by Roger Hayden
Ground Zero
A few feet from their news van, a sudden explosion rippled through downtown, loud and foreboding. Marla saw a fireball rip up into the air from a distance, sweeping in its vibrant ascent. She stumbled back, startled, and brushed against a tree. Tremors followed the blast, with an echoing boom. Regaining her balance, Marla hurried to the van, knowing that something had gone horribly wrong.
Blocks away, past several buildings, smoke flowed with the glare of flames in the distance. Seconds later, a massive fireball rolled and expanded, billowing into a plethora of deep black smoke. One building was clearly on fire, maybe more, right in the heart of downtown.
Marla fell back against the van's side and tried to get a better look, while shielding the sunlight from her face. She could smell the smoke already, acrid and potent. With her news team, she watched, paralyzed, as people ran past the courthouse crowding the roads and sidewalks, trying to get away from the explosion. Her bare foot touched the pavement as she realized she was missing a shoe. She nervously brushed her hair to the side as a panicked feeling settled in her chest. Raul and Dean took cover next to the van, crouching low in the increasing haze.
“Dean! Grab your camera,” Marla said, inserting her earpiece back in. Dean looked up as he reached for his camera on the pavement.
“Sounded like a bomb” Raul said, opening the rear doors. Phone between his ear and shoulder, he reached in and fished out a pair of binoculars.
Marla kicked off her other shoe and went to the back of the van, grabbing a pair of sandals. It had only been a minute or two since the blast. People were still fleeing City Hall, rushing past them and scattering downtown.
“Kate?” she said, cupping the side of her earpiece.
“What's going on down there?” Kate replied with urgency.
“I don’t know,” Marla said, walking onto the sidewalk. “We heard an explosion.” The smoke in the air was getting thicker, and she could practically feel the heat.
Raul held the binoculars to his eyes as they quickly moved through the courtyard, closer to the erupting chase. “Ah hell,” he said. “I think that's the Hudson Building.” The Hudson was one of the tallest downtown buildings, home to more than a hundred companies in the city's esteemed business district, a ripe target for any kind of terrorist attack.
“Kate, I’m going live with this,” Marla said, hurrying toward City Hall as it emptied of people. She covered her mouth to abate the growing smoke around them. “We just heard an explosion, and now building’s on fire downtown.
“An explosion?” Kate said, astonished.
“That’s what it sounded like.”
“Go check it out, but be careful.”
“I will,” Marla said as they hurried around City Hall to the next street over. Crowds of people gathered outside, eyes transfixed onto the distant fire. Marla reached the street corner a few blocks from the blast. The fire raged in clear view. Raul held up his binoculars with a shout. "Mother of God. It's The Hudson, all right."
Marla turned around, clutching her microphone, and signaled to Dean. “Let's go. Come on!”
Dean fumbled with the camera and hoisted it onto his shoulder as people rushed past them on both sides. Oddly enough, there were just as many people walking toward the burning building with their cell phones in the air, recording the blaze as others were running from it. Maybe it wasn't so odd after all. Traffic around was at a standstill, with people standing in the road. Sirens blared from afar, growing closer by the minute.
Marla ignored the dangers and continued ahead to a place where they could get a clear shot, just a few blocks away. Kate told her to hurry up and that she'd be live in one minute.
“Are you ready yet?” Kate asked.
“One minute,” Marla said, almost tripping over a pothole.
She found a spot on the corner, with the building in clear view, engulfed in ascending flames. Hordes of onlookers stood around, capturing the horror on their phones. Police cruisers quickly commanded the hotel, as traffic crept to a halt. Fire engines and ambulances soon followed, lights flashing in kinetic bursts. Marla centered herself in front of Dean's camera and then turned around to get a quick look at the building. Most of its windows were open all the way to the top of its twenty-five floors. It was then that she realized there were people at the windows, trapped by the raging fire below.
“Oh my God...” she said, covering her mouth.
Dean shifted his head from behind his camera, anxious. “Are we doing this or not?”
“Hold on,” Marla said, wiping her eyes.
