We All Fall Down by Eric Walters

Author:Eric Walters [Walters, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-67342-6
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Published: 2006-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

NINE

“Should we be going that way?” I asked my father, pointing down the corridor to the door to the stairs where everybody had been going down.

“No,” he said, shaking his hand. “If we believe what they said on the TV—that the plane hit the south side of the building—then we need to try the stairwell farthest away from the point of impact.”

I trailed my father back to the stairs that we had originally come down in the morning. My father put his hands against the door to the stairwell. He just stood there. Was it locked or was he having second thoughts about doing this or—?

“The door is cool,” my father said. “That means there’s no fire directly behind it. Here we go.”

I took a deep breath and held it. I braced myself, anticipating what might be in the stairwell. He opened the door up so I could see clearly. There was nothing. No people, no fire. But there was smoke—not thick but drifting upward.

“Come on,” my father said.

I hesitated. For a split second I thought about refusing to go into the stairwell with him, but I couldn’t do that. If I had to trust somebody, it was going to be him.

The stairwell was gray, concrete and somehow darker than when we’d come down that morning. The smoke wasn’t bad, not overwhelming. What was worse was the smell. It was a bitter, acrid odor that permeated the air and filled my nostrils.

“It’s a good sign that nobody’s here,” my father said.

“It is?” I thought a good sign would be people going down the stairs.

“I was hoping we wouldn’t see people climbing up or stalled here in the stairwell.”

“But why is there nobody here?”

He shook his head. “Maybe people have already gone up or down through this stairwell.”

“So you think we can get down, that we can get through those floors?” I asked.

“I wish I could just say yes, but I don’t know. I’m hoping … I’m hoping. If we can get down anywhere it’ll be through this stairwell. It would be protected by the elevator shafts and the other two stairwells. This is our best chance.”

“This is our only chance,” I blurted out, saying what I was thinking and almost hearing the words before I’d thought them.

“No, not necessarily our only chance.”

“What other chance is there?” I asked.

“There might be other options, things I haven’t thought of yet. But for now let’s just check out this option.”

It wasn’t just my imagination, it was darker than I remembered it on our trip down that morning. Some of the lights were off. Others were shattered by the impact, and little grains of glass littered the floor.

“Keep a hand on the railing and stay a few steps behind me. Not too many, but not too close.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Just do what I say,” he ordered.

My father turned on the flashlight. I noticed that there were glowing white strips on the handrails and the edges of the steps that brightly reflected the light. I took a few steps and then hesitated.

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