2008年5月12日14點28分，四川汶川，一場里氏8.0級的地震襲來。無數(shù)生命在那一刻永遠逝去，許多曾經(jīng)美麗安寧的村莊頓時變成了一片片慘不忍睹的廢墟……

災難面前，我們感受著生命的渺小和脆弱，更驚嘆于生命的偉大和神奇。災難讓我們懂得：活著真好！災難更讓我們思考：怎樣才能活得有意義？——珍惜擁有，努力活得充實精彩！

親愛的讀者們，當你們看到這篇文章時，距離地震發(fā)生已經(jīng)過去了兩個多月。都說時間能夠慢慢撫平創(chuàng)傷，但愿這篇文章不會再次刺痛那些正在愈合的“傷口”。因為選擇直面可怕的災難，為的是學會更加堅強勇敢地面對生活，進而創(chuàng)建更美好的家園！

心手相連，我們永遠在一起！

——Maisie

The doctor told the 10-year-old boy his legs would have to be 2)sawed off. Although trapped in rubble， the boy refused. “If you have to cut off my legs， I want to die，” he said. “I don’t want to live without my legs.”

The doctor promised the boy he would try his best to save him some other way. Six hours later， rescue workers 3)pried the boy loose. They put him in an ambulance. The boy’s heart stopped three times on the two-hour drive from this mountain town(Beichuan) down to the city of Mianyang. Each time， the doctors managed to restart it. Then they reached the hospital. There， while the boy was 4)sedated， the doctors cut off his legs.

“When he woke up and realized he no longer had his legs， he didn’t cry，” Jiang Zelong， a 19-year-old volunteer who had accompanied the rescue team， told me later. “When he felt pain， he held my hand tight， so tight， and he never shouted out.”

Over the last two weeks， while I was reporting on the earthquake that has killed at least 56，000 people and left 5 million others homeless in this rural 5)swath of southwest China， I heard a constant 6)refrain from my friends and colleagues: This can’t possibly compare to what you saw in Iraq.

I left Baghdad almost a year ago after a long 7)tour there. I then spent some months studying Mandarin in 8)Vermont and Taiwan. It was enough time away from work and in 9)bucolic places to allow me to think that when I landed in Beijing in late April to start my new assignment， I had put behind me much of the ugliness of the war: 10)morgues filled with corpses 11)shredded by 12)shrapnel， 13)mosques demolished by suicide 14)car bombs， the fear of random death that kept people caged in their homes.

Then came the 15)tremor at 2:28 p.m. on May 12. In the following days， making my way through the towns hardest hit by the quake and hearing stories from people like the rescuer Mr. Jiang， I realized that whatever violence people unleash on each other， the 16)wrathful face of nature can be just as cold and lethal and 17)implacable. It too can force ordinary people to confront horrific scenes and to take on the terrible task of 18)triage—deciding who can be saved and who must be 19)consigned to the dead.

Beichuan was once a town of 22，000. It is nestled in a river valley between two mountains， and 20)electric-green rice fields line the roads radiating from it.

The quake lasted minutes at most， but it left half the town 21)smothered by landslides， swallowing people， cars and entire buildings. 22)Boulders the size of 23)sedans rained down from the mountainsides and crushed residents rushing from their homes. One thousand children were trapped in a middle school collapse.

The earthquake placed China on a wartime 24)footing. The afternoon I 25)rode up to Beichuan in the back of a 26)flatbed lorry， three helicopters buzzed overhead while 27)convoys of army trucks passed us. Entire tent villages had sprung up on the sides of the road， some housing the soldiers who would be working here for weeks or months， the others sheltering the thousands of refugees who had hiked， 28)hobbled and crawled from the wreckage of Beichuan.

“I saw bodies all the way here，” said Li Yalan， a 24-year-old computer specialist now sleeping on blankets with her family in a stadium in Mianyang. “I made my way on top of the bodies. On the night of the earthquake， because the rescue teams didn’t come， parents used flashlights to search for their children. I saw people being rescued， but because they were bleeding so heavily， I watched them die right in front of me.”

The lorry dropped us off near the 29)debris of the middle school. No one knew for certain whether any of the children were still alive. No one had time to dwell on it. The area had become a 30)staging post for thousands of rescue workers in hard hats and orange suits， and soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army. It felt like downtown Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The soldiers， teenagers really， stood at

31)attention while being sprayed with 32)dis-infectant. Few had ever seen a dead body before. They marched off with shovels and 33)pickaxes into a town 34)littered with thousands of corpses.

Thousands would probably never be found in Beichuan and the neighboring villages. In Iraq， I had seen single buildings—a mosque， a hotel， an army 35)outpost—flattened by car bombs or missiles. In this town， it was block after block of buildings， all leveled， all grave sites. Red paper lanterns fluttered from the crumbled 36)facade of one restaurant. Atop piles of rubble were photo albums and baby 37)strollers and a pink teddy bear.

Li Yingbi had seen his share of crime scenes and fatal accidents in 24 years of 38)forensics work， but he shook his head when trying to describe what he felt while in Beichuan.

“I can’t say; it’s too complicated，” he said. “We have to go on， and we have to be strong and determined.”

