It wasn't the peaceful night it should have been. I loved nights like this. The quiet, the dark, the chilly breeze. But tonight's peace was interrupted by the sound of the auction, the bright chandeliers that lit up the hallway, and the heat of adrenaline. Cash and I exchanged a confused look; his thick black eyebrows furrowed together into a frown. 

"Why can't I hear the alarm?" Liam's voice said through our earpieces.

"I don't know. I thought you said this place had an alarm system?" I asked in a barely audible whisper.

"It does. Maybe it will trigger after you move closer to the vault." Liam suggested.

"Is it possible that security is getting notified anyway? Like an alarm that goes off in their office only?" Cash asked.

"It's possible, but security hasn't reacted yet" Liam said.

"Let's just take this opportunity and get out of here before security notices" I said to which Cash nodded, and we began sprinting down the hallway. We paused at every slight bend to peer around it and make sure there was no one there.

It was an oddly easy trip to the vault room doors. There wasn't a person or obstacle in sight until then. However, as soon as we began approaching the vault room doors we noticed an issue. Sitting on the tiled floor, slumped over, was a security guard. Blood trickled down the side of his neck, absorbing into the collar of his uniform. 

"Uuh, Liam?" I asked, as Cash approached the guard to check his pulse. "What do you see through your cameras?"

"What do you mean?" Liam asked, "I see you standing there when you should be entering the vault." I waited for moment as Cash continued to walk closer to the guard. "Woah. Wait Cash just disappeared. My camera must be frozen."

"He's dead" Cash said as he felt the guard's arm for a pulse. An explosion of surprised whispering came through our earpieces, with each person trying to confirm they heard correctly. 

"This isn't from one of us" Cash said, "look at his wound. It was made quickly and cleanly. There was no fight."

"Another gang must have made it here first. We need to regroup quickly so we don't get caught in the crossfire" Rafa said. "Kota, Cash, make a decision quickly. Get the locket or don't, but you need to get out of there fast." I quickly glanced at Cash, who nodded.

"We're here now, security still haven't shown up. We're going in" Cash said, moving toward the door. We both pulled out our guns and slowly pushed open the door. 

The room was large and nearly empty; the wall and floors were made of shining white tiles. The only item in the room was at the far end, where a silver vault covered the entire back wall. It looked like it must have been a high security vault, with multiple pins and thick heavy doors. However now, it was open. 

"Can you see us now, Liam?" I asked. 

"No. What's happening in there? The guards are making their way in your direction. The auction is over." Liam explained.

"The vault's open" I said slowly. My right hand remained holding my gun at my side, while my left moved open to grab my own hair pulling it slightly to make sure this wasn't a dream. "There's no way I'm too late."

"Someone else must have gotten to it first, Kota" Rafa said, his voice quiet and sympathetic. 

"That must be why they didn't put it up for auction. They must be doing a quiet investigation to avoid causing a panic" Liam suggested.

"No, I don't think they know what's happened yet" Cash said, "Surely if they were doing a quiet investigation, they would have security positioned down here. Plus, that body was fresh."

"How did they escape without anyone seeing them, though?" Ava added.

"Oh no" Liam said slowly.

"What?" I asked, panic beginning to set in. What could be worse than what we're facing right now?

"Whoever froze our cameras just unfroze them. Security saw you guys." Liam said. "You need to get out of there. Fast."

"They're going to think we killed the guard. Hurry." Rafa whispered urgently. 

"I'm not leaving!" I responded, putting my gun back into the waist band of my pants. "It might still be in there." I moved past Cash and began pulling the vault door open further. 

"Kota, stop!" Cash called. "We're going to get caught! And what if there's someone in there?"

"Then cover me" I said. With a huff that was a mixture of frustrated and defeated, Cash put away his gun and helped me to try and open the vault door enough for us to fit. 

"Hurry, they're in the hallway!" Liam called through our earpieces a moment before the sound of hurried footsteps echoed into the room.

"How many?" Cash asked through gritted teeth as we tried to pull the heavy door.

"Five have almost reached you. Another twelve are two minutes away." Liam answered.

"Great." I hissed. 

