Brian now is driving at an interestingly slow speed through the forest. He is only driving at ten miles an hour. Jesse watches as Brian is travelling at this slow rate. The police officers stay right behind Brian, as he lowers his speed down to this level. Detective Henderson starts to shake his head, not knowing why Brian decided to drive this slow. Brian actually is trying to kill time by doing this. He wants to remain on the highway area, as the evening continues; giving him more time for darkness to seep into the area; also allowing more time for Brian to relax, before he has to prepare himself on running out of the vehicle. He also knows that this is aggravating the police as well, so he can accomplish two things. These include teasing and playing with the police which he enjoys, and Brian is also buying himself some time. Detective Henderson then finally understands what Brian is up to, and informs the other officers. Upon finding out that Brian wishes to stay at this speed, so time can pass by without him leaving the area, a few patrol cars then intentionally speed up past Brian, to try to box him in. Brian quickly figures out what they are doing, and increases his speed; directly passing the patrol cars. Now that Brian has returned to a faster speed, he starts to worry that the highway will extend out of the forest, and merge into highway 138, leading onto the main road.
Brian doesn’t want for that to happen, and hopes that he will remain in the forest when nighttime falls. With Brian being now a third of the way out of the forest, and it now being 7 P.M., this pursuit which has been going on for several hours, continues. Brian keeps a moderate speed, as he’s reaching the end of the forest highway. If he is going to run out and hide, he’s going to have to make his choice rather quick. What is on his side, is that he is still inside the forest. However, if Brian keeps the speed he’s at now, he will be out of the forest in thirty minutes. So going by speed and distance, he still has time left, albeit a very little amount. As he remains on the road, Brian then notices that all of the patrol cars behind him have their lights on. Brian then follows this custom, and turns on his headlights as well. The sun has completely set, and it slowly and surely gets totally dark around the forest area. The helicopters up in the sky start to turn their spot lights on as well, as darkness is creeping up fast. Jesse stays locked to the television screen under immense shock and horror, being captivated by this pursuit. It’s going in many different twists and turns, nobody, not even Brian himself, can really figure out what will happen next.
Detective Henderson while he’s still following all the cars as nighttime starts to fall, then notices that Officer Livingston, who was the officer who originally pulled Brian over, bump into the back of Brian’s vehicle. The detective doesn’t understand why the officer did that, and is confused. Officer Livingston is starting to lose his patience with this pursuit, and wants for Brian to pull over. The officer feels he has wasted enough of their time, and there is already a barricade force waiting for Brian once he exists of the forest anyways.
Officer Livingston once again rams his police car into Brian, in an interesting attempt to get him to pull over. In actuality, this is only making Brian more frustrated. Brian gets angry over Officer Livingston continually ramming into his car. Brian then starts to swerve the steering wheel of his car, causing Brian’s car to weave haphazardly; in an effort to throw the officer off. Officer Livingston also feels combative at Brian as well, and the both of them get into road rage by trying to knock into each other. The pursuit then takes an interesting twist, with the Officer Livingston and Brian swerving in and out from one another. When the officer bumps into Brian for the third time, Brian then has had enough. Right after that, Brian slows down and once again makes a complete stop for the second time in this pursuit.
As Brian has not opened any car doors, the officers must remain in their vehicles as apart of safety regulations and protocols. During this time while Brian is idle, he puts the car in neutral; he climbs to the back area of the vehicle, grabbing one of the rifles. Because the windows of the vehicle are tinted dark, they cannot see that Brian has climbed back, and everyone assumes he’s still sitting in the driver’s seat. After he has grabbed his rifle, Brian returns to the driver’s seat, holding the gun. Brian has now lost it. He tells himself if that officer bumps into him one more time, he’s going to shoot. Brian under immense psychopathic rage cannot control himself, and he then speeds and darts off again, continuing down the highway. Once the pursuit continues, all the officers speed up along with Brian. With the forest highway now being only ten percent length wise left, until Brian reaches the 138 highway back on the open road.
