The Purple Haze

by Gary Richardson

  He heard a second shot ring out. It was over to his right but behind him. “Damn, gone too far,” he thought. He slowly turned around and headed in the direction. As he got to thirty paces, he saw blue lights flashing in the mist. It was the police vehicles. He quickened his pace, still being careful not to step on any bodies. He reached the car. He looked around it and found the owner of the car, face down on the floor.

  He identified the uniform first. It was definitely police. He grabbed the arm and rolled over the body. As the shoulder came up he saw the insignia, and then he felt his heart sink. He rolled it over completely and was looking straight at the disfigured face of inspector Myers. His face was like all the others, cracked and horrible, and his eyes were milky and glazed over. Mike stared for a moment, horrified. He picked up the radio. “James, come in.”

  A voice came back. “James here.”

  “I've found the inspector,” Mike told him.

  “Great, how is he?” said James, sounding almost happy.

  “He's gone,” said Mike. There was no response. “Fire another shot will you, I'm coming to find you.” There was a third shot, and Mike set off in its direction, this time pretty much straight ahead of him. He didn't have to go far before a building loomed up out of the fog. He immediately recognised it as the bank. He got on the radio again. “I have reached the front of the bank,” he said into it.

  “Good, find your way around it,” came James' voice, “Work your way round so you come in from the west, I'm waiting for you.”

  Mike did as he was told. Keeping the bank just within his distance of vision, he made his way west along its wall. The outline of the building stopped, and he was facing a junction in the road. He walked forward down the junction, still keeping his eye on the wall and he came to an alley way. He picked up his radio again. “James, I'm at the west entrance to the alley,” he said, “I'm coming in. Do not fire, repeat, do not fire.” He started down the alley.

  It wasn't long until he heard a voice call out. “Mike?” it called.

  “James, is that you?” he called back.

  “Yeah, come on over,” James' voice called back. Mike pressed forward a bit quicker, and before he knew he was in the presence of three armed response officers. Two were on the floor dead, but one was in a crouching stance holding a sub-machine gun. “Thank God,” the man said and smiled, “I'm James, glad to see you!” James stood up and shook Mike's hand.

  “Glad to see you too,” said Mike while smiling. He was so glad to see someone that wasn't a corpse. The happiness was short lived, as it was hard for him to stay enthusiastic in the presence of two dead people. “What now?” Mike asked James.

  “First we have to get off the streets,” said James. “We're going to go in through the back of the bank.”

  “Are you frigging crazy?!” blurted Mike. “What about the thieves?”

  James looked at him with an authoritative look. “Listen, all this mad shit out here must have happened in there as well. The chances they are still alive are pretty slim.”

  Mike wasn't convinced by this. “Yeah, I understand that, but if they are alive they are still armed.”

  “Look,” said James, “I know there is that possibility, but if there are any of them left alive I need your help. I can't do this alone.”

  “I'm not trained for this, I can't,” said Mike.

  James shook his head and looked at his dead team mates. “Here,” he said crouching down.

  Mike watched him as he picked up one of the dead armed response officers MP5's. He held it out to him. “Whoa, I can't take that,” Mike told him.

  “Just take it,” James ordered. “Keep the stock tight against your shoulder and only fire in short bursts. Be careful you don't spray bullets everywhere when it kicks.”

  Mike reluctantly took the gun and held it ready. He watched James shoulder his own gun and bend down to take the other MP5 from the floor. He checked the clip and flicked on the torch. James looked at him and nodded. “Yeah, let’s get this over with,” Mike said unenthusiastically. James moved to the door slowly, looking down the sight of his gun the whole time. He pointed it at the door and gestured to Mike to open it. He moved to the door and pulled the handle. Since the power was out everywhere, the electric lock no longer secured it. James went ahead of him through the door. Mike followed him and let the door close behind him.

  Once inside, the first thing Mike noticed apart from the darkness was that the fog hadn't dominated the air inside the bank. Instead it was more like a purple mist and it didn't stop the light from James' gun penetrating through. They were in a corridor with a couple of doors along the walls, and one more at the end of it. James pointed to it and whispered. “That's the door into the bank. That will take us behind the counters.” He set off down the corridor. Mike paused for a moment. He was about to be tested in what he had imagined to be real police work. He had previously felt gutted that he couldn't cope in this situation, now he was being forced right into the middle of it. He took a deep breath and slowly followed behind James. He just hoped he wouldn't have to shoot anybody.

  Chapter 4

  It was Craig who spotted it first. The door to the area he was in had slowly opened and there was a flash light now shining in his face. He couldn't see the person holding it as the light was blinding him. The light came in as though creeping, eerily invading the void that had been created when the lights went out. He had been in complete darkness for the best part of fifteen minutes. He had been hoping someone would come in eventually, but now they were here he actually felt more on edge than he had before. He had grown almost comfortable in the stillness of the dark, and now this sudden change unnerved him. He held his hand up to try and block the light and see who was standing there. “Who's there?” he called. He didn't get a response. The light moved from him and illuminated Simon's corpse on the floor. Next it darted over to Colin, still sat against the wall but now looking more alert than he had done.

