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A/N: Thank you readers for all the support I’ve been receiving since the beginning. It’s been quite a chapter and now in details, I’ll take all you to the horrors that shook the nation almost 2 years ago. Please leave a review when done, thank you all once again for taking time out to read this chapter.



“A Hero’s Heart”



-“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope”- Martin Luther King, Jr.



**~Chapter Eighteen- Last Call



-September 11th 2001. 9:31am. New York City, New York. Greenwich Street. World Trade Center.



Howie watches the blanket of smoke and debris that topples of the first North Tower. He hears his name call as A.J. tugs him towards back to the burning South Tower.



“We have to clear the area D. Pay attention buddy!” A.J. states loudly over the screaming of the crowd that gathered to witness the event.



“This isn’t an accident!” He hears Chief Lawrence dropping off a person away from the disaster of the burning buildings. “From the news and new data, this is a terrorist attack! This was planned for awhile.” He hears Lawrence’s voice as he disappears into the building.



“Ok, Howie. You and Brian take the other two levels up, while me and Nick take the few levels below it. Kevin is gonna take the civilians out of here and to safety ok?” A.J. states, his chocolate eyes stare at Howie.



Howie nods his head and hurries off with Brian to the next upper level in the building. Piles of people stumble and crash down the stairwells in fear, almost trampling over each other. “Wow, wait, relax, come on, don’t panic!” Kevin’s voice appears in the lobby of the building.



A.J. feels a tug on his sleeve and turns to see it was coming from Nick, “Alright let’s go! Let’s get the people out of here!” A.J. states confidently. The two race up the stairs and with a hose sprays some on the stairs to stop the rushing of the people. People in business suits cry out in fear as they hit the bottom stairs and make a run to the exit with the help of Kevin.

~*~



Brian and Howie reach the deserted hallway of the building, “Anyone in here? Anyone hurt?” The two men shout searching the hallways as chucks of white plaster topple and create debris.



“Whoa, watch it D! It almost fell on you!” Brian yells, pushing Howie out of the way of the small piece of fallen ceiling.



“Thanks, this hallway is cleared. Let’s go down the other way.” Howie states turning and walking down the opposite way, he tugs on the black FDNY fire jacket as he makes his way down the hall.



“Wait! I think I hear something.” Brian says softly, walking slowly over the cracked plaster and broken tiles. Tons of manila folders with stacks of paper, flutter on the desk and floor. He makes his way over to a desk and looks under it to see a frightened young man curled in fright.



“Come on get out of here. You shouldn’t be in here!” Brian states, grabbing the man’s hand.



“Ow, wait, I can’t leave! My wheel chair! I have to get on it, but I can’t find in this mess.” The man states, his dark brown eyes staring around the clutter of fallen debris from the ceiling and the tangle mess of papers on the floor.



“I found it!” Howie states, pulling up the wheelchair next to the man, with the help of Brian and Howie, the man got on the wheelchair safely. “Brian take him down stairs, I’m gonna finish searching the other side of the hallway to see if there’s anyone else.”



“Don’t waste your time, everyone already left this place, the only people left are the ones with inconveniences like me.” The young Asian man states nervously, as Brian pulls the wheel chair down the hallway.



Howie gulps and stares down the desolate hallway. The white plaster cracked and some tumble almost hitting him again. The windows of the building, were fogged up with the thick suffocating smoke that covered the building slowly like a blanket. Howie walks down the hallway as the ceiling lights blink and shuts off. “Great.” he mumbles, fumbling for his flashlight and continues his way shining the bright yellow light on the carpeted office floor.

~*~



-September 11th 2001. 9:45 am. New York City, New York. Greenwich Street. World Trade Center.



Nick and A.J. help out two elderly people down the stairs and lead them to Kevin. “The hallways we checked are all cleared, we can’t go any further up, the building is too thick in smoke and the fire seems to be spreading.” A.J states.



Kevin sighs and rubs his fingers over his soot covered face, “Yeah it’s alright, we got a lot of people out of here.” Suddenly in his walkie talkie, he hears screaming from back in the fire station. Kevin’s heart bangs against his chest as he looks at a frightened Nick and A.J. Picking up his black walkie talkie in his hands, he puts it near his ear hoping nothing worse could have happened.



“Kevin, you there?” Jalisa’s voice states in anguish.



“Ye, yeah. You ok?” Kevin asks nervously as he watches some other fire fighters race around the lobby and upper levels taking people out of the nearest exits.



“The Pentagon! The Pentagon was hit! Kevin it’s a terrorist attack! One side of the building collapsed. It was an American Flight 77. It’s on the news, people are clearing the area!” Jalisa cries out.



Kevin gulps nervously and informs the others.



“What! Another plane! What the hell is happening?” A.J. screams out in frustration.



Nick looks around the area and closes his eyes when a body crashes onto the concrete outside. “What can we do?” Nick whispers, his eyes back on Kevin.



Kevin shrugs his shoulders, “We’ve done all we can, we’ll wait for Howie and Brian and help out the people outside.”



A.J. sighs and walks over to the front of the building to push through the glass revolving doors when he sees a pool of blood draining from a fallen body that landed in front of him.



Nick squeezes his eyes shut and keep his tears from spilling, this was too dangerous, even for the firefighters to be in.

~*~



-September 11th 2001. 10:05 am. New York City, New York. Greenwich Street. World Trade Center.



Howie meets the other firefighters from his company at the lobby and exits out the building. The five fire fighters make their way to a small café shop near by where many of the employers and slightly injured were held. Suddenly a large rumbling that seemed like a rushing of an exploding earthquake erupted from the first Tower struck. The North Tower billows thick immense smoke as it topples and crashes to the ground. People scream in horror and run out the way in chaos as the building trembles the ground. The five fire fighters watch in pure dismay and shock as the North Tower crashes to the floor, taking down floor after floor. Large particles of metal and debris explodes and tumbles to the ground. A thick engulfing black soot smoke covers the streets down blocks as people run in all directions away from the horror in fright.