"Kota, I hope you don't think you can shoot that many people with one magazine" Cash said as he continued to pull.

The door slid with an excruciating lack of speed, until finally it was open enough for us to squeeze in one at a time. Cash pulled a flashlight out of his backpack, both of us pulling our guns back out. The flashlight revealed walls made of thick silver metal. The floor was littered with random items that has been toppled over or broken. At the far end of the wall, around three metres off the ground, was a perfectly cut circle that was missing from the wall. I could see the night sky through the hole; I could feel the cold gust of wind that chilled my sweaty skin.

"They took everything of value." Cash said under his breath, "let's hope that locket of yours is just sentimental." The sound of static through our earpieces sounded in response.

"Liam?" I whispered, but there was no response. "Mine cut out" I said to Cash, who nodded.

"Same." I crouched down and began moving the random items, checking with growing panic if the locket was hiding behind anything. I wasn't aware of the lockets monetary value, but the fact that Kael was planning to auction it off told me it likely had some value. I could only hope that it was one of the remaining items that hadn't been collected for some unknown reason. As I continued to shuffle frantically through the items strewn on the vault floor, all too aware of the sound of footsteps getting louder outside, Cash spoke. 

"Uh Kota, we need to leave" he stated. I was about to brush him off but picked up on the urgency in his voice. I looked over to where he stood. Partially illuminated by his flashlight was what appeared to be a black box with red numbers on it. The numbers read '02:37'. '02:36'. '02:35'.

"Come on!" I hissed, standing up and hurrying toward the door, only to hear an unknown voice yell from outside the vault, "they're in there!" No no no! I backed away from the door, palm sweating over the warm metal of my gun. 

"You already decided that locket of yours is worth all our lives!" Cash whispered loudly, "don't change your mind now!" He approached the gap in the vault door and stuck his gun through, letting loose three shots in row. The sound of screaming and return gunfire sounded through the gap and Cash pulled back from the gap, using the vault door as cover. "We've got twelve shots total, make yours count!" He said as he slid slightly to the right, so his gun was aimed through the opening of the vault and let loose another shot before recoiling behind the door again with a grunt.

"Cash!" I whispered loudly as he grabbed his bleeding arm. His right forearm was bleeding profusely, darkening his black sleeve.

"I'm fine. Just get ready to cover me. I have two left."  He said through gritted teeth. The sound of yelling and shooting increased outside. More security must have arrived. I looked over at the bomb, which read '01:33'. How big will the explosion be? Will we be safe even if we throw it out the hole in the wall? Wait...

"Cash, the hole!" I called as he shot his last two bullets. 

"We don't know how high up we are, Kota!" Cash yelled as he used his knife to cut his sleeve and began wrapping his arm with it.

"We just scaled this entire building!" I responded as I rushed over to help him wrap his arm. With his good hand Cash slapped mine away.

"Stop playing doctor and go buy us time!" Gritting my teeth I nodded in response and rushed over to the vault door and pressed my left shoulder against it. Come on Kota you can do this. It's you or them.

"Looks like they ran out of ammo!" someone called a moment before I shot. I kept my left shoulder and head pressed to the door for cover as I stuck nothing but my gun hand out of its cover and shot blindly. I shot all six of my bullets in rapid fire before pulling my arm back behind the safety of the vault door. The sound of more screaming and shooting told me at least some of my bullets reached their mark. But it also told me there were still people left. And bullets.

"Alright, ready?" I asked. Cash, looking somehow more pale than usual shook his head.

"My good arms shot. Even if I managed to reach the hole, I can't pull myself up." 

Gritting my teeth and approaching the hole, which stood around one and half metres above me, I said, "Just climb on". I tapped my shoulders and Cash shook his head.

"Fine." With that I braced myself as Cash stood first on my shaking hands, then on my aching shoulders. As Cash grabbed onto the bottom of the hole with his good hand and scrambled up, I looked back over at the bomb. '00:53'. "It's only a few stories. We can use the railing to climb down" Cash stated as he stuck his legs through the hole, so he was laying in the hole on his stomach, facing me. "Come on!" He called as I walked back to get a running start but stopped at the sound of the vault door opening wider.

