Noble Intentions: Season Two (Episodes 6-10) by L.T. Ryan Page B

front of the door. He stepped back a few feet to get his momentum going. He held his pistol in his right hand. He lunged and kicked and smashed the door in. Then he burst through the opening with his gun pointed in front of him.
    Four men sitting at a round table looked up at him, horror written across their faces.
    “Don’t any of you move.”
     

11
    Bear pulled Mandy close. The little girl looked like she was in shock. Her eyes glazed over and her mouth hung open. He knelt over Mr. Jones and held his hand against the man’s back. He applied pressure to the gunshot wound in an attempt to reduce the amount of blood lost. He looked around the room. Everything happened in slow motion. One teller dropped to the floor. The others worked frantically at their drawers trying to ready themselves for the armed men. The people in line all had different reactions. Some lowered themselves to the ground. One woman stood in place, frozen and crying. A few others backed up to the far wall, distancing themselves from the five men who blocked the only way in and the only way out of the bank.
    The bankers who sat at desks all disappeared from sight, hiding behind and underneath their desks. They cowered beneath the false security their desktops offered. They shivered and cried and begged for their lives on the carpeted floor.
    Office doors slammed shut. A bad move, Bear thought, and likely to draw the ire of the armed men. Sure enough, one of the men turned and aimed his assault rifle at one of the offices with a closed door.
    “Not yet,” one of the masked men said.
    A man emerged from the last office. He was tall and fit and older. He had a full head of silver hair and wore a gray suit with a blue tie. The bank manager. He approached the front of the bank with his hands held out in front of him. He walked slow and steady. His face held the same expression during the walk. An expression in between shock, terror and defiance.
    “Stop there,” one of the armed men yelled.
    The sound of the man’s voice acted as a catalyst to Bear’s brain and the events began unfolding at normal speed.
    “I just want this to go peacefully,” the bank manager said.
    Bear turned his head and caught the manager’s eye. Bear shook his head and moved his eyes between the manager and the floor.
    The manager ignored Bear and continued moving forward. He straightened his outstretched arms.
    “I said stop.” The voice was deep and thick. The accent eastern European or Russian.
    Bear turned his head to the front of the bank.
    The masked man lifted his assault rifle and aimed it at the manager.
    The manager stopped and held his hands higher. “I just want this—”
    “To go peacefully. Yes, you said that already.” The masked man started to walk toward the manager. “Turn around and get on your knees.”
    The manager didn’t move.
    “Now,” the man yelled.
    When the manager still refused to move, the masked man rushed him and drove the butt of his gun into the manager’s stomach. The manager fell to his knees but kept his shoulders back and his head held high. His face turned bright red and then darkened to a shade of purple as he fought for breath. He never caught his breath, though. The masked man moved behind him and placed the barrel of his rifle against the manager’s head.
    “Let this be a lesson to all of you,” the masked man said.
    Bear grabbed Mandy and pulled her to his chest, covering her eyes and ears.
    The gunshot echoed through the bank. The room fell silent.
    “Anyone else want this to go peacefully? Or, perhaps to go peacefully themselves?”
    No one said anything.
    The man started barking orders in a foreign language. One of his men guarded the door. Two others went behind the counter and yelled at the tellers and forced them to remove the cash from their drawers and dump it into burlap sacks. If a teller didn’t comply, they smacked them across the face and stuck their guns into the teller’s back until they did as