CH.1 The Siege
It was late morning. Chloe, Aaron, and Mark were all heading to work. Chloe split from the other two, saying that she wanted to stop and get a coffee before heading to Lassiter's. She took off towards Harold's and entered the café. Inside she found Elly standing at the counter waiting for her own coffee. Chloe walked over to Elly, "Morning! What are you up to this fine day?"
"Oh, you know, just putting off another day of looking for a new job by getting some coffee" Elly replied with a wry expression.
"Oh, will you stop it! You're going to find something soon, I can feel it!" Chloe responded with a reassuring smile and gave Elly's hand a squeeze. She followed it up with "You're too talented a teacher not to."
"Hey Chloe," Yashvi interjected, looking up from her phone and smiling, "what can I get you?"
Elly, meanwhile, just stared back at Chloe as she ordered her coffee, lost in thought. A small smile was on her face. She wasn't sure why, but Chloe was always able to make her smile even when she was in a sour mood. Looking at Chloe's face and hearing her reassuring words, she couldn't help but have hope.
The girls sat down at a booth and were still talking about the day ahead of them when another customer walked into the café. A scraggly-looking, unfamiliar man in a black leather jacket, he didn't go to the counter to order. He just took a seat at a booth close to the door, looking about furtively. The girls were so caught up in their conversation that they didn't notice how oddly the newcomer was acting. The man was giving off some nervous vibes. Had anyone looked at him, they might have noticed he was a bit shaky. He was just sitting at the booth by himself with his head in his hands when Yashvi looked up from her phone in alarm. "There's been a shooting at Lassiter's!" she shouted, "and the gunman is still on the loose and said to be armed and dangerous!"
The other patrons, many of them kids, started to freak out. Elly got up immediately and headed to the counter. "It's ok and everything is going to be ok, we just need to stay calm and stay put," she said, trying to calm down both Yashvi and the kids. "I know it's scary, but we just have to do what the police say and everything will be ok." Chloe had also made it to the counter by then. "Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked. "Yeah, can you help Yashvi make some sandwiches and beverages for everyone while we wait. I'm going to go and see if I can calm some of the kids' nerves," Elly replied with a smile. That was just Chloe, always trying to help wherever she could.
Chloe and Yashvi went about making the food and drinks for everyone while Elly went over to the kids to try to help keep them calm. After the sandwiches and the beverages had been made and handed out to the kids, Yashvi's phone went off with another alert. The gunman in the Lassiter's shooting had had an accomplice, and he was said to still be in the area armed and dangerous. The attached picture showed a man who looked very similar to one of the customers in the café. Chloe and Yashvi both looked at each other, unsure of how to proceed. Elly noticed that Chloe and Yashvi had gone quiet and had a look of fear on their faces. She made sure the kids were doing ok and told them "Everything is going to be fine, we just have to wait a bit longer." With that, she made her way to where Chloe and Yashvi were standing at the counter.
Elly tried to keep her voice calm when she asked them, "What's going on?" Chloe and Yashvi shared a look and Yashvi quietly slid the phone over to Elly so she could read what it said. Elly's expression slowly changed from one of confusion to fear as she saw the picture of the suspected accomplice. She then carefully slid the phone back to Yashvi. Already she had started to formulate a plan in her head on how to keep everyone safe and get the Gunman out of there. A short while later she whispered to Chloe and Yashvi what she had come up with. Both women just nodded and Yashvi took off to the back room silently while Chloe stood at the counter.
Elly walked over to where the suspected gunman was sitting in his booth, still looking rather shaky. Elly greeted the man and said, "Hi there, they just gave the okay that it is safe for everyone to leave." The gunman looked confused and a bit relieved. "Really they caught the guy and it's safe to leave?" Elly looked him in the eyes, doing her best to force a genuine-looking smile. "Yes, they just gave the all clear that it is safe to leave."
The gunman got up from the booth and started towards the door, but then stopped suddenly and turned toward Elly. "Why isn't anyone else leaving?" he asked with a new note of harshness in his voice. Elly tried to come up with an excuse. "We are just being extra cautious but you can leave, there's no reason for you to keep sitting here." The gunman looked at Elly and then over towards Chloe, realizing he had been figured out. "You're lying, you know who I am." "No, I don't know who you are," Elly was quick to say, "but they did say it's safe to leave, so you can do that."
The man now looked frustrated and angry. He pulled a gun out from behind his jacket and aimed it at Elly. "Enough with this, go collect all the phones. And if you try anything" he added with emphasis, "I will shoot." He kept his gun aimed at her as she went around and collected everyone's phones and handed them over. "Everyone get under the bar and stay quiet or someone will get hurt!" he ordered.
Just then the man's phone rang. He answered, keeping some of his attention on his hostages. Chloe and Elly helped everyone get over and under the counter. Elly's attention was divided, but she managed to overhear the man talking with someone about bringing a bulletproof van or he would start shooting. After everyone was safely huddled under the counter, Elly tried to reason with him as he hung up his phone. "So, what's the plan? You're going to load us all in the van?" He pointed his gun back at Elly as she cautiously sat up. "You can't fit us all in a van. If you really want to make a clean and fast getaway, all you need is one hostage."
Chloe was just looking at her like, what are you doing? She was huddled under the bar with everyone else with her arms thrown protectively around Elly, trying to give her some reassurance and comfort in this crazy situation. Before Chloe could interject that she could be the one hostage, a loud noise came from the back room.
