THE GUARD

THE GUARD

The bank was on the main street thirty feet wide that joined the main road of the city at fifty meters. The street was busy mostly used by bikes and cycles. Four wheeler had tough time passing through and public made a point to walk up to the bank after parking their vehicles on the sides of main road. Though the parking on roadside was against law but it was rarely followed and never enforced. It was no secret that the bank was doing a lot of business.

The guard that always stood on the entrance of bank was conspicuously absent and the two masked men entered the bank with lightning speed as the major obstacle was missing. The guy leading the two fired the shot towards the roof. He was well built lad of more than six feet height wearing tight black track suit. The other guy following him was around five feet eight inches with stout physique and broad shoulders. He had a backpack.

The pigeons resting on the windows of the cabin of Bank manager fluttered to escape on unexpected shot triggering terror. The panic struck all in the bank like lightning, none prepared to react.

 On entrance to bank there was a hall for the customers. Straight through the entrance was the seat of clerk that was occupied by a beautiful lady in her late thirties. She bore a brown complexion with dark black hairs undulating over her shoulders. She had put on dark red lipstick moving beyond her broad lips and making a round minuscule circle at the ending of lips. The vivacious beauty screamed aloud that was shriller than train horn. The force for screaming brought crimson tint to the face due to extra rush of blood.

On the left was the gallery leading to the office of bank manager. The manager was in his late forties. He was hardly five feet five inches having maintained his physique. He had a decent haircut to hide few silver hairs that he thought reflected badly on his age. He was wearing a check shirt and was going through some documents. All he did on hearing the gun shot fire was to raise his hands. The pen dropped from his hand. The world turned dark before his eyes and he hardly had any idea what to do. He had unmoved faith in the guard but the savior was missing that day.

 To the right of entrance was the counter of cashier. It had a concrete wall of four feet height separating the cashier from customers. Above that wall was another partition of glass three feet high with a space between the wall and glass to disperse cash. The cashier had spectacles resting on his nose tip and was engrossed in counting the cash. He had sparse hairs left on both sides of his scalp that he had combed meticulously from left to right to cover the head. The lower part of his body was not visible from outside. On hearing the gun shot he disappeared behind the counter.

The office of bank manager was partitioned by a glass wall from the rest of the staff. The fire shot hit the roof and bullet ricocheted hitting the glass wall between the cabin of the bank manager and the staff. The tempered glass wall had a crack and it would be coming down shattered in small pieces.

It was now evident that the bank was being robbed and no would be spared in the heist.

The screams of lady clerk had sent all in alert as well as terror. The customers had no idea what had gone wrong. A frail man in his late sixties supporting white beard was on the cash counter. He got numb like a statue and peeped through the upper space of spectacles that he had adjusted to fill the form. The matured countenance bore shrivels those were starkly visible reflecting upon his past years of life. The sunken cheeks of the man were further deepened with his mouth agape as if it was the end.

There was a lady customer standing. She was chubby and in her early twenties. She was wearing jeans and blue T-shirt. The lady had hardly any make-up on her pale countenance adorned with beautiful tint. She fainted after the bullet had hit the tempered glass wall. The chubby countenance lost its tint was turning white.

There was another gun shot that came from oblivion and the tall guy with gun screamed in pain, “Oh! God.”

His hand holding revolver lost the grip on the weapon and it went up in the air towards the same roof that its bullet had hit few seconds back. The guy was shot in head but the blood had not gushed out yet. The glass splinters of the tempered glass were falling and had not settled down yet.

The other guy with backpack looked around but could not guess from where the shot emerged. He pounced towards the falling revolver with his right hand stretched out. It was the weapon that could come to his rescue now. The robbers did not expect gun fire once inside the bank. Unfortunately the falling revolver was missed by few inches.

The lady clerk gave another scream that was shriller than the first one. The blood had rushed to her face giving a tint of panic. She hardly had any idea why she was screaming.

The revolver that was falling after escaping the hand of second guy fell with a thud on floor. By then the glass splinters had settled down. The pigeons had flown beyond sight of all inside the bank. The guy advanced towards the revolver when there was another gunshot. The second guy was hit on the chest. He screamed, “Hell! With you.”

The taller guy was falling down. He tried to minimize impact of the fall by putting his right hand on the floor but the hand could not take his weight and he crashed on the floor.

The second guy put his hand on his chest in disbelief. The poor guy did not know that if you to kill then be ready to be killed. The confidence with which he had entered the bank was lost and his legs succumbed to the shock and he landed on his knees first.

The man in his late fifties having a slender body, medium height emerged from the toilet with his double barrel gun that had the smoke and smell of gun powder. He was emerging cautiously uploading his gun in anticipation of impending attack. Who knew the guard would be in toilet? Else the attempt could have been delayed.

The body of elder guy shivered violently and came to rest. The other guy lying on his face was motionless. The guard looked at his watch and announced, “Nothing to worry.”

He said to himself, “Thank God! All summed up in ten seconds.”

                  THE END