Diablo has his eyes on me

The Great Escape

Layla looked at the door longingly while Tashla focused her attention on Mr Angry. The voice from the outside spoke again. ‘Let the hostages go and we’ll give you a head start.’ Mr Angry threw his head back and laughed, ‘You must be new! My men and I are going to walk out with our hostages and get into the van that will be arriving in the next 5 minutes. Then we will consider whether the hostages will come with us or whether we will let them go’

‘He is insane,’ thought Tashla. ‘Handsome, but totally crazy!’ Layla just looked down at her feet. She did not have the nerves of steel her sister had and really wished the nightmare will end.

Mr Angry suddenly took a few steps in their direction and grabbed Tashla by her arm. One of his men took a hold of Layla and everyone moved toward the door pushing the women in front of them.

Layla and Tashla blinked as the afternoon sun glared in their eyes before they saw the police cars and uniformed men surrounding the front of the bank. A white unmarked van was approaching from the right and Mr Angry shouted, ‘There is our ride! Your choice! Is this going to be done the easy way or the hard way?’

‘Stand down!’ shouted a man dressed in plain clothes, his whole demeanor screamed ‘I am in charge’ and the women looked at him hopefully. Suddenly one of the police men started walking towards the bank robbers. ‘Stand down! I said stand down!’ but the man kept on walking. Mr Angry pointed his automatic gun at him and said, ‘You must have a death wish!’ The police officer shrugged his shoulders and aimed his gun at Mr Angry. Tashla and Layla were petrified, because they were right in the middle of the standoff. ‘I know you!’ shouted the officer. Mr Angry c****d his head and looked more closely at the officer. ‘Oh now I remember you. You were there.’ ‘Yes I was and this time you will not get away.’ ‘Mmmmm you are willing to gamble with these pretty ladies’ lives?’ The officer froze momentarily, but then a determined look crossed his face. ‘You will not get away with it again!’ he shouted and before anyone could stop him he fired his gun. Mr Angry must have been waiting for this because he fired as well and pushed both women in the direction of the van. All hell broke loose as the police opened fire on the bank robbers and they all retaliated. Suddenly the van’s doors opened and two men started firing machine guns at the police. This gave the robbers the opportunity to make a run for it. They grabbed the women but Tashla was not going easily and screamed and flayed her arms and legs making her a very difficult hostage to handle. Layla snapped out of her zombie like state and started doing the same. ‘Just leave them! We got what we came for!’ shouted Mr Angry and they let go of the women and bundled into the back of the van. Tashla and Layla fell down on the pavement and stayed down while the van made a speedy getaway aiding the robbers in their great escape.

Some police cars quickly gave chase and their sirens could be heard as they tore after the van. Tashla and Layla remained lying down just in case any more bullets came flying their way.

They both jumped with fright when the plain clothes guy spoke right next to them. ‘Are you ladies ok?’ Layla turned to look up at him and was met with identical blue eyes to hers. Tashla also moved to stand up and as she was dusting off her jeans she said, ‘Well apart from being caught in a crazy cross fire, witnessing two people being shot in cold blood and talking to a maniac we are fine I guess.’ The man smiled and said, ‘You two are very lucky. That could have ended differently.’ He extended his hand to Layla to help her up and she took his hand gratefully. She was still pretty shaken up while Tashla looked ready for round two.

‘Come with me ladies. We have some paramedics to make sure you are both fine and then I would like to take your statements.’ The twins nodded and followed him. It all felt so surreal as they walked towards the ambulance in the parking lot. Incidentally it was parked right next to their yellow Mini Cooper and both looked at their car. It felt like ages ago when they were swerving through traffic to make it to the bank but it couldn’t have been more than forty minutes. It all happened so fast and so unexpectedly.

As they were sitting just inside the ambulance they noticed two other paramedics coming out of the bank with a stretcher. Jerry was lying on it, but it looked like he was ok. Another stretcher followed with a body bag and they both looked away quickly. Clearly the bank manager was not that lucky. ‘Get that camera out of here!’ shouted Blue Eyes and then only did they notice that a small crowd of journalists were standing behind the police barriers trying to take photos. ‘Vultures!’ he shouted and said, ‘We’ll have to take you to the station. The journalists will be all over you and I would prefer if your faces were not splattered all over tomorrow’s front page!’

Without waiting for their response he closed the ambulance doors and instructed the driver to leave.

All Tashla and Layla could do was watch as their Mini Cooper grew smaller in the window.

‘I don’t think I can take you for that dinner.’ said Tashla while giving Layla’s hand a squeeze. ‘Oh no, you are not wriggling out of this one. I don’t care if we had a near death experience. I want food!’ They looked at each other and laughed. Soon their laughter turned into snorts and within seconds they were leaning backwards and screaming with laughter. The paramedics looked at them and rolled their eyes. Clearly they were hysterical and who could blame them.

No one noticed that another unmarked van was following the ambulance. The driver was wearing a black face mask and black sunglasses.