Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

“Hurry up!”

Harry fumbled with the wires. Red, blue, green, they all blended into a blur. Alarm bells rang. His fingers shook. His pulse throbbed in his throat, choking him. But Harry was determined not to screw this up again.

“Get the vault open now!”

Harry looked back at his two colleagues. Balaclavas covered their faces but Harry could see they were nervous. Tommy stood on a tellers desk, waving his shotgun back and forth across the hostages, as if he were watering the lawn in his garden. His legs shook. He would have been able to feel Luke’s nervous breaths on the back of his neck if it wasn’t for the sweat that ran down his back to the tip of his spine.

“The cops will be here soon, we gotta go.”

Harry connected the final wire and backed off. “It’s done.”

He thumbed the detonator and the explosive went off with a bang, causing the cowering bank staff and customers to shriek. “Shutup!” Tommy screamed.

Luke and Harry pulled the vault door open and ran inside. Quickly they stuffed their sports bags with wads of dollar bills. No time to count. Time to run.

“Go!”

Luke and Harry ran outside into the glare of the morning sun. Harry stopped. A police car was parked in front of the bank. A cop sat casually on the bonnet. Luke opened the back door of the and jumped in. Tommy did the same. “Have you lost your minds?” Harry said.

The cop smiled and shot Harry in the stomach. “You knew this was coming Harry.”

Harry collapsed onto the sidewalk. Dying. The cop walked over and took the bag from his hands.

“It’s not time yet,” said Harry. “It’s not my time.”

“It never is,” said the cop.