The North Tower has been struck?  The words seem to go in one ear and out the other. Smoke and ash billow around the section where the plane penetrated the building. People frantically run around with a dazed, yet fearful look in their eyes. Papers from the other building flutter out of the gash, and flames start to engulf the hole. As if it were a rubber band, reality snapped back to me. I have to get out of here, I think to myself as I push myself up off the ground on all fours. Mike cowers under his desk, crying. Ignoring him, I rush to the stairs, knowing that if the North Tower were to fall against our building, the elevator would be my demise. Besides, I had a family to get home to.

         As I rush down the stairs, my watch beeps, signaling the next hour, nine o'clock. My forehead and back tingles with sweat. With each floor I fly past, I know that's one less floor until I get home to my family. I finally pass the seventy-third floor when a large jolt throws me down a flight of stairs. The sound of a bomb going off accompanies it as I tumble down the steps, hitting each one with great force. Reaching out, I grab the handrail, stopping myself from falling any longer. I groan as I gingerly touch my forehead, my fingers turning sticky and wet. When I lower them, they're coated with red. Ignoring the throbbing pain in my head, I thrust myself upward, and start running down the stairs once more. 

       I let my momentum carry me down the stairs as I watch the floors pass by with speed. Adrenaline rushes throughout my veins, propelling me even further. I miss a step, and I fall to my knees, a pain bursting through my whole leg. Knowing it was a stupid time to check, I look at my watch. Through the busted face, I can see the time, 9:28. I do the math in my head as I try to catch my breath. I ran an average of one floor per....... per what? I'm slowly losing my mind, I hopelessly think to myself. The adrenaline rush ends, and reality hits me once more. The North tower was being turned into a deadly inferno, and the South Tower would soon follow. I was almost at the ground floor, yet I knew I was going to die here. I wouldn't see Alexia, Steve, or Claire again. I sat on those stairs, sobbing into my cupped hands, knowing my world was slowly crumbling around me.

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AN: Hey, so I decided that these would be shorter little snippets, because the story was going by way too fast, and I wanted it to be a bit longer. Remember, 100th in Historical Fiction, or 50 votes. Merry Christmas guys!!!!