Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

by Brennen Tammons

  “Officer please, I need to get to work. I’m not a bad guy, I’m late for work. I’m only a cable guy, don’t make me go through this. Please let me go, I’m not a bad person, I…”

  The officer then reaches for his gun on his holster, which causes Brian to stop talking, as he doesn’t believe the officer is buying what he’s saying. The officer is fairly confident that Brian is one of the robbers involved in the heist. The vehicle matches completely, and Brian being a terrible liar and manipulator, is not doing a good job of convincing him otherwise. Brian then looks down towards the floor, and is silent for nearly a minute. The officer then screams at Brian.

  “I said get the fuck out the vehicle! Sir get out right now, or I will make you get out!”

  Brian upset that the officer spoke to him in that matter, now understands his only options are to be honest and exit out of the car peacefully; or he can simply speed away. If it weren’t for the fact of the police officer talking to Brian in the disrespectful tone he did, it would have made his decision much easier. Brian doesn’t respect the law, and has at this time given up hope of being respectful, and wants to exhibit as much defiance as he can. However, he also can tell that now would be a good time to give up, and accept whatever happens. The officer becoming extremely impatient with Brian, continues to hold his hand on his gun holster. Brian then unfastens his seatbelt, and reaches for the car door.

  In a flash second however, Brian flips off the officer, laughing at him, and quickly speeds away from the scene. The officer fires several rounds at Brian’s vehicle, missing every single one. After noticing him fire rounds, the other officers at the barricade are alerted. The officers, including the one who pulled over Brian, run to their patrol cars, and follow after him. The officer that stopped Brian, is a forty-eight-year-old veteran of the police force. He is married, and he has two young children, a son and a daughter. His name is Flynn Livingston, and has been a police officer for nearly all of his life. Officer Livingston, then reaches for his transistor radio, and explains all of the details.

  “This is Livingston, I’m currently on a pursuit with one of the ‘First Federal’ suspects. We are on the 110 going southbound. I’m on pursuit with the suspect. Units please be on alert.”

  Officer Livingston and other officers, continue to chase down Brian, as he speeds down the highway. Brian is currently heading towards the direction facing “Home Base”. Detective Henderson heard Officer Livingston give out that message, and he immediately turns on his siren, and follows over to that area. He is glad that his bulletin has worked, and one of the suspects were caught because of it. While Brian is still chasing the police, he begins to feel empathetic. Brian understands that if he continues on towards “Home Base” and Max’s unit, he’s going to only get Russell and Jesse into trouble. Feeling scared and guilty, regretting leaving Jesse by himself, and that Russell is possibly near death, he doesn’t want to make that situation any more difficult. Brian also feels he has a greater chance to avoid the police, he if routes himself to a different area.

  While the police are still pursuing him, Brian makes a sharp exit of the highway, and gets back on the highway towards the opposite direction. He is now travelling northbound on highway 110, heading directly towards the “Angeles National Forest”. Brian feels he can possibly lose the police, if he manages to hide in the forest. This is his current plan at this point. Brian feels this is what he has to do, in order to get away. Brian speeds down the highway, nearly missing several cars and avoiding collisions. The adrenaline he’s feeling during this police pursuit, makes him more determined to continue along with it. Brian is enjoying that he’s being chased by several police cars, and feels confident that he can outrun each of them.

  This is like a game, or a fun race for him. Unless he runs out of gas, Brian feels that he can do this all night, as the forest is still a large distance from where he currently is. He has nothing to lose, as he’s already wanted for armed robbery and murder, so this police pursuit isn’t anything to be that concerned or worried about. Brian feels guilty that this is something he deserves, and he brought it on himself to get caught. He could have easily gotten another getaway vehicle, but he for whatever reason decided not to. This situation that Brian is faced with, is one that he has to manage and deal with for himself, and find a way out of himself.

  Brian as he’s speeding in this hot pursuit, can’t believe how this entire heist turned out. Everything was meant to go completely opposite than it did. By now, all four of them should have been back at “Home Base”, celebrating and being happy with finishing the heist. Now, it seems that there is nothing but total and complete disaster going around. They are now killers, instead of robbers. Not ever being in their agenda to kill any innocent people. Victor is dead, and Brian starts to feel scared over Russell. So many thoughts he’s thinking about, and the only thing he can do at this point is run. He’s back to where he was before getting involved with this group, running from all his problems. Brian then starts to feel bad for killing Officer Waker, and doesn’t like the feeling of knowing that he shot and killed a police officer.

