Solitude || Evan Buckley [1]

chapter thirty four

the heist of the fallen men

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're taking control of this facility. Do not move or you will be shot."

Sasha froze. Her chest was heaving as her eyes studied the horrific scene unfolding on the floor with the realization these fake police officers were taking control of the building. They were trapped. Guns in their tight possession. Being hostages to these group of men who will show no mercy on them. Their shouting rang through her ears, ordering everyone out to the main floor but she couldn't move. It took Jamal who gently grasp her arm to guider her out before one of the men would drag them from the break room.

All of the dispatchers were to form a line. Sasha gazed at her colleagues in passing noticing how each were terrified through their eyes. Then she locked onto Josh and Maddie when she approached them. Their captors wasted no time for a clean sweep of everyone's cell phones, key cards, wallets, smart watches to be tossed in the bin.

"My EpiPen. I'm allergic to bees." Linda told the man holding out the trashcan.

Foster, the artillery man smirked. "Bees are the least of your troubles today, sweetheart."

Sasha jolted besides Josh when Terry was thrown in line next to her. She clung onto Josh's arm like Maddie, trying to process this nightmare.

"I don't know what you want, but someone's going to notice when 9-1-1 stops answering." Sue directed to the brunette man who seemed to be the leader of the group.

His Lieutenant, Ellis carrying the electronic pad interjected. "You had a system crash. Valley Division is picking up the slack right now, but your servers are rebooting. Should be back in two minutes."

"We've got Dispatch." Greg radioed on the walkie talkie.

"I've got the lobby."

Greg turned to the scared dispatchers, "Don't you worry folks. We're gonna get you back to work. But under our supervision. We will be monitoring all calls that come in and approving all resources that you send out." He further explained. "Call volume's low this early in the morning, so we don't need all of you."

He picked out Linda, Jamal, and another dispatcher to be sent to a station then reverted to the rest of the group. "Everybody else, you're on deck where you will wait in silence until we rotate you through. Let's go!"

His men barked orders at the dispatchers, splitting them up into two groups to be situated down the hall against the wall and in the conference room while Sue remained on a chair at the center of the main floor.

"One hour. Then we're out of here." Greg announced in the room. "So, I don't care if you need a bathroom break or a bottle of water. You will stay where we can see you. If anyone tries anything at all—"

Jamal cut him off, "You'll shoot us."

"No." Foster chimed in, lunging at a dispatcher with a punch to the face. "We'll shoot the person next to you." Gasps uttered out at the sight of the dispatcher falling out of his chair.