  Then a voice bellowed out. “Don't move!” It all happened extremely quickly. Despite the light shining back in his face and blinding him every few seconds, Craig could make out the person with the light rushing Colin and pushing him to the floor. In between being blinded, and in the few seconds his eyes had to adjust to the changing light, he made out two figures, one in a high visibility coat with a blue square on the back, and one in dark pants and wearing a flak jacket over a dark tee shirt. The man in the flak jacket had Colin on the floor and was cuffing him. Craig breathed a sigh of relief when the realisation came to him that the police had arrived and saved him. He thought they must have stormed the bank. It seemed feasible to him that they had cut the power to the building after firing a gas cylinder into the building to cause everyone to fall unconscious, and in that confusion storm the building and save everyone. He was just hoping no other colleagues had shared the fate of Simon.

  While all this was going through his head, the two officers came over to him. It was the one in the flak jacket who spoke first. “Are you OK, are you hurt?” he asked.

  “No,” said Craig, “but he killed my friend.”

  “I know,” said the officer, “I'm afraid we can't do anything about that. Where is everyone else? Are they still alive?”

  “I don't know,” said Craig, “the screens went up when I triggered the alarm and I haven't seen them since. There was only Yvonne, the acting manager and a few customers in. The rest of the robbers are with them.”

  “Are the assailants still alive?” asked the officer.

  The question puzzled Craig. “I don't know. Why wouldn't they be? Might some other officers have caught them, or killed them.”

  “I don't think so,” the officer said, “we're all that's left.”

  Craig looked at the flak jacketed officer and then at the one in the high visibility coat, his eyes much better suited to the dark now. He was now able to make out the words in the blue square on the coat. 'Police Community Support Officer'. He was confused beyond belief. “What do yo
u mean 'you're all that's left,'” he said, sounding more worried now.

  “Everyone's dead,” the officer replied. “I can't be sure but the best I can make out the only people left alive in this town right now are in this bank.”

  Craig chuckled slightly. “This is ridiculous,” he said, “they can't all be dead.”

  The officer nodded slowly, never breaking his eye contact with Craig. “They're all gone. Everyone,” he said.

  Craig didn't chuckle this time. Looking in the officer's eyes, he was starting to believe him. “Dead?” he said quietly, “how?”

  “I don't know,” said the officer, “but some weird purple fog blew down the road. The two of us were knocked out by it and when we came too, everyone else was gone.”

  Craig thought back to the gas he saw. He remembered it was purple in colour and, having never actually seen tear gas, he was none the wiser as to what it could have been. He looked at the PCSO, he could see by the way he was looking at him that what the flak jacket officer had said, it was true. He looked back at the flak jacket officer. “What are we going to do?” he asked.

  “We need to make sure the people on the other side of those screens are alive or dead,” the offer replied, “and if there's nobody left, we're going to try and get out of here. First tell me your name.”

  Craig told him his name, and also told him the man who had been killed was Simon, the man sitting in the hand cuffs was Colin and that Colin shot Simon when he tried to jump after the alarm had gone off.

  “Okay, we'll deal with him soon,” said the officer, “my name is James, the officer over there is Mike.”

  Craig nodded to acknowledge Mike. He then looked at the screens. “How are we going to get through there?” he asked.

  “I'll need to reset the alarm box first,” said James, “it’ll have a backup battery in case of a power failure. Where is the box?”

  Craig pointed out where the box was and James went to work. While he was doing this, Mike came over to Craig. “How are you doing?” he asked him.

  “I'm okay considering,” said Craig, looking over at Simon's body.

  “Don't worry we'll get you out of here,” Mike said, but in his own mind he was only saying that because it was job to do so. He really didn't know what was going to happen, but he just constantly felt like he was in way over his head. He had no idea what was coming and from where, but he had to be ready when those screens came down, because if anyone was alive on the other side of them, the element of surprise was going to be their best weapon against them. He looked over at James hard at work on the alarm. He looked over at Colin, lying face down on the floor, his hands cuffed behind his back. He then looked at Simon, lying there dead in a small pool of blood. He didn't know what to think, he just felt sick.

  In the front of the bank, Yvonne had spent the time since the lights went out staying mostly in one spot. The only light source available now was the blue light coming from the police vehicles outside. Martin, Gaz and Dave were sitting down in the chairs for customers waiting for meetings with consultants, but Yvonne was trying to keep away from them. Although she was aware they had to depend on each other, for now she didn't trust them. It wasn't just because they were thieves armed with guns, but also because they were men. Previously in her life she had been wronged by several men, and it left her a bit of a man hater, giving her a natural dis-trust of men. She didn't feel the need to have a man in her life and she had done fine without them. She had a well-paid job and owned her own house, better than most people had accomplished by the time they reached thirty in this day and age.

