Essex Dogs - a Blur fanfiction

Chapter 4

After exam week was finished, there was a long break for all the students of the University of Essex. It was a much deserved rest for the hardworking student body, before the spring semester got its start.

For Graham, there was no rest. Instead of returning to Sheffield, he stayed with the Essex Dogs in their hideout. (Here's an important fact to know: the Essex Dogs live in their hideout. When the group was first formed, they had nowhere else to go. Graham was still a student and would try to keep it that way, so he couldn't live there full time like everyone else.) In the week school was dismissed, the group handled two graffiti artists and three juvenile delinquents.

You know, they were small cases for the new recruit. But the activity was picking up again, and they would need Graham's help sooner or later.

Graham was beginning to feel welcomed in the group. Of course, Damon was a stern leader, but he still enjoyed being involved. He was a hard worker, so he earned Damon's favor early on. Alex and Dave treated him more like their younger brother. That kind of attention was something Graham loved, because he was an only child growing up.

But once school started back and he had to return back to student life, keeping up with his responsibilities, both with school and with the group, became harder. It didn't make things any better that the illegal activity in Colchester was spiking again, at its highest levels in three years.

This meant that Graham was spending nights at the hideout. To keep up with his schoolwork, he had to work at the hideout. Steven and Cooper were seeing less of him, and so was Carmen. It was becoming a lonely existence, but Graham made the best of it.

Graham's first big job came one afternoon in the first week of March. Damon was listening to his old police radio, which he used to find reports, when a call came over the speakers.

"Bank robbery in progress. Colchester High Street. Send police back-up."

High Street was just under a mile away from their hideout. When Alex, Dave, and Graham showed up at the bank, its front was twisted and broken by the robber's car. His accomplice waited on the street in another car ready to get away. The crook had the teller and patrons locked up in a hostage situation. The cops hadn't shown up yet.

It was similar to the hostage situation that Graham's father lost his life investigating. It brought back memories he would have preferred to forget. He remembered hearing the news from his mum, that it was going to be just the two of them. He remembered sitting at his father's funeral, and he thought about the moment he was buried.

But this was no time for self-pity. This was the most dangerous situation the Essex Dogs have had to handle since the group's formation. Actual civilian lives were in danger. They all needed to be focused.

"Give up, now," Alex demanded from the outside. He was armed as well. It was the first time he actually had to use this much force in a situation. "Your time has come. Put your weapon down and step out, now."

"What, you think I'm afraid of a pansy like you?" The robber was quite hostile. Citizens on the street watched in terror as Alex and Graham, standing in front of the bank, tried to negotiate. He took a lady and held her hostage. "Don't step any closer, or I'm taking both of us out!"

There was a terrified look in the woman's eyes. It was almost like she was begging Alex to back away.

Little did the robber know, Dave had come through the back door, where he was planning to escape, to ambush him from behind. He was armed as well, and motioned to the hostages to keep calm in his presence. He made one false step, and the robber heard him.

He turned around with the lady still clutched in his grasp. "Oh, I see how it is," he said in a demented voice. "You thought a sneak attack would take me down? You must think I'm stupid, don't you? You really screwed up this time! Now she's gotta go."

The hostage in his arms began crying uncontrollably. She knew for sure this was going to be her end.

Before the robber could pull the trigger on her, Graham did his own ambush. He ran through the front door, climbing over glass and twisted metal from where the robber smashed his car through the front of the bank and grabbed the robber from behind. He let the woman go, and his finger slipped on the trigger, which fired the bullet through the roof instead. All the hostages screamed as the gun went off.

Graham managed to wrestle the gun away from the crook and hold it against him. Oh how the tables had turned! This time, the robber held up his hands, begging him not to shoot. The woman he had in his grasp ran under the counter to get away. 

"Come on, now. C-can't we just talk it out, young man?" The robber changed his tone completely now that he knew he was the one being held up.

Graham just shook his head no. "We tried to talk to you, but you didn't want to. No pity for the wicked."

A collective gasp came over the hostages, the witnesses, and even Alex and Dave. No one knew Graham even had it in him.

Dave and Alex tied up both the robber and his accomplice and left them on the sidewalk, making the cops' job easier. The witnesses cheered as the hostages were released from inside the building. As the three of them helped the hostages out, Alex looked at Graham's shoulder and gasped.

"Graham, you're bleeding!"

It was unnoticeable in the dark building, from where the robber turned off all the lights, but once they came out into the sunlight everyone saw it. The bullet that fired when Graham tackled the robber flew off and hit his shoulder before going through the roof. He was hit and bleeding out on the pavement, and didn't even feel it when it happened. He was so focused on the situation and full of adrenaline.

He was helped onto the sidewalk while the lady he helped wrapped up his wound with her scarf. Graham begged her not to mess up her scarf, but she insisted. "You saved my life. Because of you, I get to go back home to my family tonight. It's the least I could do to repay you."

While they were waiting on the ambulance to come get Graham and take him to the hospital, the police came up to him, Dave, and Alex. The three were actually afraid of what the officer would do. What if they were going to be arrested for this? They worked at night and undercover because of this.

He only had nice things to say about them. "I'd like to thank you three young men. You saved quite a few lives today because of your heroics. And you," - he was talking specifically to Graham - "you went so far as to take a bullet for a lady. Lots of men say they will, but I've never actually seen it done before. What were you thinking?"

"My dad was a police officer. He died handling a situation like this back home in Sheffield. It was the least I could do."

"Well, you three are some of the bravest young men I've ever met. On behalf of the Colchester Police Department, I'd like to applaude you three for your help." The police officer walked off and sped away in his cruiser. It was a rare situation, mostly for Alex and Dave. The cops have been after them for years, and now that they've actually been approached by an officer, they were praised for their "bravery". Maybe they weren't in as much danger as they thought.

The ambulance came to get Graham. Alex rode with him while Dave went back to the hideout to follow up with Damon. The Essex Dogs' first real, dangerous situation was under their belt, and it was done by their newest recruit.