About a month after I moved into this student apartment, the fire alarm rang so loud around 2 o’clock at dawn. I was just in the beginning of my sweet adventure in the land of goose feather pillows, which suddenly changed into an ear-breaking thumping nightmare. I thought I falsely set my alarm clock and began to curse on myself before I realized that it was actually the fire alarm, the first one I’ve heard in my life, EVER! Then my heart started to race so fast and I moved around the house trying to figure out what I should do first. I collected my passport, wallet and cell-phone, then counted whether I should necessarily bring everything I could put into my small backpack or not.
I waited stiffly for somebody rushing up in the corridor or for some noises from the people hurrying out of the building, but it was very silent. I counted to ten, still nothing happened outside my door. “Damn, are these people sleeping like corpses or are they dead already?” I thought to myself. Finally I heard a door swung opened and I peeked through the peeping hole. A guy, all dressed up, walked towards the staircase. So I started telling my stupid self again, smart guy gets dress up first before going out into the cold winter snowy night. So I quickly grab my pair of jeans and jacket and rushed out.
Huh…? It was so deserted outside. Not quite like what I’d imagined before, where people got scared and clumped tied together. I found no more than 5 people down there, some just raised their heads from the balconies and they all looked super relax. Oh, so this is how civilized people face disaster: stay very calm, I thought to myself again.
The alarm stopped ringing, I saw no firefighter, everybody went back inside, so did I. The end of the loud night, but I could hardly get back to sleep again.
About a month after that, the fire alarm rang again on 6 o’clock in the morning and I had to force my eyes open. This time I was smarter. I dressed up first and took my important belongings with me before calmly walked outside. Then 2 months after that the damn alarm rang again. I started to get frustrated and swore at the idiot person, whoever he was, for smoking in the building or playing prank or practicing the fire evacuation exercise or whatever the hell it was.
On the fourth time, I made friends with a neighbor girl who speaks 7 languages on our way out in the emergency staircase and waved a happy-good-morning greeting to two friendly firefighters. Somebody told me afterward, that those were all false alarms because the system was broken. Not so related, but I also then heard a creepy true story about a murder happened in this building some years ago.
Today, around 6.30pm I smelled something burning in my room. I thought maybe a neighbor overcooked his food. I was putting on some facial masker when the fire alarm started to ring. Oh, noooo……. After a long peaceful living period in the building, please don’t give me any false alarm again, so I thought. I was going to take shower when I remembered something. Huh, wasn’t it smoke that I smelled? Heck this time it’s for REAL!!! Now there’s no more relaxation session before going outside (Oh, btw, it’s wintertime again. I find out that the alarm only chooses wintertime to ring). I still pondered about taking my computer out with me or not. But I didn’t want to look so damn panicked that I bring all my stuff with me when nothing actually happens. So I decided to only turn off the music and take a sip of hot tea I just brewed and go out. Oww, there were slight smokes in the corridor, I started to shiver. This is real… this is real…
I met a friend outside, so I was pretty happy. I haven’t seen him for quite a time anyway and it had to be the right time to meet again. We witnessed how the smokes reeked from the top floor (where he lives). I was freezing even though I wore 2 jackets. He was worse. It was his first alarm experience, so he just jumped out of his room wearing only slippers. Hahaha… evil me laughed on him.
I prayed a bit for the sake of my new computer and my other stuffs that I love so much. Then I suddenly remember about my limp neighbor. I didn’t see him peeking out from his balcony. But his room was dark, so I guess he was somewhere save in vacation. Then I realized I couldn’t be that selfish and started to wish for everybody’s safety.
Thanks to the 4 fire trucks, a number of overly calm firefighters (I almost accused them for lounging), some policemen and paramedics, we had a happy-ending night.
Still, I can’t think of anything good about living in a high building. I should finish writing about my earthquake experience while I was on the 17th floor of a skyscraper during my vacation in Indonesia.
