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rattled at a distant explosion,
and suddenly the street erupted into screams and shouts.
    ‘What’s
going on?’ said the man at the table beside them. Alex could only shrug and
shake his head. It was gloomy inside the cafe, with only the sunlight through
the windows to see by. Everyone was asking the same things; no one knew the
answers.
    ‘Hey,
this lady needs an ambulance!’ said a big man at the door. He was pointing
outside, where a woman sat bleeding in the ruin of her car.
    ‘What
happened?’ said the waitress behind the counter, shrill-voiced, reaching for
the phone.
    ‘She
doesn’t know,’ the big man replied. ‘Says her car just cut out and she couldn’t
control it. Everyone’s saying the same thing.’
    ‘The
phone’s not working,’ the waitress replied, looking lost. The man at the door
cursed.
    ‘Well,
can everyone stop just sitting there and come help?’ he said, looking around at
the diners. ‘There’s crashes all the way up the street!’ there was a sudden
tremor and another distant explosion, and the echoing sound of screams down the
road. Alex and Lindsey heard a man shout for everyone to stay indoors.
    ‘There’s
no sirens,’ said Lindsey as they got up. Suddenly the dark cafe was getting
more and more crowded as people rushed inside for shelter.
    ‘What’s
going on?’ Alex asked a woman who’d come inside, pressed beside their table
with the sudden crowd.
    ‘I
don’t know,’ she replied simply, shaking her head in shock. ‘There’s a big
dustcloud, like a bomb. Heard this guy say a plane had come down.’
    ‘A plane ?’ said the man at the table beside them, standing up from his
seat.
    ‘I
heard that too,’ another lady chipped in, budging over towards them. The
chattering crowd from the street swelled behind her into the cafe. Another
explosion shook the walls; this time much closer. Some of the windows cracked
in sharp icy splits. The noise outside was unmistakeable; panic.
    ‘We
need to get out and help!’ said Alex, trying to push at the mass of people.
After a brief confused silence outside the streets filled with running crowds.
    ‘We
need to get out there!’ Alex insisted, stuck against the chattering mob inside.
    ‘When
there’s planes coming down ?’ said Lindsey, grabbing his arm. There was a
deep whirring noise then, louder and louder. The whole street erupted into
yells and terrified screams. A helicopter ploughed down into crashed cars
outside and burst into flames, a deafening glimpse of hell. The cafe windows
blew and rained glass down inside. The terrified crowd was ducking and
shouting. Alex tried to get out from behind the table. He felt Lindsey’s hand
holding onto his arm. He looked into her frightened eyes, gripped her hand, and
pulled it away.
    ‘What
the hell’s going on!?’ the waitress screeched, stuck behind the counter in the
yelling press of people. There was a man praying somewhere in the crowd.
Everyone screamed and yelled again as the cafe floor shook beneath their feet.
Dust tumbled down from the ceiling, peppering their heads. Suddenly the place
filled with more screaming people, a panicked crush of pedestrians fleeing the
carnage outside. All chattering about the same thing – that the power was out.
That their phones didn’t work, and the city had ground to a halt. That there
were planes falling from the sky.
    ‘Alex?
Alex!’ a man yelled from the door. The cafe was rammed; there was no way for
him to push through. Alex looked over the mass of people to see his brother
David, stuck in the crowd at the door.
    ‘We
have to get out of here, come on!’ David yelled over the screams and shouts.
    ‘I’m
climbing out of the window, get back outside!’ Alex called back, pointing at
the shattered frame. David fought his way back out through the crowd to meet
his brother on the street, as Alex climbed carefully over the shards in the
broken window. The smell of smoke filled the air.
    ‘Lindsey,
give me your hand!’ said