9.11 - 37. Chapter 37: Escape

September 11, 2001

9:10am: North Tower

We were walking down the stairs slowly, ever so slowly, a step at a time, as masses of people tried to get out of the building. There was only room for two or three people to walk down the stairs, side by side. “You think we should try different stairs?” I asked Stef.

“We are already down to the 25^th floor,” he observed. “I think we should stay with this flight.”

“They’re all this crowded,” the guy behind us said. “I tried the other stairs and decided to slug it out on these.”

“Thanks,” I told him.

“No problem. You could try the elevators. They’re working below the 45^th floor, I hear.”

“No thank you,” Stef said hastily, making me chuckle. “What was that explosion we heard?”

“The one about five minutes ago?” a lady in front of us asked.

“Yes,” Stef responded.

“I figured it was just some extra explosion in this building,” the guy behind us said. “Shit, a plane that big hits a building like this, that’s going to create some problems.”

“A plane hit the building?” I asked. We’d been so focused on getting out of here; we hadn’t really bothered to think about what had happened.

“Yeah,” the guy said. “Where were you guys, anyway?”

“We were on an elevator, and the cable got cut. We managed to climb out the top and get out through an escape door,” I said quickly.

“You were lucky,” he said. I agreed with him.

“That second explosion was from another plane hitting,” the guy behind him said.

“What do you mean? Another plane hit?” the first guy asked. “No wonder this tower is fucked up.”

“No, dumbass, another plane hit the South Tower. Damn near in the middle,” he said. I stared at Stef, totally freaked out.

“They were all in that building,” I told Stef. “Holy shit, everyone was in that building!” I started to panic, and was about to plow all of these people down to get out of here and see if I could help them, but Stef put his hand on my shoulder to calm me.

“There is nothing we can do but work our way out of here,” he said, his voice smooth and relaxed, not because he was relaxed, but because he was trying to keep me from panicking.

I pulled out my phone and started dialing, trying to get in touch with anyone I could. I saw my message light blinking, and remembered that Robbie had left me a message. Amazingly enough, I managed to retrieve it. “We saw the explosion, and heard a plane hit your building. God, I hope you weren’t in there. More than anything else, I hope you’re alright. Call me if you can, and tell me you’re OK.”

“What did he say?” Stef asked.

“He was worried about us when he saw the plane hit this building,” I said, smiling as I did. We’d been fighting lately, which happened sometimes, but I loved him, and he loved me. Right now, that was enough. Stef and I both kept trying to call our various family members here in New York, even as we crept down the stairs at a painfully slow rate.

“Perhaps you should try to call Claire,” Stef suggested. He had stopped calling because he was using his hand to hold the railing and ease the pressure on his sore ankle.

“Good idea,” I said. I dialed her home phone number and was stunned to hear it ringing.

“Hello,” I heard her say.

“Claire, it’s Brad. Have you talked to anyone else?”

“You’re alive!” she exclaimed so loudly she hurt my ear. “Are you out of the tower? Are you safe?”

“Stef and I are in the stairwell on the 20^th floor, trying to get out of here, but there’s a traffic jam with people trying to work their way out,” I told her.

“Are you both alright?”

“Stef sprained his ankle, but we’re fine,” I said. I didn’t want to talk about our problems, I wanted answers from her.

“I haven’t heard from anyone else yet,” she said, sensing my priorities. “If anyone calls, I’ll leave a message on your phone.”

“Cell phone service here is pretty spotty. The lines must be jammed. I think we’ll all congregate at Jeanine’s house,” I told her. That made the most sense, since it would be where Jeanine, Hank, and Maddy would naturally go after they got out of the building. If they got out of the building, I reminded myself sadly. “Can you let anyone who calls know that’s where we’re going?”

“I can,” she said. “What about Daddy?”

“He was going to New York University this morning, so he’s probably alright.” I paused before going on, because I really didn’t want to think about it, but I had to. “Robbie, Darius, and Will were with Jeanine and Hank in the South Tower. They told us a plane hit it too.”

