The following is my way as a writer, to pay tribute to those that so many times we forget exist, but that they make our lives safer every day.

-- E. J. Questell

My dear Mary,

Today, I met Superman. I know, I know. You are probably thinking that I’m pulling your leg, but I’m not! I’m telling you, I met Superman. Believe me, he’s larger in life that in TV. Seeing the red cape and the blue thing he wears, was quite a sight. Although I do think he should drop the red trunks.

But you’re probably wondering, how the heck did I meet him? Well, here’s the story. I know you probably don’t believe me, but I swear this is the true!

The building was on fire. It was a large building, one of those that had like a whole bunch of stories. Like forty or more. It was a fricking inferno let me tell you. Fire all over the place. And people were trapped inside, they were trapped and there was no way that they could be taken out. Yet, we went inside. We had to take them out, you know. We went inside, and we tried to use the stairs… But then the stairs collapsed.

Wait; don’t get scared, nothing happened to me. But we could hear the screams, and the shouts of the people trapped up there. I’m still having nightmares about it. I didn’t know what to do, but we had to do something. So I rounded the boys, and we headed to one of the elevators. I was scared, very scared.

We went into it, flames threatening to burn our butts from behind now, as the fire seemed to be trying to trap us. As if the damned thing were alive! Still, we got the doors to the elevator open. We tried going up, but the thing wouldn’t budge. Mikey went inside then, and quickly started working on getting the upper panel in the elevator open. He didn’t have any luck. So the rest of us, five of us were there, pitched in and we tried to get the damned thing open.

Of course, I was inside the building as I told you, but from what I heard when I came out, things outside were not pretty either. You remember Johnny? Yeah, Johnny Johnson. We used to make fun of his name, remember? He was a friend from school, and joined the police academy after his mom passed away. To make her proud, he used to say. Well, he had his own hell to deal with on his side. People were in panic, trampling each other. He and his guys had to take control, but it’s not easy, when you have a forty-story building burning on top of you. Not easy at all.

The brothers in blue were also trying to get people out anyway they could. Even with the fire raging, and without the equipment to protect themselves… they were still going at it. Some of them were burned pretty badly. Johnny… he lost an arm, trying to get a kid out of one of the windows. They fought the battle outside, while we fought the battle inside. That day, we were all brothers. Brothers in blue, and brothers in red.

Our neighbor, Pete was there too. Pete’s a young one. I still remember when he used to cruise along the street, in his undies. Heh. That kid was crazy. He grew up to be a fine man, though. He joined the blue force too, and he was outside. I heard that there was this woman, with a baby, trying to make her way out of the windows. My brothers were trying to put away the fire, you know? So many lives to save, so few saviors. Well, Pete asked our chief to allow him and his squad to use one of the trucks to try and get to the woman. He went up, and reached into the window, getting the baby out first. The baby couldn’t have been more than six months old, I heard the chief tell me. Pete got him, and climbed down, handing the baby over to some of his partners. And he went back up… The woman had passed out by now, though. The smoke in her lungs, you know? Pete went in, while down below the other policemen prepared things for him to jump out if needed.

He took a few minutes. And all of the sudden, the body of the woman crashed through the window. The blue brothers down below caught her… But Pete never came out. Never. When the others scrambled to try and get up there, they couldn’t. The wall had collapsed, thrashing the truck. Thank the lord nobody was in the truck. But Pete…well, you can imagine what happened there.

We weren’t the only ‘fighters inside the building. Another group had gone through the back, to see if they could find an alternate way in, since we were still fighting with the stupid door thing in the elevator, trying to get up somehow. We were losing the battle against time, and our brothers outside were losing the battle against the fire. So the other group went in. Larry was in charge of that one. Yeah, he’s the tall blonde one that talked funny. He had an accent he used to say. I know this to be true, but I remember the rest of the boys giving him a hard time.

Anyway, they managed to get in through one of the windows in the first floor. The fire there was just raging, and they couldn’t find anyone in that floor. Most likely, they had gone out already. They used their axes to go through the doors, trying to get to other apartments. Most of them were empty, in one of them there was a kid. The kid was trapped in the bathroom of his place thanks to some wooden beams that had fallen down blocking the way. Larry and the others chopped away, trying to get the damned thing removed while the amount of smoke continued to increase. They chopped enough, that they could get the kid out, but the kid had passed away. Larry had to remove his protective gear, in order to squeeze in and get the kid out. He gut burned badly, but he kept going. That damned Larry, never knowing when to quit. I bet the boys won’t be making fun of him now.

