A Mall Fire Made Me a Criminal for Refusing to Die

Prologue:

Daddy, smile

My daughter, tucked in my arms, was fiddling with the action camera hanging around her neck.

I looked down at her, doting, and had just opened my mouth when a sharp, acrid smell hit me.

In an instant I knew. Fire.

Then red text flashed across my vision.

You've had it too good. Someone's set their sights on you.

Go fight that fire and you'll lose everything you own. Your wife and child will end up on the street!

The words stopped me where I stood, and somewhere in there my back had already gone damp with cold sweat.

Just then a former coworker I hadn't seen in ages pushed out of the crowd and rushed toward me, all panic:

"Joseph Cobb! It really is you! Hurry, go save them!"

People were screaming and stampeding through the mall.

A woman shrieked:

"So many people in this mall and where'd all the men go? Somebody go put out that fire!!"

An old man cursed:

"What kind of emergency plan does this place have? I'm reporting this! I'm filing a complaint!"

I held my terrified daughter tight against me and grabbed my wife's hand with the other:

"Don't be scared, I've got you. The smell just started, the fire can't be big yet. The pros will be here soon."

I was leading my wife and daughter out when my old coworker, Hugh Lawrence, blocked my way:

"Joseph! Back when the company ran that fire drill, you were the top firefighter in the whole place. You even walked off with a five-thousand-dollar prize."

"Thank God we ran into you. Hurry, go save them."

Hugh's fingers clamped around my wrist. His grip was hard.

I shook his hand off, passed my daughter into my wife's arms, and put the two of them behind me.

Thrown off, Hugh's face went dark:

"Joseph! You're a decorated firefighter. This is exactly your moment to shine. Don't tell me you're trying to run?"

The chaos of the mall froze in a single breath.

Every eye in the place landed on me.

My brow knotted. I'm no professional firefighter. What's with the guilt trip?

Hugh's voice went urgent:

"Joseph! It's the nursing room that's on fire. The ones trapped in there are all women and kids!"

The people running around me slowed. I saw someone already aiming a phone at me.

When I still didn't answer, Hugh gritted his teeth and said:

"Joseph, I'm begging you! My wife and kid are both in that nursing room. If you'll just go save them, I'll do anything you want."

"I'll get down on my knees for you!"

And with that Hugh actually dropped to the floor with a thud in front of me and started slamming his forehead downbang, bangkowtowing at me.

As far as I knew, this coworker of mine slacked off and coasted every single day, and he'd been fired a few months after I started.

He'd been drifting around ever since, never even holding a steady job.

So where had a wife and kid suddenly come from?

Hugh sobbed and begged me, his skull thudding against the floor over and over.

And at the same time, the red text flashed above his head.

Whatever you do, don't believe him. This is all Hugh Lawrence's scheme!

I said, low and even:

"I can help coordinate things here and keep people safe."

Hugh stalled, then glared at me with red-rimmed eyes:

"Joseph! What's that supposed to mean? You're just going to stand by and let them die?"

I pushed my huge belly forward and said, helpless:

"Look at this gut of mine. I have trouble just running myself. And I'm not a professional firefighter. How exactly am I supposed to go in there and save anyone?"

But Hugh clearly wasn't satisfied with that. He blew up on the spot, shot to his feet, jabbed a finger in my face, and yelled:

"Joseph! You're the only one here who's done a fire drill. That makes it your duty!"

Then he wheeled around to the gathered crowd:

"Everybody look at this man! A decorated firefighter, and he's shoving another man's wife and child into the flames!"

Hugh was deliberately blurring the lines, fudging the concept so the crowd would think I was a firefighter.

And by then I believed every word of that red text.

"Is he even human? How can anyone be this selfish?"

"I've already got it on video. I'm exposing him for sure! Taking taxpayers' money and refusing to do his job!"

Just as Hugh had steered it, the crowd turned on me.

As if the moment I didn't throw myself into the flames, I became history's greatest villain, someone who deserved to be torn apart.

I didn't argue back. I just held my wife's hand tight, and my palm was already slick with sweat.

"Maybe go take a look? If there's any chance, just try," my wife said, watching me with worried eyes.

I thought about it for a moment, then nodded and started toward the direction where the smoke was pouring out.

"They've already collapsed in there, can't you see? Hurry up and go save them!"

Hugh, trailing right behind me, rushed in front of me and shouted.

"Has anyone called 911?" I looked over at a man who seemed to be one of the mall staff.

"Already did," he said. "They said they'll be here soon."

"Good. Get these people back. Where's the fire hydrant? Let me hook up the water first."

