Citizens Death

She trembled uncontrollably as he pushed the muzzle into her forehead.

"Nobody moves or makes a sound, any heroics bullets will start flying. As you can probably tell, this is a bank heist. Cooperate and I’ll spare you all your lives."

"Please don't kill me, I'll take you to the vault right now."

"Shut it. I decide when we go," he replied, as he jared her head back with the barrel.

The hostages looked on in slouched postures, with furrowed brows and gaping mouths, wondering if the gun’s magazine was loaded or not? For the bank manager’s sake, they hoped it wasn't, and that he was pretending to have a loaded gun, because they believed this sort of heist was to scare people into submission with no real intention to harm them. After all it was only one guy, not a group of robbers.

"Hey mister, my wife's so scared her water has just broken," exclaimed a hostage. "We need medics quickly."

"I said no heroics," he exclaimed, striking the butt of the gun to the bank manager's temple, she fell in a heap, motionless. "Now look at what you've made me do. I mean it people, don’t try my patients or one by one It’ll be you lot getting the bullet."

"Are you crazy, my wife is in pain, she thinks the baby is in the wrong position, we need a doctor now."

He sighed and approached the pregnant woman and knelt by her side. She was shaking and sweating uncontrollably. 

"I'm so sorry about this but I can't have you or your husband messing this up. There's twenty-million dollars in the vault and I want some of it no matter what the cost."

“Please just take the money and go quickly, we’ll say nothing to the police,” replied the woman.

The bank manager opened her eyes, she sat up, propping her back against the wall, all she heard was two shots fired, followed by a cacophony of screams and chaos. He fired another shot to the ceiling and the room fell silent, order was restored.

"Right you lot, clean the blood up and then drag the pregnant woman and her husband over to the far corner," he demanded.

“Are you f**king crazy man? you’ve killed an unborn baby and the mother and father,” exclaimed another hostage.

“In this game there’s always collateral damage. Now shut it,” he said, training the Glock on him.

He glanced through a window, the street outside Citizen Bank was as normal as he’d expect it, so far two minutes had passed since he’d entered the bank, there was another five-minutes before the NYPD would have the building surrounded. So far so good, with the entrance door lock, nobody had approached or tried to enter the bank.

Still partially dazed, the bank manager attempted to stand, she stumbled, but he soon skittered back to her and pushed her to the floor.

"Stay down until I say otherwise, got it?"

 He slid the rucksack from his back and pulled out a large bag of cable-ties and tied her hands behind her back. Then, he tied her legs — leaving enough movement for her to walk but not run.

With two less hostages to not worry about, he made quick time in using more ties to bound the other eight hostages.

“Okay people, if I hear the slightest of sounds or sense the smallest of movements, one of you will be joining those bodies over there.”

He hauled the bank manager to her feet and pushed her in front to lead the way to the vault, she stumbled and fell to her knees, with a hard thud. He grabbed her hair and wrenched her back to her feet, she screamed, and the hostages felt her pain. In retaliation she spun and spat in his face.

She quickly felt the back of his hand make contact with her cheek bone, it sent her tumbling for a second time but, she didn’t get up — he didn’t let her — instead he grabbed her hair and dragged her to the vault. The hostages winced, imagining her discomfort as her legs flailed in a futile attempt to stall him.

*

“Now that he’s down in the vault we have to do something?” whispered a hostage. He looked mid-thirties with a physique of a guy that worships a gym. 

“Are you out of your f**cking mind sir, you heard what the guy said right?”

“If you can cut me loose, I can take him. I’m ex-military, apprehension is my forte. I’ve got a small knife in my back pocket, can you reach it?”

“You’re gonna get us all killed trying to be the hero. NYPD will be here soon, they’ll take him out.”

“Only if someone has activated the alarm?”

There were moments of silence, he was waiting for a reply that never came.

“I thought not but, the guy keeps checking his watch and he thinks they’re on their way. I can activate the alarm so the cops know and then I’ll take him out.” 

“No man you’re not hearing me, I can’t let you do this. I’ve got a wife and kids, he’ll shoot us all. What do the rest of you think, are you with me?”

The rest of the hostages didn't respond.

“You try anything man, I'll take you down myself.”

“Just trust me man.”

"It's worth a try, " replied a hostage. "He's trained, he knows what he's doing."

*

The locks released, he turned the catch and the door to the vault swung open.

“What the f**ck,” he said, staring into the barrel of a Glock G19. “You didn’t tell me there was security in the vault.” He said to the manager.

She connected with his gaze and dropped her shoulders.

“I ain’t security,” replied the guy standing at the entrance of the vault. “Stop what you’re doing and nobody else has to get hurt.”

It was a stalemate situation both guys had their guns trained at each other, fingers twitching at the triggers.

And then, bang the guy in the entrance to the vault fell, he was soon surrounded by a pool of his own blood.

He began to load as much cash as he could into the two large holdalls by his side. He could hardly zip them up but, to his estimation he had at least six-hundred-thousand dollars in each. Way less than what he wanted but, enough to start up somewhere new.

With one bag on his back and the other in his left hand, he grabbed her hair with his right and dragged her back to the main foye where he noticed one of the hostages was missing.

From out of nowhere the hostage charged toward him, thigh & drived him to the floor, like the New York Giants were playing out in front of them. They tussled about but, the hostage found himself being overpowered and had the barrel of the Glock shoved in his mouth.

Bang. All the remaining hostages jump out of their skins as blood and bits of brain matter splattered all over them. The hostage lay there in a bloody gory mess, that was too much for most of them to look.

“Hey mister we tried to tell him it was a stupid idea but, he didn’t listen,” replied one of the hostages.

“He’s paid with his life for his insubordination.” 

He checked his watch and four-minutes had passed.

“Time to check out. The manager is coming with me. Inform the police I have her as my hostage and any attempt to intercept me and she gets the bullet right?”

*

Exiting the Citizen Bank he threw the holdalls in the trunk of his General Lee, while the bank manager got into the passenger side.

He put the pedal-to-the-metal and sped his way along Valley Stream, there were no police in sight, perhaps the NYPD had other emergencies, he thought. He took a left and followed the sign that was heading for Brooklyn.

“Okay Max you can stop calling me the bank manager now,” said Elizabeth. “And you didn’t have to be so rough on me.”

“It had to look like you were another hostage. I just hope when you shot that guy in the vault you were obscured from the cameras so it looked like me. But how did we miss that guy?”

“I think I did good shooting him but, too many mistakes were made this time. I should’ve accounted for the guy in the vault.”

“Yeah but you dealt with him pretty quick. From how we played it out, the cops will think you were innocent.”

“But what about the hostage that thigh & drived you? If you hadn’t of got the better of him we wouldn’t be here now. We’ve got enough money and, I don’t have to work in a shitty bank anymore.” 

He took another left and entered on to interstate 678, he leant over to the passenger's seat. Their lips engage.

“Knew life, here we come,” she said.