Joey gasped at the impact of his captors foot in his stomach. He instantly released his grip on the phone as the air fled his lungs, leaving him struggling to draw in a breath. He dropped to one knee and doubled over, placing one hand on the floor to brace himself and clutching his midsection with the other.
Chandler had been standing a few feet away when the incident happened. He raced over to Joey, but was stopped by Thief Number 2, who stepped directly in his path, gun pointed. Chandler skidded to a stop before him, but not before the barrel of the gun was jammed into his stomach. He froze and held his breath, eyes flicking back and forth between the man and the gun. He wasn't sure at that point which one was more dangerous.
"You mind your own business."
Chandler said nothing, and dared not express his outrage. He backed away slowly, never turning his attention away from him. Only when he felt his fingers brush against the cool texture of it did he risk tearing his gaze away. He lowered himself to the floor, afraid whatever words he might try to speak would erupt in an angry torrent, and he didn't want that. He watched Joey as he stumbled over toward him and sat down painfully.
"You ok?" Chandler asked, still shaken up by the incident.
"Yeah."
"Who... who did you talk to?"
"Ross," Joey replied, as he traced patterns in the floor with his finger, "Not as long as I wanted to though."
"What did he say?"
"Wanted to know if we were ok, and all that stuff."
"Did he say anything about the others?"
"No. We didn't get the chance." To Chandler's amazement, Joey seemed to be fighting back tears. He reached out and put his hand on his friend's shoulder, shaking it ever so slightly. Joey turned in surprise. but upon seeing Chandler's knowing look, smiled gratefully.
"Thanks," Joey said.
They were unaware that their captors were conversing with other about the situation. It wasn't until they heard one of them speaking into the phone again that they paid any attention. They did not like what they heard.
"Do you have our money yet?"
Lt. Daniels grimaced at this cruel voice. "You haven't given us much time to get it together."
"We're tired of waiting. We want it now."
"We're working on it, but we don't have anything yet."
"You have another thirty minutes."
"And then what?" Daniels asked, a feeling of dread making itself at home in his gut.
"According to our deal, we get 20,000 and then 10,000 per hostage. We give you a half an hour a hostage. We expect at least $10,000 every half an hour. So you have two hours to get all of the money. If we don't get our $10,000..." he laughed a sinister laugh. "Well, you see, my friend here and I have come up with this little lottery system. We've assigned a number to each of our four hostages. When that thirty minutes is up, we draw a number, and BANG. No more hostage. And you have another $10,000 added to your tab."
Daniels held the phone away from him, and cursed slightly. The group of officers surrounding him looked grim. Once he composed himself, he put the phone back up to his ear.
"We'll do the best we can to get the money together."
"I hope so, because you are down to 24 minutes."
----
From afar, the group noticed that something was happening as they looked over at the police officers who were gathered together looking upset. The four of them made their way over only to catch the tail end of the argument.
"..move in soon, we're running out of time."
"That's a big risk, we haven't been able to figure out what things look like inside."
"We can't give into their demands. There's no way they'll just take the money and split, they have to know we'll have them cornered in a heartbeat."
"If we don't pay them, I believe he will carry out his threats. We can't allow that."
"We're running out of time and choices. There's twelve minutes left on the clock."
"Twelve minutes until what?" asked Phoebe suspiciously as she confronted the police officers with everyone else. She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer. Lt. Daniels took the four of them off to the side.
"The men in there want $60,000. They want the first $10,000 in another 10 minutes, or they are going to shoot a hostage."
Ross and Monica both flipped," They're going to what?" they screeched in unison. Lt. Daniels shrunk away from them.
"What hostage? Did they say who?" said Monica urgently.
Lt. Daniels look uncomfortable. "You aren't going to like this."
"Is it Chandler?" she cried in horror. "Oh God. Oh, God..."
"We don't know who it's going to be." He explained quickly about the "lottery system."
