Act 1: The Score
Prologue
Prologue
David, the manager of his very own American Liberty bank, walked into the room that housed the bank's safety deposit boxes. He ran a finger along them until he finally came across the one he was searching. Number 572.
"Got it." He said, digging a key out of his pocket and jamming it into the boxing. He twisted the key, a barely audible click heard as it unlocked. He begun to pull it out, only stopping at the sound of a gun going off somewhere in the bank. "What the hell was that?" David asked.
He turned around, finding himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun aimed at his face. He looked beyond the weapon at the individual holding it, a womanly figure in a pair of baggy sweatpants, a baggy hoodie, black gloves, and a gold colored opera mask.
She groaned, lowering her weapon. "I'm going to go check it out. Stay here. Don't try anything, my man is on the cameras. I'll kill you if he says you're up to something." The gunman told David, turning to make her way into the lobby.
The lobby was dark save the sunlight that was sneaking it's way into the building from the outside. The gold masked bank robber laid her eyes on the soon-to-be corpse of a young man in a suit jacket. There was a grievous wound on his side where he had taken a shotgun blast.
Gold turned her head to look at her accomplices, two men dressed similar to her with matching masks. There's were colored differently, red and blue, to allow them to distinguish from each other, or maybe it was just for style. The latest in bank heist chic.
"Idiot shot the kid." Blue explained, holding Red's shotgun in his hand. "I thought he was reaching." Red said, watching as Gold moved to kneel down beside the young man. He was still breathing, but he wasn't going to get the proper help he needed.
The kid was going to die and there was absolutely nothing anyone could do about it.
Gold reached into the young man's pocket, digging out a stick of gum. She let out a deep sigh and let her head fall at the sight of it, eventually tossing the gum aside nonchalantly. "It looked like he was reaching." Red said to her, "What's done is done." Gold told him.
"I want you on the cameras. Tell White to come join Blue on the hostages." Gold ordered, "I'm sorry." Red said, "Doesn't matter. Get going." Blue told him, handing the shotgun back to the man.
"Yeah." Red muttered, dejectedly making his way from the lobby. He dared not look at the young man or the other hostages, content with just disappearing from the scene as fast as he could.
Blue made his way over to Gold, kneeling down beside her. "We have to do something about him. It's starting to get to him, making him jumpy." He told his accomplice, "I know. Soon. Right now we need to focus on the prize." Gold said.
"I'll handle the body. You go get what we came here for." Blue said, giving the other bank robber a nudge. "Yeah." Gold muttered, getting to her feet and letting out another sigh. She looked at the hostages they had gathered, shaking her head before leaving the lobby.
Blue put his hands over the mouth and nose of the dying young man, cutting off both airways to help ease him into a peaceful death. As peaceful as it could be considering what had happened to him. "Don't look." Blue told the hostages as the young man faded away.
He was dead. There were supposed to be no casualties, but this young man was dead. He couldn't have been more than twenty. He was probably one of the local college students. He could have been something in life.
"It's never easy. It stays with you." One of the hostages said to Blue. He was an older African-American man, very fit despite his age. "What?" Blue responded, "Doing a mercy kill. It never gets any easier, especially in situations like this." The hostage continued.
He pulled his dogtags out of his shirt, "Vietnam. Two tours." The man told Blue, "Watts. My whole life." Blue said, deciding to humor the older man. "I'm Harry, by the way." The old soldier informed his captor.
"Let me ask, you all didn't take money, not making any demands, and other than what happened to the boy, don't seem to be looking to hurt anyone, what are you looking for here?" Harry asked, "What are you planning to leave here with?"
"Freedom." Blue answered, "Freedom."