David covered up his eyes by his hand, they were teary from the bright light. The heat that had enveloped him made his body go limp. The air was heavy and dry, as if mixed with sand. He couldn’t breathe in.
“Hey!” a woman’s voice sounded nearby. “There’s a storm, let’s go back,” Yulia shouted.
“Yes,” David answered, trying to catch air through his mouth. “Doctor, Debby, where are you?”
“I’m here,” Debby shouted, coughing from somewhere on the right.
“No, it’s not a storm,” came Dr Capri’s loud voice.
Tears poured from David’s eyes, and he knelt down and tried to shield himself from the light that shone from everywhere. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them sharply; for a second he saw someone’s figure nearby, he took a few steps and clung to a half-blurred shadow. It was Debby.
“Are you okay?” David asked. “Can you breathe?”
Debby nodded.
“Debby, David!” the doctor called out.
“We’re here,” David held up his hand.
The rumbling, crackling, and rumbling filled the entire space and drowned out the voices. The storm was clearly perceptible to all senses except one: the skin could not feel the gusts of wind or the drops of rain. The ground itself was humming and vibrating, eyes were blinding from the bright rays of the sun, and breath was spiraling from the lack of air. Debby, David, Yulia, and the doctor crawled toward each other like two pairs of moles at noon, groping the surface around them.
Dr Capri touched David’s arm.
“We’re here,” the doctor said, dropping to the ground beside David and Debby.
He led Yulia beside him, who also collapsed to the ground. The hum began to diminish. It became easier to breathe. David looked up and got dizzy. He tried to say something, but he couldn’t. Above him there were clusters of twinkling stars. The sky was as dark and deep as the heart of the ocean, and the stars were as bright as pearls that joined together in beautiful necklaces. David could only softly stretch out an ‘oh!’ sound.