I rolled up my sleeves, ready to put the little firefighting knowledge I had to some use.

But Hugh shoved at me, frantic.

"Who do you think you are, some kind of boss? We don't need you standing here giving orders."

"The smoke's this thick, what good is hooking up water going to do now? Rushing in to save them is the only thing that matters right now!"

I stopped, and said carefully, "The smoke's too heavy right now, we don't know what it's like inside. Charging in with no proper gear is just suicide."

Hugh wasn't listening at all. He sneered.

"That's just your excuse! You just don't want to go save anyone!"

"Wahh, wahh, wahh..."

"Help... help..."

Just then, from the nursing room wrapped in smoke, came the cries of a baby and a woman calling for help.

The crowd that had been busy fleeing now closed in around us.

There was an old man with graying hair, standing on his moral high ground and issuing orders. "Young man, the ones who run toward danger never hesitate. This isn't the time to overthink it. Go in and save them, or does this old man have to charge in himself?"

There was a woman in a sun mask, her face hidden, screaming, "You worthless piece of trash, I'm exposing you!"

"Spending taxpayers' money to stroll around a mall, someone like you doesn't deserve to be a firefighter! How are we supposed to trust any of you after this?"

A half-grown kid was crying too. "Firefighter, please, please save the little baby."

Seeing the crowd condemn me with one voice, Hugh's mouth curled into a strange little smile, then quickly wiped it away.

The voices were about to drown me. They'd already decided I was a firefighter, and they wouldn't hear a word of my explanation.

Inside the nursing room, there really did seem to be the faint shape of someone.

And in my ears, the woman's cries for help and the baby's wailing were so clear.

Could it be that Hugh really was married?

That his wife and child really were trapped in the fire?

Right then I wanted to shake off my wife's hand and rush into the flames to save them.

If someone really was trapped in there, I believed that with my skills, I should be able to get them out.

At that exact moment, the message crawled across the screen again.

Whatever you do, don't go in. There's no one trapped in the nursing room at all!

Those are mannequins Hugh planted in there ahead of time. The firefighters are almost here. Don't throw away your own happiness.

The message flashed across the screen, and cold sweat broke out all over me.

I gripped my wife's hand, pushed her and our daughter behind me, and looked straight at the staff member.

I can help get people out, but I'm not going into that fire.

Hugh's eyes were bloodshot and bulging, and he clawed at me, trying with everything he had to shove me toward the luxury boutique.

What are you standing there for! Get in there and save them!!

Go in through this store, the wall's thin, one hit and it'll break, the nursing room's right behind it!

I looked at Hugh, cold.

How do you know the wall in this store is thin?

Hugh froze. He hadn't expected me to catch the crack in his story so cleanly.

But a second later he was wailing.

My poor wife, my poor child, they could have lived, and a cold-blooded man like you is going to get them killed!

Someone beside him jumped in right away.

The whole place is about to go up, and you're acting like this?

You chose this line of work, so you'd better be ready to sacrifice yourself! Or is it because you slacked off in training, and now that it counts you don't have the nerve?

The crowd wasn't listening to a word of my explanation. They'd already decided I was the firefighter, end of story.

If I rushed in now, I'd wreck the scene and let the fire spread into the boutique.

And then whether I made it out alive was anyone's guess, but the payout, that they'd collect down to the last cent.

Just then the staff member spoke.

The fire department's already on the way.

Hearing that they were almost here, Hugh didn't relax. If anything he looked more frantic.

How long till they get here? The fire's getting bigger and bigger!!!

Then Hugh rushed right up in my face.

Joseph Cobb! Are you even human? Get in there and save them!

I kept my wife and daughter behind me, their backs to the wall, and I planted myself in front of them.

Hugh screamed at me like a madman.

Go save them, go now! You get your ass in there!!!

The onlookers all started up again too.

Saving lives is like fighting fire, one second too late and it's over.

We're all your witnesses.

I let out a cold snort inside. Easy to stand back when it's not your neck on the line. The one who's supposed to risk his life isn't any of you, is it?

Hugh shouted at me.

Do you hear that? My wife and child, their voices are gone now, any later and they'll be dead!

It didn't move me. He kept roaring, working the crowd.

You don't go in and save them, then you're the one who murdered my wife and child, and I'll never let you off as long as I live!

Hugh's bloodshot eyes fixed on me, and then he leaned close to my ear and said, low.

Your wife works at Victory Plaza, and your kid's at Blue Sky Preschool, right?!

It hit me like a jolt, and my hands shoved him away before I could think.

What did you just say!