"They're escaping! Now's our-" The security guard's words were cut off by the sound of more gunfire, yelling and bodies falling. A moment of anxious silence later, two figures burst into the vault.

"What happened to being quick!" Rafa yelled as he and Allambee scanned the vault. '00:47'. Realisation dawned on both their faces before either I or Cash had to say anything. "Go!" Rafa yelled to me. Without hesitating I ran toward the hole before jumping and catching Cash's left arm. He hauled me up, then as soon as I got a hold of the wall, he climbed down to allow me to squeeze through. We repeated this process with me catching Allambee, then Allambee prepared to catch Rafa. '00:28'. "We're not going to make it" Rafa said, looking between us and the bomb. "It'll blow us off the wall".  Without hesitation, Cash opened his bag with his right arm, groaning against the pain, before throwing Rafa the rope we had used to enter through the glass ceiling earlier that night.

"We'll slide. Then you follow" Cash said. Rafa nodded and tossed one side of the rope down the side of the building and held the other one tight in his hands. He lay on his back on the ground and placed his feet against the wall for grip. 

"Go!" He called once in position, and Cash slid down the rope, gritting his teeth from the pain of using his right arm, and the inevitable friction burns he was causing to his own hands as they rubbed against the rope. As soon as he was half way down Allambee looked at me expectantly. I looked between Rafa and the bomb. '00:17'. 

"Rafa won't make it" I said.

"My only chance is if you hurry up Kota!" Rafa yelled from inside. In my moment of hesitation Allambee had already grabbed hold of the rope and began sliding down. "Hurry! Tug twice when you're down!" Cursing under my breath I grabbed the rope and let go of the wall, allowing myself to slide down toward the ground. I bit my lip against the pain, my hands burning like they were pressed against a hot stove. As soon as my feet touched the ground and pulled on the rope twice, indicating to Rafa that I was down. The rope instantly came loose from Rafa's grip and began falling to the ground like a coiling snake. A painful moment later Rafa's red hair became visible as it poked through the hole in the wall above. The three of us on the ground walked backward until we were a few metres away from the wall, conscious of the fact that we had no idea how small or large the explosion would be.

"Hurry! Hurry!" I hissed urgently under my breath.

"He's only got a few seconds" Allambee whispered. Rafa began climbing downward, trying to find hand and foot holds as fast as he could. "Five seconds".

"He's going to make it" Cash said, his tone telling me he was trying to convince us as much as he was trying to convince himself.

"Four seconds." Rafa was halfway down the second floor, with only one and a half floors to climb. His foot slipped and he slid downward for a second before catching himself on a pole of railing with a grunt. "Three seconds". He had cleared the second floor and only had one floor left to climb. 

"Come on, come on" I mumbled under my breath, hoping that by sheer will, the timer would slow just a few more seconds to allow him to make it. 

"That's them!" A voice called from nearby and a group of security guards began running in our direction. 

"Two seconds."

"Just jump!" I called up to Rafa, who instantly pushed off the wall with his hands and feet in a desperate attempt to avoid the blast. Halfway down the bottom floor the ear-piercing sound of brick and metal coming apart overwhelmed my senses and I crouched onto the ground to avoid falling over from the blast. Cash stood firm, covering his eyes from the flying debris, while Allambee stumbled backward. Despite our senses being bombarded by sound and dust, we stayed in our spots to witness as the force of the blast threw Rafa backward along with pieces of the brick wall.

It was only a moment later when all was still, but it felt like an eternity. My ears were ringing and my eyes burned from the dust that had flown into them. I stood up, my legs wobbly, and walked where Rafa had fallen. "Rafa!" I called, my voice croaky and dry from the particles I had inhaled. I coughed and only a moment later heard someone else cough nearby. 

"Over here!" Cash called and the three of us rushed over to where Rafa lay groaning. "Rafa, are you okay? Can you stand?" Cash asked urgently. As the ringing in our ears began to fade, the sound of yelling and footsteps approaching became loader.

"I'm fine" Rafa mumbled before stumbling to his feet. Blood streamed down the right side of his face and his left arm hung awkwardly at his side. He took a few steps before his knees buckled, caught himself, and began stumbling forward again.

