Resistance Is Useless

I cringed at the screams and yells of the workers. I knew they were terrified, just like I was months ago. My eyes darted around the lobby area of the bank, to the guys and then to workers. I watched Rian lock the doors first while Jack yelled and told them to cooperate. I caught Alex watching me intently. I bit my lip and sent him a weak smile. The adrenaline and the guilt made me feel sick.
I turned back down the hallway, going to the lounge room that I’d walked in before. I made my way over to the staff microwave, throwing the security tapes from my bag onto the counter. I shoved all the tapes into the microwave and closed the door, pressing some random numbers. I watched as the tapes sparked in the microwave, frying the valuable evidence. The insane mastermind in me was coming out.
I left the tapes in the microwave and headed back to the front. One of the guys would take care of them later. What was I to do while they took the money? I couldn’t go outside and I didn’t actually have the heart or power to help them out.

Alex spotted me standing at the end of the hallway in the same spot as before. He stopped what he was doing and walked over to me, empty handed, no guns or anything. I stepped back a few steps as he got closer.
“Kari, don’t,” He said softly, holding his hands out.
I looked past him at some of the workers on the floor. It was chaos.
He enveloped me, backing me up into the wall. He put his hands on the wall on both sides of me, keeping me there.
“Look, I know you don’t like it,” He said. “I knew this was a bad idea. You should’ve said no--”
“You should go,” I said quietly, looking down between us.
“They can hold it down for a few minutes,” He shrugged. “Don’t be like this.”
“I know I said I’d do it and I am but…I don’t like when you get this way,” I said truthfully.
“It’s the last one,” He sighed. “It’ll all be over before you know it. I promise nothing’s going to happen to us.” He dropped his arms and led me back to the front again.
I grabbed his arm before he left again and looked up at him, “Please, don’t hurt them.”

He gave me a weary look as I let go of his sleeve and went back to the guys. I sat in a desk chair away from everyone else, hoping it’d really be over soon. I didn’t even know why I agreed to come in here. I could handle it at first but I found it really getting to me.
The morning they ran into Provident, when they took me, meeting Alex- everything seemed like yesterday, and I was just as worse. I looked away from what was going on, trying to tune out everyone’s yells.
My attention was caught at the sound of someone trying to pull the doors open from the outside, only to fail. My eyes fell on the guys as we all exchanged the same look and the employees and customers screamed even louder.
“Shut the fuck up!” Jack yelled out of frustration. “I swear to God, I’ll fucking kill you all.”
I ignored Jack while Alex and I stared at each other for a little while longer. I couldn’t read him, but I knew I’d seen a flash of fear in his brown eyes. He closed his eyes and muttered a “fuck”.