Post by Drew White on Jul 8, 2010 5:04:39 GMT -5
Screams.
I’ve heard the term blood-curdling before, but I felt nothing. It was the type of screams that numbs your soul, and it was everywhere.
My God, oh my God, oh my God. A male’s voice wails in the not so distance. I can tell his body is convulsing, shivering in pure shock, over the deafening roar of the inferno raging ominously around me. Around us. The countless men and women, boys and girls, children once strangers tied together in fate; a bond closer than my own arm to my body.
Help me! Please, won’t someone help us! A woman screams.
Susan, where are you? Please, answer me!
Hello? I hear a voice muffled under what could be debris, drywall, scaffolding. Can anyone hear me? I need help!
Cries. Desperate cries of shock and pain. Without knowing what happened, what ripped through the building, and what will be of us, our cries are one. The florescent bulbs in the ceiling pop and hiss in frustration as the entire twenty-five story building moans in agony.
Smoke as dark and deep as outer space billows out of a ten foot wide gaping hole in the floor, some rushing through the carnage above, some across my face. I no longer attempt to breath. What could cause all of this? Five seconds ago, I was walking across the hall with a dozen roses, and now... Now, that hall is my coffin. Is our coffin.
As if a dream, I lug at my right foot, hoping to move one inch, one millimeter forward, to do anything but to remain cowardly in my place. Please move. You have to move my ears tell me. A voice, not mine, but all too familiar. Please move, I can’t breathe. Beth? Is that Beth?
You’re killing me! I hear her scream.
“ELIZABETH!” I shout at her voice. Almost immediately, all the glass left intact shatters, showing the entire floor in shards. Another round of screams erupt.
I begin sprinting toward her voice, trying to cover my head with my arms. Trying to shield myself from whatever is falling around me. I begin to jump over toppled file cabinets, over burning desks. Over cubicle walls, computers and books. Over limbs, fake plants, thousands of papers, everything and anything in my way. “Elizabeth! Elizabeth, where are you?” I scream again, and before the sentence is over I see to my right, on what is left of the floor, a frail, tear-soaked girl pinned under an industrial filling cabinet, begging for her life. And on top of the cabinet, a large, blood-soaked man is feverishly pulling at the stairwell door.
Without any process of thought, I leap at the man. My arms begin to wrap around his waist as the top of my head strikes his gut. I hear the breath leave his body as my arms continued to reach around him finding nothing but air. Instead, my left shoulder strikes a large metal floor beam bent at a ninety degree angle into the air. I hear a crack as my collar bone snaps in two, tearing through the skin. Without time or fear or any sense of self preservation, my right hand reaches for the ground to lift myself up, hoping I have the strength. Praying I have the ability to save her.
Before I’m completely upright, I’ve turned my body around, thrusting my feet as fast as possible, staring straight ahead as I gauge my target of the large file cabinet on top of her. Seconds before impact, I angle my right shoulder to act as a sledge hammer against a weight I pray will give way just enough to free her. And that if my right collar bone survives, one will be enough to escape with her.
A few feet and one step from my improvised jump, the building vibrates violently once again. My foot slips, twisting my body oppositely as I had planned. My left shoulder slams into the cabinet full force. Instantly, a clap of thunder drowns all other noises. Void of all other sensations, I feel Beth shaking beneath me. The shaking turns to a deep rumble. The rumbling into complete and utter chaos.
My body perpendicular to hers, I slowly raise my head to look behind me. The few support pillars that remain begin to crack. The concrete seems suddenly brittle as large chunks fall from its underlying metal frame. The metal begins to moan. The ceiling above us descends under an apparent complete collapse. I hear hundreds of people erupt in a unified scream. I see a few people still laying on the ground, some standing, some bracing themselves against the very same pillars as half of the building begins to fall upon us. I dig my left leg into what I hope will still be there over the next few seconds, gaining leverage to swing my frame over hers, attempting to cover every square inch of her already broken shell. My body, her shield. Even if in false hope.
A sound so foreign, so immense pounds my ear drums relentlessly as if two planets were colliding. It continues as if an eternity has passed by me, and I realize that this must be death.
“I’m so sorry Lizzy Beth.” I whisper in her ear. “I never had the courage to tell you.”
She can barely open her eyes. “What?” She whispers back in mine, her voice trembling and vague.
And for the exception of what, in comparison, could be described as a few minor metallic whimpers, there is complete silence. I turn my aching neck toward a dark object in my peripheral vision. Through the dust clouds, the smoke, the electrical sparks, and debris, I see a human figure standing at the center of the floor, holding the ceiling upon his shoulders, holding half of the building on his back as I picture Atlas would have supported the weight of the entire world. He glanced my way, but couldn’t see his eyes. I must be hallucinating.
“Evan?” Elizabeth whispers as I turn my face back to hers. At least… at least I was with her, I try to convince myself.
But I found no solace in my failure.
“I wanted to tell you that I’m in love with you.” I whisper back.
