“Driver, hold the door for Tom!”
Tom Bocke had been running for two blocks, before the bus stopped. He was late again as usual, and didn’t want to miss work today.
“Thanks for lookin out for me again Pete.”
“I look forward to it everyday.”
“I’m glad I run as fast as I do, I can’t afford to miss work today. There’s an important meeting with the Kraft people today. Jim said if I make a good pitch, it could mean an additional 100 grand per year, as an executive.”
“Good luck, that’s a great opportunity. Do you work in the towers?”
“Yup, what about you?”
“Right on Wall St.”
“We’ll have to meet for lunch sometime Pete.”
“Sure thing Tom, and good-luck today!”
“Thanks!!”
Ever since Tom signed on at Smith & Donne advertising, he had been climbing the ladder towards the executive position, and he was coming closer and closer to his dream. With the right pitch today, he would have the job. Due to his confidence, and his run to the bus, he felt energized and ready to go.
He worked on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center, in a sweet corner office facing the Hudson. At 8am on the dot, Tom arrived at the office. He went to his desk to look over his materials on the Kraft account before the meeting at 8:30.
At 8:27 (to be exact), Tom confidently strolled down the hall to meeting room #2. At 8:35, after the coffee was poured, and everyone’s chatter died down, Tom began. He was on a roll. The reps loved his pitch and were smiling during every minute of it. By 8:42, the deal was complete, everyone shook hands, and as the reps were leaving, Tom felt the entire tower shake like an earthquake.
“What’s was that?” someone cried.
Everyone looked out the window to see a gap in the building 10 stories down, with flames bursting out, and metal scraps falling to the ground. What had happened!?
“Holy Sh*t! What’s happening? Did something hit us?"
“I don’t know but we have to get out of here!”
The group rushed to the elevators in the front of the office. Everyone from the company had gathered there.
“What are we going to do?” Janelle, a secretary in the office screamed.
Tom tried to calm everyone down.
“We’ll get out of here. It can’t be that bad!”
“The elevators are down!” someone cried.
“Of course they’re down you twit! The midsection of the tower is on flames!,” another cried.
“What about the steps?” Tom asked.
“And walk through flames? You idiot, what are you thinking?”
“We’re all going to die up here!,” a pregnant woman screamed.
“This is crazy, we should all just jump!”
“That’s not the answer, there’s another way!” Tom yelled.
“Forget this!,” Jim screamed.
Jim ran toward the broken window.
“I’m not going to die up here with you idiots!”
Tom ran after Jim to attempt to stop him, but he was too late, and almost fell out himself. The look on Jim’s face as he yelled chilled Tom’s blood; he knew he would never forget that sight. Even though Jim had not died yet, the expression on his face and the color of his skin had the tone of death. As Tom turned around, he noticed Lorraine and Jeff slowly walking over to him.
“We want to jump Tom, don’t try and stop us.”
“Are you out of your minds? There’s got to be another way out of this place, you’re not going to give up that easily are you?”
“There’s no other way Tom, I can’t die up here like this. Get out of our way now!”
“I won’t let you do this!”
At that moment, Jeff ran at him, pushing him to the ground, and the two jumped holding hands.
“Has no one any hope at all?” Tom begged.
“We do,” a crowd of people announced, still standing by the elevators.
“If you’ll help us, we trust you.”
“Fine,” Tom said. “Whoever wants to live come with me, follow me to the stairs.”
As the group headed down the stairs, he noticed six people behind, lingering by the broken window. He had to look away before they jumped, he couldn’t take another image like before. The group headed towards the fire, they had to cover their mouths from the smoke billowing up the staircase. All of a sudden they saw it.
The staircase opened up, and Tom pointed out a 3-foot gap in the stairs. There were flames covering the other side. How would they get across? Tom saw patches of yellow through the smoke.
“Is there someone there?,” Tom yelled.
“It’s the fire department! Can you make it though?”
“I don’t know! Do you have any suggestions?”
“Look at the walls, and the ground, is there anything you can wrap yourselves in?”
“Yeah! There are some pieces of tarp hanging from the walls.”
“Perfect. Try to wrap yourselves in it.”
Tom wrapped the women up first and tried to guide them as best as he could.
“Now you’re going to have to jump across Jen, it’s only three feet, you can do it.”
Jen got across okay, then Marie, then Jessie, and then Lorrie. However, after Mary was wrapped, they heard a loud boom, and a part of the stairs gave out. Mary’s jump was short, and she was hanging from the flaming side of the steps.
“Hold on Mary, I’ll get you!,” Tom yelled.
“I can’t! The flames are burning my hands!”
“Hold on!”
All of a sudden, the firemen’s ax poked through the flames.
“Grab on Mary, grab on!!”
Fortunately, the fireman was able to pull Mary up, but not without third-degree burns from the flames. Tom then helped the men over one by one. Jake, and George, and Bill, and Ted all got over. It was Tom’s turn. Except there was no more tarp left to use. He would have to try running through the flame and risk the burns.
He barely made it across. The pain was unbearable. He probably had just as bad burns as Mary. The group slowly but safely made it down to the ground, and to ambulances after that. Laying on the stretcher in the ambulance, Tom reflected about the day. All the events seemed like a blur. Had it all been real?
As the ambulance was pulling away from the World Trade Center, Tom witnessed the tower collapse to rubble. Had that just happened? The tallest building in New York City, reduced to nothing. Through the smoke, he notice the second tower on fire as well.
Tom woke up the next day in the hospital. One of the main things that was on his mind was the look on the people’s faces that jumped. He would never be the same again. He kept on replaying it in his mind. The desperate look on Jim’s face, the certainty of death in his eyes. He would never forget it. It will haunt him forever.
There were still so many questions left to be answered. How many had died? He knew so many in that building. People he cared about. Who had done it? Why? But more importantly: do these people know what they’ve started?
by AN age 18