Angel's Wings

Chapter 3 Trapped

The office that Sanders had entered through earlier was gone. Broken glass and furniture now filled the pathway back to the other side. Sanders went back toward the exit sign and found that stairwell blocked off as well. An elevator door hung open, empty hole with a lone cable hanging from the center. He could see another open door a few floors down. Sanders leaned out to grab the cable in the middle of the shaft. It didn’t swing, weighed down by the elevator car somewhere below. Sanders climber down the elevator cable like a rope until he came to the open doorway he had seen from above. The door was completely missing. He jumped onto the ledge and pulled himself onto what he guessed had been the thirtieth floor of the World Trade Center. A single blue light was the only source to illuminate this floor. Apart from the occasional groan of the building, the world was deathly silent.

Sanders walked across broken tiles and rugs. Crawled over small mountains of rock and steel. And searched for a way back down and out of the building. It was no use. Every entrance was barred. A low rumbling sound started from floors below him. The building shifted again as more floors gave way under the crushing weight and destruction of the morning’s events. The floor opened under him and Steven Sanders fell through.

PAIN! He woke to an enormous amount of pain. His body felt like it was both on fire and being pummeled. His eyes adjusted to the new dimness, Sanders could see a wall of twisted steel and crumbled concrete. He had no idea how far he had fallen, or how long he had been there.

He couldn’t unfold his tall frame from the rocks pinning him down. As he lay there praying to whoever would listen, his thoughts went to his family.

His petite wife Mary. Brown hair in a messy bun on top of her head. She like to fiddle around in the kitchen. She was always baking something, and he wondered what she would make today. His daughter Seraphina. Honey blonde hair and his own blue eyes. Sera was tall and thin like him. And the boy he hadn’t yet met. His son Michael was due in December.

Steven Sanders left this world thinking of his family and what would happen to them.The building gave a last lurch and came down completely at 10:28 am on September 11th 2001.

End Flashback