“Oh no,” Claire said. “I was so hoping they weren’t there.”

“What happened?”

“We were watching the news this morning and saw your building on fire, and then as if from nowhere another big jet flew right into the South Tower. It seemed to hit a little more than halfway up,” she said.

“Are they evacuating people from the top floors? We haven’t heard any helicopters.”

“They’re claiming they can’t do that,” she said.

“Why can’t they do that? They’re just going to let those people die? My sons, my partner is up there! They can’t just sit on their asses!” I felt Stef’s hand on my shoulder again, reminding me to calm down.

“I’ll see what I can find out,” she promised.

“No,” I said. “Just keep your line clear in case someone calls.” There was really nothing Claire could do from California that we couldn’t accomplish here on the ground. If we ever got to the ground.

“Be careful,” she pleaded.

“We will,” I said. “I think the worst is over, at least for us.”

“Brad.”

“What?”

“You’re still my favorite brother, and I still love you,” she said.

“I love you too,” I said, smiling briefly. I was too keyed up for emotional exchanges, so I did my best, but it was sweet of her to say that.

9:12am: South Tower

“Are you alright?” Darius asked as we charged down the stairs as fast as we could. He was asking because Maddy was howling now. There should have been emergency lights, but there weren’t any, and but for the light from Darius’ phone, we were in the dark.

“We’re fine, just keep going,” I said. There was nothing I could do for her; she was just going to have to cry. I understood her annoyance, because the smoke and the heat were making us very uncomfortable, but that was to be expected when the whole fucking building was on fire. I heard Robbie plodding along behind me; his presence was comforting.

We rounded a bend in the stairs and encountered a group of people heading up. Their flashlights blinded us when they aimed them at our faces, which I found incredibly annoying. “Where are you going?” an older guy asked.

“Down,” Darius said.

“We just came from there,” he said. “The smoke is too intense. We have to go up on the roof. They can evacuate us by air.”

“Did you try to go all the way through to the bottom?” Robbie asked.

“No, but the smoke was so thick, it has to be choked off,” he said confidently.

“We were up on the roof, and there was no sign of air evacuation,” Darius said.

“They’ll come for us,” he said. “Come on. You can’t go that way.” He started walking up past us, with several people filing behind him.

“What do you think?” Darius asked.

“Dude, they didn’t even try to get through,” I said. “There were no helicopters around for those people on the other tower. Shit, they were jumping out of the building.”

“Yeah, but maybe they’ll be there now,” he said.

Robbie thought about it, and then shook his head. “We were already there. Let’s try this. If we make it through, and we can get out of here, that leaves fewer people for them to evacuate by air anyway.”

“I don’t know,” Darius said dubiously. Only now I’d made my decision, and I was firmly committed.

“Look, Pop was all but telling us that this building is toast. I want to get the fuck out of here, and as far away from it as possible. I’m going down these fucking stairs, if I have to walk through a wall of flames to do it,” I said, and poked him in the chest with my finger. He stared at me, so I pushed past him, taking the lead, and continuing down.

“You should come up to the roof with us,” a lady said.

“No, we’re going down,” I said firmly.

“Wait,” she said. I was about to ignore her when she handed me her flashlight. “You’ll need this.”

“Thanks,” I said, genuinely touched by her gesture. In this dark, cavernous stairway, a flashlight was like gold.

“Good luck,” she said, and then vanished. I started going down the stairs, now armed with a flashlight and a sense of purpose.

“I hope you’re right,” I heard Darius mutter as he and Robbie followed me. “You want me to carry Maddy for a while?”

“I can carry her too,” Robbie chimed in.

The thought of giving her up, of letting someone else be responsible for her at this point, was unthinkable. I’d made a pledge to my mother to watch out for her, and I would honor that pledge. “No. I’ve got her.”

