I spotted a tower that I identified as the one my dad comes to everyday for eight hours straight. The tower was glaring with the blazing sun above and the fair blue sky, the sun coming off the tower so bright it was blinding everyone that dared to look at it. For this reason, when my dad finally found a place to park, I just stared at the back of his heels to get into the tower. Once inside I noticed immediately that the floors were made of elegant marble of different colors and shapes. Chairs and couches scattered around the incredibly large hall with a very long, slick desk along the back wall. I was dismayed by the sheer size of this place.

       “Hey Dad,” I questioned. “What floor is your office on?” 

       “It’s on floor 63, Jack,” my dad commented with a sigh implying that he's told me this many times before. It sounded relatively familiar, however I don’t think I've ever quite cared enough to listen.

       The lady at the front desk smiled at my father and said, “Good morning, Mr. Sullivan.” 

       “Good morning to you as well, Linda.” Linda was a rather tall woman with blonde hair going to just below her chin. She wore a handkerchief top and shiny pants that were mildly blinding when the light hit them just right.

        We reached the elevator and pressed the button to floor 63. All the while Survivor by Destiny's Child was playing in the background; this wasn’t my favorite song, but I could deal with it for the short amount of time that we were actually in the elevator. My dad said he'd been begging them to play his favorite song, Fallin by Alecia Keys, at least once a day, but he hadn’t succeeded yet. 

       We arrived in my dad’s office at 8:15 because he had a meeting at 8:30. Bookshelves lined the walls head to toe, and there was a regal desk right smack in the middle of the room. I thought,  all this is a little much, but it's my dad’s office, not mine. He left me there alone to play on my Gameboy Advanced until he got back. I looked out the floor to ceiling windows into the morning sky with huge skyscrapers all around me. The moment I looked down, I realized how incredibly high up I actually was. I normally am not afraid of heights, but this was different because the highest I had ever been was only 100 feet. 

       I slowly backed away from the window to my dad’s soft and luxurious chair to keep playing my Gameboy. On the horizon I saw a plane looking like it was coming in my direction, but it was hard to tell from my dad’s chair. I walked back toward the window to get a better look of where the plane was headed and noticed that it looked like it was going down onto a runway. I knew the New York Skyplane Sea Base was the closest airport and was a little over two miles away. I was concerned when I noticed the plane was too low to land there.

       “I’m just seeing things,” I murmured to myself, hoping it would make me feel better about the plane seeming low. I looked up at the clock just to realize it was only 8:40, but my dad said earlier that his meeting ended around 9:00. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less. I went back to playing my Gameboy, hoping to forget about the seemingly low plane. Just as Mario Kart Super Circuit was loading I thought I heard a plane very close overhead. I went back to the window to try and see it but realized that the wing was less than 100 feet away from where I was standing. I stood there with my face frozen as the plane I had just been staring at hit the North Tower, sending debris everywhere. Almost instantly there was a huge explosion caused by the gas in the plane igniting. 

       “Holy s&%$!” I howled in alarm at what I had just witnessed. Any kind of thought even remotely close to this had never crossed my mind let alone it actually happening in real life. Once I got out of my dazed state I rushed to try and find my dad. I knew his meeting wasn’t over yet, but I didn’t care because a stinking plane had just crashed into the building next to us. I shot down the hall towards the conference room, not caring what anyone was thinking about me. 

       Once I seized the hallway of the conference room I started yelling, “Dad!” People were coming out of their offices to see what all the commotion was, so I had to sidestep someone seemingly every step of the way.

       Just as I was about to reach the conference room I looked out one of the windows to get a glimpse of another plane hitting my tower, which seemed to be about 30 floors up. There was an instant shockwave spread throughout the entire building in a matter of seconds. Everyone in my sight immediately plunged to the ground because of the shake. I was one of the unlucky ones because I happened to smash my head into the floor. However, dizzy and dazed, I made my way to the conference room. 

       When I reached the doors my heart dropped into my chest so deep that it felt like it could never get out again. My dad was missing! The whole table was empty with no signs of anyone ever being there. I’m probably just in the wrong room, I thought to myself, hoping it would make me feel better.

        Sprinting through the halls, trying to find my dad, I was losing hope that I would find him. I looked up at the next clock I came across, and it said it was about 9:15. I figured if I headed back to my dad’s office I could find him, but I would have to hurry because the fire was starting to spread toward my floor. 