But it appears she’s unconscious, as I also fade to black.
I’ve heard the term blood-curdling before, but I felt nothing. It was the type of screams that numbs your soul, and it was everywhere.
My God, oh my God, oh my God. A male’s voice wails in the not so distance. I can tell his body is convulsing, shivering in pure shock, over the deafening roar of the inferno raging ominously around me. Around us. The countless men and women, boys and girls, children once strangers tied together in fate; a bond closer than my own arm to my body.
Help me! Please, won’t someone help us! A woman screams.
Susan, where are you? Please, answer me!
Hello? I hear a voice muffled under what could be debris, drywall, scaffolding. Can anyone hear me? I need help!
Cries. Desperate cries of shock and pain. Without knowing what happened, what ripped through the building, and what will be of us, our cries are one. The florescent bulbs in the ceiling pop and hiss in frustration as the entire twenty-five story building moans in agony.
Smoke as dark and deep as outer space billows out of a ten foot wide gaping hole in the floor, some rushing through the carnage above, some across my face. I no longer attempt to breath. What could cause all of this? Five seconds ago, I was walking across the hall with a dozen roses, and now... Now, that hall is my coffin. Is our coffin.
As if a dream, I lug at my right foot, hoping to move one inch, one millimeter forward, to do anything but to remain cowardly in my place. Please move. You have to move my ears tell me. A voice, not mine, but all too familiar. Please move, I can’t breathe. Beth? Is that Beth?
You’re killing me! I hear her scream.
“ELIZABETH!” I shout at her voice. Almost immediately, all the glass left intact shatters, showing the entire floor in shards. Another round of screams erupt.
I begin sprinting toward her voice, trying to cover my head with my arms. Trying to shield myself from whatever is falling around me. I begin to jump over toppled file cabinets, over burning desks. Over cubicle walls, computers and books. Over limbs, fake plants, thousands of papers, everything and anything in my way. “Elizabeth! Elizabeth, where are you?” I scream again, and before the sentence is over I see to my right, on what is left of the floor, a frail, tear-soaked girl pinned under an industrial filling cabinet, begging for her life. And on top of the cabinet, a large, blood-soaked man is feverishly pulling at the stairwell door.
Without any process of thought, I leap at the man. My arms begin to wrap around his waist as the top of my head strikes his gut. I hear the breath leave his body as my arms continued to reach around him finding nothing but air. Instead, my left shoulder strikes a large metal floor beam bent at a ninety degree angle into the air. I hear a crack as my collar bone snaps in two, tearing through the skin. Without time or fear or any sense of self preservation, my right hand reaches for the ground to lift myself up, hoping I have the strength. Praying I have the ability to save her.
Before I’m completely upright, I’ve turned my body around, thrusting my feet as fast as possible, staring straight ahead as I gauge my target of the large file cabinet on top of her. Seconds before impact, I angle my right shoulder to act as a sledge hammer against a weight I pray will give way just enough to free her. And that if my right collar bone survives, one will be enough to escape with her.
A few feet and one step from my improvised jump, the building vibrates violently once again. My foot slips, twisting my body oppositely as I had planned. My left shoulder slams into the cabinet full force. Instantly, a clap of thunder drowns all other noises. Void of all other sensations, I feel Beth shaking beneath me. The shaking turns to a deep rumble. The rumbling into complete and utter chaos.
My body perpendicular to hers, I slowly raise my head to look behind me. The few support pillars that remain begin to crack. The concrete seems suddenly brittle as large chunks fall from its underlying metal frame. The metal begins to moan. The ceiling above us descends under an apparent complete collapse. I hear hundreds of people erupt in a unified scream. I see a few people still laying on the ground, some standing, some bracing themselves against the very same pillars as half of the building begins to fall upon us. I dig my left leg into what I hope will still be there over the next few seconds, gaining leverage to swing my frame over hers, attempting to cover every square inch of her already broken shell. My body, her shield. Even if in false hope.
A sound so foreign, so immense pounds my ear drums relentlessly as if two planets were colliding. It continues as if an eternity has passed by me, and I realize that this must be death.
“I’m so sorry Lizzy Beth.” I whisper in her ear. “I never had the courage to tell you.”
She can barely open her eyes. “What?” She whispers back in mine, her voice trembling and vague.
And for the exception of what, in comparison, could be described as a few minor metallic whimpers, there is complete silence. I turn my aching neck toward a dark object in my peripheral vision. Through the dust clouds, the smoke, the electrical sparks, and debris, I see a human figure standing at the center of the floor, holding the ceiling upon his shoulders, holding half of the building on his back as I picture Atlas would have supported the weight of the entire world. He glanced my way, but couldn’t see his eyes. I must be hallucinating.
“Evan?” Elizabeth whispers as I turn my face back to hers. At least… at least I was with her, I try to convince myself.
But I found no solace in my failure.
“I wanted to tell you that I’m in love with you.” I whisper back.
But it appears she’s unconscious, as I also fade to black.