The lower we got, the smokier it got. I grabbed a washcloth out of Maddy’s bag and poured some water on it, then held it over her nose and mouth to try and filter the air. She stopped screaming, probably because she was so exhausted. I watched the floor numbers decline as we went, until we got to the 80^th floor. The smoke was so thick we couldn’t breathe, and I was getting really worried about Maddy.

“Dude,” Darius said, then coughed some more. “We can’t make it.”

“Yes we can,” I said. I dropped down to my hands and knees, because it was less smoky on the floor, and crawled down the stairs, going as fast as I could, while trying to keep the cloth over Maddy’s face. I kept coughing and gagging, to the point where I wanted to roll over and just die. The smoke wasn’t the only challenge; there was the heat, the heat from massive fires that must be burning on the other side of these walls and doors. Slowly we crawled down the stairs to the 79^th floor, where the smoke was just as bad, but we kept on going.

“How low did the plane hit?” Darius asked. I didn’t answer. I didn’t have the energy or the breath to say unnecessary words, and I was too focused on getting Maddy and myself down below this nightmare. I paused to cough and gag, and miraculously found a pocket of fresh air. I took a deep breath, stood up, and all but sprinted down the next flight of stairs. When we got to the 78^th floor, the smoke abated, and so did the heat. I turned to see Darius and Robbie behind me, their faces black from the smoke, and as I looked down I saw that Maddy’s was black too, except for where I’d held the washcloth over her nose and mouth. The washcloth was black too. I wondered how much shit we’d inhaled. We paused briefly to take a deep breath, and now that it wasn’t so smoky, Maddy decided to cry again.

“We have to keep moving,” I told Darius.

“Right,” he agreed.

“I’m going back up to get Hank and your mother,” Robbie announced.

“Call them instead,” I said. “We may need your help.” We stood there, wasting precious seconds while he and Darius both tried to call them.

“It’s no good,” Robbie said. “I can’t get through. I have to go back and get them.”

Darius walked up to him and gave him a big hug. “Hurry,” he said to Robbie.

“I will,” he said. Then he was in front of me, and I felt his arms envelop me, squeezing me and Maddy in one of his amazing hugs.

“You have to hurry,” I said.

Darius was holding the flashlight so I could make out Robbie’s face, and see his eyes. “I want you to do me a favor.”

“What?” I asked.

“If I don’t make it out of here, take care of your father for me,” he said.

“You’ll make it out...” I said, but he stopped me by putting his finger gently on my lips.

“If I don’t, you need to take care of him. He thinks he’s so strong and so powerful, but he’s not. He grabs for control, and tries to run everything, because he’s afraid. So if I’m gone, you have to watch out for him.”

“He doesn’t even like me,” I said. It dawned on me that we were talking about him as if he were still alive, when there was a good chance he wasn’t. That thought, combined with this talk, threatened to overwhelm all of my emotions.

“He loves you almost too much, that’s why he’s such an asshole when he deals with you,” Robbie said. “That’s why you freak him out so much.”

“If you say so,” I said dubiously.

“I say so,” he said lovingly. “He will need you, and you have to promise me you’ll be there for him.”

“I promise,” I said, even as my voice cracked.

“I love you too, just not as much as he does,” he joked, to make me chuckle.

“I love you too,” I said, barely stopping myself from sobbing.

“I have to go. You two get Maddy out of here, and get the fuck away from this building. It’s going down, and you need to be as far away from it as possible.”

“What about Dad and Stef?” I asked.

“They’ll know to do the same thing,” he said. “I don’t have time to argue with you. When you’re out of here, go to your mother’s house. We’ll meet you there. Am I clear?”

“You’re clear,” Darius said, and even he was choked up.

“One more thing, just in case. I want you to tell your father that he is the one love of my life. There is no one who could even come close to him. He made me very happy. Most of the time.” We chuckled at that, and then saw his back briefly as he tore back up the stairs, back into hell.