The man turned towards the noise and called out "Who's there? Come out here now before someone gets hurt? Don't try to be a hero!" Slowly Yashvi came out of the background holding her phone in one hand and her other hand was held up in surrender. The man noticed that she had her phone out and charged over, yanking it out of her hand. "What do you think your doing? Who were you on the phone with? "Yashvi looking fearful now with both hands up replied, "No one, I was just finishing my kitchen duties and had my music on."
Not buying it, he looked at her phone and saw that she was trying to text someone. "Get over with the others and don't try to be a hero!" he yelled angrily, "because heroes get hurt!" Yashvi visibly swallowed, nodded, and walked over to join the others. The man then began pacing back and forth trying to figure out what to do next, the gun still in his hands.
Elly took this opportunity to try and reason with him, "You know you really don't need all of us as hostages, so why don't you just let these people go and just keep me for leverage? It will be easier to transport just me instead of having to load all of us into a van."
"She's right you really only need one of us as a hostage," Chloe piped in, interrupting. "You should take me and let the others go." Elly and Chloe started arguing back and forth, giving reasons to the gunman why he should take one over the other. It didn't take long for him to become frustrated with their arguing. "Shut up, would you?" he shouted, "You are doing my head in!" He then shot off a warning shot into the ceiling. Everyone ducked for cover and covered their ears.
"Now both of you shut up or I will shoot again, and this time not at the ceiling" the man said looking menacingly at Chloe and Elly. "I need to think and I need quiet to do that." He resumed pacing back and forth then stopped suddenly, turning to the girls. "You're right. I don't need everyone here. Just you three," he said, pointing at Chloe, Elly, and Yashvi. "Send the others out then come back here, because you three are staying with me."
The girls set about getting the others out of the café. After the last person was out the door, the girls went back to huddling underneath the bar. Chloe and Elly were sitting close, Elly had a tight grip on Chloe's shoulder and was leaning her head on Chloe's. Yashvi was sitting on the other side of and slightly behind Chloe. The gunman came over to the three girls and pointed at Elly with his gun. "Stand up!" Elly stood immediately and so did Chloe. "I didn't tell you to stand up" he said to Chloe, but his expression softened slightly and he reached out to caress her face with his gun. "But you are gorgeous" he added thoughtfully.
"Get your hands off of her!" Elly yelled at the gunman
Chloe couldn't suppress a look of fear and disgust on her face, but her words were reassuring as she looked back at her friend. "Elly, its ok. I have no future and you have your whole life ahead of you. You're getting married soon and you have my brother." She turned back to stare into the eyes of the gunman, who was now running his gun over her chest. "Take me! Let the other two go. I promise I want cause any trouble."
Before the distracted gunman could answer, Leo came barreling through the door of the café. He turned his gun on this intruder as quickly as he could, but Leo was already upon him. While the two men wrestled over the gun, Chloe took up a protective stance in front of Elly and Yashvi. Suddenly, the gun went off. Chloe stood silently in shock at the overpowering noise. She felt warm, and nauseous. Suddenly her head felt like it weighed a hundred pounds and she awkwardly lowered herself to her knees. It was several seconds before she noticed, black stars swarming before her eyes, that she'd been shot.
Immediately Elly was kneeling over her, looking for the wound. The men had stopped fighting after the gun went off and the gunman watched in mild surprise as blood drenched Chloe's blouse and started pooling on the floor. He hardly reacted as the policemen barged in yelling to put his hands up, or even as they disarmed him and forced him to the ground. "She's been shot, she needs help now!" Elly shouted. More policemen quickly made their way to her side and called for the EMT's as the gunman was taken into custody.
The EMT's ran to Chloe and started to work on her. Neither the thick bandages they quickly wound around her shoulder nor the pressure one of the EMT's put on her chest seemed to do much to slow the bleeding. Other EMT's and the police were asking Elly and Yashvi questions about what happened and how Chloe had ended up shot. Elly couldn't form a coherent thought. All she could do was cry and look over to where Chloe was being loaded onto a backboard. Large dark clots were already congealing, gelatin-like, on the floor as the EMT's loaded Chloe onto a stretcher. Elly couldn't believe how pale and lifeless Chloe looked, she just needed her to be ok. Yashvi saw how distraught Elly was and answered most of the questions from the EMTs and police.
While Yashvi was giving her statement, Mark and Aaron had found their way in, trying to find out what happened. One of the policemen made a half-hearted move to keep them away from the scene but desisted when Mark ran to Elly wrapping her in a strong hug. "Oh my god what happened? Are you ok? Where's Chloe?" Elly just looked at Mark and couldn't speak she just kept crying and pointed over to where the EMTs were lifting Chloe to a stretcher.
Aaron was already there, frantically questioning the EMT's. "What happened? Is she going to be ok? What's wrong with my sister?!" He started to follow along as the EMT's began rolling the stretcher, but one of them broke off, placing her hand gently on his shoulder and speaking with a firmness clearly born of practice. "Your sister is very sick. We can't stop her bleeding here, we're going to take her to the hospital right away." Aaron stood there in horror, saying nothing, but after a few seconds the EMT nodded, as if in answer to a question. "Come on," she said, tugging at his shoulder, "you can come with us, but we're leaving right now." She turned and walked briskly out of the building without waiting for a response.
Aaron looked back briefly at Elly and Dipti with tears in his eyes, then ran to catch up with his sister. Elly stared after him. Still wrapped in Marks, arms she just kept crying and quietly saying "She has to be ok, I need her to be ok."