Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9 Lucas tried calling Mom again. Now when he called he got a fast busy signal and a recording. "All circuits are busy." He tried Dad's phone. Same thing. He dialed over and over — Mom, Dad, Mom, Dad. He just kept getting the busy signal. The department radio crackled. "Recall, recall," the dispatcher said. "All personnel, on duty and off, are to report. I repeat. This is a recall of all emergency personnel." There were 11,000 firefighters in the department. They needed every single one.

卢卡斯又试着给妈妈打电话。 现在，当他打电话时，他得到了一个快速忙音信号和录音。 “所有的电路都很忙。”他打了爸爸的电话。 同样的事情。他一遍又一遍地打电话——妈妈，爸爸，妈妈，爸爸。 他一直在忙音。 系里的收音机噼啪作响。 “回忆，回忆，”调度员说。 “所有值班和下班人员都要报到。 我再说一遍。这是对所有应急人员的召回。” 该部门有11000名消防员。 他们需要每一个人。

Before Lucas knew what he was doing, he had run out into the street. He couldn't be alone, watching the world fall apart on TV. He needed to find Dad, and Uncle Benny, and the rest of the men. He wanted to be with them. He knew he wasn't thinking clearly. He didn't know if he'd even be able to get close to where they were, if it was even safe to try. But he went anyway. Some kind of attack. Some kind of attack. Was that man on TV right? What did that even mean? Who was attacking? Did he mean that those planes had hit the towers on purpose? The thought hadn't even come into Lucas's mind when he saw the first plane hit. But thinking about it now, of course that was the only thing that made sense. The day was so perfectly clear. There was no way that two airplanes could have hit the towers unless they had been aiming right for them.

卢卡斯还没反应过来，就跑到街上去了。 他不能独自一人，在电视上看着世界分崩离析。 他需要找到爸爸，本尼叔叔，还有其他人。 他想和他们在一起。 他知道自己没有想清楚。 他甚至不知道他是否能够接近他们所在的地方，甚至不知道这样做是否安全。 但他还是去了。某种攻击。 某种攻击。电视上那个人是对的吗? 那到底是什么意思?谁在攻击? 他是说那些飞机是故意撞双子塔的吗? 当卢卡斯看到第一架飞机坠毁时，他甚至还没有想到这一点。 但现在想想，这当然是唯一说得通的事情了。 这一天是如此的晴朗。 两架飞机不可能撞到双子塔，除非它们瞄准了正确的方向。

But who could be insane enough, evil enough, to fly planes into buildings? Lucas wiped away the tears running down his face. He wove through the crowds of people on the sidewalk. Some were running north. But most seemed like they were in shock, standing there dazed, staring at the fires above them. The only noise was sirens — hundreds of them — honking and screaming, wailing and shrieking and blaring. The sounds all crashed together into one terrible song. A crowd of people huddled around something in the middle of the street. Lucas slowed down and looked — it was a big tire attached to a tangle of metal. It didn't look like the tire of a car or a truck. "What is that?" a woman said. "It's part of a plane," said a man. "It's landing gear." Lucas looked away. He pushed through the crowd, heading south. Vesey and West streets. That's where the staging area was, where the firefighters were gathering.

但谁会疯狂到如此地步，如此邪恶到让飞机撞楼呢? 卢卡斯擦去从脸上流下的泪水。 他穿过人行道上的人群。 有的向北跑去。但大多数人似乎都很震惊，茫然地站在那里，盯着头顶上的大火。 唯一的声音是警笛——成百上千的警笛——喇叭声、尖叫声、哀号声、尖叫声和轰鸣声。 所有的声音汇成了一首可怕的歌。 一群人挤在街道中央的什么东西周围。 卢卡斯放慢了脚步，看了看——那是一个连着一团金属的大轮胎。 它看起来不像汽车或卡车的轮胎。 “那是什么?”一个女人说。 “这是飞机的一部分，”一个人说。 “是起落架。”卢卡斯把目光移开。 他挤过人群，向南走去。 维西街和韦斯特街。那是集结区，消防员聚集的地方。

If Dad had made it here from Randall's Island, that's where Lucas would find him. He would look for the Seagrave. He would wait there for Dad. Lucas inched through the crowd. Most people were standing still, watching. But now there were more people coming from the direction of the towers. Some of them were soaked in sweat, their clothes tattered. But it was the looks on their faces — stunned and horrified — that told Lucas where they had come from: inside the towers. There were dozens and dozens of them, some walking alone, others holding hands. Some of the women were barefoot. He imagined their high- heeled shoes kicked into the corners of the stairwells. Nobody was carrying a purse or a briefcase. And Lucas understood why; he'd heard many stories about people who had survived fires and explosions and collapses. So many times they'd escaped with not a second to spare. If they had stopped for anything — to grab a purse or tie a shoe — they wouldn't have made it. A policeman up ahead was trying to stop people from moving south.

如果爸爸是从兰德尔岛来的，卢卡斯就会在那里找到他。 他要去找西格雷夫。 他会在那里等爸爸。 卢卡斯慢慢地穿过人群。 大多数人站着不动，看着。 但是现在有更多的人从双子塔的方向走来。 他们中的一些人浑身是汗，衣服破烂不堪。 但他们脸上的表情——震惊和恐惧——告诉了卢卡斯他们来自哪里:双子塔里面。 他们有很多很多人，有些人独自行走，有些人手牵着手。 有些妇女光着脚。 他想象着他们的高跟鞋踢到了楼梯井的角落里。 没有人带钱包或公文包。 卢卡斯明白这是为什么;他听过很多关于人们在火灾、爆炸和倒塌中幸存下来的故事。 很多次他们都是一秒钟都来不及逃跑。 如果他们停下来做任何事情——拿钱包或系鞋带——他们就不会成功了。 前面的一名警察正试图阻止人们向南移动。

"Everyone please leave this area!" he shouted. "It's not safe. Please leave this area and head north!" But Lucas kept walking, and nobody tried to stop him. He felt invisible. Ladder 177 had to be one of the first units to get to the towers. That meant they'd be the closest. Lucas was still three blocks away when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Hey," a young policeman said. "Where are you going? Are you lost?" "I need to find…" And before he could get the words out, he heard someone calling his name. "Lucas!" His name rose up over all of the sirens. "Dad!" And there was his dad, pushing through the crowd. He grabbed Lucas and held him tight. For a few seconds, Lucas couldn't hear the sirens. All he could hear was the beating of Dad's heart.

“请所有人离开这个区域!”他喊道。 “不安全。请离开这里，向北走!”但卢卡斯继续往前走，没有人试图阻止他。 他觉得自己是隐形人。天梯177必须是第一批到达塔楼的单位之一。 这意味着他们是最接近的。 卢卡斯还在三个街区外，突然感觉到一只手搭在了他的肩膀上。 “嘿，”一个年轻的警察说。 “你上哪儿去?”你迷路了吗?”“我需要找到……”他还没来得及开口，就听到有人叫他的名字。 “卢卡斯!”他的名字在所有的塞壬之上升起。 “爸爸!”他爸爸在人群中挤来挤去。 他抓住卢卡斯，紧紧地抱着他。 有那么几秒钟，卢卡斯听不见警笛声。 他只能听到爸爸的心跳声。