The Day It Snowed Ash

The crowd of faceless people moved in sync to get to their destination. Packed together like little sardines. The murmuring of their voices rose, in competition to be heard over others. Phones glued to their ears as they quickly brushed past anyone who threatened to slow them down.

A child crying for his mother joined the symphony of voices. His face turned red from the screaming and crying, while his mother bounced him, gently cooing to him in hopes of calming him down. While the corporate men and women walked by, glaring at the infant, irritated that their phone calls were being interrupted.

The sound of a deafening explosion and shattering glass erupted, stopping everyone in their tracks. Their eyes darted around, trying to figure out what made the earsplitting noise. Static and white noise was all that was to be heard on the other side of the phone. Their necks bent back, searching the sky for answers; all they saw was thick black smoke, which had begun to block the sun from their view. They could now hear faint screaming from the building. Petrified, they stood there eyes wide and mouth agape, watching the structure burn.

A plane skyrocketed through the sky slamming into the second tower, a mirrored image to the first. The fates of the innocents were destined to be the same. The people on the ground watched the cascading horror, helpless and terrified. They trembled in fear, and shivers ran down their spines when a strangled scream ripped its way through a bystander’s lips. This broke them out of their trance; they scattered like ants. Fighting each other to get as far away as possible from the tragic scene they had witnessed.

The buildings began to crumble, chunks of the structure and shattered glass fell below, falling onto the people on the ground. Panic rushed through the people, no longer fearful of what they saw but now afraid for their lives. Chaos broke out, as it became a struggle for survival. People ran, shoved and climbed over each other, trampling over the mother, who was trying to calm her child; the baby sat on the floor crying from fear, confusion, and for his mother.

People in the building, hopeless and desperate, jumped from the windows in a last attempt to get free, soaring through the air. Not thinking of the people they would land on below. The once blue sky is now blocked by ash. Cars lay in waste, pieces of the building and shards of glass crushed the vehicles, several inauspicious passengers locked inside, some dead and others not so fortunate. Ash snowed down upon the victims, covering everything in soot. This was a day that would be encrypted into the minds of the people, those who witnessed it first hand and those who watched the horrors from the safety of their homes.