Driving to Hell

I clear a path for a police van screaming down Seventh Avenue. It comes to a skidding stop. "EVERDEEN! Get in and drive!" My Sergeant screams to me as he moves over to the passenger seat. The van is filled with officers that were on foot patrol on this side of Midtown.

I turn on Thirty-fourth. "What are you doin'? Go downtown!" Sarge slams into the passenger door as he screams at me.

"Eleventh is wide open. I heard it on the radio." Sarge rights himself and gets on the radio. I'm not sure I was the best choice to drive with my lead foot.

I don't think my brother officers are too confident that I'll get them there in one piece. "Shit Everdeen. We can't do anything if we don't get there in one fuckin' piece."

"What the fuck do they expect us to fuckin' do down there?"

Sarge turns around. "They expect us to do our job. Help get people out. Keep your head and you'll be fine."

As we get closer the look of things gets worse. Two buildings are on fire. Thousands of people trapped. Hundreds of cops and fireman in that building are trying to help. "West is all tied up. Get us on Church Street." Sarge says to me. I turn on Chambers and then a right to Church. There are scores of police, fire and ems vehicles. We're running downtown. People are running uptown. We get as close as we can. "Park here." I pull over. Sarge yells out. "Everyone out!" We pile out of the van. "Leave your hats, batons and guns." We put everything in a container in the rear of the van. "Take a helmet. Make sure you have a radio and flashlight."

I look around and see a group of men and woman who had no idea that this clear blue late summer day would turn into hell on earth. There is something I have never seen before. Fear on my brother's faces. Like me, they're wondering whether they'll see their families tonight. One officer is praying to himself, another is frantically trying to call his wife.

"All the fuckin' circuits are busy." He dials again.

"Don't bother Brian, all the cell antennas were on the towers." Dejection covers his face as he closes his phone.

I pick up the pay phone expecting nothing. "A dial tone! I have a dial tone!" The other officers line up behind me. I drop the quarter in. "Hi, um Peeta. It's me. I'm downtown, but I'm okay. I'll see you later... I love you." I hang up the phone and the next officer dials as fast as he can.

Sarge comes back. "Listen up everyone! Everdeen you're with me. Everyone else pair off. Our job is to make sure the subways are clear. Then block them off and keep everyone else out. Coswell, you take five with you and meet the captain at the E train. The rest with me. Let's go!" I remember what my father said just a couple of hours before, 'Roy Bell is a good man. I worked with him in the Village. He'll keep an eye on you. Just follow him.' I run down Church Street.

One squad enters the World Trade Center station. We continue south along Church Street. At Fulton Street, we pass an EMS triage location. It's filled with patients. They are just shoving as many victims as possible into the ambulance. After the EMT closes the door she peels the man's flesh that came off his back from her gloved hands. "Rocco, Rodriquez. Block these exits. Everdeen, you're with me." We descend into the subway. Normally there would be thousands of people coming and going through this station. Today it's desolate. There is a TA worker on the platform. "Is anybody down here that you know of?"

He points to a group running up now. "This is the last of them."

"Good. We're going to do a final sweep." We go over the turnstile. "Let's go left first."

The lights are flickering. Except for the rat scurrying along there is a strange silence that I've never heard before. I turn on my flashlight. "Hello, anyone here!" I scream out.

"Everdeen, you take the first three cars. Then walk into the tunnel. Go about fifty feet. There might be some homeless people down there."

The subway car is filled with the stuff that people left when they evacuated. A newspaper, coffee cup, lunch bag. Some guy even left his briefcase. I check the cars. Empty. Empty. Empty. I point my flashlight into the tunnel and start to walk along the catwalk that runs parallel to the tracks. "Hello! Anyone here!" I sweep the tracks with my flashlight. It gets darker, danker and dirtier the deeper I go. I look back at the station. I've gone about fifty feet. "That's far enough," I say under my breath. I turn around and run back to the platform.

When I get to the platform. I see my Sergeant and wave to him. "All clear!" I jog towards him. The rumbling starts. I once went to California and felt a small earthquake. I rocked back and forth and the earth rose. It felt like a thrill ride at Great Adventure. The one difference was that I knew that ride would end soon. "Shit! What's happening!" Plaster and cement start to fall from the ceiling. Sarge is stumbling and trying to get his footing. He's thrown to the ground and I slam into a pillar. Holy shit! The world is crashing around me.

I look to the right and spot a doorway. I've always heard the doorway is the safest place to be during an earthquake. The door is recessed and I stumble to it. All the lights go out. The only light that I see is from the subway entrance and it quickly becomes obscured by the smoke and dust. The emergency lights go on, but only for a second. Then it goes dark again. The noise is deafening. It's so loud I can't hear anything but the rumbling. Before I know it the roof comes down. Debris presses me against the door. I can't move. I try to turn, but I can't.

I'm trapped.