The day the country cried

The day started out rather regular just like any other day I got up and had my breakfast on the run as usual and drove to the office while drinking my coffee.  It was a beautiful September day in New York, the traffic was bad the cabbies were rude and the jaywalkers were in full swing.  I got to the office joked around with some of my buddies and I turned in some paper work to the boss.  Rather ordinary by my standards really nothing strange at least not until about half an hour into the day.  I heard some large bang my first thought was that a car exploded or something but it seemed so strange and I could see smoke coming out of the window.  I worked in tower 1, which was the second tower hit by the attacks but the first to go down.  When I heard the ruckus that my co-workers were forming I suddenly had the thought that I should get the hell out of there.  I ran down to the elevator not thinking of what might happen if I took the elevator down.  I then had a sudden feeling that this was stupidity so I went back to my office.  I couldn�t get any news from in there since we didn�t have any TV�s but I wanted to find out what was going on.  I went to the Internet but of course it was a bit to early to get any real news on what was going on.  Some people were screaming that a plane flew right into tower 2; I of course was skeptical of this but learned that they were correct.  My greatest fear now was that tower 2 might tip over and bring down a few floors in tower 1.  I panicked this time not knowing what to do so I grabbed my suitcase and ran down to the stairs this time.  I figured if tower 2 collapsed into tower 1 the elevators might fall down into the shaft and I�d die there.  For the first time in my life I found myself to be a very religious man, as I ran down those flight of stairs I prayed to the almighty, all knowing gods, Buddha, Jesus, Zeus, est.� I ran as hard and fast as I could down those stairs but it was difficult because many of my co-workers felt as I did and were attempting to get out of the building.  I had a mighty long haul down also.  I must have ran down maybe 12 floors by the time the second plane hit.  It hit about 2 floors above me, and I could feel the explosion and I fell to the floor quickly from the impulse of the direct hit.  When I got up I had a huge gash on my head and lost my suitcase but by this time I could honestly not give a shit about the goddamn suitcase.  I got up and prayed once again to all the gods I could think of one of them had to be correct I was sure of it.  I ran down the stairs again but it seemed I had been unconscious for quite some time.  The building was starting to collapse around me.  I ran through the door way that lead to that specific floor I honestly have no idea or recollection of which floor it was I just ran in.  I wanted to see what was going on outside and all of a sudden as I approached the window I saw Alice falling down she jumped out of the office window.  Apparently it was either jump, burn or die when the crash of the building occurred.  She choose exactly what I would have had I had the chance.  While I was thinking of this the floor began to shake terribly I wasn�t sure what was going to happen now I just feared that this would be the end of me, I worried about how my daughter might feel about this.  As this thought went through my head the floor gave way under and above me.  All of a sudden I had pieces of concrete and metal and desks and what not all on top of me.  At first I just kept reaching up trying to grab something that would help me keep from falling, then I just covered my face and curled in a ball so I wouldn�t hurt myself too badly.  When I finally stopped falling I had a pain radiating through my entire body it felt as if a million splinters went into my body at once.  I tried to get up, but it was difficult I could hardly breathe as it was let alone get up and walk.  I looked around and it was pitch dark, I could see a little light just a few feet away from me.  I attempted to scream a few times but all that would come out were shallow yelps.  Finally I decided to lay there and relax as best as I could for a second.  Then I finally got my breath back and was able to get up, I walked over to the sole source of light in my air pocket.  I looked through it and screamed for help but no one answered.  I eventually could hear a few people, which seemed close by doing much of the same.  Soon the entire experience seemed to begin all over again.  I heard a the loudest sound I ever heard in my life and all of a sudden everything was pitch black, I couldn�t even see my hand in front of my face.  Then everything fell on top of me once again.  I fell maybe another 10 feet as the pocket I was in collapsed.  When I lifted my head this time I had been hit in the back of the head with a large slab of concrete from the tower, I could feel the blood pouring all over my face as I struggled to get up but I couldn�t move my right leg.  I looked at it and a huge metal beam crushed it.  I couldn�t move anywhere I screamed for help but could feel that I was loosing consciousness, the hit on my head caused a concussion and it was hard for me to think or see straight.    I could feel my life slowly slipping from my grasp and all I could do was allow it to go.  A sharp coldness swept through me.  The last thing I remember was watching myself laying under a giant metal beam with blood slowly pouring out of my skull which was fractured.  The loose of blood was what finally killed me.