WARNING!!! I understand that, for some people, this chapter could be extreamly emotional and braing back bad momories. Please read with caution. Also, please do not judge my character just yet for his reaction. You will learn more about him in the next chapter, and then the understanding shall being. WIth great respect, thank you, for reading this, and to all our soldiers and those who died for our country.
PROLOUGE
I struggle through the darkness, ripping through it like one rips through their sheets after a terrifying nightmare. I was drowning, scared, I was being pulled down into the dark abyss of nothingness, pure nothing. I clawed my way upwards, knowing that if I stopped, if I gave up, that I would fall, so far, forever, until I became, essentially, nothing.
My eyes opened, only to slam shut again in an instant. Pure light had poured in, and my skull cracked, pain seeping into my brain through it all. Screws were driven into my temples and children smashed me with hammers. Finally, the pain subsided. Slowly and oh so carefully, I tried opening my eyes again, making it very gradual so as my eyes would adjust and my head would remain intact.
There was fear and panic in the air, I could feel it, everything was high-strung, but I could not pin-point where the panic was coming from. There was so much of it, from so many directions, that it hurt me, dug into my skin like nails. Finally, when my eyes were fully open, I looked to see what the horror was.
There was no one in my room, white washed and with only one bed, and no one in the hall, as I could see through one of the glass walls. Outside of my room I could see other rooms, looking just like mine and a large desk, which had been abandoned, paper scattered as though a wind-storm had come through.
I sat up, pain coursing through my head, but I was so curious as to where I was and what had happened, I continued my movement, getting out of my bed. I headed for a large bay window in one of the walls, a window that I could not see out of, for the way my bed was angled in relativity to it. There was a tug on my arm, and I turned to see a rubber tub attached to a bag that led into my arm. Grabbing at it, I ripped it from my skin, the colour red closely following. Ignoring the sharpness on my arm, I turned to the window with my new-found freedom.
I pulled back the curtain to see black smoke billowing into the sky about a half of a mile away. A city was sprawled below me, and above I could see two buildings, much taller then the other one surrounding them. This is where the smoke was coming from, one of the buildings, turning the whole sky the colour of ash. Death seemed to have arrived in the city. Sirens echoed in the streets below and flashing lights flew by the building three stories below. I wondered what had happened, what had made this big smoke in such a large tower. Was there a fire? A bomb? Or something else all together?
The scream of an engine pulled my eyes from the burning building, the one that rose above all the others, and I looked to the sky. A jumbo-jet was racing across what was left of the blue sky, quickly descending, heading towards the second tower. For a moment, it seemed to hang in mid-air, the fear and panic so thick in this city that it seemed that the plane couldn’t travel any further because the air had turned into molasses.
But then, plane and building collided. The jet disappeared, and for a moment, serenity. The peace was destroyed by an ear-shattering explosion as the top portion of the tower was engulfed in flames. Unable to move, I stood, staring as the building burned. It was then that I noticed things falling from the two towers. What was it? Pieces of the building? Was it collapsing? No. It was bodies. People were throwing themselves, burning, from the tops of the towers, over one hundred stories to the ground far, far below.
Hearing a gasp behind me, I turned to see a woman standing in the doorway, tears streaking down her face. She was wearing blue pants and a shirt with cartoon characters on them, and she had the air of authority, of someone who had been in this building for a long time. “Sir,” she said. “You’re awake! I was just coming up to get you, all patients have to move down to the first floor, due to the impending crisis…”
Her voice faltered and a fresh stream of waves came forth as though an ill-fitting dam had tried to hold back a tsunami. After sobbing for a few moments, she gasped for breath and said, “I’m so sorry. It’s just that…my husband works there and…oh goodness! He could be dead! But he can’t be…he’s my Randy…he just can’t be dead…” She grabbed a tissue from the nightstand by the bed and frantically blew her nose and whipped away her tears, something that had no effect for the just kept coming with no seeming end.
I turned back to the window and watched the scene unfold, blacking out the woman’s sobbing. I could feel every emotion in this city, every person. The fear, the pain, the sadness, the anger, it all ran heavy upon my soul. It pierced my skin like a thousand tiny needles, like there were shards of glass underneath my skin.
I felt everyone’s pain everyone’s needs except for my own. Inside, I was empty. I looked death an the face and felt nothing at all.
... I love my three lives.
Gender:
Points: 2474
Reviews: 47