1. Tragedy

Amidst the chaos, a single girl crawled out from a loose pile of rocks some distance away, clutching tightly to her torn teddy bear as she stared at the landscape before her. A mixture of shock and pain crossed her young features as comprehension slowly set in. That fateful instant, with her head tilted to the heavens and tears rolling down her dirty cheeks, she realized that she was now truly alone in this world.

There were screams everywhere, and the fallen rubble was aflame. The buildings that once stood magnificently in the city were reduced to a pathetic state; where there had been colors, it all became grey. Even the weather was mourning - the onslaught of rain and darkened skies terrible to one who had just lost a loved one to the earthquake. There was no joy.

It was supposed to be Christmas on this day, a season of laughter and giving.

As if the heavens were playing a sick joke to the civilians, the area most brutalized by the disaster seemed like an overgrown Christmas tree from a bird’s eye view. The destruction was akin to the dark needles of the Christmas pine, and the blinking red and blue lights of the auxiliary vehicles reflected cheerful bulbs adorning that particular tree in joy. Like an artist’s finest moment, the final brushstroke of fear was made with longing and regret as the earth finally grumbled and stilled moments later. Sweat on the backs of the anxious rescue teams mingled with the gently pelting rain as they dug through mud and stone for survivors, many of whom had died with little suffering.

Footprints of loss and pain etched deep in their souls and hearts, it was the survivors who faced the aftermath - the real tragedy.