SMOKE STORM

10:00

 

Tito stamped his little foot. ‘I. Want. Blockvaders. Noooooow!’ he screeched.

Iddy rubbed his eyes. They had gotten past the ice cream fridge, the dinosaur toys and the boat-shaped cubby house without incident. Iddy had dared to hope they would make it out of the shopping centre without a meltdown. Tito’s meltdowns were infamous. Once he’d held his breath until he passed out.

‘Not right now, buddy,’ Iddy said.

‘AaaaaAAAH!’ Tito replied, his cheeks red with rage.

Iddy could feel everyone else in the toy shop staring at him. He sighed. He was supposed to be at the beach right now. Under an umbrella, with a comic book, and a can of lemonade from the cooler. He could picture it so vividly.

‘You can play with Blockvaders when we get home, OK?’ he said. ‘There’s heaps there.’

His little brother was not consoled. ‘I want that Blockvaders!’ Tito pointed a quivering finger at the pirate Blockvader set, which Mum had already bought. She’d hidden it in the wardrobe, along with the presents for Iddy’s sisters. Christmas was only two days away. But Iddy couldn’t say that.

‘You look thirsty,’ he said instead. ‘Juice?’

Tito’s face lit up. ‘Juice! Juuuuuuice!’

09:51

Mentally congratulating himself, Iddy crouched and started rummaging through his backpack. Nappies, bananas, wet wipes, a water bottle, spare shirts and socks ...

‘Just a second, mate,’ he said. ‘I know I saw a juice box in here somewhere.’

Tito didn’t respond. Iddy kept searching. Eventually, right down the bottom of the bag, he found a carton of apple and mango juice. It was a bit squashed, but still sealed. Iddy held it up. ‘Here you go, buddy—’

But his brother was gone.

‘Tito? Tito!’ Iddy turned around. The little boy wasn’t behind him, either. ‘Tito!’ He couldn’t hear any response over the music and the chattering customers.

Iddy pulled on the backpack and started running through the aisles, ducking around the other shoppers, his confusion quickly becoming fear. ‘Tito? Here, Tito!’

No answer. He knew he sounded like he was calling a dog, but he was too panicked to be embarrassed.

Tito wasn’t in the water toys aisle, or amongst the shelves of picture books, or trying to ride the bikes. He wasn’t anywhere. What was Iddy going to do?

He tugged at his braids so hard his scalp hurt. He would have to find a security guard. They’d know how to handle a lost kid, right? It must happen all the time.

Iddy turned to run back towards the store entrance—

A loud beeping echoed through the shop.

For a second, all the customers froze in place, as though the sound had stopped time.

‘Evacuation,’ a recorded voice announced over the speakers. ‘Proceed to the exits. Evacuation.’

All at once, everyone seemed to realise what was happening: their shopping time was about to be cut short. Some people hurried towards the exits, but many others rushed the checkouts, desperate to pay for their last-minute Christmas gifts before they were forced out of the building. It was chaos.

09:05

Iddy turned around and around, eyes wide. How was he going to find his brother in this dense, fast-moving crowd? He wouldn’t even be able to hear Tito screaming over the fire alarm and all the raised voices.

Iddy ran towards the exit, still hoping to find a security guard, but he couldn’t see one. With one arm he swept some goggles and snorkels off a sale table to clear a space, and climbed onto it to get a better view. From up here he could see out the doors to the rest of the shopping centre. People were running in all directions. A few had abandoned their shopping bags, and other people were tripping over them. Iddy couldn’t see Tito or any security guards.

‘Has anyone seen my brother?’ he shouted. ‘He’s three years old, his name is Tito, he’s wearing a blue T-shirt ...’

He trailed off. No-one was listening. The crowd in the shop had scattered, and the few stragglers were busy arguing with cashiers, who wanted to evacuate rather than sell items. No-one had even noticed Iddy standing on the table.

‘Evacuate. Evacuate,’ the recorded voice kept saying. Maybe Tito had already been led out of the building by a helpful stranger. But what if he hadn’t?

‘Hey, kid!’ someone said—a big man in a singlet and a baseball cap. ‘Get down from there.’

‘I’m looking for my little brother,’ Iddy said. ‘Have you—’

The man grabbed Iddy’s arm and wrenched him off the table. Iddy barely landed on his feet.

‘Hey!’ Iddy complained.

‘You have to evacuate,’ the man said. ‘Didn’t you hear the alarm?’

