I open my eyes. It was dark. I guess it is somewhere around midnight. I saw dark shadowy figure of my roomate, My eyes is still adjusting to the light in the dark. But then it was something that woke me up. I felt the bed is moving. It is rocking up and down. Am I dreaming?
"Why are you looking at me like that!?!" the silence broke by my roomate, Ocean.
"..." Didn't reply him. I guess my mind is still trying to figure out whether I'm dreaming or not.
Suddenly.. There is a song... Coming from outside.. Cant figure out the song title..
"Your phone?" my roomate asked. Then I realise the song is coming from a phone.
"No, is it yours?" I asked back.
"No" my roomate replied.
"Hello?" That I heard from outside. That is Xmen, my housemate staying in other room. He is talking to someone in mandarin. Maybe somebody that I knew also. Then this is where I really woke up and came to my senses when I heard Xmen saying,
"What!?! Earthquake?!?!"
This is where Ocean and I sprang up in total shock. Ocean try to look outside the window while I went for my glasses. For a moment, both of us can feel the ground is shaking then it stoped. It was something that both of us know it's not normal. At least for me.
"Ei.. Pan Pan called that there is an earthquake.." Xmen said with sense of urgency.
"Grab your passport" Ocean said to me. I guess that is the first thing that came across his mind after what happened a week before. And automatically three of us went to grab our passport, wallet, sweater and our phones and go straight to the main door. I looked at my watch, it is around 12.00 a.m. Bandung time.
"Wait, I need to go toilet" Ocean suddenly blurted out and he went to the toilet. What is he thinking?!? Then Xmen and I waited anxiously in the living room. Seconds later, as soon as he came out from the toilet three of us went straight to the main door and go out of the apartment.
Outside the lift area we saw a lot of people gathering out there.
"What?!!! Waiting for lift in times like this??" that what I thought.
Then we meet up with the Cow Girl and Pan Pan in the lift area. Cow Girl even brought her whole laptop bag. Wow...that is eveready girl.
"I was sleeping leh.." Cow Girl said as if she was cursing the earthquake
"I was watching movie leh.. Going to sleep liao.. " Pan Pan continued. And we chat for a while.
Then we saw a group of people heading towards the exit sign and walk down to the ground floor. Seemingly the right thing to do, we followed.
"How about Japan Gurl?" I asked.
"We cant contact her leh.." Cow girl replied. She seems to have problem with her handphone lately
"She could be sleeping and waking her up is not easy job.." Ocean said
Then out of no where, Japan Gurl appeared in her cute pink pajamas. She stood out in the among all the people there.
"Very scary leh" the first thing Japan Gurl when she saw us. She seem to get back her voice that she lost earlier today. The quake does have some good effect on people.
"Wah.. You walked down from 15th floor ar?" either Pan Pan or Cow Girl asked. The girls chat for a while I was still trying to put my mind together.
But on the way walking towards the stairs, "Erm.. I need to go to toilet first" I told the rest. What was I thinking??!!
"HA HA HA.." the rest broke into laughter.
"You all go ahead, we will catch up.." Xmen told the girls.
As I was doing my own small little business, I thought to myself, "Man, this is it.. I've seen many movies. But right now I'm in it. This is the real deal man..What will be ending?"
As I came out, the girls is still there waiting for me. And we walked down the stairs from 8th floor(It is only 6 floors only, cause 3rd and 4th floor doesn't exist). While we were walking down, some of us even joked about it.
As we reach down the ground floor, there were already a lot of people down there. We saw a few middle eastern guys that is barefoot. I guess they got experience. Well we stay there and chat awhile, while some of us laugh and joke of what had happened just now. After around 10-15 minutes of waiting something to happen, nothing happened. It was around 12.30 a.m. and we were all tired. Then we decided to go back up and get back to our sleep.
The next day I saw in the news that the quake measured at 7.5 ritcher scale. That is quite high. Thank God, no damages is caused by the quake. Then it hit my mind, we are fragile.. Very fragile. Should the quake hit bandung at that time, I could lost my life. Yet I thank God that I'm still breathing now. And I treasure every moment of my life right now.
I give thanks that through this incident, God has shaken me to my senses, literally that people need God. Need to come back to our Creator. We can build device that can detect tsunami but we can't prevent it. We can predict bad weather but we can't stop it. And the list can go on and on and on and on to show that we are very limited.
(Rev 3:20) Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with Me.
Disclaimer : Character in this story is not their real name. Fake name is used to protect their identity. :) And for those who didn't know, I'm currently working in Bandung, Indonesia. It has been more than 3 months here in Bandung.