Officer Livingston a couple minutes later, rams his patrol car into Brian’s vehicle once again. Detective Henderson smacks his hand across his face and shakes his head, not knowing why the officer once again did that. Brian keeping his promise, does the unfortunate. Brian does a quick abrupt stop yet again, and grabs his gun. Brian turns his body, aiming the gun out his back windshield, firing several rounds, breaking the glass. Brian watches as the bullets fly out to the police cruiser. He then sees a silhouette of a head drop, and the horn of the police cruiser sounds off. The rounds end up instantly killing Officer Livingston, as he’s struck in his head multiple times. As soon as he was shot, the deceased officer immediately drops down to his steering wheel. Brian begins laughing to himself in a sinister manner, and he quickly speeds away. Congruently, patrol cars fire shots at Brian’s vehicle, narrowly missing him. Other patrol cars continue the pursuit after him. Detective Henderson upon noticing the gunfire and what happened, pulls his car over to the highway, and slouches under his seat. He makes a call on his radio dispatch.
“This is Henderson; we have shots fired and an officer down. I repeat officer down. Suspect has fled. We are on the 2 ‘Angeles Crest Highway’. I have an officer down.”
With the whole pursuit being broadcasted on television, all of the events were streamed to many people tuning in. The helicopter managed to capture the moment the officer was sadly killed by Brian. Jesse gets up from the sofa, and walks to the other side of the unit. He falls down to the floor, being mortified that Brian did that. Jesse then returns to the sofa to watch the remainder of the police pursuit, shaking his head and crying. Detective Henderson gets out of his vehicle, and walks over to Officer Livingstons patrol car. He sees the unconscious body of the officer, and Detective Henderson lifts his head up away from the steering wheel. At this time, more officers arrive where Detective Henderson is, and the detective walks away from the scene, shaking his head. Detective Henderson walks back to to his patrol car, and starts to smoke a cigarette. He tells himself that he is truly done for the day, and has seen enough. He has no intentions of proceeding forward. He remains in his car, sitting back with his eyes closed, smoking his cigarette in peace.
Brian continues to move down the forest, with there being only a mile left before he reaches the end of the forest. Brian is no longer capable of making sound decisions, especially after killing Officer Livingston. Brian at this point has realistically given up, and he is a ticking time bomb. It now being shortly past 8 P.M., Brian finally gives in. For the final time, he stops the car; turning the ignition off. The shattered glass from the gunshots he fired, gives the police a clear picture inside his vehicle. When Brian reaches for another cigarette, the officers at this point think he’s going to shoot at them again, and this time they have legal grounds to get out of their vehicles and subdue him. They instead perch themselves outside of their patrol cars. Brian puts the cigarette in his mouth, and lights it.
After he finishes the entirety of the cigarette, Brian sits to himself, and beings to cry. He then looks behind the shattered glass that he shot out, and feels an extreme overwhelm of guilt, and all the actions he caused during this pursuit. Brian then seconds later, opens the door of his car, and starts to sprint into the forest. Upon leaving the vehicle, Brian is struck an exorbitant amount of times all over his body by the officers. Mainly in his chest, and in his legs. Jesse immediately upon seeing this, starts to uncontrollably cry and ge
ts up from the sofa; he curls up on the floor, appalled. Remarkably, Brian is able to crawl into the brush area, still alive. The officers chase after him, and Brian proceeds further and further into the forest. Brian is bleeding heavily from the bullet wounds, and has a complete lack of energy. He is feeling lethargic from being shot that many times from the officers. His mind isn’t thinking clearly, and he stumbles into many areas of the forest, in total darkness. The officers at this point, have lost Brian, and they track all around the forest area in pursuit of him. The helicopter is unable to track Brian’s exact whereabouts, but the last thing the helicopter camera captured, was Brian being struck as he ran into the forest. Brian walks through more areas of the forest, and he starts to climb up a cliff attached to a mountain.
