No brakes, no good

I've decided that driving without brakes is absolutely terrifying, and I was only going 5-10 mph!  McKenzie and I were driving home from gymnastics and were stopped at a red light.  I turned around to talk to her and when I looked forward again we were inching forward.  I pushed on the brakes and they weren't working.  I crept closer and closer to the car in front of me before I put the car in park, hoping that would immobilize it.  It did.  But now my brain was frantically spinning, "Is there something stuck under the pedal?"  "Can I not feel the brake through my sandals?"  "Was I imagining it?"  "What is just some weird glitch?"  As the light turned green I crept through the intersection slowly.  The narrow road I was turning onto was already back up with rush hour traffic and I didn't know if my brakes were working or not.  I veered off onto a side road and tested my brakes.  They were squishy.  I could hear a hissing sound.  It felt like they wanted to go farther to activate, but I simply couldn't push them hard enough to actually work.  I pressed and pressed those brakes so I could stop on the shoulder, but ultimately I think it was the slight incline that stopped my momentum.  No brakes?  What do I do now?  I thought about driving home with my emergency brake, but it was still too far and there were too many cars.  I called our insurance to set up a tow...wow that was a process.  I was routed to some central call center so when I tried explaining where I was the operator had no idea I was even in Colorado.  Twenty minutes later he finally sent out a dispatch for a tow truck.  Their ETA was 55 minutes.  Ugh.  Luckily it was only McKenzie and I so it was an easy matter of waiting.  But we still had to wait an hour.  The tow truck finally arrived and we took the car to a shop.  It wasn't until after Jeremy came to pick us up that I realized how lucky and blessed we were.  My brakes could have gone out when I was traveling at 60 mph.  They could have been lost when I was surrounded by cars on all sides and had to suddenly stop at a light.  There could have been people on sidewalks that I would have had to avoid.  I could have been on an overpass with nowhere to go.  I could have had a serious accident.  The fact that they went out when I was already stopped was a huge blessing. The dealership called and it sounds like the brake booster failed.  Apparently this has been a problem for 2011 Mazda CX-9's and there is an extended warranty on them.  Unfortunately for me, I have too many miles on my car so it may not even qualify.  We'll see.  In the meantime a saint of a friend has an extra car we can use.  One who's brakes actually work!