The miracle of the 88th floor | Teen Ink

The miracle of the 88th floor

October 11, 2012
By Brian Dugen BRONZE, Roslyn Heights, New York
Brian Dugen BRONZE, Roslyn Heights, New York
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

I was on the phone with my cousin when I looked to the North and saw this plane barreling down at the building.

My heart raced. I was thinking all these thoughts. What will happen to me and my colleagues? Will we all die right here…? I told myself Stop. Don’t think about it. I remember thinking if I die I hope this is going to be fast. The plane hit 7 floors above us.
“Stay calm everybody… we will get out of here.”
Pablo Ortiz and I went to look for an exit. On our way there an elevator door opened and then following a ton of fire and a burnt woman. We sent her to the rest of the group that was desperately begging for escape. Stairwell A and Stairwell B were both completely blocked with rubble and all the elevators were out of order.
We knew a way out and we knew it would be risky. We took the chance and got to Stairwell C where there was little rubble. I told Pablo to stay there with the door while I got our co-workers. I ran back to them and said we found a way out but you will have to climb over a little rubble. Everyone agreed on going to Stairwell C and I led the way to safety. I looked at Pablo and he looked at me. He knew what I was thinking and I said lets go. We did a search of the 88th floor. Just as we were going to join the group, we heard a thumping on the 89th like someone trying to get out of their office. We said lets go see if we can help. We went the opposite way of our co-workers. The noise grew louder, at the top of the 89th floor we met with Jeff Mulligan. I spoke to him once or twice earlier in the year, but now other people depended on us.
“Let’s try to get this door open”
Pablo, Jeff and I broke into an office with amazed faces belonging to 15 to 20 people. At that point Mike Haub joined us.
Jeff asked “Do you want to do a search of the rest of the 89th floor?”
The rest of us agreed to make a last attempt to find any survivors. There were none. We saw people falling. That’s when Jeff said I want to jump. We questioned him why but he said it would be better for him cause of his mental condition. We tried so hard to get him out of it but he wouldn’t bite. He went to a window, broke it then looked at us then back at the window and back at us for the last time. He had tears in his eyes. He looked down and took a step out like he was going to step on a cloud or something. Then he was gone, out of our lives forever. We looked at each other and said
“lets make our way down”
So down we went. At around the 35th floor we heard a loud banging noise. It got louder and louder then passed us.

We looked around and kept going down not knowing what just happened. We saw firefighters still going up and were baffled why. We reached the lobby, finally. As we were walking out, bodies were still falling, so we had to be cautious. Every time we heard that loud bang we knew it was a life, and we all thought of Jeff and how he could have made it out with us.



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