       On the way back to the office rubble was starting to fall from the ceiling because the structural integrity of the building was starting to flounder. I narrowly evaded piece after piece of rubble hitting me, my heart racing a million miles a minute. I trekked back to the office, but my dad wasn’t there. 

        I started to hear police sirens coming from the bottom of the building. My vision started to get clouded from the dust seeping in from the floors above. Luckily my dad had a Yankees hat stored on the shelf; I ripped it down and put it on my head to block the dust. Just as my vision was getting clear the building shook, and chaos erupted around me, screams everywhere. I figured this was my que to leave, so despite my worries for my dad, I had to leave for my own safety. 

       I went out in the hallway, and the typically serene offices were covered in dust, unrecognizable by the naked eye. People filled the hallway top to bottom, leaving no room for anyone else, trying to escape. If only I was Spiderman, I could climb across the ceiling and, better yet, out the window, and down the building. However, I was just a fourteen year-old boy with no super powers. As I made my way down the hallway it was more and more apparent that the elevators were not working from the amount of people snaking back the way they came. Seeing this, I didn’t want to get caught all the way at the elevator with no way to escape. Back I went fighting the tsunami of people coming my way. Once I traversed my way through the hoard I looked out the window at a horrifying scene. 

       People were jumping from the floors above, knowing there was no way to escape, their faces in anguish as they fell, knowing that was their only option for a quick death. If they had stayed put they would slowly perish from the smoke filling their lungs. 

       The shaking of the building began getting more frequent. The dust from the crumbling building made it so I could barely make out the flashing lights from the police cars and fire trucks below. The smoke was starting to become unbearable, forcing me to put my shirt over my face until I could find a better filter. 

       On my way to find an escape I heard my name being called from behind.  As I turned around I saw Kayla rushing toward me; I forgot her dad worked here as well. Both knowing this would be the only familiar face we would see for a while, we ran toward each other. 

       “Where’s your dad?” we both said in sync. 

       “I don’t know, I was hoping you knew where they were!” we said again in unison.

        We stood in silence, waiting for the other one to try and say something as the world around us was crumbling and the noise was deafening. 

       “We have to find a way out of here somehow!” I shouted “There is probably a stairwell somewhere around here that we can use to escape.” 

       “Yeah, my dad was asking earlier if I wanted to take the stairs, and he pointed down the hall.  Let's go!” Kayla shouted in enthusiasm because that could be our ticket out of here. 

       We darted down the hall, not worrying about anything going on around us, just wanting to get out of there. We weaved in and out of people and chunks of ceiling falling to the ground. We arrived at the staircase only to find it completely decimated by the numerous quakes of the building. 

       “Aaagh!” I shouted, frustrated that this wasn’t our way out. 

       Relax, Jack,” Kayla said in a relatively even tone, though anyone could tell she was distraught inside. “We’ll just have to find another way out.”

       “Ohh, I know!” I shouted seemingly loud enough that it could be heard from hundreds of feet away. “Most buildings have two sets of staircases in opposite corners, so there’s probably one on the other side of the building!” I said this hoping that this one is intact unlike the one we were just at that had crushed our dreams of escape. 

       We turned around, frightened to see that we couldn’t see five feet in front of us; the smoke was heavy, and the smell was worse than rotten eggs. We knew if the smoke continued we would have less than an hour to escape as long as the building didn’t collapse.  

        As we sprinted with windows flashing by we thought we heard firemen yelling to jump and they would catch us. We went to the window and couldn’t see where the safety net was through the haze. We decided we didn’t want to risk the jump. We both knew that we wouldn’t be able to survive from this height anyways; we had to go lower. 

       Kayla and I ran toward where we thought the other stairwell would be. As we grew closer the smoke started to thicken; we knew we had to move faster. When we got to the doors of the stairs we could see people’s heads appearing, in and out of the haze, in a way that they would be moving down the stairs; we knew we had our way out. The crowd in the stairs was worse than the crowd gathered at the elevator, but we knew we had to try. What seemed like about half way down the stairs the group started to slow to a halt, with people around us uttering in confusion, wondering why we were stopped. I went up on my toes and saw a gap between steps about five feet across. People were afraid to jump but willing to risk it because it was the only escape. Not everyone was willing to jump, so they stood in horror since they wouldn't be able to get out. 

       It had become our turn to jump even though I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it. Despite this I went first to show Kayla that it wasn’t that hard. I vaulted myself across the gap with ease, surprised at the fact that I didn’t even stumble. Now it was Kayla’s turn to leap the chasm. 

