'Ugh, ¡gracias a Dios! necesito un café!' I said as the three amigos (Dariel- El,Lester-Les, Carlos-Los) head over to Starbucks.

Why is so quiet I thought.

'What's going on? Whats everyone looking at? 'Darial asked.'Dunno' Les mumbled 'but I need coffee!'

As we walk in to Starbucks, Absolute silence greets us, everyone is staring out the window.

We turned to see what was going on, I could see a big ball of fire, smoke up in the air.

I ask 'someone whats going on?'

'Someone flew into the Trade center.' she said.

'What the hell do you mean' I said.

She didn't even look at us, she said 'look' pointing to the TV. There was news showing an airplane hitting the World Trade Center, I turned to look out the window and see a bid plume of smoke billowing in the sky.

Fifteen minutes later, as I watched the smoke I saw a plane fly into the other tower.

'¡Madre de Dios! ' Les shouted, while El shouted 'Genny is in the tower!'

'What do you mean?'I yelled, 'she works there' he shouted back, 'She works there, she is working today!'

My phone rang, I ignored it. It rang again, I looked it was Mama. 'Mama?' I answered.

'Carlos, Carlos she was crying, your sister's flight has been hijacked!'

'What do you mean?' I roared, then whispered 'what DO you mean?'

'Your sister, Conchita called, she called to say good-bye, ChiChi called to and said they might die. Her plane is hijacked and they are fighting the hijackers!'

'I don't understand, why? Why?'

'They know the Towers have been attacked, they know they will die and want to save others who will be attacked. She wants me to say she loves you. She might not be able to call.'

Oh Mama, Mama' I cried'

'Can you come home Carlos, I want the family together, your Papa will need you.'

'What about Celia and Cali. Will they be there?'

'No' Mama said sadly. 'They are both working and need to help. They are bringing survivors to Jersey City Medical, Calista and her partner Bobby are working at the tower, they think it might collapse. They are helping find survivors. They are doing triage deciding where to send them'

'Oh Mama, I will be home and bring Dariel for his family too.'

'Bring Lester too. His Mama and Papa are coming over to be with us Diego will be here too.'

'Si Mama, Si si' I told Les and El to come with me. Everyone was going to be there.'

As we got in the car, we heard another one hit the Pentagon! 'We are under attack, are we at war?' Les asked'

I don't know, they've got Chichi's plane too.' I exclaimed.

We ran into the house, 'Mama, papa we're here.'

I heard 'ay Dios mío, Dios mío, it's falling!'

What's falling, whats falling?' I called out.

'The tower, the tower is falling' Papa said.

El shouted, 'which tower? Genni's working there'

As we ran torward the TV, they said the south one.

'gracias a Dios' Genni is in the north one.' El said.

A minute later they announced the plane crashed. The plane my sister was on, the sister I had good-bye to just three hours ago.

Mama collasped, Papa held her crying. my daughter, my baby, my Conchita, she's gone.' Mama wailed.

We all were in shock. I held my little brother and sister Ces, and Conni we all were crying. I tried to control it but still cried.

I thought of my sister working, helping the survivors, my sister Cali by the tower. Hoping she wasn't there when it fell.

Then a hush fell over us as we watched the North tower fall. El, his mother and father turned white with shock. Genni was there could she survive?

I thought to myself how could this happen, why didn't God stop this? Then I thought, they will pay for this. To my last breath I will make them pay.

Celia pov:

Noon: It's utter chaos, *ferries, tugboats, cargo boat, even yachts, all bring people, people that were escaping the Towers across the river. They keep coming hundreds and hundreds. Patients, with inhalation and eye injuries, chemical burns and lacerations. Terrible burns, our trauma center overflowing.

I had the midnight shift, it's now twelve hours, no end in sight. I see my fiance treating the worst burn patients. A child, brings tears to his eyes, yet I can't go to comfort his, too many here. The sadness is devastating.

6:00 p.m. Going on eighteen hours now. They still keep coming, not so many now. I can go home now.

Calista pov:

Bobby and I came on shift 6:00 a.m. It's quiet this morning, only two calls so far. We stop for coffee and his pager goes off.