“You're on the air,” Kate shouted. “Say something!”
She spun around and stared at the camera, microphone in hand and unable to speak.
Terrance's voice suddenly came through her earpiece. “We're back with Marla Weller, who is live on the scene in downtown St. Louis, where reports of a building explosion have just been reported.” She glanced up and saw two helicopters racing overhead, far enough removed from the chaos below but headed toward the building. “Marla, you there?” Terrance's voice said.
She looked back to the camera, surprised but quick to regain her composure. “Yes, Terrance. I'm here on the corner of Fifth and main in the heart of downtown, where an explosion occurred in the Hudson Building behind me.” She stepped away from the camera and signaled for Dean to get a closer look. “You'll see that the... the building is enveloped in fire. It looks like the mid-section was blown out, and you can see the black smoke billowing from that opening. We don't know what caused this, but an earlier unverified terror threat was raised.”
Marla paused, trying to get her words together as the fire raged on and a barrage of emergency sirens wailed from down the street. “This is just a terrible, terrible situation. As I said, we have no information on what caused this explosion or any news on casualties. We're here right now, seeing the same thing as you.”
“Marla, find someone who knows and talk to them,” Kate demanded.
Marla nodded and then spoke into her microphone. “If you have work or business in this area, we'd advise you to stay away.” She paused and stared at the building along with what seemed like hundreds of onlookers, watching the fire engines take position and spray the building with water hoses. As the fire spread upward, they didn't seem to be making much of an impact. Marla gripped a traffic pole as her dizziness returned. The thickening haze was beginning to drive people away.
Marla covered her mouth and coughed as Dean handed her a handkerchief. “We've got emergency responders on the scene doing the best they can.”
Dean scanned the building with the camera, capturing the diminishing blaze as fire hoses sprayed from all sides. Marla continued down the sidewalk, stopping outside a busy coffee shop closer to the chaotic scene before them. “Dozens of emergency responders are here now, trying to get the situation under control. We certainly hope they're able to get everyone out of the building safely.” But there was no denying the fact that an untold number had already perished from the initial explosion. Her heart pounded wildly with her adrenaline racing. She had to hang in there. She had to get the story.
As quickly as the thought had entered her mind, a second explosion sent her to the ground. It was different than the building explosion. The blinding aerial blast had come from directly above them. The sky seemed to erupt in a massive mushroom cloud, blinding in its fury. Panicked screams sounded from every direction. No one knew what was going on. From the ground, Marla placed her hands over her head, squeezing her eyes shut, but a split second later all that remained was the distant boom, fading beyond the skyline.
“What was that?” Raul shouted.
Marla turned and saw him behind her, lying face-down on his chest with his hand rising, as if asking for help. There were people everyone, all taking cover, either on the ground or behind a pole or newspaper stand. She looked around quickly for Dean and saw him crouched, squatting beside a parked car, his camera on the ground. “Dean, did we get that?” she a
sked with a desperate tone.
He shot her a panicked glance. “I-I don't know.”
She pushed herself up from the ground and slowly rose. Both her knees had cuts, and her chin and palms were stinging from the hard fall she had taken. She observed the discolored sky and the yellow tinted streaks layered across it, trying to make sense of it. An unseen crash suddenly sounded, followed by another. She could hear it coming from all over, loud and jarring, shaking the ground beneath her feet. It almost sounded like gunshots. But bigger, much bigger.
“Holy hell,” Raul said, backing away. “We need to get out of here.” He helped Dean to his feet, leading him away as Dean held the camera close, examining the viewfinder.
“It’s dead,” he said, turning toward Marla in confusion. “I just put in a new battery too.”
“Maybe you broke it,” Raul suggested, no longer interested in hanging around.
Dean released the battery and tried another one to no avail. Marla no longer heard Kate shouting in her ear. Something had happened to their equipment, and she couldn't quite figure it out. The emergency sirens down the street were no longer flashing. Though the fire had been nearly subdued, the hoses were no longer spraying. The gridlock near the building remained, vehicles still as ever, only this time she heard no engines, not a sound, even from the dump truck or semi-trailers among them. Much of the traffic had been re-routed away from the building, but those cars weren't running. Worse yet, car doors opened as perplexed drivers stepped outside. Silence gave way to distant cries and panicked screams.
