Name: Luke Homer
School: Tauranga Intermediate School
Year Level: 8
Title: If You Want to Live, Climb.
My alarm started buzzing at 5:30am. I slammed the snooze button and crawled out of my warm bed. It was a cold morning so I decided to take a hot shower to warm up. I said goodbye to my wife and two daughters after saying my usual prayer. I climbed into my car and drove the 40 minute drive to the World Trade Centre. When I arrived I grabbed my usual morning treat; a toasted bagel and a latte. I walked over and hopped into the elevator and I zoomed up to the sky lobby of the 78th floor. I got out of the elevator and headed into the other local elevator and took it to the 81st floor. Finally, I reached my destination and walked out of the local elevator and down the hallway into my office.
Suddenly my senses alerted me that something was wrong. I just happened to look and I saw that the North Tower was on fire. I was so shocked that I ran back into the elevator and took the same journey I did to get to my office in reverse. I reached the bottom in a panic but was told by security that I had to return to my office because the building was secure. Reluctantly, I went back up.
When I got to my office my phone was ringing and on the line was a lady from Chicago telling me to get out of the building immediately. I turned around in no specific direction and thats when I saw it... A big white plane coming straight towards me with a ‘U’ on the wings and on the tail. I screamed and dropped the phone.
“God, I can’t do this anymore. You take over, ” I shrieked and jumped under my desk just as the plane hit the South Tower.
There was a massive bang, like a thousand claps of thunder. When I came out from under my desk, I saw a devastating sight that has been forever burnt into my brain.
I paced around my office heart racing, struggling to breath. I started screaming into the darkness for help.
“HELP, HELP!” I yelled.
At first it was pointless. It was then and there I first heard the voice of my savior, Brian Clarke.
“HELLO,” crept a voice from the shadows.
“HELP ME!!” I scream.
“Okay. Follow the sound of my voice,” said Brian.
“Okay,” I said.
I started to follow Brian’s voice and eventually met up with the one thing standing between us, a wall. It was a pale coloured wall that was extremely thick. Luckily, the plane’s impact had created a tiny hole above me.
“PUNCH!” yelled Brian.
So I did.
“IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, CLIMB,” said Brian. I climbed through the tiny gap. When I got over I started to cry. It was hard to find the words to thank a man who just saved my life. I walked over to Brian and hugged him.
“Which way, up or down?” I asked.
“Down,” said Brian. So we began the challenging long walk that lay ahead.
On the way down we came across multiple other survivors. Who said not to go down? To this day I thank God I didn’t listen to them. By the time we get down to the bottom we had gone down 78 floors in about one hour.
To this very day, I cannot explain how grateful I am to Brian Clarke for not only saving my life but for being there with me for over 10 years. But most of all, I thank God for answering my prayers and saving my life that day.
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