It was a gloomy, dark day in Oklahoma, 1935. The air reeked of dead farmland and what could only be described as a mix of desolation and hope. Asriel, a humble farmer and a faithful husband, was hearing word being passed around about a giant dust storm coming their way. Worried, the next day he grabs his wife, Atlas, and her guide dog, named Bink. They grabbed every prioritized possession they owned and held dear, and began to leave.
“Love, why isn’t everyone else leaving currently? Have they already evacuated?” He noted confusion and wariness evident in his voice.
But just as they stepped out of the house and began to walk to the small wagon they had, they were caught in the path of a giant dust storm. Asriel had heard of such giants, often caused by severe droughts and poor farming practices. The storms were the most severe in the epicenter, which the epicenter was made up of Texas, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and worst of all, Oklahoma. They were in the very eye of the storm; he knew he was in the path of its destruction, but he didn’t know it was coming this fast. He desperately ran to grab Atlas, who was following closely behind him. But it was too late.
“Atlas!” He shouted in distress, reaching out to her, but all he found to grab was empty air.
The dust storm had swallowed them whole; they were trapped in the coruscating dust, or what looked to be vast pools of darkness. A pit of dark dust that seemed to stretch on immeasurably, an abyss of pain and sorrow so titanic even the void seemed to be envious of it. Asriel, led by the sound of Binks barking and Atlas’s terrified cries, he grapples and claws his way through the fathomless disaster. The minutes felt like hours as he choked on the dust-filled air.
“Asriel! Where are you? I can’t hear you!” Atlas shouts, grasping and feeling for anything around her. But it was no use.
Asriel hears Atlas’s screams die out slowly, a soft thud barely audible echoes from the ground. The dust-filled air goes heavy in his lungs, as if vines were wrapping around his heart hard enough to hear his own heartbeat. He felt like he died right there, as if his flesh was sinking into the ground, each flower blooming before his flesh whispering Atlas’s name like a confession. The ink-like storm clouds his vision, as he desperately grabs Atlas’s hand. But it was too late, the storm’s wrath forcing his body to subside as he weakly tried to shield Atlas from the storm. The beautifully painted scribe of fighting submission to natural disaster, the crumbling of a mountain, as if the dust clouds turned into stars before his eyes.
“No.. i..” He whispers, his voice raspy from the coruscating dust, his breath hitching in his throat as he fights to stay awake.
But he was simply fighting a losing battle; some things never truly change. The farm animals are dying, and the crops are not growing. Their own world was a prison, slowly suffocating them. It all was a losing battle against the Great Depression; only time would tell if they would survive or not.
Bink lays around them, as if a last effort to protect what he loved most. In the lighter wraths of the storm, as it began to subside, people began to notice Bink barking around Asriel and Atlas. The surrounding houses and neighbors caught sight of them lying motionless and unconscious in the field.
The community fights through the storm, yelling for Bink as they manage to grab Atlas and Ian. They pull them into the closest house with Bink following closely behind. They give Atlas and Asriel some water to wash out their dust-ridden throats, but Bink is in critical condition. They desperately gave Bink water, food, anything they could find, but it was too late. Atlas, having woken up, gently kneels by Binks’ side, tears welling up in her eyes as she reverently whispers, “Thank you, Bink.. I love you so much, boy.”
Bink wagged his tail for the last time that day. He died protecting what he loved and died a hero. But hero is not a word used lightly; if the neighbors hadn’t noticed Bink barking, they wouldn’t have gotten to Asriel and Atlas in time. Asriel and Atlas survived, one of the few to survive out in the open of this horrid storm. Bink went out as a hero, the community pushed through, and Asriel and Atlas evacuated safely.
