook for a second time in less than five minutes. He turned to see a giant fireball rise over the top of the five-story hospital. The leaking natural gas had been sparked, and Bishop could only hope that the first responders were not close when it had exploded. He made it to his truck and reached for his cell phone. It was gone. Well shit , he thought, Terri has to be going insane with worry. I have to get in touch with her somehow.
     
    Terri had been glued to the TV watching the coverage. The media had helicopters and ground crews. The station she was watching had a reporter interviewing someone right in front of the hospital when the truck exploded. The screen went completely white, and she heard the voice of the anchor, apologizing for apparent loss of signal. An uneasy pause of about 10 seconds ensued, when the station switched to the helicopter view. The devastation from the aerial feed was clear. Terri was getting dressed for the trip to the hospital when the picture of Bishop and Rita lying in the street appeared on her television. While she could not be 100% sure with the smoke and the angle of the shot, she knew in her heart that she was looking at the lifeless bodies of her mother and husband. Her body began to jerk uncontrollably when the man stirred. She did not blink or breathe for several seconds until finally seeing him move again. He got up to check on the woman lying beside the gurney. She saw the man bend over, kiss the woman on the head, and then cover her face. When he reached for the blanket, his head rose up enough, and Terri saw it was her