"Citizens of Florence, this is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill. There is a manhunt in process within the area. Four prisoners have escaped from ADX Florence, two men and two women. Three are reported to me badly injured and may be looking for help in nearby towns. They are highly dangerous individuals are not to be approached. Report any strange activity to the proper authorities. The leader of this group is the notorious Colorado killer Tyler Joseph-"
Josh shut off the radio. "Piece of shit. They're already after us." He plucked the unlit cigarette from Tyler's mouth and lit it, not bothering to roll down the window to let the smoke escape.
"Are you surprised? We're four serial killers on the run with bags of fucking cash," Hayley scoffed.
They bantered back and forth, easily replacing to now-silent care radio.
Tyler could still hear the sirens going off in the bank even when they were miles away. He wasn't worried, at least not until their vehicle started to idle. The bright red truck he'd stolen went quiet near the a crossroads as the engine slowed to a stop, the needle on the fuel tank sinking down to E.
"Fuck!" Tyler slammed on the steering wheel, black smoke escaping from the truck's hood.
Josh, who sat beside him in the passenger seat, let out a harsh laugh, the cigarette between his teeth bouncing. "We didn't get that far, huh?"
"Damn shame," Hayley cooed from the back seat, holding Jenna by her waist, whose top half stuck out of the sunroof.
Jenna crawled back in, hints of blood splatter still on her cheek from when she killed the guard in her ward with his own gun. "Aw, why'd the truck stop?"
"'Cause we're out of gas, dumbass," Tyler grumbled, slamming the car's gear into park and getting out of the truck.
"I hate going to have to go on foot," Hayley said.
"Who's carrying the money?" Josh asked, opening his door. "All we got is a dumb fucking child wagon in the trunk.
"Then that's what we'll have to use."
Hayley and Josh hauled the brown threaded bags into the rusty red wagon, Jenna sitting in the center as the money piled piled her. She smiled cheekily at Tyler, her sky blue eyes glittering.
"We're going to be rich!" She squealed pulling a stack of 50 dollar bills held together by purple rubber bands.
Hayley hopped onto the wagon beside her girlfriend, pulling off the top of her bloodstained orange jumpsuit. "If those jackasses from the prison don't find us first."
"Don't be such a pessimist. Not many people successfully break out of a super-fucking-max prison unharmed and rob a bank an hour later," Tyler shot back. "Hey, J, you wanna help me?"
Josh pushed against the end of the wagon as Tyler pulled, and they began walking through the bitter Colorado autumn. The wagon was lighter than he thought it would be with four bags of cash and two grown woman, but Josh was the stronger of the four, so it wasn't surprising that Tyler didn't have a lot of weight to pull.
"What're you two love birds gonna do when we to the city?" Hayley asked, braiding Jenna's pastel pink hair down her back.
"Buy a house in good ol' suburbia and then fuck in every room with the windows open," Josh replied, making Tyler snort. "Nah, I'm just fuckin' with you. I'm not sure. I hadn't thought about it."
"I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna buy a puppy," Jenna said confidently.
Tyler fished out a pack of gum he snagged off a guard and stuffed three pieces into his mouth, offering some to Josh, then the others. "Doesn't matter what we do with the money. As long as I don't go back to the 'Alcatraz of the fucking Rockies.'"
"You better hurry the fuck up if you don't wanna go back," Hayley said teasingly.
"Go fuck yourself, Williams."
The sirens melted into bird tweets. The sun was just above the horizons, sending of splotches of oranges and pinks across the snowy white foreground. Dirt under Tyler's feet turned to gravel, then asphalt. He could smell something rotten, but ignored it.
"I'm tired," Jenna whined, throwing a few bills into the air. The earthy green slips of paper fluttered in the breeze before landing in the snow building around them, sinking as Tyler stomped on one.
"We'll sleep at a motel in town," Josh reassured her letting go of the wagon. The weight Tyler had to pull didn't change.
Tyler readjusted his grip and noticed his hands were still wet with blood. He grimaced and wiped them on his yellow prison trousers, turning them a muddy orange like Hayley's. "Jesus H. Christ, this is what I get for taking Jenna's advice and stabbing that fucking guard with a pencil."
"I told you, don't listen to the crazy one," Hayley laughed, kissing Jenna's cheek.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and saw Josh holding a sunflower he'd ripped from the side of the road, flecks of snow on its soft yellow petals.
"For my sunflower," Josh said, kissing him and tucking the flower behind Tyler's ear.
"Y'all make me sick," Hayley said, rolling her eyes. "Being so cutesy an' shit."
"Says the one braiding her girlfriend's hair with money rubberbands," Tyler retorted.
Before she could respond, flashing red and blue lights broke through the growing darkness, the high tone of a police siren making them jump.
"Tyler Joseph!" A cop shouted through the megaphone in his hand. "Put the gun down and put your hands above your head!"
"Gun, what-"
Tyler looked down at his hand that once held the packet of gum to see the sleek black metal of a pistol. Josh furrowed his brows.
"Drop the gun!" Tyler did, getting down on his knees with his hands in the air.
"Jenna, Hayley, are you okay?"
He turned his head to look at the wagon, where his stomach sunk at the sight of the two mangled, bloody bodies of his best friends twisted and compacted into the red steel cart. Blood overflowed and ran down the side, leaving a crimson trail where they came. There was no money to be seen.
The police officer grabbed Tyler's hands and roughly slapped cuffs on them, pulling him to his feet. "Josh?" Tyler called out, frantically looking around for his liver.
He wouldn't leave him. He promised.
"Who the hell you talking to, boy?" The officer growled.
Tyler screamed, yanking himself out of the officer's grip and tumbling to the black asphalt road. "Oh my god, what did you do to them? Josh! Josh!"
The cop tackled him, and Tyler could hear a female voice through the radio on his hip.
"We found the stolen truck twenty miles east of the ADX, along with three dead bodies inside, all confirmed to be Jenna Black, Hayley Williams, and Joshua Dun. Cause of death most likely the bullets to the heads, though it also could've been blood loss from their other wounds inflicted during their escape. Can't say they didn't deserve it."
"They're... they're dead?" Tyler let the officer drag him across the road, stuffing him into the back of the cop car. "But they were just-"
"You killed them, evil bastard," the officer scowled, slamming the door behind him.
Tyler held haze with Josh just outside of the cop car, who had a hand pressed against the window. He smiled sadly and stepped back as the engine roared to life, leaving a bloody print.
When Tyler blinked, the handprint was gone.
