The Sweetest Thing (Book 1) ✓

01 - Not as planned

Emily

You know, every time, when you try to make a plan for the day...it never goes as planned. My idea was to wake up, drink my coffee, eat my breakfast, go to the bank, ask for some money for my bakery, and then go make some cupcakes. Well, I never ended up making cupcakes. The minute I saw them enter the bank, I knew something very bad was coming, so I used my discrete earbuds to call the police. The moment I dialed, the number one of the guys shouted.

"Everybody down! This is a robbery!" Is he for real? Why the hell is he screaming this? Someone watched too many movies, and this sounds so dumbass. While he continued screaming, the other 4 guys made sure to block the doors and disarm the security guards, which, honestly, didn't look too hard to accomplish - they were in their sixties probably, and their reflexes weren't as they were once upon a time. While I watched the scene in front of me, I heard a voice in my head...well, it took me a while to remember that I made a call and to understand that a dispatcher was trying to talk with me.

"Hello? Is anybody there? Can you explain what's going on? Where are you? Hello?"

"Umm, hi." I tried to be as quiet as possible, I didn't want them to see me talking to myself. "I'm in the bank on the corner of 4th Street, and there's a robbery right now."

"Ma'am, can you repeat that? You are in the bank on the 4th..."

"Yes, and 5 guys are trying to rob the bank."

"OK. We are sending help. Can you give me more information? What happened? Can you identify them? Is there anybody injured? Are there any weapons? What are they wanting? Where are you exactly?"

"Listen, lady, I'll do my best, but I will be thankful if you ask one question at a time. The guys aren't the brighter bulbs in the box, but they will see me talking on my own if I try to answer everything at once. So, what happened? They came in with big black bags with them, masks on their faces. One of them screamed that this was a robbery while the others blocked the doors and disarmed the guards." One of the robbers, some skinny dude, tried to scream.

"Everybody give me your phones! Now!" Well, I guess they at least remembered to do that. So, two of them start walking around the people on the floor and collecting their phones.

"Hey, lady, they are going to take my phone, but I'm with Bluetooth earbuds, so I have a good chance of continuing talking to you. Just don't scream or anything like that. I'm not sure how much can be heard from the people around me."

"OK, ma'am. Are the guards injured? Or somebody else?"

"They hit them in the head with the butt of their shotguns. There's no blood, but the guards aren't very young, so I'm not sure how they are. They are out cold, but breathing as far as I can see."

"You! Give me your phone." One of the robbers came to a man that was near me and asked him again for his phone, but the man refused to give it. I honestly didn't know why, but he continued to hold his phone while the bad dude was screaming at his face, trying to get it. They started to fight, and at the next moment, a loud bang came from somewhere between them. The robber stood up with the phone in his hand, while the other man was lying on the floor with blood pouring from his chest.

"Fuck! Why the hell did you shoot him?" asked the skinny guy that started this phone collecting thing.

"He was fighting me. Didn't want to give me his phone! What did you expect me to do? Wait till he beat me? I think not. That's why we have the guns, to stop them." The man on the floor was struggling, and I made a dumb decision and started crowing towards him.

"Hey, bitch, where the hell do you think you are going?"

"To help him. He is bleeding a lot, and I guess you don't want to be charged with murder, do you?" I know I was dumb. Where did that confidence come from? I have no idea, but I continued to crawl towards the bleeding man and no one stopped me. I guess they saw my point in keeping him alive.

"Give me your phone, and take care of him. Don't let him die."

"I'm not a medic, I can't make you a promise like that. All I can do is put pressure on the wound. You can ask if someone here is a doctor so they can have a better look at him."

"No can do, princess, I won't ask anybody anything except for some money. Now give me your phone." I gave it to him, not very happy about it. I thought that they may forget about mine. Then I took off my sweatshirt and put it on the wound of the shot man.

"Hi. My name is Lily. How are you feeling?"

"I'm... I don't...know...it hurts...a lot."

"Yeah, I guess. What's your name?"

"Joshua."

"Well, nice to meet you, Joshua. I just hope it wasn't in a situation like this."

"Yeah...not very...good"

"Try to stay still for me, will you? I'm trying to keep pressure on your stomach here."

"Ma'am, are you hearing me? Is there anybody injured?"

Fuck! Why am I always forgetting that I'm talking with someone? Well, at least I know that the connection is still strong.

"Yeah, a guy was shot in his stomach."

