The ground shook beneath me as I ran to get the people still trapped in the building. There was a side entrance that nobody knew about, except for me. I pushed through the door, running towards the stairs to make it to the third floor, where i could hear screaming and cries for help. fire and smoke swirled around, the air was dry and hot. I dropped to my knees to get away from the flames as I heard a drawn out scream from above me. I felt a steely resolve form in me. I would get to those people and i would help them get out of the building that was threatening to collapse under the sheer pressure the bomb had caused as it exploded. The door to the third floor loomed in front of me, out of the smoke. Just as i reached it, the door exploded outwards and i was thrown back, hitting the wall opposite the door. The cries were louder and the room was full of smoke. There was barely a foot of visibility in any direction, but i pushed forward, spurred on by the screams coming from the victims trapped in the room.
I saw a huddled form on the ground, a grown man had thrown himself across the children in the room and he had died after a beam had struck him. The sound left the world as I looked upon this hero that had given his life for people he did not know. I yelled to the remaining people to get out, to go down the stairs to the open door at the bottom. Before i had finished speaking, a woman had pushed the dead man gently off of the children and told them to do as the man said and go downstairs. I stayed after they had run downstairs to make sure there was nobody else left in the room. I started to roll over the man that had saved the children, wanting to see his face. Finally, he was on his back and his face was pointing towards the heavens. I felt a sadness erupt in my heart as i looked at the man who had helped those people. I sat down next to the body and cried, in his last moments, he had helped strangers live by telling them about the door in the side of the building. We had. I had. I looked down at my body one last time as the building collapsed around me and i raised my head to the sky and disappeared in the light. Even on the brink of death, i had helped others. A life spent helping. A life well spent if you ask me.