  Brian then went back to how he originally was hesitant on agreeing to join the group. All the other men had no problem going along with the inane and crazy heinous ideas, but Brian was adamant ever since the beginning. He only agreed to do it, feeling guilty from the mental pain he gave towards Russell. It was because of Brian hanging around the wrong crowd, that got Russell’s close friends killed. Brian finds it fascinating how things go full circle like that, and relate towards each other.

  Continuing down the road, Brian smirks to himself, as he takes a peek in the rear view mirror. He sees at least five police cruisers inches away from his vehicle. Brian laughs to himself, and is now travelling at over a hundred miles per hour. Weaving through cars, coming extremely close from crashing into them. His intention still being to direct himself to the forest to hide from the police. The officers following him, have no idea where exactly he’s going, but remain close to follow his every move. Brian then reaches in the glove compartment and takes out a cigarette, lighting it. He laughs to himself more, enjoying this situation he’s in.

  Taking puffs of the cigarette, he weaves into more lanes, trying his best to move away from the police. At this time, Brian notices that several news helicopters are following him. He knows that he’s now on television, and being broadcasted to millions of people in the area. Brian takes an unusual approach to this. He waves his hand up in the air at the helicopters following him, to tease everyone. Taking more puffs of his cigarette, Brian makes a sudden exit off the freeway, but quickly gets back on. He continues to tease the police officers, and the news helicopters which are following him. Brian takes another puff of his cigarette, laughing to himself.

  Meanwhile, Jesse is now only a short distance away from “Home Base”. Still shocked that the police officer allowed him and Russell through. Without causing any suspicion or attention to himself, Jesse remains on the highway at a moderate speed. He finally approaches his exit, and gets off leading towards the surface streets. Jesse has noticed that for the past ten minutes, Russell has stopped screaming. Jesse has a feeling that Russell is dead because of this, and is scared that he didn’t make it on time. He starts to pray and hope that everything will be alright. While on the surrounding roads in the area the unit is in, Jesse starts to speed up, wanting to get to his destination as quick as he can. He runs several red lights as he gets closer to the unit, scared to stop the car as it will stall in the street. This however might cause unwanted attention, by him speeding and not obeying traffic lights.

  Jesse begins to cry, with tears falling down his face faster, the closer he approaches the unit. Feeling nervous because Russell is silent; as much as it made him feel upset that Russell was screaming and crying because of his pain, he at least knew that Russell was still alive. Now that the whole vehicle is silent, it doesn’t seem as though things are going well.

  Jesse reaches the corner the
unit is located on, and makes a quick sharp turn. He then drives into the block where the “Home Base” unit is, heading slightly pass it. Jesse drives right outside Max’s unit, and parks the car. This time, the vehicle remarkably does stall right on time, in the parking spot in front of Max’s unit. Not even having the chance to calm himself down, Jesse immediately runs to the rear door, and opens it. He notices that Russell’s face is even more pale than it was before, and Jesse panics, believing that Russell is gone.

  He takes off Russell’s sunglasses, and notices that his eyes are still dilated and not moving. Jesse removes the blanket, and the entire left side of Russell’s shirt is covered in blood. Russell’s chest and left arm are completely bloody. Jesse raises Russell’s shirt, scanning over the bullet wounds, and how bad they look; they are still bleeding. Jesse then also sadly realizes that Russell is not breathing at all. Jesse then covers his mouth with his hand and starts to cry. He leans into Russell’s forehead and kisses it. Jesse then not knowing what else to do, and upset at the current situation, runs to Max’s unit, and unlocks the door. Max doesn’t notice Jesse walk in. Max is in his wheelchair watching television with a sad look on his face. His vision is at the police chase Brian is in. Jesse looks at the screen, and for a couple seconds watches the police chase and understands it’s Brian, but then Jesse quickly shouts out to Max.

  “Max! Come here quick! It’s Russell! I need your help! I’m scared! Come quick!”

  Max looks at Jesse in a terrified way, and Jesse runs over to Max, pushing his wheelchair out to the Mercedes parked right outside his unit. Max then starts to cover his mouth, as he’s looking at Russell. Max turns over to Jesse in shock, and then he turns his head back to Russell. Max then puts his fingers around Russell’s neck, and cries out to Jesse.

