The Voyage

5. The Vault

"Move it"

Erebus had no time to waste, he was excited. Excited to finally see the bank vault in person and also kind of excited to see how Mateo and his crew planned to extract all of the beautiful goods located in the humongous metal box.

The five sets of footprints moving down the marble staircase created a cascading euphoria of sound, as the hostages led the way further down into what seemed to be a never ending abyss. Erebus knew the staircases were elaborate in the bank, however he never truly realised how much effort was needed to navigate them. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they reached a large set of double wooden doors that had been flung wide open.

There it was.

In all of it's amazing beauty, the vault, with its excessive locking system and series of cranks boasting a massive proof of security. Erebus laughed to himself, he never thought he would get so hyped up over a metal cage, yet here he was.

"Ah, you must be the lucky ones!" A deep voice rang out from the end of the room. Approaching the four hostages, Ares reached out a hand to Erebus. "To what do I owe the pleasure, sir?"

"Um... Calista... she..." Erebus was at a loss for words. Ares seemed so peculiar, and Erebus genuinely had no idea how to respond to his strange greeting.

"Ares, enough." commanded Adara calmly. Her flowing locks seemingly glowing underneath the harsh white light of the room. Ares, with a sigh and a shrug of his shoulders, gave Adara a grand pose as if to say: "You have the floor, madame."

"Now, you four have been chosen at random." Adara stated to the cowering hostages standing in front of her. "Well, mostly at random. We needed strong people, and according to Calista, you fit the deal."

Erebus scanned the hostages, Adara was right, all four of them, including the cowardly Bailey boasted sets of, quite frankly, amazing muscles. He knew he could never work himself up to become that in shape, but that didn't matter. He had other problems in his life to sort out anyway.

"You are our key to success" Ares suddenly chimed in. "And I use the term 'key' quite literally" he chuckled.

"Thank you, Ares, Yes. You four will be the manpower we require, to access all of our lovely riches" With that, Adara gestured towards the corner of the room, where she and Ares had laid out four massive mechanical drills.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get drilling!" Ares' tone suddenly changed. He had turned from the jester Erebus just became acquainted with, to a bold commanding figure.

Shaking into action, the four unfortunate souls set to work, they grabbed the drills and started to set them up in front of the vault door.

"I'll tell you what, Ares sure knows when it's time to get down to business" Adara said. Erebus smiled, the people who moments ago had a gun pointed to the back of his head, were now treating him with respect. "So, you and Darius... hostage control, eh?" Adara asked. "Darius is a kind soul, even though he looks like a mountain."

Erebus responded, "I'm not usually into that kind of thing, I'm more of an independent worker if I must say."

"Well, Mister, 'independent worker', you better get used to us, because we are family now." Those words rattled Erebus' ears. Family. He hadn't had his family for so long. Was this heist going to actually come to more than just becoming rich? Was he finally about to create his stable environment?

"Hey, big guy!" This broke Erebus quickly out of his trance. He looked over to Ares, who had turned his attention to Erebus. "You just gonna stand there like a lemon, daydreaming? Get the hell back upstairs, no doubt Mr. Loverboy Darius will be waiting." He laughed. Erebus obviously noted Ares' sarcasm, and decided to play along.

"Oi, little man" Erebus shouted back. Ares' head whipped back around. "Goodbye Monsieur!" With a overtly competitive edge to his tone, Erebus mocked Ares by tipping his imaginary hat towards the other man, before winking and turning back towards the long winding staircase leading back up towards the lobby...