"What are you going to do about it?" Phoebe demanded.
"We're working on that," he said, not quite meeting eye contact with any one of them.
"You're not going to pay them?" Ross exclaimed.
"It's not that simple, we have no way to know if they will release them," said Lt. Daniels quietly, "Even if we give into their demands."
"We have to try!" now Rachel was on the verge of losing her temper. She pulled out her checkbook, "I'll write a check right here, right now. All $60, 000."
Everyone turned their heads over at her with a questioning look. Ross, dumbfounded by her actions, "Uh, Rach, you don't have that kind of money."
"I know, my parents do though. They let me.. uh.. share with them, for emergencies. And this is an emergency. "
"I don't know," said Lt. Daniels who obviously did not like the idea.
"Look! I won't let you put the lives of my friends in danger because you won't comply with the demands that I am more than willing to meet!"
Daniels gave her a hard look, and then nodded. "Write a check for $10,000. We'll take it to them, but they might not accept it. It depends on how smart they are."
"I'll write it, and I'll take it to them." said Rachel
"That's not possible, you can not be involved in any of the negotiations." said Lt. Daniels
"My money, my friends," she said as she pulled out her cell phone and called up Joey's number before Lt. Daniels could stop her.
----
Everyone looked up in surprise when the phone in Thief Number 1's hand began to ring. For a moment, they couldn't decide whether or not to answer it. After a glance at his watch, he pressed a button, and lifted the phone to his ear.
"Do you have the money?"
"Yes, I have it," a voice said.
"Who is this? You aren't the one who I spoke to earlier."
"I'm the one who's paying you. Do you want it or not?"
"Yes. I want it."
"Good. When should I bring it to you? And are you going to release a hostage?"
He considered this for a moment.
"I will release one, this time, just for goodwill. No one else leaves until I have all the money."
"Can we choose which hostage?" Four heads snapped to attention at this question. Daniels made as if to grab the phone away, but Rachel dodged him.
"Nope. I won't deviate from my lottery. Too bad. Bring the cash to the front door, my friend here will meet you there. Don't try anything funny, because the hostage will be right there with him, and if anyone makes a move I don't like, bye bye hostage."
"Cash?" Rachel's face went white. "I have a check for you."
"Sorry, no good. We want cash, in unmarked bills. Do you really think we can get away with cashing a check?" he laughed. It was a cruel sound that made Rachel's blood freeze in her veins.
"Give me another few minutes, we'll get to the bank and be right back." The urgency and desperation in her voice was completely unmasked, and sweat poured off her brow.
"Sorry. Time's up."
The criminal snapped the phone shut, and looked around at the hostages, whose faces betrayed one universal expression: pure and total fear.
"Let's see whose lucky number comes up." He scattered four pieces of paper on the floor in front of him, and stirred them around with his hand.
Joey and Chandler sat together, neither of them said a word, but both were preparing for the worst. Joey risked a glance over at Chandler. His face looked tight, and he seemed to be staring at some invisible object in front of him.
Images of Monica, Rachel, Ross, and Phoebe flooded Chandler's mind as he wondered if he would ever see them again. The thought of never seeing them again was too much to bear, even though he'd be the dead one. He couldn't imagine how the others felt outside. He snapped out of his daze and looked back at the scene in front of him, and knew that if he ever got out of this, he would never be able to watch a lottery draw on TV. Right now, the lucky winner would get to leave in a coffin. He couldn't risk a look over at Joey, he didn't want to see his face in this situation, and there was no way he'd even think about the other scenario that could unfold. He'd rather die a thousand times over than watch the lifeless body of his friend being dragged across the floor, and there was no way he was going to let that happen.
They had all been given their "numbers" a short time ago. Chandler was four and Joey was two. He shuddered. I did not want to die this way, he thought. Not in here, like this, on my knees.
In a moment that seemed to last for an eternity, their captor reached down and picked up a piece of folded paper, and began to unfold it.