  “Fuck, he has a pulse, he’s got a pulse. Um, go get me my spare wheelchair by the door.”

  Jesse nods his head, and runs into Max’s unit to get his other wheelchair. Due to all the stress, Jesse didn’t even check Russell’s pulse at all. Russell is not blinking or breathing, but he still has a pulse, which for right now is a good sign. Max then tries to give Russell CPR, while he’s still hunched in the rear seat. Jesse runs out the unit with Max’s spare wheelchair, and watches as Max tries to revive Russell. Seconds later, Russell who’s face is still pale from the blood loss he’s experiencing, regains consciousness; he starts to cough and hack very heavily.

  Russell then starts deep breath very heavily, and also moving his eyes rapidly, feeling disorientated. Jesse starts to cry, happy that Russell is alive. Max smiles at Russell, and Max starts to look at Russell’s bullet wounds. Max then starts to assess Russell, while venting out his frustrations.

  “Okay, he’s breathing. These wounds though. Holy shit, this isn’t good. These wounds are really bad. Damn it. This is not good. Damn it. What shall I do?”

  Russell continues to feel disorientated, and sits back the seat. He is passed out to where he cannot hear or see anything, but he is conscious. Max continues to look at the bullet wounds on Russell’s chest and arm. Jesse then feeling worried, responds to Max’s concern.

  “What’s going on? Is he going to be alright? You can fix him right? Please?”

  Max then starts to cry. While he’s crying, he stares over at Jesse, struggling to speak.

  “Well, I’m going to have to amputate his arm. Just by looking at it, I can already tell that’s something I’m going to have to do. He has no more nerves in this arm, and time has passed too long, and he has lost so much blood, the nerves in this arm are infected.”

  Jesse then cries, and walks over and hugs Max. Max then starts to look at Russell’s chest, and turns his view over to Jesse, and continues to explain more on Russell’s condition.

  “That’s really not even half of it. The other bullet fragments are possibly near his heart. At least I’m hoping that they are just near, and not an impact wound. If they did hit his heart, then I’m afraid there isn’t much I can do. If they only hit the area around his heart, it’s still grim, but his chances of survival are better. I’m going to have to operate on him right now. I can’t waste any more time.”

  Jesse nods his head, and with the help of Max, Jesse manages to sit Russell down on the other wheelchair. Jesse then pushes Russell into the unit, and Max directs him to a side door connecting the unit, which leads to a medium sized examination room.

  Max being a licensed surgeon and retired criminal pathologist, has his own under the table operating room. He has only used this room on humans, counting Russell, three times. Max mainly uses this room to study medicine, and to perform experiments on cadavers that some of his connections send him. This room has a freezer containing medicine and other medical supplies, and also computers and other monitors. He has several tools and machinery in the room as well. All of this is more than likely illegal for him to have and own. However, Jesse is glad that Max has his own mobile hospital, opposed to taking Russell to a legitimate hospital. Jesse with Max’s assistance, manages to get Russell to lay down on the operating table. Max immediately starts to turn on all of his machines. Jesse watches Max get all of his tools together.

  Max puts on his surgical gloves, and surgical mask. During this time, Jesse starts to fully undress Russell, so he only has his boxer shorts on. Once all the computers are powered up, Max tells Jesse to give him several different tools and items. Max then sticks an IV needle inside Russell’s right arm, which he still has feelings and nerves connected to, and Max also gives him anesthetic medicine to temporarily knock him out. Jesse simply shakes his head at how skilled Max is. At this point, Max with his surgical mask on, grabs Jesse’s hand and whispers to him.

  “I can’t allow you to stay in here, I’m sorry. Not only what I’m doing is highly illegal, and in some jurisdictions it’s considered murder, but due to safety and health reasons, this is where you have to go. I have everything set, and he’ll be fine. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”

  Jesse nods his head, and walks over and kisses Russell who’s under the anesthesia and knocked out, on the forehead. Jesse then kisses Max on the forehead, and closes the door to the room his operating station is in. Jesse has no reason to doubt Max’s abilities. Jesse continues to walk out of Max’s unit and locks his door. Jesse grabs the duffel bags located in the trunk of the Mercedes. They are all too heavy to carry at once, so he only grabs two, bringing them to “Home Base”. Using the same set of keys he had to unlock Max’s unit, he unlocks the front door. Jesse for a minute finds it weird that for the first time, he’s the only one in this unit, and starts to find it odd and crazy. He sets the duffel bags over by the sofa area, and runs back to the Mercedes to grab the other bags, shutting the trunk. Jesse walks back into the unit, and shuts and locks the door. He sets the remaining bags under the table, and sits at the sofa area. Jesse then starts to lay down on the sofa and closes his eyes, crying uncontrollably.

