Sam saw the multicolored flashing LED lights below long before the helicopter actually passed over the shelter on the way to the park.
“Blue-and-white lights are police?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Tom said, looking out the window.
“What about the red-and-white?”
“Fire.”
“And the green?”
“There’s nothing we can do until we get closer,” Tom said.
“What are the green lights?” Sam insisted.
“Ambulance.”
Sam tapped the pilot. “You have binoculars?”
The pilot nodded and handed Sam an old and battered pair. It was too difficult to make out any details at their current distance, but after a few more minutes, Sam was able to see the entire horrible scene more clearly—the fire devouring the church, the barricades, the FDNY pulling hoses, people fighting. She thought she saw someone on the ground outside the church, but then the smoke blotted it out. Sam just kept repeating the same two words: “My God.”
The helicopter pitched to the left. Sam shifted the binoculars a few degrees and saw a huge pack of dogs running toward the park. Sam was sure it was her imagination, or the smoke, or the tears in her eyes, but she thought Nick was leading the pack. That couldn’t be, she knew; Nick was too sick to walk, let alone run. She also saw a mass of people following or chasing the pack, but they couldn’t keep up and were falling behind.
Sam panned the binoculars several blocks ahead of the dogs to the perimeter line. But it was what she saw three blocks farther east that made her stomach contract in a searing spasm. The Guard was forming a defensive line at the western entrance to the park that was already twenty strong. She remembered what had happened at the perimeter with Louis and then imagined it inflamed by several orders of magnitude.
Tom took the binoculars and scanned the scene below.
“How long till we land?” Sam called out to the pilot.
“Four minutes,” he answered.
“Make it two,” Tom told him.
“OK. But you won’t like it. Hold on.”
The helicopter plummeted. That was it. Sam’s resolve folded. She turned her head and puked on the floor.