Four Delinquents

Chapter 16: When You Have To

I slowed to a walk and looked around and behind me. There they were a few paces behind me. I stopped and waited for them. They all had wide smiles stretched across their faces. Baby Face was carrying one of Lansky’s bags. I looked down at the bags innocently bumping at their sides and I realized we had just successfully robbed a bank. For the first time ever.

    “HAHA!” I yelled in triumph and I jumped in the air. “We did it!!”

    “yeah we did it!” yelled Baby Face nodding at me like I was an idiot. But then he smiled showing he was only kidding. He grabbed the bag and shook it listening to the contents. He smiled broader and punched the bag triumphantly.

    “we did do it didn’t we?” asked Pretty boy thoughtfully. Smiling to himself about it and touching the bag with his hand.

    “where to next?” asked Lansky. “should we go back to the house and count it?”

    “like Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd might’ve done?” asked Baby Face excitedly.

    “well lets go” I said

    And we took off running through the forest not from something, but to something. It was better than I had imagined it could be. The feeling of adrenaline and excitement pulsing through me. It was no wonder Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson did it. It was better than anything I had ever experienced that was for sure.

    I kicked the door of the house in the woods opened with a yell. I stopped and practically dropped to the floor. The bag on my shoulder slid a little bit but I caught it and hiked it up. Baby Face walked up next to me and gasped at the same time as Pretty Boy. Lansky let a strangled scream out.

    “how’d you find us?” I asked quietly

    “I know where you been going in the woods.” Hera snapped in reply “I didn’t know what it was for at first but now I do.”

    She stepped forward and we stood like statues. We would have been able to defend ourselves from the beating that was coming. We could’ve shot her down where she stood. We could’ve done it when she attacked George. But we didn’t then and we didn’t now. It could’ve been because she was intimidating. Could’ve been cause she raised us and we still had some misplaced loyalty to her.

    “You realize what you boys have done?” she asked her eyes getting more and more blood shot as she neared us “reporters are flooding there. They will have your names and faces known in every house hold across america. You thought you had an upper hand because you were small, but that’s why people will remember you. Your done now. You’ll be shot down in cold blood just like Dillger, Floyd, and Nelson. The way I see it is I could let the government handle you from afar. Or I could do it myself. Up close and satisfying. I think ill keep the money afterwards. Get the boys and me some new clothing maybe.”

    She lunged forward and picked Baby Face up by the collar. We stood stock still. Unable to think or move. If I didn’t know better id have said our hearts had stopped beating. I knew for certain the only thing still working were my eyes as I slowly absorbed what was happening. My best friend was lifted off of his feet by his collar. I watched as he kicked his legs and held her hands over his shirt while she carried him over and slammed him against the wall. How she gritted her teeth and stared greedily into his eyes and she pressed on his wind pipe.

    Finally my brain seemed to speed up pace my limbs began to move of their own accord and the next thing I knew I had drawn my gun. I had cocked it aimed and I felt numbly as the smile spread slowly across my face. I pulled the trigger.

    The gun boomed as the bullet was squeezed out of the barrel. My arm jerked back and my shoulders shook. The bullet wizzed through the air too fast to see and it pierced Hera’s temple. I didn’t acknowledge the blood that exploded upon the release as the bullet drilled into her head. I didn’t realize how long it took for her eyes to stop twitching and her face to relax as she hit the floor. The only thing I could focus on was checking if I hadn’t been too late for my dear friend.