“Let’s get going,” Darius said. Now that we were below the fires, we were able to keep up a decent pace.

“See if you can call Mom,” I said. “Tell them they can make it this way.”

“Got it,” Darius said. I heard him behind me, his feet clomping steadily even as he kept trying to call them. I was so focused on what I was doing; I was totally surprised when I heard him respond. “Mom? Where are you?”

“Tell them, before you get cut off,” I said. Maddy decided that it was time for her to cry again.

“Listen,” Darius said. “You can get through on Stairwell A. It’s smoky as fuck, but you can make it.” He paused for a bit. “When you get to the 81^st floor, things get tough, but keep going, and then it gets easier after the 78^th floor. Pop is coming back up to help you guys make it down.” He paused again. “We will. I love you too.”

“What did she say?” I had to shout so he could hear me over Maddy’s shrieks.

“They were still up there, Hank’s captain told her to wait for help to arrive before evacuating,” he said, really angry. “She says she convinced Hank not to wait any longer and they’re starting down now.”

“What time is it?”

“Close to 9:25 or so,” he said. I looked at the door we passed and saw that we were at the 55^th floor. We’d made pretty good progress so far. I thought we’d done well to get through the inferno and down fifty flights of stairs in fifteen minutes.

“What else did she say?” I asked. I slipped on a stair and barely caught myself. The flashlight dropped out of my hand. Darius went in front of me and took the lead, and picked up the flashlight.

“She said that she loved us,” Darius said, choked up. I bit back my own tears.

“Can you try and call Dad and Stef? And Grand?” I asked, panting from talking and going down the stairs at the same time.

“Dude, I’m not calling anyone, I’m just trying to get us the fuck out of here. Shut up and move your feet,” he said. We picked up our pace, going as fast as we could until we ran into people, then our pace slowed. There were emergency lights now, so we put our flashlight in Maddy’s bag, and plodded on.

The building seemed to be falling apart all around us. The walls were creaking and cracking, and there was constant noise, like things were snapping apart. We ignored it, determined to get out of there, to save ourselves, and to get out of the way for the people behind us.

One woman stopped in front of us. “I need to go check on Maury,” she said.

Darius didn’t miss a beat, but surged around her. “There’s no going back,” I told her.

“Keep moving,” the man behind me said, even as he dodged past her.

We saw firefighters going up the stairs, carrying stretchers, trying to save people. They went up on the opposite side, and we all clung to the wall on the right side, staying out of their way. At first it was annoying, because they stopped our progress, but then we saw them, not their uniforms, but the actual men wearing them. In the grim light, the determination on their faces was unshakeable. There was one firefighter with dark hair and a big nose, who was probably in his early twenties, who just exuded an air of confidence. His nametag said ‘Martinelli’. He reminded me of that John Carullo guy who was a friend of Matt’s, and of Tony’s friend Carmine, the one who’d fucked me on the float trip. As he walked up the stairs, our eyes connected, and he smiled at me slightly. When he walked past me, he reached out and patted my shoulder and nodded. I was stunned at how brave he was, going up when the rest of us were trying to escape from this doomed building.

I turned, even as I kept walking. “You guys have to get out of here,” I said to him, more of a plea. “This building is going to collapse.”

“We’ve got to help someone three floors up, then we’re going back down,” he said, and vanished up the stairs. Even as we went down, there were more firefighters going up. I gave up on trying to say anything to them, because they were focused on their duty, and they were determined to save who they could. Maddy cried again, and I tried to settle her down, even as I marveled at the bravery and dedication of those men.

9:20am: The World Trade Center Complex

“I don’t care who the fuck you are, you’re not going through there,” the cop told me. “This area is set aside for emergency responders. The last thing we need when we’re trying to evacuate people and treat the injured is a bunch of people lurking around.”

“I am not allowed to even return to my hotel?” I asked, assuming that would work. “I have a suite at the Marriott World Trade Center.”

He laughed. “That hotel has already been evacuated.”

