Heist of a Lifetime – a flash fiction story

“How are we going to get out of here!” Rick’s voice betrayed his rising level of hysteria. The vault door was firmly shut behind them and the armed police were in position. Everything had gone wrong but the gang’s leader was still loading money into his bag like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Stop panicking,” Maz replied before beginning to whistle quietly to himself. As he looked around at his assembled crew, most were losing their cool. Rick was seconds away from screaming the place down and Eddie was rocking in the corner. They had expected a pre-prepared exit route waiting for them. There was one, they just couldn’t see it yet. Nina was the only one not panicking. She was eyeing him suspiciously from the other side of the metallic room. The lights were off but their head torches reflected off the metal walls, giving them plenty of light to see by. Nina was dressed in black, the stereotypical attire of a bank robber but she had discarded her mask.

Rick was still wittering away in the corner, his voice now threatening to only be heard by dogs but Maz was just ignoring him.

“Give it a rest Rick,” Nina complained eventually without taking her eyes off the leader. She started fishing more money out of a safety deposit box and dropping it into her bag.

“Are you insane?” A thud reverberated against the outside door. They were going to breach the vault soon.

“He said he had an exit,” Nina began. The others glanced over at her. “And there’s got to be a reason he’s pulled off more jobs than any of us put together. Unless this is the world’s biggest con?”

“Not a con,” Maz was grinning now. He stood up and started to fiddle with his watch. “So what do you say Rick? You trust me?”

“You’re crazy! I’m with them,” Rick turned and started banging on the vault door screaming for help.

“Pity. Eddie?” Maz glanced down at the terrified driver. He’d taken a lot of convincing to get out of the car and into the vault but Maz had wanted him along.

He nodded his head but kept looking nervously across at the vault door. They could all hear them working on the other side. Rick had doen his best to keep them out but all it would have done was slow them down.

“Come here then,” Maz waved at Eddie who scampered across to his side. Nina followed his lead and dragged her bag across to them. Maz fiddled with the dial on the face of his watch and programmed it in. “Grab my arm.” Despite a tut from Nina, they both did as they were told. “Bye Rick.” He hit Go and just saw Rick’s look of disbelief as reality seemed to melt away from them. The familiar sensation of static built up around the group causing Eddie and Nina to both cry out.

It was over in seconds. Everything went quiet.

“We’re still in the vault,” Eddie remarked.

“What the…” Nina tailed off as she spun on the spot, looking at the rusted box doors.

“We are still in the vault, but we are not still in 2019. Bank’s been closed for decades,” Maz picked up his bag and sauntered over the vault threshold. The door had long been stuck in the open position. He traced his fingers over a few scratches in the metal door from when Rick had been arrested.

“Now,” Maz turned to face his new crew, dropping his bag of cash onto the floor with a muffled thud. “Where and when do you want to spend this?”

Written in response to mid-week flash challenge 114 on Finding Clarity by Miranda Kate

https://purplequeennl.blogspot.com/2019/07/mid-week-flash-challenge-week-114.html