Tina’s eyes lit up when she spotted the heavy protected men run toward the revolving door.

“Bette, look.”
“What?”
“They’re going in.”

Bette’s eyes grew wide as they tracked the men. ‘Please find her soon’, she thought.

“We’ll see her soon, babe. She’ll be out here soon,” Tina said wrapping her arm around Bette’s waist.

*****

Cliff had never been one to pray but he thought tonight would be as good of enough time as any. Even though she wasn’t really his friend, he still wanted her out safe. Cliff learned a lot about her just standing next to her parents and Evan seemed like the kinda girl he would like to kick it with. The teenage boy bowed his head and closed his eyes. He surrounded himself in silence blocking out the crowd noise and began a simple pray.

“Cliff? Are you okay?” Bette asked.
“Yeah… just praying,” he said picking up his head.

Bette smiled.

“Mind if I join you?”

Cliff returned her smile and took her hand.

“Dear God, please let the firefighters find everyone and be safe. Please let my new friend Bette’s daughter be okay. And uh… I don’t know what else to say.”
“How about amen?” Bette suggested.
“Yeah, that…amen.”
“Amen,” Bette repeated along with Tina, who neither one of them noticed was praying with them.

Bette squeezed Cliff’s hand in thanks.

*****


Noise. More noise. Voices seemed so close but yet so far. Maybe she was dreaming. She wasn’t sure. She tried yelling but her throat was sore and dry from the cold. She tried moving but that, too, was out of the question. The only thing that did happen was a sneeze. A sneeze so big it made her chest hurt.

*****

“Hey Kensington… you hear that?” Miguel asked the senior officer.
“Hear what?”
“A noise…like a… I don’t know…a sneeze maybe.”
“A sneeze…you heard a sneeze. You gotta be kidding me,” he laughed.

The firefighter turned to his colleague and laughed.

“Where does the department find these guys?”
“Beats me, Kens.”


Miguel didn’t care if they were making fun of him. He swore he heard a sneeze in that area. Holding the flashlight above his shoulder, Miguel directed it toward the not so open area. He trailed the beam along the fallen debris but nothing caught his eye.

“Hey, Me-guell…we’re moving on,” Weiner shouted.
“Jerk,” Miguel muttered to himself before turning around to join the others.

He looked back two times still having a nagging feeling that someone was indeed in that area.

*****




To be continued….