  Chapter 23

  NOTHING WON, NOTHING LOST

  The way things are currently standing, unfortunate tragedy is the main point of focus. In every perspective towards the previous events, the effects are that it seems that emotions are running in several different directions and ways. This particular day, is one which is causing much strain, tension and catastrophe. It seems as time progresses, more and more developments which are unprecedented, seem to sprout and reveal themselves. It is complex to explain why everything is being produced in this specific manner. Ordinarily, this was supposed to be a routine bank heist. Something that the men figured they planned enough to prepare for, and were assuming to finish the job without any hassle or issues. Approaching the robbery feeling confident, and leaving out of the situation as winners. That wasn’t even centimeters close as to what actually happened. Unfortunately, this day has gone to an ultimate level of disaster and terror. It doesn’t make much sense, that the sorrow molded itself this way. Perhaps, it was the overconfidence which in turn, made an illusion of things appearing to be more simple than they
actually are. If things are to happen for a reason indeed, despite the fact events turn out differently than hoped, it was meant to be somehow and someway. Even so, that still doesn’t offer any type of reasonable explanation to why exactly scenarios are programmed in particular ways. Danger creeps itself in several methods, and it seems during situations where individuals are caught off guard.

  It is also confusing to deal with all of the consequences and guilt. Knowing that it is bad enough that the event happened, but being forced to be involved with any type of upsetting and depressive repercussions which are formed from it. This is when emotions start to overpower your own control, and this turns into some type of trap that you need to get out of. Failure to remove yourself from said trap, will not allow you to heal and move forward. In any case, it’s important to know that with every action, there of course is a reaction. With proper wisdom of obtaining the will to detect which traits and objectives are the ones which will bring positivity, and which will bring negativity. Situations and adventures you encounter in life, can be rectified by proper usage of sorting out performances in a way that will bring you certain results. Results that can be pleasing for you to accept and live with, or results that are unpleasant and detestable. Having a clear approach to all of this, will make life meaningful; regardless of the outcome. In addition to that, things won’t be as confusing or out of the ordinary to deal or settle with. Only acceptance will rise from it all.

  Inside of the “Home Base” unit, Jesse remains on the sofa sobbing heavily. Not wanting to take in all the sad events, which this day has presented itself to him. The men all left this same unit a couple of hours ago, to simply rob a bank. They didn’t intend to hurt or kill anyone. In this process, several people have been hurt and killed. Jesse shakes his head, while his eyes are closed; tears running down his face. Jesse punches the sofa with his fist, with much anger. All the depression pulsing through his body is causing him to act in such way. Jesse is concerned over Russell’s health, as Russell is currently being operated on by Max. Jesse feels slightly worried over that, but comfortable, as he trusts Max that he will take extra care of him. While Jesse is still crying on the sofa, he starts to relay the heist in his head. Jesse saw Russell and Victor shot in the heist, and also saw John; a past co-worker of his shot as well. All of those scenes running in his mind, causing stress and sadness. Jesse then starts to worry, and he feels much concern over Brian. For unclear reasons, Brian left Russell and Jesse out in the street by themselves, and separated himself; with the intentions of later reuniting. Jesse doesn’t understand why Brian didn’t stay with them. He believes that Brian was possibly scared at how things were going, and feeling guilt from killing a police officer. Jesse then quickly remembers, that when he inside Max’s unit to ask for his help with Russell, he saw that Max was watching a police chase on the television; presumably Brian being in the pursuit. Jesse then immediately sits up on the sofa, and turns the television set on. Every major network news station is showing the high speed chase that Brian is in. Jesse puts his hand over his mouth, in disbelief that Brian is trying to run away from the police. Jesse feels anxious, and his whole body starts to shiver. The anchorwoman explains updated information on the events which conspired.