"Take him! I've still got ammo" Allambee said, before pulling his gun out. Cash and I nodded, grabbed Rafa from under the arms and helped him to run forward toward the road, Allambee behind us with his gun pointed toward the approaching group of people, ready to shoot. As soon as we reached the road, the lights of a van turned on, revealing itself. 

"There!" I called out and we made for the van. We reached the van, Allambee opening the back doors for the three of us to climb in a moment before himself. 

"Go!" I yelled out before Ava stepped hard on the accelerator, launching us forward at speed.

"Is everyone okay?" Ava called back.

"We're alive" Cash grunted back. Looking out the tinted van windows people could be seen running in a panic away from the where the explosion had gone off, tripping over themselves or pushing others out of the way to move faster.

"Wait..." I whispered under my breath. A small group of people wearing fancy attire and venetian masks walked quickly through the crowd. They didn't run, they didn't push, they weren't scared. They simply waded quickly through the crowd in a lazy attempt to blend in. In each of their hands were large handbags embellished with jewels. That in itself was not out of the ordinary, as only people with wealth to flaunt would be attending Kael's auction. However, these bags were clearly filled to brim, the sides of the bags all bulging, the stitching around the handles tearing as they shuffled with the bag uncomfortably. It was heavy. What could possibly be in those bags.

"Wait!" I called out to Ava who looked at me puzzled through the rearview mirror. "Those people back there! They're the ones that stole from the vault!" My discovery appeared less urgent to the other inhabitants of the van as it did to me. 

"It's too late Kota" Cash said, shaking his head, "we need to get back to Ashen Avenue and get a medic before me and Rafa bleed out."

"Not to mention we're about to get caught" Ava called back. I looked behind us through the tinted van windows. Black electric Hyundai cars could be seen in the distance, and further away police sirens could be heard. 

"Just me, please!" I called back. Ava looked questioningly at me, then at Rafa, who was passed out on the floor while Liam and Allambee attempting to treat his wounds. When seeing he was no longer conscious, Ava's eyes moved from Rafa to Allambee, who glanced over at me and shrugged. 

"That's what we came for, let him go" Allambee said, to which both Cash and Liam began to protest. Breaking hard, we slowed to a stop. 

"Hurry!" Ava called and I opened the vans back doors and jumped out.

"Thank you!" I called back.

"Meet us back at Ashen Avenue" Cash said. I nodded, then closed the van doors a moment before it took off. I ran off the road and toward a building. Crouching down beside it, I waited for Kael's security cars to fly past, then a moment later the police cars. As soon as they had past, I sprung up and began running back the way we came, back toward the light and people.

It didn't take long for me to begin wading through the crowd of Kael's panicked customers, my eyes scanning for the people in masks I had seen earlier. 

"There you are." I whispered to myself. Walking quickly through the crowd with bags and masks were three people. A woman with a mass of curly brown hair wearing a green dress and black mask, and two men wearing fancy black suits, one with black hair and a mask that covered the bottom half of his face and the other with orange and black hair, who's mask covered around his eyes. It only took a moment of me striding through the crowd in their direction for the woman to make eye contact with me and break out of the crowd, the two men at her tail. I fastened my pace and broke out of the crowd as well. They were sprinting down an alleyway and I was right behind them. 

"Hey! Wait!" I called ahead, hoping they stop and reason with me, but of course they did not. After a few minutes of chasing them, they began to get faster and more confident in each move they would make, as if they had just entered an area that was familiar to them. Their base must be near, I thought to myself. Had they planned to escape by car they would have done so by now. They must have been hoping to lose me before they reached their base. Realising I needed to play my own strengths, I slowed down and feigned defeat, resting my hands on my knees and puffing heavily. I hoped I wasn't making a mistake by slowing down. But if they fell for my act and continued onto their base, I would finally be able to retrieve my locket.

-Interdimensional Pirates

-April Bluebird/@BlueWhiskers1
-14/Sep/2025
-Chapter 6: Escape
-3414 words
-428 👁‍🗨, 39 🌟, 42💭.