Silent Moments

The birds swooped down; that very morning, the day was like any other day. I woke up to my annoying alarm clock telling me to get ready for my day, I didn't really want to but it was so sunny, warm and the skies were blue. What could go wrong on 7th July 2005? Nothing, right? I was just an average 14-year-old going to school like everyone else in London; that day me and my friends decided to go and get the underground trains like we normally do in the morning if we were running late for the bus.

Our parents always knew our game plan because one of us was always running late one way or another; that's why we all got on so well, we stuck together all the time. This was the early 2000s, at the time nothing much really could go wrong; typical teen head at the time, but we were living the life of freedom and being carefree. So we got to the underground train that we normally got on a running late day, still thinking our day would be alright, as we got onto the Circle Line that was going to be stopping near Aldgate and Edgware Road. Fortunately, our parents rang in saying that the trains were running late; should be in by 9:30 am, they were more expectable as we did come from different parts of London but also our parents were the governors of the school. Not bragging or anything.

The train had started to slow down at about 8:49 am, that's when I started to think something wasn't right; this route wouldn't stop here, would it? I looked around as my friends were still talking like they hadn't even noticed anything strange; no one seemed too bothered about the whole train stopping. There was one guy looking dodgy but then again I always thought men were strange people in the first place. Someone's phone went off, that caught my attention. Then the next thing I can remember is me, my friends and everyone else in the carriage going up into the air, we all landed in a heap.

I could barely move or say anything. All I could hear was people screaming in pain; I could taste blood in my mouth. I knew. I knew I had just been attacked but by what? I couldn't sit up or anything. I just thought "where are my friends, are they are alright?" along with the fear of oh my god! I'm going to be left to die, no one is coming to get me. I want my mum."

I didn’t even know what the time was; I could hear voices coming down the tunnel, they were getting closer and closer. The screaming had stopped; unless that I couldn't hear anything, everywhere was pitch black other than the fact that the people who were coming to rescue us had torches.

I could hear footsteps coming into the carriage; I was starting to lose consciousness as one of the rescuers started to shine the light in my face to see if I was alive or not. Then he shouted to the others, what I could make out as the blood had started to pile up in my ears was "a young teenager over here who’s alive but in and out of consciousness". A few extra people came over and they started to carefully lift me up onto a hard something. I wasn’t too sure what it was.

It still felt like a very long time and it was very dark in the tunnel but as soon as my rescuers got me out to the platform and out of the station the sun had gone down. The clouds had covered them; something was wrong, all I could remember was being put back of an ambulance then I fell unconscious.

I don’t even remember what happened. After that, all I can remember is waking up in the hospital with a hospital gown on, cards and gifts at the end of my bed and not being able to move. My parents were there when I woke up; they called the doctor and nurse to come, I started to panic about what had happened.

I literally couldn't hear what they were talking about, which caused the panic to grow, this had to be serious, why couldn’t I hear or feel anything? I started to cry as it was hard to understand; this was harder than I had imagined, my mum was trying to calm me down… It took me 12 years to recover with lots of help encouragement, but I’m working hard, building up charities to help people who were effected by the attacks. I miss my friends everyday; some suffered the same as me, however, some of them died in the attack.

Author's Note

This is a story of what it may have felt like being in the first attack. A point of view of a victim who may have lost everything; how they had to rebuild their lives after the attack that may effect them for the rest of their lives, along with the flashbacks they may be suffering due to recent events.