As he’s climbing the cliff, he can see the lights from the sirens on the highway. Astonishingly, Brian despite bleeding badly and having bullets all over his body, makes it to the top of the cliff. He looks around the horizon and notices that there is a possible side highway where he can escape and hide at. As Brian scurries down the mountain over to that area, a big police roadblock then emerges in his determined path, now making this plan impossible to take. Brian then becomes angry, and rolls down the rest of the mountain, accepting his defeat. After he rolls off the mountain, Brian starts to feel much pain and crawls all throughout the forest losing blood. He can hear the footsteps of the officers looking for him, and tries to crawl away from their direction. The helicopter continues to swarm in the sky, using its spotlight to locate Brian. As he’s still slithering through the forest and blending into the darkness, Brian finds a secluded area located right below a ridge; which makes for a good hiding spot. Brian lays face down, and looks up at the night sky. He pays close attention at the moon and stars, as he continues to bleed from the bullet wounds located in various parts of his body. Brian begins to cry and laugh, and he feels happy that this is possibly his final moments on earth. Brian can hear the officers come closer to his hiding spot, and he then starts to slowly struggle to sliver away from this location. Unfortunately, the helicopter pilot was finally able to spot Brian as he was crawling out, and shines the spotlight on him. Brian with every strength he has, gets on his legs and struggles to run, limping in the process. With the spotlight still shined on Brian, the officers instantly swarm around this area. They demand for Brian to get down on the ground and surrender, as they point their guns at him. Brian looks directly at the officers, and yells.
“FUCK YOU MOTHERFUCKERS! I’LL SEE YOU ALL IN HELL!”
Brian then runs away from them right after that, and several officers shoot Brian in the head, killing him instantly. The helicopter pilot did not jump out of the scene in time, and captured the whole incident live. Jesse watches as the pursuit has now come to sad end. Jesse gets up from the sofa, and curls up on the floor again. It has dawned on him that Brian is now dead as well, and Jesse feels as if the world is no longer turning. Jesse continues to remain on the floor, sulking and feeling depressed at the situation which just happened. Jesse stands up, grabs the remote, and turns the television off. Jesse then finishes drinking his beer, and walks over to Brian’s bed. He then empties the final duffel bag full of cash on the bed, counting the entire amount up whole. Jesse finishes counting and stacking the final amounts of cash, and arranges it all on the bed with the rest of the money. So he has the correct number, just to be sure, Jesse once again counts all the money for the second time; being that it is a large amount. Rearranging all the stacks together; lining them up accurately. Once he finishes counting the money up for the second time, he still cannot believe the grand total.
He gets up from Brian’s bed and paces around the unit, with his arms crossed and staring down directly at the floor. The total amount of money the men took from the heist, ended up being two hundred and forty-seven thousand dollars. Jesse cannot react to that much money, and how great of a sum that actually is. Jesse using his great memory skills, then starts to add up all the money they have with all three heists combined. With the first heist, they managed to snag, ninety-two thousand dollars. The following heist, the guys took out, one hundred and thirty-seven thousand dollars. Adding all of that to this heist, the combined money from all three heists, is four hundred and seventy-six thousand dollars. Jesse is still shocked at all of that, and doesn’t know what to do. It’s only him in the unit, and all of that money starts to scare him, and he becomes tired after counting it. Jesse then shoves all the money off Brian’s bed, and the cash is poured all across the floor of the unit. He then lays down, staring at the ceiling for a short while. Jesse beings to cry, and rests his eyes as he’s laying down on the bed. He takes several moments to relax and calm himself, still trying to get his mind right; stretching himself on the bed and getting comfortable.
Jesse while he is lying in bed resting his eyes, daydreams to himself. He goes back to the “Sunset Credit Union” heist several weeks ago, to where this whole epic journey began. Before he left for work that day, he remembers his landlord threatening to kick him out of the building, and Jesse felt that his day at work was not going to be like any other. It turns out he was correct, as that day changed everything. Jesse had only been working at that bank for a short while, having no previous bank teller experience. Peter being the kind and gentle man he was, decided to give Jesse a chance and hire him. Jesse also had an interesting bond with Jennifer as well.