“Come on,” she said, urging her team to follow. “We're leaving.”
“About time,” Raul said, hurrying ahead.
The shops they passed had all their lights off. The trendy neon sign buzzing outside the coffee place only moments ago was out, along with their lights inside. They moved quickly around and in between anyone in their way. They weren't far from the van, but danger seemed inescapable. The building explosion was no accident. Marla had already suspected as much but was now certain after the sky blast. She didn't know what else to call it. If it had been a nuclear bomb, they'd all be dead.
The roads around them were filled with motionless vehicles. Several had crashed into each other beyond the gridlock. The traffic lights were out, smoke rose from smashed front ends, and glass and debris covered the ground. Marla hurried past the destruction, drawing closer to the courthouse. A man with a bloody face rushed past them, holding a wrapped towel around his equally bloody arm. Cries of pain echoed all around them. As she followed Raul through the crosswalk, Marla noticed that not a single vehicle was running. Street after street, it was the same thing.
“Come on!” Raul said, waving to the van with increasing urgency.
The immense stone building stood as quiet as everything else. There were still people outside, fueled by curiosity. She circled to the front where city hall workers were filing out, badged officials and staff alike. The myriad windows in front were all dark. There didn't seem to be any power inside. A line of people blocked their way as Raul moved around them and hurried ahead.
There was an odd, confused silence in the air among the people in their path. Everyone's attention was on their cell phones, and not on the havoc around them. Phones clutched in desperate hands brought no solace, as the screens were all blank and the phones didn't appear to be working. Marla reached into her coat pocket, checking her own phone. Minutes before, following the Hudson explosion, it had been vibrating endlessly, so non-stop that she had had to ignore it. Now it was dead.
Dean held his camera low as they maneuvered around the crowd and reached the open courtyard. Marla turned around and observed the outpouring of people from City Hall. Security men were on guard, directing the crowd away from the building. Like most nearby buildings, it was being evacuated. She hoped to see the deputy commissioner or any county official for that matter, but the kaleidoscope of faces blurred, and it was impossible to tell them apart. Their news van was right where they had left it along the sidewalk.
Raul was at the driver's seat already, and she feared for a moment that he would leave them behind in a panic, but the van didn’t move. She hurried over and swung the passenger door open, nearly falling inside. Relief swept over her as she lay across the seat, catching her breath. Raul hit the steering wheel, cursing. She glanced up as he turned the key again and again to the click of the ignition and nothing more. With all the other stuck vehicles around them, some crashed against street lights and railings, Marla hadn't considered that their van wouldn't start either.
“Come on!” Raul shouted, hitting the wheel.
“Calm down,” Marla told him like a stern mother.
Raul whipped his head around but relented. “It’s frustrating, okay?”
Marla pushed herself up, nodding. “I understand, but keep it together.”
One glance at their surroundings, and the situation only seemed to worsen. Drivers stumbled out of their vehicles, some injured from fender benders and other more serious accidents along the street. A smoking car lay on its side in the middle of the intersection, a block down the road. A cacophony of twisted metal stretched as far as the eye could see. Cars and trucks sat motionless and crooked, some jammed onto the sidewalk, others now being pushed along by determined drivers, though not getting very far. Marla saw a bicyclist zig-zag through traffic, wasting no time escaping the area. And now, the Channel 9 Action News van was the latest automotive casualty.
Dean swung the back doors open and set his camera inside. Marla went to him as he leaned against the van, out of breath and wiping sweat from his face. She asked how he was doing and received only a pale, shaken glance in return. “This is crazy,” he began. “What the hell is going on out there?”
Marla handed him a bottle of water from the front cooler. “Have a seat and rest. We're going to be okay.” The rear van sunk lower as Dean sat on the edge with a hearty sigh. Marla stood in place, observing the city drowning in a sea of chaos. Her instincts told her they needed to get out of there, despite their relative distance from the Hudson explosion.
