#12 Just Breathe

I tried to control my breathing. Waves of pain like bolts of electricity scorched my spine and legs. When I focused on the ragged gasps for air and breathed deeper, it started to work. My muscles eased their rigid grip on my upper body. I still couldn't feel my legs so I closed my eyes and focused on deeper breathing. After about ten minutes, my body had fully relaxed. My headache ebbed, too.

My pain had made a couple circles on it's mat, laid down and went to sleep. But it would be back.

"There are too many people on this bus," I said to the man next to me. "Why doesn't the driver just get moving?"
"The street is full of people. He can't move forward," he said.
I decided my choice to get on the uptown bus was terrible. I looked out the window. Smoke poured from both towers. Flames sporadically flashed from windows. Another person jumped.
I stood. I decided to fight my way to the door. The press of bodies forced me back into my seat. The man beside me put his arm across my chest.
"We're moving! He's got us moving!"
The bus inched forward until there suddenly came a ripping, grinding roar that filled our ears. People on the street ran in every direction. I saw a woman drop to her knees and clasp her hands in prayer. Then it all went black.
The sound of metal striking metal. The bus pitched and rolled to one side. People screamed in terror as we got tossed off the ceiling, walls and each other like a cereal in a near-empty box being shaken by a hyper child.
The pain brought me into clear focus. Knives of agony lanced my lower back. Legs went numb. I screamed but couldn't hear it, couldn't separate from everyone else.
A choking dust and smoke mixture filled the air. I covered my mouth and nose but kept screaming.  I lay on a pile of people that writhed beneath me. I felt like a worm atop a pile of worms. The bus lay on its side. The floor of the bus was ripped open. Flames burned on the street beyond.
I did the only thing I could. I slowed my breathing. I tuned out all else. Sometime later, the pain receded. I rose. Oriented myself. I started helping people off that bus.