The Sea Monster's Meal

Mitsuyo was awake all the time. Being a professional photographer, her greatest regret was she had not her camera with her. She could not let a single thing pass by her eyes, her 'natural camera'.

She captured the swaying buildings, the scampering people on the streets, the shoppers running inside the buildings and going under tables to protect their heads and bodies,and the countless calling up of whoever that might be on their handphones.  Later, just as she was up in her office and was almost reaching out for her camera in its bag, a loud crashing sound stopped her. Pieces of glass from the windows fell on to the floor of the 3rd storey office and they were told to leave immediately as the roof was coming down. Her hands were bleeding profusely as some of the glass splinters had pierce into her flesh. Before she could feel any pain, she was bundled off by a caring female colleague, Akio, to run for their lives. And as they were running down the steps, thoughts of dying kept flashing across her mind. The flight down the stairs took a long time. Even in fleeing for their lives , the younger ones were still giving way to older ones.

Downstairs, they were told to take their cars and drive as far off the coast ,towards the interior ,as they possibly could. They were warned if they did not hurry. they would soon be swallowed up by the impending tsunami. Mitsuyo went into Akio's car and had to forget her own because she could not drive with her bleeding hands. They had got into their car and suddenly, Mitsuyo saw an odd expression on Akio's face. It was like she had seen a ghost. She was staring at the rear mirror, and wondering what the reflection was, Mitsuyo turned her head to look. In the distance she could see a greyish mass moving towards them in a fast pace. The others must had just seen it too because there was loud horning to hasten each other, but it was too late. Akio knew it, Mitsuyo knew it and so did others. The cars just stopped moving as if waiting for the next thing to happen.

Next they could see cars ramming into one another and Akio was screaming as the car next to them crashed into hers. As the salty sea water seeped into the car, the claustrophobic Akio struggled to open the door and she just crawled out into the rising water. She disappeared and Mitsuyo, with a quick action, grabbed a rubber neck pillow, filled it with some air and then shoved it into her jacket, hoping it might help later on. In a nick of time, she managed to retrieve the emergency bag containing a survival kit from under the driver's seat.  Deftly, she strapped it over her shoulders.  Just as she had finished, she too was 'consumed' by the sea water.