“Where are the injured people from the buildings being taken?” I asked. I figured that if I could not connect with Stef, or anyone else, I would at least be able to find out if they were hurt.

“Are you a doctor?” he asked.

“I am,” I said. Not exactly a lie, but certainly not the kind of doctor he was referring to.

“It would have been helpful if you’d have said that in the beginning,” he said, giving me some serious attitude.

“In any event, I have now explained it to you, so can you please direct me to the triage area?”

“It’s being set up on Vesey and West,” he said, and let me through the cordon. “They were set up outside the North Tower, but they moved it, or they’re moving it.”

“Thank you,” I said, and hurried down the street toward Vesey. When I was out of his line of sight, I went instead to the Towers. The chaos was indescribable, as the police worked to keep people away from the Towers, and worked to route people out of the buildings. I paused to look up at these once-magnificent buildings, which were no more than burning pyres. The North Tower had been hit first, but much closer to the top. That was where Stef and Brad were. The South Tower had been hit toward the middle. Smoke was billowing out of the hole the plane had made when it had crashed into the building. I tried to decide if the buildings looked stable or not, then chided myself for being an idiot. There was no reasonable way for me to make that assessment from this vantage point.

There were streams of people pouring out of the complex, hurrying to get away from the buildings, while some stopped to look back at them. I stood off to the side, a detached observer, as some medical personnel helped a man to a first aid station. One man walked out of the complex and fell to his knees, sobbing, until another approached him and put his arm around him, gently helping him up, and leading him away. A woman came out and fell to the ground, but she was not mourning, she was thankful. “Praise Jesus!” she said several times, before she too began to leave the area.

I watched as these people poured out of the complex, in varying stages of panic, while emergency teams surged in. I scanned the crowds for the members of my family, or anyone else I knew, but could identify no one. One man was standing near the towers, too near, and I watched in horror as a piece of debris fell on him, mortally wounding him. He was dead before anyone could get to him. That merely encouraged the police to more aggressively move people away from the buildings, and that was my cue to find another spot to view the chaos.

Just as I began to head toward the triage area, two firefighters approached, carrying a stretcher with a wounded man. He was shrieking in pain from the burns that must cover most of his body. “Are you a doctor?” they demanded.

“Not the kind you are looking for,” I said. “The triage is that way.” I pointed in the direction of West and Vesey. They got on their radio before they even got to that area and an ambulance arrived to haul this patient away. Even after he was gone, his blackened face and scorched skin was imprinted in my brain.

I went to the triage area anyway, and found medical personnel scurrying around, trying to help the injured people. Some were in a very bad way, while others were able to walk, and needed less intensive medical attention. “Help or get out,” a nurse snapped.

There was a young man lying on an improvised bed, looking around with his eyes wide with fear, so I went over and sat next to him. “Are you a doctor?” he asked.

“I am a history professor,” I told him.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded.

“Looking for family members,” I told him. “While I waited, I thought I would come talk to you.”

“My legs hurt,” he said. “I can’t feel them at all.” I ignored the fact that those were mutually exclusive statements.

“What happened?”

“I was in an elevator and the cable broke. All I remember was landing and having enormous pain in my legs, and the next thing I know, I’m here,” he said.

“Are you in a lot of pain?” I asked.

“No,” he said, and then looked at me earnestly. “What if I can’t walk?”

I smiled gently and took his hand. “The measure of a man is not his walk, his legs, or even what is between his legs.” He smiled slightly at that. “It is right here,” I said, tapping his head.

“You mean my handsome looks?” he joked.

“You are quite handsome, and that is certainly an attribute, but I was referring to your mind. What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a commodities trader,” he said.

“And you work at a desk?” He nodded. “Then you will probably do that again.”

“Alright Paul, we’re moving you to the hospital,” a nurse said, interrupting our conversation.

“Good luck,” I told him, and held his hand.

