08:00:00
He couldn't explain why he was there. Or why he was up so early. All he knew was that he had to be at the trade center that day. He smiled proudly as he looked at his towers standing tall next to each other... His beloved twin towers.
08:15:42
He entered the building with so many others. They chatted on cellphones and drank coffee and ate breakfast and fast food as they milled around in a great seething mass of humanity, a huge macro-organism that fueled the nation. And he felt pride, even as a sense of foreboding assaulted him.
08:28:53
He rose higher as time passed, seeing them settle into their neat little cubicles. Tiny worker ants tap-tap-tapping away. phones rang and were answered and shut off. Things were moving and shaking.
08:46:40
And suddenly the building lurched, a punch to his gut. His lungs couldn't take in air. His glasses clattered to the floor as the pain slammed into him. He staggered and fell, his heart fluttering and chest heaving. He scrabbled for his spectacles and rested them on his face, gasping for air as he tried to follow the panicking people.
09:03:04
It hurt and only continued to intensify. And then another. He sank to his knees and heaved. His breakfast made a comeback, coffee and the fried eggs and toast and bacon all swimming in a stream as he gagged and shook. He felt hands lifting him up, total strangers helping him move despite the fact they would have a better chance leaving him behind as he tried to stagger along.
09:37:46
He sinks to his knees as fire sweeps through his body, his immune system going into hi-alert. He feels so sick, but he can't stop moving. The hands pull him to his feet again and he's half-carried by his fellow victims. Because they are all victims. This was an attack.
09:57:04
They drag him out of the building and get him across the street. Just in time for the wind to come at them as a solid wall, debris flying about them like shrapnel. He vomits again as they drop him, landing in his own stomach contents as they shield him from the damage. He writhes in pain as the tower crumbles into itself.
10:10
He screams as fire burns hotter in his veins, and his immune system hunts for the virus it can't find.
10:28:25
He finally passes out as the second wall of wind strikes, throwing everyone to the ground as ash and dust fills the air.
10:50:25
His skin is burning as he is loaded onto a stretcher, the EMT's desperately trying to figure out what is wrong.
17:20:33
The man becomes lucid, only to start screaming as his chest finally opens, bleeding out thick red liquid. He's still burning, but he's managed to get cooled and until this moment... He had been stable.
He wakes slowly, the sound of solid beeps slowly bringing him to the land of wakefulness. He peers around nearsightedly and sees blobs. Someone hands him his glasses and he slowly puts them on. There in this room... The Cuban is the one who gave him his glasses, the North Korean is sitting on the window ledge, the Germans are practically attached at the hip as they hover unsure, the Brit is unsure whether to approach or hang back while the Frenchman leans on his shoulder and whispers in his ear to calm him, the Russian and Chinese man are talking in low angry tones as they agree to oppose the barbaric act, The Japanese man stood next to the Israeli as they both exuded such anger that no others would approach, none except the Palestinian who stood as one with the brother he hated. And the Canadian is clinging to his shoulder as harsh sobs wrack his frame.
He looks at them and cries. Huge tears roll down his cheeks as he sobs with pain for his lost family. for his damaged buildings. And for the thankfulness that these people would put aside their differences to help him in his lowest point.