"Who are you talking to?" The man under me hissed. I guess I should have warned him that I was going to start talking to no one at some point.

"Umm, with the police, but keep it quiet, please."

"But...how...your phone..."

"I have earbuds. Now shush, so I can hear what the lady is saying. Just...pretend that I'm talking to you, so I don't look too suspicious. And save your strength, you're going to need it."

"Ok, ok, ok...what are they...saying?"

"If you stop talking, I might be able to hear her. Damn, for someone who's been shot, you are very chatty."

"Sorry."

"You should be. Now, lady, what were you trying to say again?"

"How bad is the wound? Can you tell if it's through and through? Is there an exit wound?"

"Umm, I'm not sure. He is lying on his back, and he's too big for me to turn him around and check. But there's a lot of blood. He's talking right now, but I'm not sure how long he'll be that way."

"Very...comforting... Lily...thank...you...very...much."

Oops, I guess I should've been a little more careful with my words, but come on, he's been shot, in an area with a lot of things that can bleed and cause him big troubles. I think he should be thanking me for making the police, the FBI, the army, I don't know who will be out and trying to break in, hurry a little bit.

"OK, ma'am. We have a team on the spot, and they are doing everything they can to end this thing as soon as possible."

At that moment, one of the phones starts ringing. The robbers at first were very confused about where the sound was coming from. When they found the phone, one of them answered it. I guess he wasn't very pleased with who was on the other side because he threw the phone at the nearby wall and watched it shatter.

"Well, that doesn't look so good. Lady, I don't know if one of your guys was on the phone, but he made the robber very, very angry."

"Yes, ma'am, our negotiator tried to understand what they wanted, but they didn't want to talk at all."

"Well, I could've said that to you myself. They don't look like people who had a solid plan before coming here. I think they have no idea what to do now, after they collected all of our phones. They still haven't asked for money. They just stay there in one of the corners and talk with one another. Like they have all the time in the world."

"Ma'am, would you mind talking with our team on the scene? Let them know what's going on inside?"

"No problem, if you could make that connection, I don't care with whom I'll be talking."

"One moment, ma'am."

"This is Sergeant Luke Riley, from the SWAT team. What's your name and can you tell me what's going on?"

"Well, hello sergeant. My name is Lily, and we have 5 guys with masks on their faces as well as weapons and big bags talking in one of the corners of the bank."

"What kind of weapons?"

"Two of them have handguns, and the other three are with shotguns."

"Where exactly are they now? And are there any people around them?"

"In the left corner of the bank counters, near the wall. They are very close to the last window, actually. And no, most of the people are on the right side, some in the middle of the room."

"OK. Good. We understand that they blocked the exits in some way. Can you tell me how exactly they did it?"

"Umm, they used two of the trash bins that were near the doors and big zip ties."

"OK. And how's the injured?"

"He's not conscious. There's a lot of blood, and I can't stop it."

"OK. Thank you, Lily. We'll do our best to end this as soon as possible. I'll talk to you in a minute after we make a plan of action."

"Sir, yes, sir." I heard him laughing at me before he disconnected. Damn, it's good to talk with people who know exactly what they want to know. And his voice was amazing. I wonder what he's like? He is probably very tall with a lot of muscles. I mean, if he is on the SWAT team, he must be in top form. And these uniforms, they look pretty damn good on everyone I've seen... not that I've seen anyone in person, but I've seen them on the Internet. Will I be able to recognize him when they burst in? Can a voice tell you what that person looks like? I mean...

"Hey, Lily, are you there?" The sergeant's voice exploded in my head. I jumped from the loud noise in my ears and hoped no one saw my reaction. As I looked around, there were some people who were looking at me very strangely, but none of them were the robber's boys. Thanks for small miracles.

"Ouch, sergeant, you burst my eardrums!"

"Fuck, sorry about that, Lily. I changed into my gear and my mic is more sensitive here."

"If you are in your gear, does that mean that you are coming soon?" I really, really, really hoped that they were. I can barely feel my hands and shoulders from the pressure I was applying on Joshua's stomach, and he is lying now with his eyes closed, breathing very slowly. If they didn't come soon, we might lose him.

"Yeah, Lily, we are coming."

Fuck, yeah!

***Hey, there. Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to. It means a lot to me! And if you liked what you read, please consider voting or even commenting - I'd love to hear your thoughts about Lily and the SWAT team. See you in the next chapter!