All We Are Is Bullets// g.w. a.u. (✔)

Tell Me Where We Go From Here

Sept. 11, 2001

8:20 a.m.

I had my Walkman in my left hand and stepped on that train so gracefully, I felt like I was in a movie or something. Little did I know that in twenty-six short minutes, my life would be changed forever. I was going to the restaurant in the North Tower to meet my friend. She ate there the week before and said it was absolutely amazing. We were meeting at 9:00, as she had work at ten. I was staring straight ahead, off in my own little world. Around ten minutes later, we got to the next station and picked up more passengers. Two more people boarded the train; a girl and a boy. The girl sat in front of me but the boy sat somewhere behind me. I continued to listen to my music. It wasn't for another fifteen minutes until I happened to look to my right. I saw the World Trade Center and a plane going towards it. When it crashed was when I took out my ear buds and realized what happened. They tried to take everyone back home after that, but I didn't leave. I got to the train station and booked it to the World Trade Center. My friend said she would be at the restaurant at 8:45 because there was this cute guy that worked there on Tuesdays. I hoped to God that she wasn't in there.  I ran in the familiar lobby and looked at the huge clock on the wall. It read 8:51. I ran to the elevator and was about to punch the button that opened it when someone said in a thick, Scottish accent, "What are you doing? Get out of the bloody building! By God, the tower just got hit by an airplane!" I looked over my right shoulder and saw a man in his late twenties storm out of the lobby. I focused on the elevator again and noticed it wasn't responding. "They shut the elevators down," I heard a female voice say. "They don't want anyone going up there." I kicked the metal doors out of frustration and ran to the stairwell.

I remember I got the fifth floor when I heard the next explosion. The other tower got hit. I kept going up the stairs, determined on getting my friend and myself out safely.

I just reached the thirtieth floor when the employees started pouring down the stairs in a huge mass. They swept me away with them.

They pushed me down with them to the thirteenth floor until I pulled myself away from them. I knew it would be futile to go up again. I would just be carried away by the huge crowd or sent back down by others. I followed the crowd down the stairs and got to the ground floor. I looked at the clock in the lobby and it read 9:52. I exited the building and started walking away from it.

I'll call her when I get to a pay phone. I'll make sure she's okay.

I kept walking away but I turned around when I heard a loud, ear-splitting sound. There was a huge cloud of gray smoke and one of the towers looked like it was... shrinking?

Oh, God.

I booked it away, knowing what a tower at that height would do once it reached the ground. I looked frantically for a building to stay in. I saw a comic-book shop off to the right and I ran in there. Luckily, it was unlocked. There was a man sitting at the desk with a small TV perched on the table beside him. He had it turned on CNN. He looked at me, then at the TV. It showed the tower collapsing.

We didn't speak until the other tower fell.

Once it did, he looked at me and said, "What now?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly. My best friend was most likely dead and here I am, sitting in a comic book store with a guy I don't even know.

We didn't talk for the remainder of the time. I waited until the debris settled and there wasn't a huge cloud of gray lingering outdoors. It was around noon when I left the building, giving a small nod to the guy before leaving.

I went back home to New Jersey after that. I went into my apartment and went back to sleep.

I wish today had never happened.