醫(yī)生告訴一個10歲男孩，要想獲救必須鋸掉他的雙腿。盡管困在瓦礫堆中，男孩卻不同意?！叭绻欢ㄒ彽粑业耐?，我寧愿去死，”他說，“我不想沒有雙腿地活著?！?/p>

醫(yī)生保證會盡自己最大的努力，用其他的方法把他救出來。6個小時后，救援人員終于將男孩從瓦礫里救出，送上了救護車。從山城北川到綿陽市區(qū)的兩個小時車程中，男孩的心臟三次停止跳動，每次醫(yī)生都把他搶救了過來。幾經(jīng)波折終于到達醫(yī)院，在那里，醫(yī)生給男孩注射了鎮(zhèn)定劑，幫他做了截肢手術。

“當他醒來發(fā)現(xiàn)自己永遠地失去了雙腿時，他沒有哭，”一直跟著救援隊的一名志愿者——19歲的蔣澤龍（音譯）后來告訴我，“他覺得痛的時候，就緊緊地抓著我的手，死命地抓著，卻從來沒有叫過一聲。”

過去的兩周，我都在追蹤報道地震新聞，這場地震已經(jīng)造成中國西南部農村至少56000人喪生，500萬人無家可歸。我不斷地聽到朋友和同事們說：這種慘烈程度和你在伊拉克所見到的不能相提并論吧。

我差不多于1年前結束了在巴格達的長期采訪任務，并離開了那里。然后，我在美國佛蒙特州和中國臺灣學習了幾個月的普通話，有了充裕的時間遠離工作，過著田園式的平靜生活。4月底到達北京開始新任務時，我認為自己已經(jīng)忘記了戰(zhàn)爭的丑陋：停滿了被榴散彈撕成碎片的尸體的太平間，被自殺式汽車炸彈夷為平地的清真寺，因為對隨時可能來臨的死亡的恐懼而將自己“囚禁”在家中的平民。

5月12日下午2點28分，地震來襲。隨后幾天，我在受災最嚴重的鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)間穿梭，聽人們（比如救助者蔣先生）講述災難發(fā)生時的一個個故事。我認識到，無論人類之間的自相殘殺是如何殘酷，大自然殘暴的一面卻是集冷酷、毀滅性和不可抗拒于一體。它還會迫使普通人不得不面對恐怖的災難現(xiàn)場，進行可怕的兩難選擇——決定哪些人有希望獲救，哪些人又注定被交付給死神。

北川曾經(jīng)是一個有22000人口的小縣城。它坐落在兩座大山之間的河谷中，綠油油的稻田鑲嵌在公路兩旁，并向四面延伸。

地震最多只持續(xù)了幾分鐘，可是崩塌的山體吞沒了人、汽車和一幢幢的房子，并將半個縣城變成了死城。轎車般大小的巨石沿著山坡如急雨般墜落，把從家中逃出來的居民砸得粉身碎骨。1000名孩子被掩埋在坍塌的中學教學樓里。

地震使中國陷入了戰(zhàn)時狀態(tài)。我坐著一輛平板貨車進入北川的那天下午，三架直升機在頭頂上盤旋，運輸軍隊的卡車川流不息。路旁出現(xiàn)了完全由帳篷組建的村莊，一些帳篷里住著將要在這里工作幾周甚至幾個月的士兵，其他的則住著幾千名難民，他們一路跌跌撞撞，終于從近乎成了廢墟的北川徒步跋涉至此。

“一路上，我看見到處都是尸體，”24歲的計算機專家李亞蘭（音譯）說，她與家人此時正睡在綿陽體育館安置點的毯子上?！拔覐乃麄兩眢w上跨過去。地震發(fā)生的當天晚上，因為救援隊還沒到，父母們打著手電筒尋找自己的孩子。我看見有人被救出來，但因為失血過多，只能眼睜睜地看著他們在我面前死去?！?/p>

卡車在靠近中學廢墟的地方把我們放下。沒人確切地知道是否仍有學生活著。沒人有時間在此停留。這里已經(jīng)變成了幾千名戴著安全帽穿著橙色制服的救援人員和人民解放軍的補給站。這里就像是“9#8226;11”襲擊后的曼哈頓市區(qū)。

那些士兵們都還只是十幾歲的青少年，正立正著接受噴霧消毒。之前，他們中很少人見過尸體?，F(xiàn)在，他們卻要扛著鐵鎬和鐵鏟，在這個散落著幾千具尸體的小城中挺進。

在北川和周圍的村莊，幾千名逝者的遺體可能永遠也找不到了。我在伊拉克看過單個建筑，譬如，一座清真寺，一家旅館，一個軍隊哨卡，被汽車炸彈或是導彈完全摧毀?？墒?，在這個小城，一片片的建筑群都被夷為了平地，變成了一座座墳墓。一家已經(jīng)支離破碎的餐館門前，幾只大紅紙燈籠隨風搖曳。在瓦礫堆的頂部，你總能發(fā)現(xiàn)一些相冊，幾輛嬰兒車或是一只粉紅色的泰迪玩具熊。

李英碧（音譯），24年的法醫(yī)生涯早讓他習慣了各種兇殺和重大事故現(xiàn)場，但是，當他試著描述在北川的感受時，他搖了搖頭。

“我說不出來，太復雜了，”他說，“我們必須堅持下去，我們必須堅強，必須有堅定的信念?！?/p>