Jesse went into work that Friday, having a feeling something drastic was going to occur. Brian and his associate Scott went into the bank, and that changed everything. Scott ended up killing both Peter and Jennifer, which made Jesse wonder why he survived that ordeal? Jesse was also able to find an unexpected relationship with Russell. A man whom before that day, he only said less than ten words to. Following that, he met Kevin, who was Russell’s estranged college buddy; Brian. who was the other man in the Sunset heist who ran away; and Victor, an interesting and ambiguous man who had plans to originally rob the bank right before Brian and Scott, but didn’t and was too cowardly to do it, and watched the entire heist.
Jesse then continues to daydream about all the time he spent with the other four men. How Kevin being a funny pudgy man who liked to smoke weed and eat. Brian, being a handsome action movie star like man. Victor, being a scary and creepy looking man of complete and total mystery, and him being eccentric. Finally, Russell; a man whom before all of these ordeals, Jesse payed no mind to, and actually hated. Everyone at the “Sunset Credit Union” including Jesse himself, would always spread lies and rumors about Russell that were not true; saying that he was an evil man that you shouldn’t talk to or mess with. Jesse now considers Russell a major part of his life, and someone he cares about.
Jesse then remembers all of the times he and the rest of the men spent together; both the ups and downs and sideways moments. He then remembers the heists, and the sadness. He remembers seeing Kevin die, he remembers seeing Victor die, he remembers only a few minutes ago seeing Brian die live on the television. Jesse laughs to mask and hide his pain, and opens his eyes. He stares at the ceiling, laughing at everything he and the other men have been through over the past several weeks, and trying to cover all the sadness and depression over with that. Jesse closes his eyes back on the bed, and now starts to fall asleep, from feeling tired and exhausted. He’s only asleep for an hour, when he is awoken instantly. Jesse notices that Brian’s cell phone is ringing over by his work station. Jesse jumps out of bed, and runs over looking at the phone screen to see who’s calling. It’s Max; Jesse answers the phone, and Max responds.
“Jesse is that you? I’m calling to let you know that I finished about five minutes ago. Everything went completely well. I’m sorry it took so long, but get over here now. Thank you.”
Max hangs up the phone, and Jesse immediately leaves out the “Home Base” unit, locking the door. He then runs over to Max’s unit. Jesse unlocks the door to Max’s unit, and walks inside. Jesse continues heading towards Max’s operating room, and walks inside. Up
on entering, Jesse sees that Max and Russell are talking to each other, and they both stop when he walks in. Russell is laying down on the operating area, with nothing but his boxer shorts on. Jesse looks at Russell’s left arm, and notices that there is only a small bloody stump directly under his shoulder, hanging off. Russell’s left arm is completely gone. He then looks at Russell’s chest area, and sees six horizontal scars near his heart. Jesse then immediately makes eye contact with Russell, and he starts to cry. Russell then smiles at him.
“Jesse don’t cry, because if you cry, then I’m going to cry. You know that I hate crying.”
Jesse laughs at Russell, and walks over to where he is. Jesse then kisses Russell on the cheek, and Russell uses his right hand and rubs Jesse’s hair. Russell then responds to him.
“It’s not so bad, I can still move my other arm just fine. It’s going to be hard to get used to only having one arm. You have to look on the bright side of things. Isn’t that right Max?”
Max who’s starting to cry smiles at the both of them, and softly replies to Russell.
“That’s true. Russell, if it were possible for me to save that arm, I would have. The truth is that I couldn’t, and that’s the way science and nature and the human body works. I think you should be more thankful that the bullet didn’t strike your heart. If it hit you, I want to say maybe three inches away from where it struck, you would not be here talking to me. That’s a fact.”
Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained Page 59