Kevin feels his mouth drop open as he watches the panic that invaded his body. Howie gasps and his hands tremble as the building crashes in ruins to the ground. A.J’s walkie talkie blasts with deputy Jeff’s voice.



Jeff’s voice shouts out orders to head back to the station and that is was too late for others to get saved. A.J. clutches the black walkie talkie in his hand and screams out, “No, wait! We have to get the others out! What about Darrel and Lawrence? We gotta wait for them!”



“Get out of there! Do you hear me? Clear the way and come back to the station. You were told to not leave the station, now we have a few adolescences missing from the department because they wanted to be brave like you guys. If those children are caught somewhere in that disaster area, we’ll have to send out a search team.” Jeff’s voice crackles with the loss of static and frequency.



Nick tugs at Kevin who watches the thick smoke coming at them, “Kev, move! Please move! We’re gonna get caught in the smoke!” He chokes out and makes a run down the desolate street. Brian and Howie pull at Kevin and all begin to run down the street as the sunny air filled with the hazardous smoke and soot. The grey smoke creeps along the streets choking it’s victims as it spreads out. A mass rumble of metal, paper and glass filtered the ground and covers the pavements. Some innocent by standers, fall to the ground as the smoke grabs a hold of them. Howie runs up to a middle-age man in a business suit and leads him to a store and out of harm’s way.



Brian sees one of the teen fire fighters and grabs the boy’s arm, “You can’t be here, get out!”



The young teen looks at the thick smoke and nods his head following Brian back to the station. The others find more innocent civilians gasping and in need of medical attention and takes them back to the station with them. Upon arriving back to the station, Nick collapses on his knees and lets out a deep breath.



Brian pats Nick’s shoulder and sits down on the cement ground beside Nick, “It’s a nightmare out there. You know how many lost their lives in that building?!”



Nick gulps and his heart is racing a mile a minute. He has to call his family, he knows they must be worried sick, thinking the possible worst. Nick makes his way to a phone and Jalisa stands near the phone. Her light brown eyes lit up with tears, “You can’t call. We lost all connection on the phone lines now.” She whispers quietly wiping away a tear from her peach cheeks.



Kevin throws his fire hat on the ground and gazes at Jalisa, “Where are they?”



“Who, the teens?” Jalisa asks softly, her dark brown locks tied in a ponytail. She stares at the five fire fighters all covered in thick white soot. It looked like someone attacked them with a ton of powder. Their fire fighter attire was covered in the white soot.



Kevin nods his head and passes his fingers through his matted black spikes.



“They all came back after the tower fell.” Jalisa whispers as the ambulance sirens race down the streets.



“Where’s Lawrence?” Howie asks, his eye lashes covered in the soot white cement particles that floated in the air.



“I don’t know, he didn’t come back yet. He said he was going to the South Tower to make sure there was any one that could have been caught in the rumble.” Jalisa whispers, another tear trails down her face.



A.J. sits next to Nick and stares at the desolate streets, now covered in mounds of white smoke and soot. Brian moves to the innocent victims that they brought back to the station and waited for the paramedics to come pick up the hurt and wounded victims. “This is all wrong, nothing like this should have happened.” Nick whispers softly.



A.J. gulps and leans his head on the wall, “God why this?” He mutters as the news on a small television hanging on the wall shows the devastation.



Rose steps out of the office, her blue eyes stain with fresh tears streaming down her snowy face. She sits next to Nick, the tears falling down, plopping on his hand. Nick wipes the tears away from her face and embraces her, “Don’t cry. It’ll be over soon.”



Rose tucks her head in his chest as Nick holds the young blonde hair woman in his arms. A.J. nibbles on his lower lip as Howie and Kevin call the paramedics and get the innocent wounded ready for the paramedics. Howie helps out and gets the few people injured ready by lying them down on a blanket on the floor.

~*~



Jalisa paces her office as Anita watches the small television in the office. “Jalisa, where’s the chief and Darrel?”



Jalisa stops her pacing and shrugs her shoulders, “I don’t know sweetie. They can’t call, so we don’t know if they’re ok.”



“What if they didn’t make it? What if they were caught in the falling of Tower One?” Anita states, her bluish green eyes staring intensely at Jalisa.



Jalisa shakes her head rapidly, “Don’t think that way! Don’t say that! They have to had made it out.” Suddenly a young firefighter, Henry runs into the receptionist office. He seemed to have been outside and was covered in the same soot as the other five. His light tan face smeared under the white soot from the collapse of the tower. His dark brown eyes stare at Jalisa as he shakes his shaven head.



“Jalisa, I don’t know how to break the news to you but Lawrence and Darrel where in the tower when it collapsed. The last I saw was when they helped out a mother and child out the building. I’m sorry. They’re gone.” He whispers upset, his deep voice cracking in sadness.



Jalisa shakes her head, “No!! Are you sure? How do you know?” She screams out, alarming Anita. Anita stands up and passes her hand down her dark chocolate arm. Her black braids were lies messy with all the stress and concern she felt within her.



Henry sighs and shakes his head, “One of the fire fighters found their body already. I’m so sorry!” He says, choking back on sobs. Henry walks away from the office to break the news to the others in the company. Jalisa places her fist near her lips, hoping she wouldn’t scream too loud. Anita in tears runs into Jalisa’s open arms as the two young women shed their tears with the sad news that was just received.

~**~



**~To Be Continued…~**