‘I’ve lost my brother,’ Iddy said. ‘I can’t leave without him.’

‘He’s probably outside already,’ the man said.

07:50

Iddy shook off the man’s hand. ‘He’s only three! He’s this high.’ He lowered his palm to about his hip. Tears started to sting his eyes. ‘He’s wearing blue. His name is Tito. He likes ice-cream, and pirates, and ...’

And suddenly he knew where Tito must be.

‘Come on, kid,’ the man said, reaching for him. But Iddy ducked under his arm and ran, slipping behind a checkout counter laden with gift-wrapping supplies and escaping into one of the empty aisles.

‘Hey!’ the man yelled, but he didn’t give chase as Iddy sprinted towards the back of the store.

‘Please,’ he muttered as he ran. ‘Please, please, please.’

There it was—the big cubby house shaped like a boat. It looked empty. But Iddy had seen Tito admiring it earlier. Deprived of the nautical Blockvader set, his little brother would have gone looking for another way to play pirates.

Iddy ripped open the plastic door, ducked down, and stuck his head inside—

And there was Tito, sitting cross-legged on the floor in the darkness. ‘It’s loud!’ he announced, cheerfully.

07:06

Iddy couldn’t decide if he was furious or relieved, and then decided he could be both. He crawled into the cubby house and hugged his brother fiercely. ‘Don’t ever, ever run off like that again!’

Tito was looking through one of the round windows. ‘Everyone’s gone,’ he said, curiously.

Iddy looked out the window. The people were gone, though he could still hear distant yells of panic. ‘Yeah. We should be gone, too. Come on.’

Iddy pushed his brother out the door and scrambled after him. The quickest way to the exit was blocked by a small forklift—they’d have to go around, through the pink, sparkly doll aisle.

‘Stinky!’ Tito said.

‘I can’t change your nappy right now, buddy—’ Iddy began, but then he smelled it, too.

06:40

Smoke.

He scooped up Tito and they ran through the pink aisle towards the exit. But the closer they got, the worse the smell became. He could see it now—a grey haze lingering around the ceiling just outside the toy store.

Sweat trickled into Iddy’s eyes. There was a fire somewhere in the shopping centre. And even if the blaze was a long way off, he’d learned at school that the smoke was more dangerous than the flames. People in burning buildings didn’t usually burn to death—they suffocated.

There must be another way out. ‘Hurry,’ Iddy whispered, as though the smoke could hear him. He carried Tito to the back of the store, looking for a fire exit.

Soon he found a door marked Staff Only. Relieved, he pulled the handle—and recoiled. It was like opening an oven. A cloud of smoke and heat enveloped him, and he stumbled back, coughing.

‘Shut door!’ Tito squealed.

That was a good idea. Iddy kicked the door closed.

He had seen daylight, so he knew there was an exit through there. But they couldn’t get to it, not without walking through the deadly cloud.

They backed away from the door, but the smoke was coming from behind them, too. It was filling the shop. At this rate, they’d be unable to breathe in a few minutes. Iddy’s eyes stung. He tried to hold his breath. Think, think!

Tito was crying now. ‘Eyes hurt!’

Iddy hugged him closer, feeling helpless. ‘Mine too, buddy. Shut them.’ He looked around, but there was no way out. What kind of big brother was he if he couldn’t save Tito?

The little boy buried his face in Iddy’s shirt and sobbed, leaving a wet patch on the fabric.

04:20

‘I’m sorry,’ Iddy whispered. ‘I don’t know what to do.’

But then something about that sight, the damp cloth covering Tito’s face, gave Iddy an idea.

He broke into a run, Tito bouncing awkwardly against his chest, back towards the table he’d stood on before. The goggles and snorkels were still on the floor. He ripped open a packet of goggles and snapped them over his eyes so he could see what he was doing. Then he tore into a snorkel box.

Tito looked perplexed and alarmed.

‘Just trust me,’ Iddy said, though he didn’t quite trust himself. He shoved the mouthpiece between Tito’s lips. ‘Breathe through this.’

Tito obeyed, wheezing through the tube. He was still breathing the smoky air—but hopefully not for long.

Iddy unzipped the backpack and pulled out the packet of wet wipes. At the safety demonstration at school, a firefighter had said that a wet flannel over the face could provide some protection from smoke—the water filtered toxins from the air, or something. Hopefully this would work, too. He wrapped a wet wipe around the top of the tube and used the sticky tape from the gift wrapping table to hold it in place. The snorkel had a valve, too—he covered that with a second wet wipe, though he wasn’t sure if air came in through that, or just out.

