Thanks everyone for your reviews for the last chapter. Hope you enjoy this one just as much!

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"Get up!"

Through an internal fog I barely heard the voice yelling at me. I felt myself being pulled from the ground so roughly a pain shot through my arm, but it was nothing compared to the ringing in my ears. Explosions were going on all around me it seemed. Planes thundered through in the sky above me, swooping down so low I could feel the vibrations from the engines down to my bones. Slowly, I realized it was Chris who was trying to shake me from shock. The terror in his eyes spoke volumes and probably terrified me more than what was happening around us.

"Run!" he told me. And I did. The air was suddenly filled with smoke and I struggled to breathe it in as Chris pulled me through the chaos and away from water. I could hear sirens over the bombs now and barely registered that there were other people around us, chaotically running away from the epicenter of attack and it seemed we ran forever, Chris never losing his grasp on me. When he finally pulled me into a large building and practically shoved us both through the crowd of people trying to get out I thought I would faint from my excursion.

"It's the Japanese!" I heard someone yell.

Still lightheaded, Chris pushed me into a chair once the room had cleared. I could still hear the bombing outside, but the air was at least clear now. I took quick short breaths, my pulse still racing. "What's happening?" I asked him as he seemed to look me over.

"We're being attacked." He told me. The exchange between us would seem ridiculous if it weren't for the intense fear that I knew we were both feeling. "You're not hurt are you?"

I shook my head, believing it to be true. A plane swooped over the building and I could hear distinct gun fire. Wincing from fear, I crouched down and covered my head. Chris swore loudly waiting for the sound of the engine to fade before getting up and running to a wall of lockers and pulling out a yellow jacket and hat. It was then that I realized I was in a fire department.

Chris, jacket on now and looking every bit the fireman, turned to face me. "We have a basement. Not much of one, but I want you to stay in it until this is all over."

"You're leaving me?" I was half panicked.

"I have to. The entire harbor is in flames."

I winced at his words, truthful as I imagined they were, but then my mind suddenly broke free from its cloud. "People will be hurt."

"Yes." His jaw was clenched as he replied.

"I can help. I'm a nurse."

For a moment he looked jarred. "You're navy?"

I wasn't of course, but I worked with Navy nurses and doctors. I was probably as close as someone could come to it, without actually being it. "Nearly." I told him, deciding the real answer would take too much explaining. "I won't stay here when I can be useful."

He frowned and for a brief moment I thought he was considering the idea, but just as quickly as the notion had come, it was gone and he shook his head. "No, absolutely not." He came forward and grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet. As he began to drag me through the office, no doubt taking me to the basement he had spoken of, I dug my heels into the floor and refused.

"No!"

"God damn it, yes you are!" another explosion punctuated the finality of his sentence, but despite my fear I held firm.

I wrenched my hand from his and stared him down. "I won't hide!"

His jaw clenched and even as the sound of more plane engines came over us our gazes still locked together in a silent battle. Suddenly an explosion, louder and closer than the others, struck hard, knocking us both off of our feet and on to the hard tile beneath us. Chris scrambled to stand and rushed to the window just as screams seemed to echo throughout the building. He cursed again and yelled at me to stay put as he ran out of the room. Of course, I didn't listen and was soon on shaking legs following him out the building. The sight that greeted me outside was one of absolute chaos. Smoke filled the air, but through the fog a fire truck, fallen on its side, took my full attention. It was clear something had taken it out from above and it was also clear that it was fully occupied. Two more Japanese planes zoomed overhead and I looked to the air just in time to see them drop their torpedoes over the harbor. My stomach rolled and I shook watching the horror unfold around me. My thoughts briefly turned to Rafe and Danny. I hadn't a clue where either one of them were, but I could only hope they were safe. I couldn't linger on those thoughts though. I saw Chris shedding his fireman's jacket and launch himself up on one leg to climb on the toppled truck and ran towards him. He saw me, but was too occupied with breaking the glass on the passenger side window to say anything. I kicked my heels off and climbed up beside him, shedding the sweater I wore and handed it to him.

"Put it around your fist." I yelled over the noise. He nodded, realizing what I meant and covered his hand with the fabric before punching a fist through the glass. It shattered beneath the force and immediately two hands came up through it. I took one and Chris the other and we pulled a man from the wreckage.

He was covered in abrasions, but seemed conscious.

"Barnes!" Chris yelled over the noise looking the man over. "Are you okay?"

