Music is "World On Fire" by Les Friction.

Picture is of September 11, 2001 by NYPD Det. Greg Semendinger.

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CHAPTER EIGHT: Infamy

{September 11, 2001 -- Seventeen Years Ago}

N E W  Y O R K

The North Tower of the World Trade Center is smoking. Fires blaze around the site and debris falls from floors ninety-three to ninety-nine. The whole city screams with sirens and explosions. It sounds as if a bomb has gone off in the World Trade Center. A bomb, a plane, a super-villain: no one is really sure what's happening. All I know is my training, both as a firefighter and as a soldier, and my training is telling to run towards the Tower and help as many people as I can.

Olympia drives towards the danger, not away from it, dodging pedestrians and cars alike. I've never seen a more skilled driver than her. The way she keeps the speed as high as possible while still maintaining control of the large firetruck makes me proud to have her in my Company.

Delmar, seated in the passenger's seat, looks out the window with a large, rough hand gripping the armrest like his life depends on it. He's lived in New York all his life. I know it's killing him to see it fall apart within minutes.

It's killing us all. This is our home. We might have failed to protect it, but you can damn well be sure we'll avenge it.

What I wouldn't give to have my bowstaff right now.

I help Win prepare the hoses for probable fires in the back of the truck. Thomas makes certain all the gear in the trunk is ready for use, including the harasses and oxygen masks in case of a needed rescue operation. Irene checks the ladder and crane controls, making certain they can be used at a moment's notice.

Delmar gets a call on the communications system inside the truck. He instantly answers, talking in firefighter code to the dispatcher. When the call ends, he glances over his shoulder and shouts, "We have orders from dispatch! We're going to get as close as we can to the North Tower and help put out the fires there. Another Company is on it's way to help! We're gonna need all hands on deck. Copy?"

"Copy, Chief!" I reply in unison with the others.

Olympia makes a sharp turn as we get closer to the North Tower, evading the falling debris that comes, not from the Tower itself, but from the other buildings it's fallen on to. I lean onto the side of the truck, barely keeping my balance.

"It's all good here," Win assures me, readjusting his helmet. He looks up at me with a terror of a twenty-something who had no idea this was what he was signing up for. "How are you not about to piss yourself, Imogene?"

"I've been through stuff like this before," I reply, stumbling over to the cabin of the vehicle. "Did they say what hit the Tower?"

Delmar shakes his head. "Sounded like a bomb to me, but no official word yet."

I sigh heavily and look through the front window. Olympia is about to take us right into the dust cloud that's growing in size, expanding into the streets of Manhattan. My fist tightens on the back seat.

"Are you sure about this, Chief?" Olympia asks, looking for a sign to turn back.

Delmar nods, assured of his decision. "We go forward. There are people in there that we have to get out. Another few blocks, at least."

Olympia nods once and raises her voice to warn us, "Hold on to something!"

I grip the chair tighter as the dust consumes the truck. The sheer force of the wind and tiny pieces of debris knocks the truck slightly to the side, causing us to jolt where we are, but Olympia gains control of the vehicle soon after and continues driving forward. She presses the gas pedal with a ferocity I haven't seen since the time I drove a stolen Red Room truck to Warsaw.

I turn back to Irene, Win, and Thomas, pointing to the oxygen tanks and accompanying masks. "It's a dust storm out there. Put those on."

Irene, even though she outranks me as Captain, agrees and grabs three tanks, tossing one to each of us. I put the tank on my back, strapping the harness over my chest with familiar ease. After attaching the rube to the tank and mask and slipping the latter over my mouth, I help the newest member Win do the same.

"You guys do this a lot?" Win asks, his voice muffled a bit by the mask.

I shrug. "Usually buildings aren't the reason."

After assuring we're connected to our oxygen, I hand Delmar and Olympia theirs. Delmar strapped Olympia first, since she's driving through heavy and difficult terrain, then he puts his own mask and tank on.

"Good thinking, Imogene," he replies with a nod.

I start to smile, then point to the window and shout, "Watch out!" as I see someone dart into the middle of the empty street.

Olympia slams on the breaks, causing everyone and everything in the back of the truck to crash forward. I'm nearly thrown into the cabin with Olympia and Delmar. Once we're at a stop, I see the person in the road is waving maniacally for us, screaming for help. He points to the side of the street, showing us a a crumbling, ten-story apartment building. People are trying to escape through the windows of all floors, some falling to their deaths in an attempt to escape. The dust makes them hard to see, but I smell the distinct smell of smoke and ash in the air.

Delmar turns to my Company with new orders. "We stop here. Get out and do your jobs!"

Delmar throws himself out of the truck as Olympia puts it in park. Irene takes command of the ground troops, ordering Thomas, Win, and I to follow her into the building to get as many people out as we can. I take what I can and leave the rest, following the other three out of the truck.

On the street, Delmar is trying to multitask calming the crazed man who stepped in front of the car as well as help Olympia operate the extending ladder on the top of the truck. Irene runs ahead, and I follow closely after her. The gear weighs my body down, but I fight against it with adrenaline. I can hear people screaming for help. If I can do anything, I have to help them.

Thomas and Win take one side of the building, ushering everyone they can find out safely. Irene and I take the stairs to the second floor two at a time. We sweep the floor, hammering on the closed doors. We lead people to the exit as carefully and quickly as possible. Once that floor is clear, we ascend to the third and do the same.

Several floors go by like this. Between the people we save and the near disasters we avoid, I lose count. Around the eighth or ninth floor, the building around us shakes, pieces of the floor under our feet falling away. I run and leap over an opening, landing in a tumble on the other side.

