Alex Taylor heard the shot. Then only a split second later, her left shoulder suddenly started to hurt. Badly. She knew she was hit.
"What the fuck have you done?" the shorter man snapped at his partner.
Alex turned to face Walsh, who was watching in horror. She had never seen such an expression on his face and instantly knew it was bad. Slowly, as if in slow-motion, her legs quit underneath her and she went down to the ground.
"Alex!" Walsh finally managed. He wanted to hurry over towards her, help her, but there was a gun stopping him in his tracks.
"Don't you move!" the shorter man ordered in a threatening voice.
"Stay back, Billy…" Alex managed to say through the pain. Being a paramedic herself as well as a firefighter, she knew she had to get help soon. But there was no point in someone else being shot.
In all that chaos that was forming, the woman behind the counter suddenly remembered the silent alarm. The button was only inches away from her underneath the counter. All she had to do was reach out. She heard the woman who had been shot, moan. That woman needed help. Carefully, the cashier woman started moving her arm towards the button while nobody was paying attention to her and hit it without anyone noticing.
"What we do now?" the taller man asked.
"Get the money," the shorter one ordered. He seemed to be the leader in that team of two.
The man in the leather coat turned towards the woman behind the register again.
"Let's go!" he ordered, his gun pointing at her again.
The woman finally managed to open the register and handed him all the bills that were in there. They had only opened up 2 hours ago, so there wasn't any big money in there yet.
"Please don't shoot me," the woman started to beg. The situation finally got to her. She moved a little.
"Stay where you are!" the taller man returned his focus towards her.
"Where's the rest?" he asked, pointing down at the dollar bills on the counter.
"That's all…we haven't had many customers yet."
Angrily, the man grabbed what appeared to be $100 maybe and pocketed it. Then he turned to his partner, the gun still aimed at the woman behind the counter.
"Now what?" he asked.
In that same moment, the smaller man at the door spotted something that wasn't good news.
"Cops!"