Black Monday – Episode 2

By Femi Odunayo
The sounding alarm of Police siren soon overshadowed the atmosphere in a rather sophisticated manner. Two black Police hilux convoy had just accompanied a Bullion Van carrying bundles of money amounting to Millions of Naira into the premises of a new generation bank located around a suburb area of Warri, Delta state.

The sudden presence of these highly sophisticated men in uniform already sent panic into the air due to the approach in which they mounted the bank environment. Some persons at the ATM stand who wanted to make withdrawals were immediately shocked as cold shivers were sent travelling through their spines in a split second, while some other persons could be seen vehemently shaking, and this was not an exaggeration.

The Bullion Van, together with the Police escort vehicles suddenly drove into the bank premises immediately the gate was let opened by the security guard, and just when everyone thought everything was back to normal, they were taken aback by surprise, seeing another set of two White Hilux SUV arriving the scene almost immediately. The first Hilux then quickly followed the Police escort that was already inside the bank premises. As soon as the Bank security guard on duty realized that these new set of Hiluxs’ were not assigned to the Bullion Van, he attempted to swiftly lock the gate, in order to prevent them from gaining full entrance into the bank, and just then, a bullet was shot directly trailing his head; he was hit instantly and died on the spot. It was until then that it dawned on the bank customers that they were trapped in the middle of a robbery operation. The panic attack which the ATM users felt earlier tripled rapidly, and they were now scared to the bone due to fear of the unknown.

The first Hilux vehicle from the robbery squad was inside the bank compound, while the second one was parked outside. The robbers alighted immediately in commando style and surrounded the whole place in the speed of light. They were fully armed with assorted rifles as they had disguised themselves wearing facial mask and Army complete uniform. The Gang had ten members on arrival, but twelve members in total; excluding Jude who was yet to show up, and the overall General, the main leader and First-in-command of the Gang. More so, they christened themselves “The twelve disciples” as part of their ritual and gang orientation. These men from the underworld had aligned for this operation by moving underwater having utilized a boat from a nearby riverbank. Although, referred to as “Men from the underworld” two female also belonged to this gang of robbers, but during their ritual and initiation process, their thinking faculty had thoroughly been changed, so that they could begin to think and act like their male counterpart. They no longer had a soft conscience anymore, and showed no mercy before pulling a trigger.

There was pandemonium everywhere, the bank customers that earlier stood at the ATM stand were now all heads flat, lying on the ground with fear written all over their faces. Also, there were five members of the Gang of Robbers that entered the bank with the first Hilux, while the remaining five remained outside to ensure that nobody tried to leave the scene until they were gone, and also to exterminate any intruder that wanted to infringe on their way to finishing the operation successfully. Amongst them was ‘Preacher,’ the self-acclaimed new second-in-command of the Gang.

Sooner than later, the five gang members inside the bank premises stood strategically at different positions and began shooting sporadically at the police men – who in turn fired back, but were eventually overwhelmed by the robbers as their bullets practically had no effect on them. Put differently, the bullets didn’t penetrate into their bodies which was a crystal clear sign that they had been thoroughly cooked by the witch doctor that prepared their protective charms. The entire police men were dropped dead in the blink of an eye and this paved way for the robbery operation to progress into the second phase; except for the Bullion Van driver whose life was spared.

The coast was more clearer now that the police men were erased from the picture; Preacher then walked inside the Bank gallantly, and came back minutes later with the Bank manager who was physically shaking like someone strucked with lightening. He was holding a key on his hand, as he was made to open the Bullion Van to behold a truck-load of money wrapped in bundles. Their excitement knew no bound as they started packing the money into the ‘GHANA-MUST-GO’ bags that became five bags filled.

Upon realizing the purpose of their assignment, they began carrying the bags to the Hilux vehicles that they came with; But then, they couldn’t hide their joy, hence, they began spraying bullets into the air, unknown to them that the bank customers outside who were lying on the ground would become more petrified whilst hearing different sounds of gunshot ringing inside their head, as though they were knockout. Extreme fear instantly gripped about three of the bank customers who came for withdrawals, as they swiftly stood up running for their lives.

Preacher was vexed seeing that they tried to play a smart game upon his leadership manner, which didn’t quite go down well with him. Hence, he shot three of them at intervals while they fell to the ground gasping for breath. Preacher then walked closer towards them, and again shot them several times to ensure that they died a pitiable death.

“Send my regards to the devil when you get to Hell..” He said aloud and made a sinister smirk.

Other members of the Gang were stunned as they watched with rapt attention how their new so-called leader had just pulled a stunt that people only get to see in movies. They had never seen Jude pull such a stunt before. Indeed, Preacher was trying so hard to outdo his closest rival, as he wanted his fellow robbers to acknowledge his Ruggedity.

Unsatisfied with the killings so far, Preacher walked closer to the ATM stand and started shooting every other persons lying on the ground, thereby killing them with a feeling of impunity. His intention was to ensure that anyone who witnessed the robbery do not survive to tell the story. He had succeeded in killing everyone of them but the last person who was a very pretty fair-in-completion lady; Just then, he halted for a second, while she was glued to the ground wailing and begging for mercy. For a moment, it appeared as though Preacher still had an ounce of conscience left in him as he kept scrutinizing the lady from her head down to her toe. Then he turned around and slowly began walking away as if he wanted to spare her life, but turned back almost immediately and aimed the gun at her head, while about to pull the trigger, and just then, something unexpected happened.

…to be continued