       “C’mon, Kayla!” I roared. “You can make it!”

       “Are you sure about this, Jack?” Kayla asked with so much question in her voice I was starting to question whether she should jump as well.

       “Yes, Kayla, this is our only way out!” I asserted with so much heart in my voice it even surprised myself. I didn’t know that I could sound like that. 

       Kayla hurdled the gap but was unlucky enough to twist her ankle on the landing. She cried out in pain as everyone around us thought that there was no way for her to make it out. 

       “Kayla!” I exclaimed in a ragged voice. I thought that was it, that there was no way we would make it now. 

       I helped Kayla up, both of us panting in sync at the non stop sprinting, jumping, or dodging. I helped Kayla down the remaining stairs, both of us ragged and coughing up a storm with the amount of smoke we had inhaled. The lower and lower we got, the louder the sirens outside grew, letting us know it was almost over; all the torture we had endured inside that wretched building was coming to an end. We had finally gotten to the bottom of the stairwell to find that the door was slightly barricaded with debris. I set Kayla down on the stairs while I got to work on clearing the debris. Slowly, more people started trickling down the stairs, giving me more and more help clearing the wreckage blocking us in. Once there were about ten of us moving all the rubble out of the way, we were out of the stairwell in a few minutes. 

       It finally seemed that there was a hope of escape. All of the previous actions weren’t in vain, hoping to get somewhere, not knowing if it would do anything. All of a sudden even more cracks were forming in the ceiling above. The sturdy cement and metal walls around us started crumbling easier than cutting a stick of butter with a knife. Thousands of pounds of  cement and metal and any other material you could think of came crashing down on us in less than a second. I see a huge piece of cement flying at mine and Kayla’s heads. Then I blacked out.

       I woke up, surrounded by what used to be the South Tower, soaked in blood, and feeling like I had at least ten broken bones. I looked up to see a giant piece of rebar pointing directly at my face. Huh? I think to myself, wondering what this thing could possibly have been used for. It was so close to me that I could barely move an inch forward without hitting my head on it. I quickly realized that there were many of these pieces sticking out of a tremendous chunk of cement. 

       Once I had finally figured out my surroundings my thoughts wondered to Kayla. Where is she? Is she okay? Did she even survive the crash of the building?  I struggled to get up on broken bones and a broken mind, carefully picking around all the rubble of the building, looking for a way out of what felt like a prison cell. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a small gap near the ground that I thought could possibly be big enough for me to squeeze through.

       As soon as I got halfway through the hole I heard someone shouting a little away from me, to my left. To my extreme surprise it was Kayla! She survived the crash! 

       “Kayla!” I shouted with so much passion that even a monkey could tell I was happy to see her. I didn’t know if I would ever see her again.

       “Jack!” she screamed. “Help, I’m stuck! I… I think my leg is broken. It seems to be  backwards.” 

       I reached down toward her hand to try to pull her out, but she was stuck fast. I tried to pull off the giant chunk of cement holding her in place but to no avail. I regarded a piece of rebar that looked loose enough to pry it out of its cement captor. Pulling with all my might, the rebar came flying out, sending me to the ground in sprawls. 

       I slid the rebar into the bottom of the cement, hoping to use leverage and my weight to my advantage. I practically laid on the bar for it to move. I stared down the part that appeared to be holding Kayla down. As soon as it moved I commanded Kayla, “Go! It's off, but I can’t hold it much longer!” I looked like a constipated person trying to poop holding the cement off her. Once Kayla was out I dropped the rebar with a huge thud. I ran over to Kayla, and we embraced each other in a hug, so relieved to be alive. 

       We slowly but surely dug our way out of the rubble, and as soon as we were in view of the street a firefighter announced to his search team, “Hey! We got two kids over here! Very injured but alive!” 

       This meant we were finally free of trouble! It had been so long since we were last seen by another human that wasn’t each other. I mean, we had gone past countless bodies on our journey out of the rubble, but none were breathing. The fireman asked a question to snap me out of my thoughts. 

       “Hey kids, what are your names?” the man questioned with a gentle smile on his face.

       “I’m Jack Sullivan,” I stated. “Fourteen years old.”

       “I’m Kayla Thatcher,” Kayla declared. “Also fourteen years old.”

       She looked at me with a smile so bright it looked like it was saying, we did it, Jack. We really did it!

-Ryan G.