The dark cloud ascended from the streets of Newark unnoticed by those in the much larger city of New York. Even the large towers covered any sight of it from the city. He switched on his television; the latest news on Britney Spears was the top story. He stared at the screen blankly waiting for the weather to slide its way into the news. The sky was already dark with clouds and he predicted rain, sitting on his couch in blue boxers and a t shirt the weather finally presented itself. He had already started putting gel into his hair to get ready for work. He was sitting alone in his studio apartment sitting in Queens with dull white walls and the one painting his sister had made for him before she moved to attend art school in London.
He stood and stretched and soon walked out of the room to get dressed. Some reporter was speaking about a fire in New Jersey as he walked away. Getting dressed he heard thunder outside and looked at the window, he grabbed his umbrella yet there was no rain yet. Minutes later he grabs his keys and walks out of the door. He looks up at the dark sky as he begins to make his way to the train station. The air was oddly smoky like there was a barbeque somewhere close. He walks through the streets as the wind picks up and begins to burn his eyes.
Sirens make their presence known as the horns scream from blocks away. He looks to his left and sees over a dozen fire trucks rushing through the rush hour traffic. He’d never seen them moving so fast; the wind from the trucks as they passed pushed him to the side. Soon the crossing light gave him permission to continue, he crossed the street and descended into the subway below.
He stood on the platform awaiting the arrival of his train, the station was crowded and he stood behind a woman who was waving to someone from another platform across from them, the younger companion waved goodbye as his train pulled in splitting the two, soon the train pulled out leaving the station oddly quiet. An announcement over the speakers interrupted the unusual silence; it soon informed everyone that the trains were being delayed because of an ongoing incident in the city. He heard and placed his headphones in his ears already knowing that he was going to be late for work.
A train pulled in, it wasn’t his people made their way past the other commuters who weren’t leaving quite yet. He became annoyed as a second train pulled into the station and again it wasn’t his. This train was also packed and people began to become hostile as they tried to push their way onto the train, a fight broke out further down the platform and the police had arrested someone as the doors forced themselves closed leaving people’s faces rubbing against the Plexiglas windows on the doors.
Soon his train slowly made its way into the station, he was luckily placed right in front of one of the doors, and he moved aside to let people off and soon pushed his way onto the train. He made it to the middle before he was faced with the preexisting crowd. He maneuvered his arm between people in order to hold onto one of the metal poles in the train, soon the doors closed and he was crushed in between dozens of people. The train jerked forward and made its way further away from the station.
He stood there uncomfortable, someone was breathing on his neck while a person sitting near him began coughing uncontrollably. The train took an abrupt stop in the tunnel underneath the East River. There were no announcements and the train sat in the same position for ten minutes. The conductor was suddenly begun arguing with the motorman over the radio. He stopped his iPod to hear what they were saying. He only understood that they didn’t want to go into the city.
Minutes later the train began to pull forward they slid into Lexington Ave. He was able to relax as more people began to get off the train the further they went into the city, he had noticed that the train was beginning to go faster and more people began crowding onto the train, unusual for a morning rush hour. Soon the train came to a stop at his station, he stepped off the train. The doors shut behind him; only four other people from the entire train had disembarked. The area around him was odd 23rd street was never empty like it was now. There were no people in the station and he began to walk to the one exit in the middle of the platform. Pushing his way through the gates he began to walk up the stairs the other three people had gone to the other side.
He began to cough as he had reached the street level; the air had become a thick unbearable smoke. He covered his mouth and ran the two blocks to his office building. There were people lying on the floor, he didn’t know if they were dead or not but he did hear people coughing as he ran. He made it to his building and panicked as he tried to wave his id over the lock on the door. He was running out of air and he didn’t want to breathe anymore of whatever he was in.
Soon the keypad turned green and he made his way into the building, he ran up the stairs breathing the air in. It was no longer smoke so he felt safe breathing it in. He swung the doors from the stairs to his floor to see three people in the office. They were sitting on the floor staring at the window. He ran over to them to see if they knew anything, they had been sitting on the floor since the smoke began to pour in.
He walked to one of the computers and looked for any news. He couldn’t find any updates because no news source had updated their information since hours earlier. He soon made his way to the BBC website where he saw the first headline. “New York Being Devastated by Massive Sulfur Storage Fire” he continued to read the news about how the city was being choked of air and thousands were already pronounced dead by being burned from sulfuric acid that they had breathed in.
He turned around to see that the three people had left; they were going to run back to the subway and catch a train home. He considered doing the same but knew that the smoke was getting worse and knew that he wouldn’t be able to handle any more because he was allergic to sulfur. Soon there was another explosion far away. The lights shut off this time and he sat on the floor and looked out of the window.
Every once in a while he would hear people outside screaming for air, he couldn’t see the street anymore because the smoke had grown so thick. Hours had passed and his cell phone began to ring, he had forgotten that he had it. He looked at it and saw that it was his sister from London calling. He answered and assured her that he was okay.
Tears began to roll down his face when he rested the phone onto the floor. He sat in silence as the sun began to take away its light. He looked out in the direction of the fire and saw an amazing glow of colors. The city had become horribly silent, he felt alone as he drifted off to sleep. A while later he was awoken by the sound of large jets flying above him. He then heard a loud scream from them there was another explosion as one of the planes accidentally crashed into the growing fire.
Days had passed and he was still trapped in his office, he began to lose his grasp on reality. The smoke had not let up his cell phone battery died three days ago and so contact with his sister had been aborted. He began to imagine that there were people in the office; he believed that they were taunting him. He hadn’t eaten in a week since the last bits of food in the office refrigerator had been eaten.
He slowly walked to the hallway window and opened it; he couldn’t see the street below but he knew that he was seven stories above. There was a rumbling sound coming from his left, it continued to develop in his brain. He believed he was going insane, there was nothing left to do and so he stood onto the ledge. There was no time to have second thoughts because he began to choke and stumbled out of the window slamming into the ground below.
There were screams from dozens of people who had just seen the man jump. A little child was waving goodbye to his mother before her train was pulling in to take her to work. He screamed as the man jump onto the tracks. The train pulled in and ran over the man as it slammed on the brakes. The scream of the metal wheels rubbing against the tracks pierced the station and everyone turned and saw what had just happened.
The man’s head rolled onto the other tracks and his body began to burn as his bloody neck slammed onto the electrified third rail. The man’s eyes were still open and when his head settled he was staring directly at the boy on the other platform.
The puddle of blood began to collect under the train.
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