Throwing the sheet off his body, Samuel groaned and sat on the edge of his bed. The drapes over his bedroom window were left with a small gap in the middle of them, illuminating the city outside as it slept. Only tonight it didn’t sleep. Fires burned sporadically across the skyline of New York and, in the streets, people gathered just like day. Riots were scattered across Manhattan and the tri-state area, the Trident building on Wall Street no longer the epicenter of the chaos, simply just a starting point.
Many of the reports which the four of them had watched weren’t set in New York, giving Samuel a glance at how the rest of the country – and indeed the world – had reacted to the crash. President Morgan was still to release a statement, her whereabouts unknown as thousands gathered around the White House in Washington, begging for aid and support from a woman in hiding. Scenes on the West Coast were even more extreme, with California in particular known for its high celebrity status, now seeing an uprising of the ‘little people’ who had spent many years serving the coffee and waiting on tables with little recognition. In a particularly harrowing shot, the Hollywood sign burned on the hill, angry protesters setting most of the dry bushlands around it alight and running for safety from the fires they had started themselves.
Further afield in London, British people were rioting against the royal family, surrounding the palace where they lived and forcing the royals out onto the street. It concluded countless years of anti-royalist behavior, the King and Queen used as scapegoats in a similar way that Samuel himself had been. In Baghdad, reports of extreme terrorist activity circulated, though no actual footage could be supplied, leaving people frightened of what was to come. And in the South of France where some of the richest people in the world gathered together to celebrate their wealth and success, one clinically depressed billionaire had driven his speedboat into the side of a huge party yacht, killing the hundreds of people on board in a huge explosion.
Pushing himself to his feet and walking over to his window, Samuel drew back the drapes and looked out over New York. His eyes drifted to where he knew the Trident building should’ve stood, the huge skyscraper having tumbled to the ground from the fire several hours earlier. He had been sitting in his living room with Austin, Trent and Abi when it happened, the crashing sound attracting them all to the window almost instantly, despite former fears and Samuel’s vertigo threatening to pull him back.
Once he had seen it happening, he hadn’t been able to tear his eyes away. Everyone in the world had seen the video of the twin towers being destroyed. Samuel must have watched that footage over and over again and yet the sight of Trident crumbling to the ground in front of his very eyes was more horrific and terrifying than anything he could’ve ever imagined.
Flames had licked the building from the ground floor, reaching just about halfway up the giant structure. With no one working to put them out they had spread fast, jumping between the buildings and along Wall Street. New York was in a dangerous position now as the wind blew the flames further afield, reaching areas of the city that shouldn’t have been affected as the wind came off of the Hudson and didn’t give the fire any chance of being snuffed out.
As the flames swallowed the brickwork in a dirty black cloud, the sound of the foundations groaning and creaking echoed through the skies. One side of the building seemed to give way, dropping down a few feet and leaning out into the street as it caused a bigger cloud of ash and smoke to billow upwards, temporarily blocking the view for the four onlookers. In that moment, Samuel closed his eyes and focused on the sounds he could hear. A plethora of screams whistled through his eardrums as they carried up from the streets, anyone still in the immediate area desperately trying to get away before it was too late. They seemed to crescendo, getting louder and more frantic until they were suddenly silenced by a loud crunching sound as the building almost snapped in two and the top half of it keeled over into the street.
The sound of Trident collapsing and crashing onto the street below seemed to go on forever. Samuel forced his eyes open but all he could see was a massive cloud of ash, smoke and dust that erupted into the sky like a volcano, the rubble of Trident carrying on the wind like the very flames which burned it to the ground had done.
There was only so long he could stand at the window before he was forced to walk away. Samuel had worked in that building all his adult life; he had been inside it no more than a few hours ago, right at the top where he was certain people had still been trapped. He knew the names of the men and women who would’ve still been up there; he knew their faces and their stories. It terrified him that he could’ve been among them, but it also reminded him of what he had done – what he had sacrificed – to get away in time.
Because of all the men and women who were left behind, Sandy would’ve been among them. He couldn’t say for certain what the woman would’ve done; whether she would’ve climbed up to escape the flames or finally given the elevator shaft a try. He had no way of knowing whether she had died moments after he’d