Raul walked to the back of the van, now looking beyond the point of mere frustration. "Anyone want to tell me why the van won't start?"
Dean and Marla looked at each other. Neither one of them had a clue.
“I don't think we're the only ones,” Dean said after taking a swig from his water bottle.
Marla tried to turn her phone on with a side button, holding it down much longer than normal. But nothing happened. She wondered if she had forgotten to charge it, which wasn't like her at all. There had to be some reasonable explanation for this and everything else. Searching for answers, Raul climbed into the back of the van and went to the control panel. All the monitors were blank, the lights on the switch panel keys out. He pressed buttons and flipped switches in an agitated disbelief. Marla then asked him for his phone.
Raul patted his pocket and looked at her, dismayed. “Shit. I think I dropped it back there.” He stood up and spun around, eyes on the ground.
“Don't worry about it,” she said, grabbing a backpack near a stacked cable. “How about you, Raul?”
“What?” he said, distracted.
“Does your cell phone work?”
He turned around, dug into his pocket, and tossed it onto the carpet near her. “What do you think?”
She took the phone and saw a blank screen. They seemed to be getting nowhere fast as the situation just got worse. Dean grabbed his camera and switched out the batteries again, trying in vain to get it working. “All this happening, and we can't capture any of it.”
“Maybe that's the idea,” Marla said, watching a man from a car next to them open his hood and look inside.
“What do you mean?” Dean said.
Marla stepped back with her backpack over her shoulder. She always brought extra clothes, depending on the number of assignments she had on a given day. “We should go back to the station,” she said, waiting. But neither one responded.
Dean was too invested in his non-functioning camera, and Raul continued pounding on the unresponsive control board. “It's not safe to be here any longer,” she continued.
Raul turned to her and grabbed a nearby wrench, holding it up. “I know that, Marla. What do you think I'm trying to do here?”
“We can walk back to the station,” Marla said. “It's only about four miles away.”
Raul suddenly moved out of the van, stepping onto the pavement with a small toolbox in hand. “We're not leaving my van here. I can get it running. I know it.”
“People are dead, Raul!” Marla said, glaring at him. “Forget about the van.”
He turned away without a word, went to the front, and opened the hood.
Marla then climbed into the back and closed one of the two doors. “I’m going to change,” she said. “Give me a minute.”
“Okay,” Dean said, backing away as she closed the other door.
Now alone, Marla felt safe in the back of the darkened van, even if for a moment. She pulled out a shirt and pants from her bag and began to change as her mind raced with confusion about what had happened. She had cuts and fresh bruises on her legs, cuts on her chin, and the faint taste of blood in her mouth. In her moment alone, things started to make sense and a theory formed. A deliberate attack had occurred, crippling their technology in the process. She believed a third strike was inevitable.
She pulled up her jeans and then put on a pair of socks, maneuvering within the limited space of the van and all the equipment surrounding her. The van's antenna was still sticking straight up in the air. They had no power to lower it. Marla put her sneakers on and grabbed a jacket, stuffing her earlier clothes into the backpack. Suddenly a knock came at the back door, accompanied by Raul's pushy voice.
“Hey, hurry up! I’m missing some crescent wrenches.”
Marla swung the door open, surprising Raul. “All done. Did I make you wait?”
“Hey, you want me to fix the van or what?” Raul asked.
She hopped out of the van and slipped her gray fleece jacket on, ignoring him. Raul climbed inside as she paced around. Dean sat on the sidewalk with his camera in his lap, twisting a top port with his screwdriver. Marla sat next to him, arms crossed, and looked out into the street, clogged with people and vehicles. With all engines dead, conversation filled the air, instead of the usual city sounds. Gone were the blaring emergency sirens, distant horns, and the drilling of unseen construction crews. But everything looked different through the thickening haze that had spread even further. Marla held her hand to her mouth, coughing as Dean stood up and set his camera aside. "Circuits are fried."
