As he walked to the sidewalk he saw the bus just pull away from the stop. After four blocks of running, he finally caught the bus at the next stop. After ten minutes of sweating and panting, he finally calmed down. He had other things to worry about now. Josh had already been late three times and if he were to be late today, that would make him unemployed.
As he rushed to his cubicle, his friend in the next cubicle whispered to him, “That’s four Josh.” But luckily for him the boss had not come in today for some reason.
“Well if we didn’t work on the tallest floor of New York I would have made it. That elevator is so slow!.”
As Josh settled down for a day of work, he heard a whoosh follower by a loud rumbling noise. The lights flickered as the sprinkler system went off.
“It's an earthquake!” shouted one of the interns.
Josh immediately headed for the stairs knowing that the elevators had shut down. But as he opened the door to the stairs, he saw an orange glow a few floors down and a large wall of smoke. Immediately, he turned around and headed toward the higher floors. On the way up Josh saw the janitor that he used to talk to while he worked after hours on those cold New York nights. He said, “ What’s going on Josh?”
“I don’t know but let's get away from the fire.”
As they rushed to the 96th floor, they saw a plane shooting by and hitting the second tower. Screams were heard from all around, but Josh did not hesitate to stop to look around. By now the stairs were being flooded with water making the steps slippery. Soon Josh had reached the observatory deck and could go no higher.
“This is the end I guess,” he whispered as he looked out the window seeing nothing but black smoke. Now the fire had climbed higher and the heat was beginning to be intense. People all around were unbuttoning their shirts and everyone was sweating. Every once in a while there were rumblings heard from below. Now the soles of josh’s shoes were beginning to stick to the floor.
“The fire’s near,” said a co worker.
Now the rumblings had become more frequent and they sounded closer. The heat was so intense that they were forced to break the thick windows so that the cool air could come in.
“What’s happening?” said Josh.
At that moment the floor began to shake and cracks began to appear everywhere. Suddenly, Josh looked over to the right and saw fire burst out of the floor. Everything began to crumble. Josh ran to a nearby pillar for safety knowing in his mind it was useless. As the floor crumbled below him the air was filled with a thick gray dust. Suddenly, Josh began to fall seeing quick flashes of debris and papers. The sound was overwhelming. As if a hundred airplanes took off at the same time. Then Josh blacked out. When he regained consciousness all he saw was darkness. He felt his leg throbbing with pain. As he tried to move, he found out that he couldn’t. There was a great pressure over his body. His head rested on a piece of a copy machine now crushed into nothing. After endless hours of survival, Josh finally died. Josh was only one of hundreds who died on September 11th 2001.
by JL age 14