They were all gone. All of them, just like that.
Hold on, letâs rewind about 3 minutes.
Iâm walking downtown Washington DC. I look up and feel the heat of the sun in my face, such a warm feeling, and I start to wonder how it would feel to fly. âAmanda!â Kathrine, my best friend, comes over to me, âCome on you slowpoke! Stop daydreaming again!â She gives me a warm-silly smile.
âIâm not daydreaming.â I pout, but itâs still hard to hold back a smile.
âOh whatever, come on! Letâs catch up to the others!â She exclaims and grabs my hand. âThe othersâ are my brother Sam and some of our other friends. We run for a few seconds and catch up with them, and Kathrine and I end up laughing because she almost ran into Andrew. Nothing could ruin this perfect day. It was the perfect day for a view of the capitol city of the country. I close my eyes and start to think of how I wish everyday could be like this. Then thatâs when we start to hear it. At first it sounded like a huge truck driving by, then it sounded like an airplane, then it sounded like hundreds of them. Everyone stops and immediately looks up to the sky.
âWhats going on?!â
âWhatâs that noise!?â
âIâm scaredâ
âIt is 9/11 again!?â
After some seconds of scanning the sky and hearing people making accusations, someone spots it. Itâs too far away to be sure of what it was. People then start making more weird theories that all seem too strange to be real, like âalien attackâ or âthe moons crashing into earth!â, until we hear someone say, âI think I know exactly what this is.â
We all turn our heads to the person who said it. It was Mary, one of my brothers friends. She has an intense but controlled look on her face. I canât tell whether I should be scared or not because of it.
She clears her throat. âGuys. Donât freak out, but I think that this is the North Korean missile we have all been waiting for. Weâre in Washington DC. Less than a mile away from the WHITE HOUSE.â
Everyoneâs silent. Kathrine and I exchange confused and worried glances. A few seconds people scratches their heads and murmuring, then you hear the first person scream, âWERE ALL GONNA DIE! EVERYONE FREAKINâ RUN!â
All I see then is the blurred image of everyone around me running, me running, and the noise. A few seconds later, the emergency sirens start blaring, almost as loud as the missile coming for us. All I can hear is a mix of screaming, sirens-all kinds of sirens, and the sky screaming at us.
âAMANDA!â
Kathrine? I turn around to see her running towards me from 30 feet away.
âHEY!!â I yell. But no.
You canât hear it.
I can see it.
The explosion in the near distance.
The heat of death.