“I'm not sure, sweetie.”
As I'm about to reassure him, it happens. If I thought the bang before was loud, I was wrong. There’s an explosion so loud that all the building shakes. There are lots of screams and the lights go out, plunging us into darkness.
Okay Soph, think. I have no idea what is happening, but something shook this ancient building, and we’re both on the top tier of a plastic structure – we need to get down now.
“Sophie, what was that? It's dark. I'm scared.” Eli's says, panic laced in his tone. I must keep calm. It doesn't matter what the hell I'm feeling on the inside, I cannot let Eli know I'm terrified.
“OK Eli, listen, you know how Uncle Dec is a fireman?”
“I do - he’s a hero.”
“He is – we’re going to pretend that we are firemen too, like him. We’re on a call out, and we are going to do his job.”
I can hardly see him, it's so dark. Shit, I left my phone on the table, I could have used the torch. I need to get us down to my phone.
“Yeah! Let's do that. I might get a medal.” Eli likes the idea of being a fireman...good.
“I'm sure you will - you're so brave. Come on.”
I’m pretty sure we're alone up here, it's dark, but I can't hear anyone. We head over to the place where we came up and slide down the raised bumps.
We get down to the second level of the structure when the whole building starts to shake. It’s the weirdest sensation. It's like an earthquake on TV, except I’ve never experienced one. This building is going down, I'm sure of it. We’re on the bottom floor of an industrial unit - the whole thing is going to collapse. I start to shake. It doesn’t take an expert to work out that this is not good. Right, deep breath Soph. You do not fall apart when you have Eli to look after. You can fall apart later.
Dust flies everywhere, and I hear crashing as parts of the roof start to fall. I can hear lots of screaming and crying. Please let everyone be ok. All I can do is focus on Eli right now, and what I can do to keep him safe, I need to block out everything else. I can do this - no way is anything happening to Eli. The smell! I bet that had something to do with this - I thought it was normal, but maybe not, maybe it was a gas explosion.
Miraculously this structure that we’re in seems to be holding up. It’s the roof above us that worries me. “Okay, Eli, this is your job – don’t let go of my hand or my t-shirt. We need to get down to the bottom to get out - and maybe rescue some people along the way. You ready, Fireman Eli?”
“Ready, sir.”
I’ll let the sir go - at this point, I'm just glad he can talk.
We get to the bottom level of the structure. Visibility is terrible – I can see a few adults around, but there is dust everywhere. I shout out to one of the women who looks like she’s ushering the last few out.
“Help!” and step towards her.
It looks as though we’re one of the last ones out.
The woman shouts back, “Coming. I'll help you – stay there.” As those words leave her mouth, there’s a massive crash. Dust clouds around us, and we can't see a thing. I hope everyone else has made it out. I can hear sirens in the distance, thank god! I see something out of the corner of my eye, it’s a flame. There’s a fire in here! I swallow. God, what I wouldn't give for a bottle of water around now, my mouth is so dry - probably with fear and all the dust and smoke.
I can't see anything. If I try and move us, I might put us in more danger. To the right of me is a brick wall, to the left of me is the fire, and in front – well - God knows what. It looks as though there’s rubble is in front of us, but visibility is so reduced its hard to tell.
The smoke starts to get on my chest. What do I know about fires? Down low. We need to get on our stomachs. I have a hoody on with a crop top underneath. I take the hoody off.
“Eli, can you hear those sirens? That'll be Uncle Dec coming to help us.”Please God, let it be Uncle Dec coming to save us. “Put this on the wrong way around and put the hood up over your face, kind of like hide and seek - make it so that I can’t see your face.
He frowns. “But why? I thought we were going to be firemen.”
“Well, we have been, but now we have to stay put and wait for them to get to us. We can't go out, it’s a little dangerous now, but if you keep this over your face, you won't breathe in the smoke, yeah?”
He nods. His eyes are wide, and he’s starting to tremble.
He does as I ask with a cough. My heart lurches as he coughs. Shit. Please hurry up and rescue us already.
Are we going to survive this? I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet – there must be something I can do . . .
The sirens outside are loud now. The only thing I can hear is the snap and crack of the flames - which makes me think that everyone else has gotten out safely, which should be a relief, but until I’ve gotten this little man out safely, I can't feel any semblance of comfort. There are deep men’s voices, and I exhale - I hadn't realised that I was holding my breath.
Someone is barking orders. I’d recognise that voice anywhere. Dec! That’s my Dec!
