Heist Part 2

Here’s the second part.



I’d been hoping it would be a train robbery. Ever since I’d come here, I’ve wanted to do a train robbery. It’s just the sort of thing you need to try once when you’re visiting. Didn’t have to be anything big or impressive. Just a little train would do.

It wasn’t a train robbery. My disappointment was immense. But when Dorian informed me of the actual target, this was mostly relieved. Bank robbery. That’s the next best thing to rob after a train. It seems that our friends the Bakers were particularly invested in a specific bank in the city. Would be a shame for anything to happen to that bank.

Dorian’s plan was very long and complicated, covering every outcome he could imagine in great detail. I won’t explain it here, because simply put, everything went to hell and the plan was completely thrown out a few minutes after starting. Not that it mattered; Dorian seems to have turned “Don’t worry, things will turn out alright” into a motto, seeing as how he repeated it every time we had to change plans during the escapade.

At first the whole thing played out like I’d always imagined one of these to go. Which maybe should have been my first sign that things were going to go south; nothing here turns out to be like I’d previously imagined it to be (would you believe that when I once asked Dorian if he’d ever had a shootout at high noon, he told me he had no idea what I was talking about?). We went into the bank, waving guns around in a threatening manner, shouting very loud demands for monetary funds. All well and good. Except neither of us had been expecting that, due to some horribly sadistic coincidence, at that very moment the sheriff and some of his friends were swinging by the bank. Not in response to our robbery; we’d prepared for that, and had been planning to be gone before they had time to come. Nope, they just wanted to make a deposit. Which created a horribly awkward situation when they opened the door and saw the two of us throwing money into bags.

That’s the exact moment when everything went crazy. Brief shootout (brief because Dorian and I just started running as soon as we saw the chance), and then the CHASE! Out the back, onto the street, our pursuers right behind us. We’d meant to make our getaway on horseback, but we now had an angry group of gun wielding men between us and those horses. No choice but to keep running. I was following Dorian, assuming that he knew where he was going, but when I look back over the experience I question that assumption. Darted through a shop, causing quite a bit of a mess as we ran through, back onto the street, into an alley, trying to prevent the men following us from being able to get a clear shot, back into another building and out another exit, dashing around the place in all directions shouting at people to make way and knocking furniture aside, leaving chaos in our wake. Finally Dorian seemed to remember that our goal was to reach our horses, not smash through every door in the city. Still hadn’t gained enough ground to make a clean getaway without receiving a bullet in the back. If anything, the chances of that happening were only rising, as the more savvy citizens were starting to clear the streets, leaving plenty of wide open ground for us to be shot in. As more bullets started to whizz by my face, the idea of being outside became increasingly detestable, even if it was the quickest route to our horses. I grabbed Dorian by the arm and went inside the closest building, hoping that we’d be able to gain some time in there.

My first impression of that building’s interior was…. Ladies. Lots of ladies. Obviously and excessively so. Next impression was of the excited and very friendly greeting which those ladies gave Dorian when they saw him. Asking him where he’d been, it’d been so long since he’d come to see them, who was the pretty girl he was with, did he have any new stories to tell them, was he going to be staying long. At least he had the decency to blush when I raised an eyebrow.

In spite of however…. Interesting…. The situation may have seemed, it actually turned to our benefit. All Dorian needed to do was quickly explain that we were on the run from the sheriff, and the girls agreed to help. When the sheriff and his friends came through the door, they were blocked by an over attentive crowd of the girls, while we were snuck out the back. From there, it was a straight shot to freedom. As the two of us ran from the place to our horses, the girls shouted encouragement to us; as well as a few offers for Dorian to come back soon. Nice girls. Still may need to talk to Dorian about how many “visits” he’s been doing to them.

Got onto our horses and began to ride away just as the sheriff was escaping onto the street. He kept running after us, shouting at us to stop in the name of the law. We didn’t. Then came my favorite part of the plan: Dorian and I opened up the bags with the money we’d taken, and started throwing it into the air. The crowds surged back onto the streets to grab a part. I kept only enough to give Doc the money he needed; the rest was all thrown back to the people. And with the sheriff too preoccupied trying to grab as much of that money for himself as he could, it was an easy, untroubled ride back home.