“Thanks,” he said. They lugged him off, and I found another person to talk to, a young woman this time, who had burns on her legs, and was barely able to fight the pain. And so it went, where I would talk to these people, trying to comfort them for a brief period of time until they were taken away to a more substantive treatment area. Talking to them helped ease my anxiety, and hopefully it helped ease some of their pain.

I was talking to a man in his forties whose arm was broken so badly it was dangling by his side, when a doctor came up. “Who are you?” he demanded.

“Professor JP Crampton,” I said.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, and looked around as if he were planning to have me hauled away.

“I am talking to these people until you can treat them,” I said simply. “This is Kevin Jackson. He is a financial analyst, but he wants to learn about horticulture, and maybe farm someday.”

“Indeed?” the doctor asked.

“Probably not going to happen with my arm like this,” Kevin said.

“I’ll bet we can fix it,” the doctor said. “We’re shipping you out.” They gently led him away.

“I did not mean to interfere,” I said to the doctor. “I was trying to help.”

“You seem harmless enough,” he said, and went to treat other patients, trying to heal their bodies while I continued to try and palliate their minds.

9:30am: The Pentagon

“As you can see, Senator Danfield, we’ve made excellent progress on our renovations in this section,” the guide said. She was probably in her mid-twenties, with beautiful long chestnut hair, a thin body, and tits that were just slightly bigger than a handful.

“It certainly is very attractive here,” I said, flirting shamelessly with her. She had been giving me ‘fuck me’ looks since we’d been introduced, and she’d conveniently arranged to take me on this tour alone. We were wandering through the western wing of the Pentagon, where they had finished renovating the offices. They were mostly empty, and there was hardly anyone around. “Which office is your favorite?”

“This one,” she said, pointing to one that was in front of us. It was non-descript, and my smile grew bigger, as did my dick.

“Let’s take a look at it,” I said. She led me in and I shut the door behind us. “Does this door lock?”

“No,” she said, and raised her eyebrow provocatively. “Why would you need a lock on the door?”

“Sometimes people want a little privacy,” I said, as I moved closer to her. She didn’t move away; if anything, she moved closer to me.

“Privacy can be nice,” she said. “In that case, a strong man like you could probably push that desk against the door.”

“Like this?” I asked, as I easily slid the government issue desk so it firmly blocked anyone from coming in.

“Just like that,” she said. She moved in now, and put her hands on my lapel. “Now that we have privacy, what are we going to do?”

I leaned in and acted like I was going to kiss her. She closed her eyes and sighed, even as she readied her lips for me. She opened her eyes to find me smirking at her, but before that could annoy her, I kissed her. She responded passionately. As I kissed her I unzipped her dress and ran my hands up her back, undoing her bra as I did, in one smooth maneuver. She dropped her arms, letting her dress fall to the floor, even as I pulled off her bra and began to caress her beautiful breasts. I massaged them, and then lowered my mouth down to her nipples, working one, then the other.

“We don’t have much time,” she said, as she lowered my pants. My hand sought out her groin, and found her dripping wet, and my touch was enough to prompt her to pull me down onto the carpet and on top of her. I felt my dick slide into her smoothly, with no resistance at all, as she moaned and thrust back into me. “God, how I want you,” she moaned.

I began to slide in and out of her, controlling my pace to make sure I maximized our pleasure in what little time we had. “You feel so good,” I purred into her ear. “So fucking good.”

“Ah!” she cried out softly, since we were in the Pentagon. I’d been maintaining a steady rhythm, but I could feel her arousal, so I began to pump harder. “Oh God! Oh God! I’m going to cum!”

“Me too, honey. Me too. You’re gonna bring me off with you,” I said, as I felt my orgasm building. And then I came, blasting into her, allowing myself to thoroughly enjoy it. Before I could fully recover, there was an extremely loud noise, as if there had been a massive explosion. I felt searing pain, a stark contrast to the pleasure I’d just experienced, and then I felt nothing.