Seventeen minutes. Seventeen minutes is all it took to take so many people's lives. It was a bright sunny morning just like any other morning when it happened. Everyone was in their offices and then just like that everything went south. Boom! The plane hits the North Tower and everyone is in panic. Everyone rushes down the stairs. The world spreads around and every first responder immediately flees to the scene. One of those police officers' names is Chris. Chris is thirty-three years old with beach-blonde hair and ocean-blue eyes and he can feel the nervousness running through his veins.

The feeling resonates with him from his childhood. He is ten minutes away from the world trade center. The drive is very fluid since everyone is getting out of the way. He puts on his gear in the car knowing that this was going to be very frightening. Chris prays and then gets out of the car and listens for instructions.

    Chris is a strong man who has blue eyes and blond hair. Chris listens for his directions and is told to enter the north building and evacuate as many people as possible. Chris immediately sprints inside ready to help people. From a young age, Chris has always been taught to help people and now he gets the chance to really help people. 

Chris runs up the stairs directing people to go down the stairs and exit the building. Chris is hit by a falling beam while he runs up the stairs. He does not even notice the pain because of the adrenaline rush he has. Then on the fifth floor, he hears a girl calling for help. He runs right at her, she is trapped under a bunch of rubble. Chris moves the rubble and helps her up. He walks her over to the stairs with her arm on his shoulder. 

“What's your name?” Chris questions trying to calm her down.

“Isabel,”  she responded, “what is your name?”

“Chris”  he responded, “Just stay calm and we will get out of this together.” Chris is not an emotive person and Isabel realizes that. She nods as they limp over to the stairs. Then the stairs get blocked with rubble. Chris tries to move it, but it is too heavy. Isabel can not lift it either. They search around the office floor looking for something to act as a lever to move it. They are running out of time. It has already been five minutes little do they know they only have twelve more to escape this tower of terror.

    They search for a metal bar to pry the rubble away from the stairs. Isabel finally finds a metal bar from under the desk. She calls Chris over to rip it off the desk. Chris runs over and rips the metal bar off the desk. Chris goes to the rubble and puts the bar under the rock and steps on the other side. The rock moves a little as Isabel also stands on the bar. Then Chris jumps and one of the rocks moves and he grabs the rock and throws it away. Then they do the same thing for the next few rocks. This evokes the feeling of not being able to do anything to help. Chris tries harder to squeeze through, but they do it until there is enough room to squeeze through and get to the stairs. As Chris squeezes through he cuts his lower back, but again he does not realize because of the adrenaline. Chris helps Isabel through and then they start to go down the stairs. 

When they get to the third floor they are faced with a problem. The staircase has a giant hole in it. Chris jumps down and tells Isabel to jump and he will catch her. Isabel is tentative. She does not want to jump but eventually realizes that she has to. She jumps and it looks like she is flying then Chris catches her. On their way down the stairs because they hear someone yell for help on the second floor. Chris and Isabel sprint over and move the desk that is on top of the salesman. He is wearing a baby blue suit, but now it has many holes in it. They help him up and Chris sees he has a gash on his leg. Chris carries him to the stairwell and down the stairs. He gives him to another officer and then goes back up. Isabel wants to go back up, but Chris has another officer take her to an ambulance. 

    Chris goes back up as high as he can and searches every floor for people he can help. He finds one more on the second floor and directs him to another officer that could help him. Chris goes back to the second floor and looks for people when he realizes he cut his arm. He looks for cloth to apply pressure on the cut. He finds a suit jacket and cuts it with a sharp metal bar. He wraps the suit on his arm. He continues to look for people and he finds another one under a bunch of rubble. He moves the rubble and grabs the person's hand. The fireman carries them out and to another officer. Another officer runs in and yells at to get everybody out because they  got as many as they could. At that moment Chris spots another person on the ground, he calls it out and goes to grab them. He gives them to a fireman and then he starts to get dizzy. He starts to feel like he is spinning in circles. Then everything goes black. Twelve minutes down and five minutes left. 

Chris’s mind starts to wander. He begins to dream. His mind goes to his least favorite childhood story. He starts to remember how his sister went on the ice. As she walks on the ice Chris tells her to be careful. She does not listen and keeps going deeper into the ice. Then Chris hears a crack. He begs her to get off the ice, but she refuses. Then she hears a crack and starts to slowly walk back to the land. Then it happens. Crack! The ice gives in and Chris jumps in to help her. He can not find her. He goes down as far as he can, but he can not find her. He runs out of air and comes back up. He is freezing, tired, and out of breath. He takes a deep breath and goes back down and opens his eyes. Nothing. Nothing. Then he sees a black blob. He goes down and grabs her. He kicks and kicks and kicks all the way to the surface. Then he swims to shore. He lays her on her back and yells for help. 

Help!

Their parents come running out screaming and crying. “What happened?”They screamed.

    “She was out on the ice and then it cracked and fell in and and and '' Chris stated at that moment Chris’s parents gave him a hug and then helped his sister. They called nine one one and told them what had happened. Within five minutes an ambulance was at the house and ran to help her. They started giving her CPR and trying to help her breath again. Chris felt helpless. His mind went everywhere. He was crying and zoned out at the same time. His parents got him a blanket and hugged him. They called him brave and strong, but it did not help him; he knew it was too late for his sister. She had been underwater for way too long. Chris broke down crying when they confirmed that she had died. The paramedics called Chris very very brave and he cried more and more.