‘You OK in there?’ he asked, as he applied more tape.

Tito looked terrified, but he nodded.

‘You can breathe?’

Tito nodded again.

02:38

Iddy was starting to feel dizzy. He should have prepared his own mask first, like they said on aeroplanes—but he couldn’t imagine protecting himself while his brother breathed the smoke. Iddy quickly taped some more wet wipes to a second snorkel and pulled it on.

He exhaled to clear the tube, then took a hesitant breath in. The air did smell better. Not completely—he was sure firefighters used proper masks instead of snorkels for a reason—but he thought he’d bought them a few extra minutes.

Iddy picked Tito up again and they ran back to the Staff Only door. Was it his imagination, or was it getting hotter?

When they got to the door, he hesitated. As soon as he opened it, the smoke would get a thousand times worse. There could be fire, too.

He spat out the mouthpiece. ‘Tito, when I say so, I need you to take a deep breath, OK? And then hold it.’ He pulled the water bottle out of the backpack, unscrewed the lid, and tipped it all over Tito.

‘I’m cold!’ Tito squealed.

‘That’s the idea. Are you ready to hold your breath?’

Tito nodded miserably, his clothes and hair drenched.

‘OK. Now!’ Iddy demonstrated, popping his mouthpiece back in and sucking in as much air through the snorkel as he could. When he saw that Tito had copied him, he wrenched open the door.

Hot smoke billowed out, engulfing them both. Iddy wondered if he’d made a terrible mistake, but it was too late to change his mind. If he shut the door now, they would just suffocate in the toy store.

01:52

He carried Tito through a corridor lined with boxes. The smoke was flowing from an air vent near the ceiling. The grills up above were glowing red. Iddy staggered past computers, a safe, and even piles of loose cash, headed for the daylight in the distance.

His lungs ached, but he didn’t dare take a breath. The air was so hot that it might scorch the inside of his chest. He kept moving, sweat squelching in his shoes.

Tito clung to him like a koala. I’ll get you out of here, Iddy thought. If it’s the last thing I do.

His arms ached. Something was pounding inside his skull, like a mallet on a stake. But he was nearly there. Iddy took three more steps on trembling legs and then he was at the doorway. But when he tried to walk through, he hit an invisible barrier. Glass.

01:10

This was a floor-to-ceiling window, not a door.

Iddy’s stomach lurched. He turned his head, but couldn’t see another way out through the thick smoke. He slammed his fist against the window. It was security glass, so thick it didn’t even rattle. He’d led his brother into a dead end.

‘No!’ he cried. His mouthpiece fell out, and the lethal smoke rushed down his throat. He gasped, getting dizzy.

Tito didn’t react at all, his little body still.

Suddenly, an axe swung out of nowhere on the other side of the glass. Iddy turned away just in time to shield Tito. Shards bounced off his back and sprinkled the floor. Help had arrived. But was it too late?

Iddy turned back to the smashed window and stumbled through the gap, arms trembling under Tito’s weight, his lungs dying for air. The darkness was closing in around him, and he could feel himself slipping away. His legs buckled—

But strong hands caught him and dragged him out through the window into the parking lot. Someone pulled Tito from his grip.

The sunshine dazzled Iddy, unbelievably bright. ‘Help my brother,’ he wheezed. ‘Help ...’

He felt someone lay him down on the concrete. He was surrounded by dozens of voices:

‘Wow. You ever seen anything like this?’

‘What’s that on his head?’

‘You’ll need help over here.’

Tito, Iddy tried to say, but it came out as a coughing fit.

A firefighter was already crouched over his brother. She pulled off Tito’s mask and listened to his mouth. ‘This one’s not breathing.’

The terror was like a clenched fist around Iddy’s heart. He tried to sit up. The world spun. He coughed out the last of the smoke and crawled over to his brother.

‘Starting resuscitation,’ the firefighter said. She put her hands on Tito’s little chest.

But Iddy had seen his brother’s eyes move. ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘Tito, it’s OK. You can breathe again now.’

Tito finally gasped, his little lungs sucking in as much air as he could. Iddy felt the last of the fear trickle away.

‘Wow,’ the firefighter said. ‘He really trusts you.’

00:00

‘Yeah.’ Iddy reached over and squeezed Tito’s hand. ‘I’m here, buddy. I’ve got you.’