Other people's stories We were

We were in the Manhattan-bound subway, which was stalled in the tunnel. When we emerged, the conductor announced that we could see the smoke if we looked out the window. Kind of like, See? I wasn’t lying. That’s where we were all looking when the second plane hit. People lost their shit. I thought, That is one stupid pilot.

Everyone was in the streets, trying to get anywhere else. Some people walked to Queens. There were people walking to Brooklyn across the bridges.

I’m lucky I knew Sommer—I didn’t have anywhere to go. I was living with my parents in Westchester at the time, so I didn’t have any way of getting home. Sommer was the only on in the city that I knew; I don’t know what I would have done because it wasn’t like I knew anyone in the city and I could just go to their place or something. My mom loves Sommer to this day because she knows that’s where I spent the night.

My friend went down for a smoke and was outside when the first plane hit her building. She was on the 85th floor.

When the first plane hit, my friend just stood up, walked out, took the elevator down and left. She was the only one on her floor that survived.

They kept telling us to go back to work. It wasn’t until things started to fall that they told us, okay, you can go home.