The door beside me opens, and a small child wanders out. Her mother and father follow, the mother having a toddler in her arms. I grab hold of the small child and toss her to Irene on the other side of the chasm, telling the young mother and father to jump after her. I take the baby from the mother's arms, assuring her that I'll keep her safe. Reluctantly, the parents jump over the opening. I follow after, baby in my arms.

"What floor are we on?" I shout over the sound of the sirens and collapse.

The father coughs on the debris in the air, replying, "Ninth floor!"

Turning to Irene, I shout, "Get them to the streets! I'll sweep the tenth floor and get whoever is there out!"

Irene nods, but the mother interjects, "There's no one on the tenth floor today! It's being repaired after a pipe exploded last week!"

"Is there a construction crew up there?" I ask.

She nods. "A few men, I think."

With a nod, I turn back to Irene. "Get them out of here!"

"Hurry, Imogene!" Irene responds, picking up the small child to carry. "This building's coming down any second!"

As Irene takes the small family down the stairs, out of harm's way for now, I bound up the last flight of stairs. When I get to the tenth floor, I see that the mother was right. Most of the rooms are vacant and empty and have been for some time. Equipment and tools lie scattered around the area, but I see no one to operate them. Every apartment I check, scanning them quickly with my eyes, I get more and more worried that something horrible has already happened to them.

"Is anyone up here?" I shout, trying to make a sound over the noise. "NYFD! I'm here to help!"

Then I hear it, the sound of someone crying out in pain, but it's not coming from this floor. It's coming from the roof. I look around, desperate the find the source, or at least a way to get to the source. In the last apartment on the tenth floor, I find a ladder leading up and out of the building, to the roof. I climb it without hesitation, finding the source of the cries there.

I spot three men in orange, construction scrubs. Two such men are trapped under a fallen metal cylinder, one I assume is either a water or electrical unit. The third man is using all his strength to try and push the unit off of his companions, to no avail.

I rush over to help. The third man looks to me with terror in his eyes. "It just won't budge!"

I pull the oxygen mask off my face, discarding it along with the accompanying tank and my fire helmet. They're just going to get in the way. Turning to the unit, I give a reassuring smile to the two men trapped underneath it.

"Don't worry. We're going to get you out." I gesture to the other end of the unit. "We lift together, on three. I'm stronger than I look."

The man does as I say and bends down, placing both hands under the unit. I get a good grip on my end and nod to him. "Lift!"

We both lift, using all the strength in our legs, back, and arms to pull the unit off the two, trapped men. They slip out from underneath it, standing as soon as we drop the unit.

"Are you all right?" I ask, looking them over for injuries.

"Bruised, but we'll live," one of them replies.

The second man gasps and points to something behind us. "What the hell is that?"

I turn towards his line of sight, instantly spotting the object of our attention. It flies speedily through the air, hurdling over the skyscrapers of Manhattan. My eyes follow it as it soars over our heads, the shadow it creates causing the sun to block out for a moment.

It's the second plane.

We're left to watch, in absolute horror, as the plane remains on a collision course with the South Tower of the World Trade Center. As it crashes into the building, pieces of the starboard engine leave the building and fall into the streets and structures below, just a block away from us. Fire erupts from the site, sending ash into the air. Smoke and fire billow out of both Towers, filling the area once again. The explosion creates a sound like no other.

The building below us trembles again after the impact. It sinks to one side, nearly knocking us off our feet. I turn to the three construction workers in a hurry.

"We have to get off this building!"

The building crumbles under us, sinking nearly an entire story in just a few seconds. I fall to my knees as the roof caves into the tenth floor. We all fall, and the walls start to fall apart.

"How the fuck are we gonna do that?" one of the workers shouts.

I find my footing again, pushing my blonde hair from my eyes as my head spins around in a hurry. The stairs are gone; there's no way to get to the lower levels. There are no fire escapes, no ladders of any kind. I have no grappling hooks or climbing gear to skate down the building, nor is there anything to soften our fall from the building. Everything is going to hell and I have no options.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, praying silently as they open. The wall in front of me falls into the alley beside the building, showing me the apartment next to us. An idea forms in my head, and I run over to the edge of the collapsing building, waving the construction workers after me.

"Come on!"

"What the hell are you thinking?"

I point down to the stable building beside us, one that's quickly coming closer and closer as the apartment in which we are collapses into the sinkhole.

"We're going to jump!"

One of the men looks at me like I'm mad. "Are you insane, lady?!"

My frown firms. "I'm a bloody fire fighter, sir, and if you want to live, you're going to bloody jump!"

"Do as she says!" another retorts sharply. "I ain't dying today, man!" And with that, the man jumps onto the roof of the adjacent apartment complex.

I wave the next to do the same, and he does. The building continues to sink rapidly, picking up the pace. The roof of the next building gets close and closer, and I turn to the last worker and wave him onward.

"Come one, damn it!" I shout as he hesitates.

The man shakes his head as he gets a running start. "God damned apocalypse!"

As he leaves the edge of the building, I get my running start. I leap over the precipice, making it into the air and off the collapsing apartment just as the building sinks entirely. A mushroom cloud of dust and debris fires into the air as I land, rolling onto my side in the safety of the next building. I haul my body back up, looking at the workers to ensure they're safe. Once I see that they are, I heave a sigh of relief and turn to look over the edge of the building.

Through the dust, on the side of the building, there's a fire escape that leads to the crowded streets below. Irene and the others in my Company wave at me from the street, surrounded by the hundreds of people we saved. I wave back, then order the construction workers to hurriedly climb down before something else happens. We might have saved this building, but I know there's plenty more to do before the day is up.

Once I'm at the street level, I take off running towards the next building, the one that I saw the starboard engine fall into. Those people need me, and I haven't seen another rescue Company yet.

I'm on my own.

END CHAPTER EIGHT: Infamy.