Hugh let himself drop with the push, hit the ground, and pointed at me, shouting.

Everybody look, he won't save them, and now he's hitting me too!

My arm's broken, honey, baby, I wanted to save you, and now I can't even move.

Seeing this, the staff member stepped forward to calm things down.

Sir, please, take it easy. Even if you won't go save them, don't start causing trouble.

My face went hard.

I hadn't expected Taylor to be this vicious. He was using my wife and daughter to threaten me.

But then I glanced at the action camera hanging around my daughter's neck, and the anger cooled fast.

The fire had broken out so suddenly that the camera had been running the whole time.

Which meant everything Hugh had just said was recorded, all of it.

"I didn't use force. His arm isn't broken."

The crowd didn't believe a word of it.

"I've got it all on video. He won't save anyone, and he hits people too!"

"This piece of trash! I'm furious! I've got a hundred thousand followers on TikTok. I'm exposing what he did!"

I kept myself between them and my wife and daughter.

"I already told you, I'm not a firefighter. I'm an ordinary person, same as all of you. You can't just charge in blindly. You're standing here guilt-tripping me, so why don't you go in and save them yourselves?"

My explanation only made them angrier.

They stood there like a pack of saints on the moral high ground, using me as an outlet, pouring out the shame of their own refusal to go in.

People started hurling whatever was in their hands at me.

"If I had your training, I'd have run in there already. You think I'd be down here begging you?"

"You don't deserve to be called human, and you don't deserve to live! Right now I wish it were you burning in there!"

"Waah, waah"

Right then, the sirens finally sounded outside the mall.

A crew of firefighters in orange came charging in.

Hugh, who had been lying on the ground working the crowd for all he was worth, suddenly went quiet.

The panic on his face vanished, replaced by a cold, thick cruelty.

"Joseph. If my wife and kid die, your whole family goes into the ground with them."

I said nothing, my fists clenched.

Hugh stepped up close and leaned in again, whispering, "Five million."

I stared at him. "What are you talking about?"

He kept his voice low.

"Don't think I don't know. The buyout on your family's place was well over ten million."

"I'm only asking for five. Half. That's not much."

"Give me the money and I'll let the whole thing go. I'll post online and clear your name myself."

Cold and flat, I said, "You set all of this up."

Hugh let out a soft laugh.

"So what if I did? Who's going to believe you?"

"Weren't they all right there with me a minute ago, pushing you to go in and die?"

"Heard you made junior supervisor after I got fired. Think your company's scared of a little bad press?"

I ground the words out through my teeth. "You bastard. And I actually thought of you as a friend."

Hugh's mood flared up again all at once, his whole body shaking.

"Because we were friends! Why do you get money and power and a happy family, and I don't even have enough for a pack of cigarettes?"

"Joseph! Think hard about what I just offered you. Otherwise"

He didn't finish. He shot me one last vicious glare, then whipped around and threw himself flat on the ground, wailing.

"He let them die! He just let them die!"

The crowd inside the mall pulled out their phones and aimed them at me one after another.

The outrage spread faster than I ever imagined.

Before long my photo was on the local front pages.

Firefighter refuses to save lives. Mother and daughter burn to death in nursing room.

Man kneels and begs for help. Firefighter says he's retired.

Begs for rescue, gets beaten instead. Firefighter's old friend says it's none of his business.

In the video, Hugh kowtowed to me over and over while I stood in front of him, my face cold as ice.

The abuse and mockery online buried me in an instant.

I tried to explain that I wasn't a firefighter, but these people had already decided who I was and wouldn't hear a word of it.

Some of them even marched straight into my company to report me to my bosses.

I hadn't even left the mall with my wife and daughter when my supervisor called.

"Joseph, what's going on?"

I explained. "This whole thing is a setup."

"Now's not the time for that. This is doing real damage to the company. Take a few days off first."

His voice was heavy on the other end.

I froze for a few seconds, and chose not to argue with him.

"All right. Understood."

Holding my daughter, I waited while the firefighters carried two mannequins out of the nursing room, both burned out of shape.

When the onlookers realized they were only mannequins, they didn't say a thing. They just kept standing there, quietly watching for the show.

While no one was paying attention, I dug an audio device out of one of the charred mannequins, shoved it into my pocket, and turned to go.

Outside the mall, I told my wife to take our daughter to her parents' place for a few days.

She looked at me, worried. "Honey, please don't do anything stupid. Don't do anything you can't take back."

I patted her shoulder.

"You don't know your own husband by now? Relax. I'll have this handled soon."

I watched her leave, then dialed my childhood friend.

"Someone's framing me. I want to file a report."