E-Astle Writing Practice

This is my E-Astle writing practice. I had 45 minutes to write this and it's definitely not the best. But
I hope you enjoy it. If you have any suggestions feel free to comment them!



“The Christchurch government was founded in…”

I feel my brain leaking from my skull, who decided that the history of Christchurch was an important
subject? Sure, culture might be important, but that’s not his point. I slap my book closed,
ignoring the scandalized look of the other students around me. I rub my hands down my face and sigh.
My phone lights up, my timer. I stand up, slinging my bag over my shoulder and set off toward the
front desk. 

“Hello, Will. How can I help you?” The librarian said without looking up.

“Uh hi, Mrs L, I’m looking for the… uh the book on the government history of NZ? Do you have anything
like that here?”

“Oh, yes. It’s in the back. You’re a trustworthy young man so can you can save me a bit of time by
getting it?”

“Of course!” I exclaim setting off

“Will!” Mrs L calls

“Yeah?”

“Do you even know what section the book is in?” She says, looking down through her glasses with
a barely contained smile.

“No, But I’ll find it!” I set off, once again, with a cheerful smile on my face. A complete 180 from just
a few minutes ago.

It turns out, the basement library is gargantuan. A maze of thousands of dis-organised shelves
criss-cross together in a dizzying pattern. I sigh, thinking I definitely should have asked where it was.
I shuffle my way through towering stacks of books and towards the back of the knowledge maze.
My bag bouncing on my hip with each step. 

I reach the end of the maze, feeling like I've just finished a quest. I chuckle to myself at the thought.
I reach down and pull the small book out from one of the low shelves. Man, everything back here is
covered in a thick layer of dust, coating everything and giving it a ghostly feel. I shiver, despite not
being particularly cold in my hoodie. I slide the book in my bag and turn around. A few books fall
off the tops of the tallest stacks, I shrug and chalk it up to me disrupting everything. The ground
starts rolling, subtle at first and building up in small waves. More books fall and I cover my head.

Oh no, I think, panic starting to cloud my vision. I start to run toward where I vaguely remember
the exit being. I stumble into something solid and fall backward.

“Hey!” The solid thing yells. “Get up and get out, you idiot!”

It’s a student, I don’t recognise their face but I do recognise their voice. It’s Ethan Harding,
infamous throughout the entire school for his abrasive personality and his top-of-the-class grades. 

“Move!” He yells as I scramble to my feet. Books are falling everywhere and shelves detaching
themselves from the ground. I feel like I’m on a boat, waves rumbling sturdy under my feet.
I throw myself through the battlefield of knowledge with Ethan running alongside me, I can hear his
laboured panting. My legs start to burn when I hear creaking.
I look up and the wooden ceiling beams are cracking, long lines cutting through the roof’s support. Ethan is falling behind, slowed down by the numerous twists and turns of the basement room. I
grab his arm and pull his forward, now basically dragging him along with me.  

Not long after the shaking increased, throwing us both off our feet and onto the hard floor.
There are still pages flying everywhere, like violent birds taking flight. There’s crashing coming from
all sides. 

“We’re almost out!” I yell, hoping Ethan can hear me, I can’t see him anywhere in the no-mans-land
that is now the downstairs library. A large pile of books and shelving move out of sync to the
earthquake, a muffled shout that is inaudible through the screeching of the room comes from within.
It’s Ethan! I think, managing to stay on balance over to him. I start pulling the wreckage off him. The
shaking is stopping. Dulled down into small shudders of the floor.
Ethan is scrambling to get out, and I see one of his skinny hands poke through the side of the pile.
I grab it and for the second time today I’m pulling him along. 

“Thanks” He mumbles, groaning and rubbing his back.

“No problem, bro,” I say, with my biggest smile

“Why on earth are you smiling, nerd? We’re completely trapped” He says, gesturing wildly the closed
off exit.

“Oh my lord,” I say, finally taking in the damage of the room

Part of the roof had caved in, right over the stair leading into the main library. The basement must
be under the field, by the look of all the dirt and grass coming through the hole. There are cracks
all through the concrete walls and floor. It looks like a giant had come and shaken the entire room.
Everything was strewn everywhere throughout the ocean of books and broken wood. 

“I’d say its a bit messed up,” I say under my breath

“Definitely, damn” Ethan grumbles. 

“We need to get out of here and see if everyone’s okay”

“Yeah, Okay” He mumbles and turns toward the now covered exit

“Maybe we could try to dig through the rubble?” I suggest, coming to stand next to him

“We’ll make a tunnel and I’ll go through since I’m the smallest of us two,” He says, with an air of finality

“Then you can see if everyone’s fine and get help!” I say.

“Think about yourself for once, geez,” He says and goes up to the small mound. I grab a piece of
wood and hand one to Ethan. He grunts in acknowledgement and starts digging. 

It takes a while to get through. But I’m not really sure of how much time has passed. It could have
been five minutes or five hours. Small tremors shook the room a few times, scaring us. 
The tunnel we made is barely enough for the skinny teen to fit through, but he manages.

“I’ll be back,” He says, and crawled through toward the stairs. I’m alone, and the darkness is suddenly
more enveloping now that I’m alone. The jagged edges of broken shelving jutting out from every
surface of the room, backlit by the small light that comes from one corner of the room. I venture over
toward the light, eager to get out of the dark. I’m not sure when Ethan will be coming back, but I may
as well get comfortable, right? 

The light is warm and coming from underneath sheets. A hut? It’s a legitimate hut, half-collapsed, but still
a hut nonetheless.
One that you make in the lounge when you’re a kid. It feels safe, kinda. I crawl inside and settle among
blankets. It’s like the perfect reading cave. It occurs to me that this is probably Ethan’s hut. I chuckle
silently. It’s funny that such an angry guy would still be making huts in his teen years. I grab my phone
from my bag, It’s cracked, the screen completely shattered. Huh, probably from my fall earlier. I put it back
in my bad and pull out my drink bottle, which is somehow still intact, and take a sip.

I’m coming down from my adrenaline high when suddenly everything starts shaking again.
Not coming in slow lulling waves like the last one. It strikes like lightning. Pushing the ground up from
beneath my feet and pulling me backwards. I yelled in surprise and fall over, rolling along the floor in
the now fully broken hut. I’m on the ground, gripping my knees so tightly I think it’s going to draw blood
when the earthquake, as soon as it came, went. I stay on the ground, tears rolling down my face. I
wasn’t scared when the first one hit. Maybe it was because I had Ethan there, aggressively telling me
it would be okay, in his own weird way. 

I open my dry eyes to yelling. It’s Ethan, calling my name. I vaguely wonder why he knows my name
before passing out again.