Barnes nodded, but couldn't voice an answer before a cry came from the back of the truck. Chris looked at me and then leaned over the broken window, looking into the truck. "Anderson."

"He's unconscious." Barnes mumbled beside me, clearly in pain.

Another cry came from the back of the truck and torn, Chris finally settled his gaze on me. "Emily, I need you to go down in there. Check Anderson out and try to wake him. If you can't, break your way through the windshield and you and Barnes pull him out."

Over another round of explosions and gunfire from the harbor, I nodded to the request and quickly moved into the awkward position of climbing through the window. Once inside, I crouched and positioned my weight on the dashboard and pressed my fingers to Anderson's neck. Having taken most of the impact when the truck had overturned, he looked far worse than Barnes, but his pulse was there. Weak, but certainly present. I called his name, once, twice, three times before he stirred. The truck shook with the impact of another explosion and his eyes opened fearfully looking into mine.

"You're going to be okay." I told him with all of the confidence I could muster. "Can you move?"

He hesitated and closed his eyes, wincing in the newly acknowledged pain. "My arm."

From the angle I was at and the way he was positioned in the seat there was no way for me to ascertain the injury. I quickly realized it was best to just assume it was broken. "I know it hurts." I told him and pressed a hand of comfort to his cold and bloodied cheek, "But we need to get out of here." My words brought a quiet nod from him and I slipped my hand down to hold his free one and called for Barnes. When he didn't answer I did it again and then again.

Nothing.

Panicking, the small confines of the truck closing in around me, I tried to keep my head clear. Breathing heavily I turned and faced the windshield and remembered Chris' words. There was nothing in sight to break through the glass and I doubted I could do it with my fist as Chris had. I turned around and faced Anderson again. He was passed out once more.

"Anderson." I grabbed his hand, but was starkly lifeless. "Anderson!" I spoke his name, louder and with more force now, shaking him. Fearful when he still didn't reply, I checked his pulse again. I snatched my hand back in terror when I realized he didn't have one. I had been a nurse for nearly a year now and this was the first time I had encountered a death. I was suddenly scared, very scared and wanted nothing more than to run far away from where I was. Fearfully I somehow launched myself out of inside of the fallen fire engine. Once out, I found Barnes slumped over the door, having lost consciousness at some point while I had been inside.

And then I smelled it. The awful, ominous scent of gas. I whipped around and called for Chris, but the noise around me drowned out the attempt. I knelt down and screamed at Barnes as loudly as my voice would allow and shook him with all my might. He groaned, but didn't wake. I knew I had to get him away from the truck because there was only one place that gas could be coming from and getting far away from it was the only option. Still kneeling beside him, I began to push on his stiff form, pushing harder and harder until he rolled over the side and landed with thump on the pavement under him.

"Chris!" I called again as I jumped down. "Chris!"

I heard his muffled reply from behind me. Dragging the unconscious form of another fireman towards the fire station.

"Help me!" I indicated Barnes. He dropped his own patient a safe distance away and ran back towards me.

"You smell it?" he asked, indicating the gas.

I nodded, grabbing Barnes' left arm as Chris got the right. Together we dragged him away from the truck. When he started back, I grabbed his arm.

"What are you doing?!"

"Anderson is still in there!"

"He's dead!" I screamed, another plane flying over us.

The news left a hollow air between us and I regretted then that I had said it the way I had. I wasn't acting like myself, I wasn't thinking straight. Fear had overtaken me and it seemed the instinct to survive the situation was the one currently working. The sounds and sights around us were ones of pure horror and I watched as Chris' expression changed with that realization that this wasn't just something that we could run away from. Death was all around us and at any moment it could pull us into its grasp.

With that thought still lingering in the air I saw a sudden bright light from the direction of the fallen fire engine and then a force, strong and harsh hurled me down and backwards against the hard pavement beneath me. I heard a scream and hardly realized in my daze that it had come from my own throat. In that same clouded daze I knew something heavy was on top of me, crushing me against the ground and stealing the air from my lungs. With the thought that death had finally found me, the world around me fell into a sudden darkness.

My last thoughts before the world went completely black were of Laura, my parents, my brothers and…him.

A/N Now I know I probably say this a lot, but I am no historian. I try to stick with what I know and stay consistent, but sometimes it isn't so easy. I hope my readers find my take on the attack in good taste and also, of course, fitting for the story that the movie told.

Thanks again for reading!