  She imagined life as it was, sat at home, relaxing and drinking wine while watching her favourite soaps. She would meet up with friends frequently, go out dancing and generally just enjoy herself. Why would she want to tie herself to a man and lose all that? Yes, things were good for Yvonne. She didn't need men. Well, not before now. The fact that the corpses of her next appointment were lying there, flashing into her sight every time the blue flashing lights illuminated the room, made her realise she was in a trouble far worse than when she was just a hostage. That constant reminder kept her grounded in the here and now. Working her line of work it had to be taken with the job that there could one day be a robbery. She knew the training. Cooperate and give them what they want. Do not do anything that puts others or yourself at risk. What training was there for this? How should she react when for all she knew everyone in the town was dead except for the three men who only an hour ago had dragged her from her office and thrown her across the room?

  She looked around the rest of the room. It was quiet. Even the men in the room with her didn't speak. She looked out the window and saw that nothing had changed, just that the blue lights were the only thing visible through that purple fog. Her senses became heightened when she heard a noise. She thought she had heard a sound from the counters. She looked at the thieves, thinking maybe they had heard it too, but they hadn't responded to anything, they just kept looking into nothingness. Maybe she was mistaken. “No,” she thought, “there it is again.” She stood up this time, looking at the security screens. The thieves reacted to her movement and looked around.

  “What is it?” Gaz asked.

  “You didn't hear that?” she responded.

  “Hear what?” asked Martin.

  It was at that moment that everything erupted. In the intermittent blue lights Yvonne saw the screens drop and now a white light filled the room. She and the thieves were blinded. She tried to see beyond it but the light was too bright. Then there came a voice, loud and angry.

  “Armed police drop your weapons!” it yelled. “Put them on the ground, now!” Two gun shots were heard in quick succession. The noise made Yvonne fall to her knees in fear. She covered her face and waited. She had never heard such a commotion. Yells were exchanged, thuds were heard. She didn't dare look. She then felt hands on her. She panicked and lashed out screaming, but the voice she heard stopped her.

  “Yvonne? Yvonne, it's me Craig!”

  She stopped and focused, and there standing in front of her was Craig. At last she was with a familiar and friendly face. She stood up and threw her arms around him. All the tension and emotion that had built up released in one go and she began crying out loud. For that moment she felt safe again, as though the ordeal was over. She looked over his shoulder and could now make out two police officers handcuffing the thieves who were led face down on the floor. They were swearing at the officers but the sudden ambush had caught them completely unaware. With the light flooding into the room you could have been forgiven for thinking there were more than just the two police officers there. They had surrendered and released their weapons. Apart from the swearing they seemed not to be resisting. They were pulled one by one to their feet and led to the corner where the two bodies lay and were sat down against the wall. The two officers then picked up the thieves' weapons and holstered them in whatever way they could. Feeling calmer now, Yvonne looked at Craig.

  “Are you okay?” she asked him.

  “Yeah, I'm not hurt. Are you okay?”

  “I think so, just in shock I think.” Yvonne paused a moment. “Where's Simon?” she asked.

  “He didn't make it,” Craig said glumly. He looked at Yvonne and saw tears form in her eyes. “When the alarms went off he tried to rush the robber with us but he shot him. I wanted to do something, but I froze. I couldn't stop it.”

  Yvonne stopped him. “Hey,” she said, “there was nothing you could have done. At least you are alive, okay? That's what counts.”

  Craig nodded silently. The two were interrupted when one of the officers came over. “Yvonne?” he said, pointing at her.

  “Yes, I'm Yvonne.”

  “Hi, my name is James. I'm one of the armed response officers who attended the incident. I need to ask you some questions. First of all, are you hurt at all?” the officer asked.

  “No, I'm fine. A little shook up, but I'm okay.”

  “That's excellent news,” sa
id James, “I need you to tell me what happened to the couple in the corner. How did they die?”

  Yvonne thought a moment, but she had no idea. “It was when that fog came. I was sat with them. The fog made me feel dizzy and sick, and I couldn't see that well either. Last thing I remember was the two of them screaming. They sounded agonising, like they were being eaten alive or something. I passed out after that. I don't know how long I was out for but when I woke up that was how they were.”

  James nodded. “What about them three? Did they do anything untoward, other than the obvious?”

  Yvonne shook her head. “No. Like you said, they just did the obvious.”

  “Okay,” said James, “From what you know, is there anyone else in the building that isn't in this room?”

  Again, Yvonne shook her head. “Everyone else had gone home for the day.”

  James nodded slowly. es nodd횀Okay then, I'll leave you two to catch up. I need to ask our friends over there a few questions.” he stood up and walked over to Mike who was standing keeping guard over the thieves. James looked at him and thought he looked the part. Considering he had been protesting about using a weapon just over fifteen minutes ago, he looked quite comfortable holding it. James pulled him closer. “How are you holding up?” he asked him quietly.

  “I'm okay,” answered Mike, “hanging in there.”

  James whispered this time. “Good, keep it up. As soon they figure out you haven't held a gun before they might try and rush us. We can't risk that happening.”