'Cali, we've got a call.' Bobby says.

'Ok I'll grab our coffee to go. Where are we going?' I asked.

'Trade center, they say a plane hit.' He said.

'Didn't a plane hit a long time ago?'

Yeah, way back someone hit the Empire State Building, didn't cause much damage.'

'Hmm, well we build stronger building now, shouldn't be too bad.' I said as we headed on over to the towers.

'Holy cow, look at that, it's on fire, it looks like the smoke is like a mile high, this is a big deal!'

We're coming down Vesey Street, 'Bobby look out! There's something on the road' I yelled. As we drove around it we saw it was a plane engine! 'Look out there's shit falling all around us! There's shoes, clothing even bodies laying around us.' I'm totally freaking out.

Just the I heard a loud noise we looked up and another plane had hit the second tower!

'What's happening, are we at war?'

'I don't know' Bobby said.

As I look around I don't know how to start, it's just too much. I don't know where to start, what to do, there is so much.

Bobby said, 'let's get busy, we need set up triage to start assessing people to know where to send them. It doesn't look like some are too bad, those can go across to Jersey, That's close across the river. They already have ferries running. The worst burns go to William Randolph burn center up the road.' We just need to dig in, you can do this.'

'How can you be so calm?' I said.

Just then his pager went off. 'We are needed at the forward triage area near the south tower by the Millennium hotel near Fulton and Church. They're getting hammered with patients.' Bobby said.

When we arrived at the towers it was crawling with people, running from the building, my God, jumping from the building.

We stopped and got out, I heard a thud, it was a body hitting the ground! I screamed As I look down I see my feet are buried in ash, it looks like the moon. I thought.

Bobby grabbed my arm and said 'come on, we need to get over there, it's by the tower' (it was about 150 feet from south tower.)

We are getting them out as fast as we can, some are minor we can treat here, many are more serious, most of those we sent on the ferry to Jersey Medical. I briefly wondered how my sister Celia was handling it. The worst burns we sent up to Randolph burn center up the street.

We heard a loud rumble then people shouting 'get of of there, get out of there' someone close to us hollered, Brown, Manaso get out, the whole building is coming down!'

We ran for our lives.

Then Bobby he wouldn't give up. We set up triage further from the site, doing the same minor we treat here, more serious get sent away. Of those we sent on the ferry to Jersey Medical. *All the ferries, tugs, cargo, yachts, all helping people out of there. I started accompanying there to Jersey, the whole time I never saw Celia.

Then back to the pile and do more.

When the victims became a trickle we packed up. Twelve hours, we're beyond tired. As we leave we see *dogs being brought to the pile. I couldn't deal with why, so I shut down, one foot in front of the other just get away. The horror of the day beyond comprehension.

Bobby takes me home, I'm to tired to drive. Just as I got home Celia and her fiancée Fiancee Dr. Alba drove up.

I ran over to her we fall into each others arms crying, "it's horrible, just too horrible!

When we go in everyone is crying, hugging each other, 'Lia, Cali mama said Chichi was on the plane that crashed. We don't know if anyone survived, the TV is saying nobody lived.'

'What? What are you saying? Chichi is dead?' I said.

'They fought the hijackers so the plane wouldn't hit another building. They think it was going to hit the Capital. They are heroes, they saved our Capital.' Papa said.

I run over to Lester and hug him, he was so close to him. Then I hug Carlos.

Carlos pov:

At some point I stopped crying and became angry, I said, 'We saw the *towers fall the pentagon attacked. My sisters plane went down. My sister died fighting her plane, for our country.'

We made a pact. 'We're going to war. We're going to kill them,' I said.

We stacked our hands to show our pact.

'For Chichi, for Genni for all all of them.' Dariel said. 'For all of them' we all said.

The boat-lift that day carried 500,000 people from the affected area. 150 maritime vessels took part,

The carnage described by Calista is taking from actual paramedic recollection of

the event.

The chaos described by Celia is taken from nurses recollection of that day.

*Dogs were cadaver dogs.