Consternation (DNF 9/11 A/U)

~2~

It had been about 20 minutes since George had come and none of us had said a word since our last conversation. It was about 8:37 and the entire 43 floor had gone almost completely silent seeing as everyone had settled down and was now working.

I picked my almost empty cup of coffee up and sipped up the rest of the bitter liquid before crushing the paper cup and throwing it away in a dark green trash can that was under my desk.

I stretched my arms out in front of me, placed my hands on my desk, backed my chair out and stood up then telling Clay and George I had to use the restroom and I'd be back in roughly 6 minutes.

I walked out of the office and took a deep breath before continuing my way to the restroom. The building smelt of cleaning supplies and coffee, which honestly didn't mix well together when letting the scent sit in my nostrils while trying to take in my surroundings.

When I got done using the restroom, I went up to the sink washing my hands and splashing cold water on my face before wiping it off with a paper towel and looking at my pale porcelain skin with freckles barely noticeable dancing across my face and my gray blue eyes that seemingly brought all my features together. I then sighed and figured stalling wouldn't do me well and I should probably get back to work.

When I got back to my office, I put a hand on my chair getting ready to pull it back out when I suddenly heard people letting out gasps and shouting.

When I sat at my desk my back was facing the big window, so if I were to turn around the scenery that would be presented to me was a good view of New York City. When coming into the office you also got a good overview of the city but when I walked in from going to the restroom, I didn't look out the window seeing as I've seen it dozens of times so there was no use looking at the same thing over and over again.

But hearing people's gasps and shouts the first thing I thought to do was look ahead of me and it seemed Clay and George had the same idea as well.

I stood there frozen, unable to move at the sight in front of me. It was like my feet were glued to the ground as I watched an American Airline Plane Crash into the North tower with a loud booming bang.

Black smoke erupted from the tall 1,368-foot building and the area around it became the same eerie color that was haunting to look at. I could feel panic rising in my body as I had to force myself to process what had just happened, and what to do next.

Our sight of the North tower was gone in almost an instance as people in the hallways on level 43 started screaming and yelling out of fear none of them knowing what to do, somewhere still in their chairs just observing the situation while others were running around bumping into one another rushing to exit the building even though our tower wasn't hit.

I could feel tears forming in my eyes because of all of the emotions I was feeling and all the thoughts that were forming in my head.

I still stood there looking out the big glass window watching as dust and debris fell out from the black cloud of smoke. In the distance you could see people running away from the building and just running in general.

"George, Moxie!" Clay yelled in panic getting up out of his seat, grabbing both of our arms and pulling us closer to him to get our attention.

"I- we need to get out of here, let's go!" He said trying to keep as calm as possible though consternation was in his eyes, and he was shaky to the touch.

"Would our boss get mad at us for leaving?" George asked as you could see his chest rise up and down more at a rapid pace because he was panicking, and so was I.

"Look around, do you see everyone else leaving? I know that that plane didn't hit the South Tower, but what if it falls on us? Or somehow this building catches fire, I-I don't know but I'm getting both of you guys out of here!"

Clay pulled us out of the office and looked to his left and right frantically trying to decide what to do next.

"I can't see anything!" Clay sputtered his uneasiness growing by the minute. He was right. You couldn't see anything. With everyone tramping around it was hard to make out our surroundings and it was nerve wracking because no one knew what was going on. Everything happened so instantly, hardly anyone had enough time to process what had happened. It's like giving an old computer too much data and expecting it to run properly.

"J-just follow everyone else!" George shouted seeing as it was hard to hear over everyone's loud noises.

As Clay started following the crowd it hit me. Nick and Zak worked in the North Tower. It seemed like Clay and George were too distracted by what happened to think about Nick and Zak.

"What about Nick? What about Zak?!" I blurted out in a shaky voice hearing my voice crack, concerned for my friends.

George looked over to me with the same worried impression as Clay still held onto us not wanting us to get lost in the big crowd as he was trying to navigate us to the stairwell.

"I-I don't know!" Clay said his grip seemed to tighten on our arms. Everything we would say seemed to come out slurred or as a stutter because we all were panicking too much from the situation. At times it was hard for us to make out what the other was saying, and we would often need one another to repeat what we had said.