After getting the kid to safety, they kept plunging ahead. Did I tell you already that they found a set of stairs? The bastards, here we were fighting still at the stupid elevator and they were getting the job done. But that’s what’s important right? Getting the job done. Larry was still with them, in pain but keeping on. Up the stairs they went, and then those stairs also collapsed. So they were trapped up there, yet they kept going up. When you’re a ‘fighter, you don’t quit, you know? They found some more people in other apartments, but with no hope to get out. Then Larry came up with an idea. They found a bedroom, of a place that wasn’t burning that much, and they started using blankets, towels, whatever they could find to make a rope. With the rope, they threw one end of it out of the window and started getting people down that way. That Larry, he’s a sneaky one. It was risky, but hey, they needed to get out. I bet I’d have tried something similar.

Meanwhile, we finally managed to get that thing open. You would think that they build it, so that ‘fighters going in would have hell getting it open or something. Mikey scrambled up. We had to climb through the shaft. Those movies where you see crap like that? That’s all fake. Climbing up was not easy, especially when you’re carrying the stuff we were carrying. We made it one story up, and Frank (he was the one at the holiday party, with the goatee) hurried up to see if the stairs were available there, they weren’t. The rest of us moved out to make sure there weren’t people in this floor.

In one of the apartments, we found an old man at his bed. Still alive. He was hooked to an oxygen tank, so we had no idea on how to get him out. Frank again went to one of the windows, trying to see if he could get the people outside to help. I’m proud to say, that both my brothers in blue and red threw in their help, and we got the man out through the window. This one was easy, though, it was in the lower floors. We could have left just then, and by the way the inferno was growing, nobody would have thought the least of us. But we didn’t, we kept pushing through. There could still be more people inside, you know?

So that was basically our story, we would go into the elevator shaft, move up one floor, and see if people needed help. As we moved up, it was getting harder and harder, because we didn’t have a way to get people down. But we kept going. By the tenth floor, the fire was just raging out of the windows, so that way out was blocked. We didn’t have many options. You know I’m not religious, but I prayed then. How did I pray.

It was then that he appeared. Superman. I hear he hangs around in Metropolis a lot, but this isn’t the big city. I thought we weren’t important, yet… he was here. And he made a hole on the wall, and offered to bring down the people we had rescued. As many as he could carry. By that time, we had a whole bunch of people, that we just didn’t know what to do with them. The arrival of the Man of Steel, as I’ve read some of the papers call him, was a very happy sight.

That is, until we started hearing the screams of people upstairs. The heat. The heat was slowly killing them. Superman was getting people out, so I got the rest of the boys and we went to the elevator again, moving one floor up. Things were getting pretty hot in there, and Superman was hurrying up to try and get people out, before he helped in putting the fire out.

It wasn’t a pretty sight let me tell you. There were flames everywhere, and we just didn’t know where to start. I was crapping my pants, but we moved in. We made the way through the fire, to find a family inside one of the apartments. The father was already dead… he had died trying to get his wife and kid out. The wife and the kid were trapped in the hallway, though, were one of the walls had fallen in around them, blocking them from us. So I got my axe, good ol’ Betsy, and I went in first. Trying to make my way to them. The others helped, and we go to them.

But then the floor gave in. I fell through the floor, with the kid in hand and we landed on the floor below. I heard a loud cracking noise, as pain shot through my back. I didn’t know what had happened. The kid was crying, the woman as lying next to me, but still alive. I could barely move. It hurt so much, dear. So much. But I pulled myself to try and cover the woman and the kid from the fires that were threatening to eat us up. I thought I was dead, plain dead.

And then he arrived again. Punching through the wall with his super strength. I couldn’t see much because of the smoke, but I know he found us and picked us up. I remember being carried outside, floating through the air. Like feathers. Yes, Mary, I was flying! With him! I remember. I was in pain but I remember. We landed on the ground, and he very gently put me down. I remember his face. He was sad. Very sad. He wanted to save the world, I knew this right there. And through the pain I said, “You are a true hero…” and he responded, “No, you are.” And with those words he smiled at me, the sad expression on his face and he flew away, to save more lives. Just like my brothers and I would have done, you know? Just like that. After that, I faded out.

When I woke up, I was in the hospital. All hooked up to stuff. I’m still here, and I’m alive Mary. I’m sending you the address, so you know where I am. The doc dropped by earlier… I still can’t feel my legs. He doesn’t seem to believe I’ll be able to walk again, but you know, I’m sure I will. And when I do, I’ll be joining the ‘fighters again. I’ll talk with the chief about it.

I heard that the building ended up collapsing, that Superman ended up saving most people. I grieve for my brothers my brothers in blue and red. I grieve for those that died, while trying to save lives. But more than that, I’ll remember them. And if I had to, I’d do it all over again. After all, it’s our jobs.

Love,
David

Author’s Note: To those who died saving others in the fateful day that was September 11th, 2001. And to those that daily put their lives in the line for the rest of us. We humbly thank you, and salute you. E. J. Questell