“We do not offer cigarettes to minors.” A shopkeep said to the 14-year-old standing in front of him.

“I just lost my ID… C’mon, help a friend out.” The girl said while sliding the cashier a ten dollar bill. The man was unfazed.

“Get out of the store, please.” The shopkeep said while reaching for his phone.

“Well, fuck you too, buddy.” The girl walked out while flipping off the poor shopkeep. “Now, to find that shithole Mike calls a ‘Hideout’.” The girl headed to the abandoned building that was towering over the shop, that was located right next to the school.

Back at the hideout, Mike was setting up a whiteboard. for which I paid for. We also bought a lot of markers. Better safe than sorry. Mike began writing on the board. It looked so complicated, that I fell asleep. When I woke up Mike had already finished the detailed explanation of our plan. I walked over to see what exactly we are doing. Mike saw me approaching and began explaining.

“Ok, one person goes inside the cart and takes the money, which is stored in crates. One person helps with transporting the goods to the car and finally, one person drives the getaway. Got that” I examined the plan and found a slight mistake.

“This is a three-man job, is it not? I don’t see a third person around.” I looked around.

“I got that covered. She should be arriving any minute now… any minute now… Well, she’s late AND she fucked up my introduction.” As soon as Mike said that a girl showed up at the stairs to the roof.

“No problem Mikey. Anything for an old friend.” She said while ascending up the stairs. She looked around, but she stopped her eyes on me. She looked at me for a second, but Mike took her attention.

“There you are, for a moment I thought you weren’t coming. C’mere and let me explain again.”

“Um… Okay.” Mike explained again. I didn’t really listen the second time. I was just sitting on an old leather couch. It wasn’t exactly clean, but it was the most comfortable thing in this shithole. I spaced out and when I came back to, Mike had finished his explanation of his plan. I got up from the couch and the 14-year-old girl ran up to me.

“Hey, I’m Lizzie. You can call me Liz.” That name sounded so familiar to me.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Jake.”

“Obligatory meeting, done. Now, why are you doing this?”

“Long story… I can tell you.”

“Nah… I’m good, it’s just that Mike’s plan is bad and I don’t think we are going to do anything anyway. That train is armoured to the teeth.” She hit me on the back before I could answer, and went towards an inflatable tent.

I went and got into my own tent. Tomorrow was the big day. As I was lying in my makeshift mattress, made from folded blankets and feathers, I was awoken by a loud thump. I heard someone yell out

“Shit!” I carefully opened my tent and saw a familiar figure sneaking around. He was wearing a fuschia-coloured robe. What a defining feature. I jumped out of my tent and locked eyes with him.

“What are you doing here, you old bastard!?” He scattered to put something in his pocket.

“You… You might think… You might think you’ve caught me but I’ve got… got one last trick.” Mike came out of his tent with that illegal weapon. The man standing in front of us pulled something out of his pocket. It was a smoke-bomb. The whole rooftop was covered in smoke, which obstructed our view. We heard running towards the stairs.

When the smoke finally cleared out, the man was gone. Along with him, our plans were gone too. Mike and I exchanged looks. We were doing this. Liz came out of her tent, coughing because of the smoke. We waited for the tents to clear out too and then we finally went to sleep.

The next day, we took our baggage and put all of it into the trunk of the jeep Mike was driving. It wasn’t very big so the inflatable tent had to go. We all got in and Mike put on some music. Liz and I were riding in the backseat while Mike was driving.

We were nearing the tracks. Mike handed me a note.

“Lizzie – Getaway.

Michael – Helping hand.

Jake – Searcher/Helping hand.

Pass this on.”

I did as the note told me and passed it onto Liz. She took it, skimmed over it, made it into a small ball of paper and threw that ball of paper towards Mike. It hit him straight on the back of the head.

“Bite me.” Mike said passive-aggressively. I looked towards the small handgun Mike had handed me. It had a full magazine, which I was hoping to stay that way.

“Hey, Jake! Don’t kill anyone, just injure them. Our goal is to get the money for a ransom, not to cause casualties.” Mike warned me.

“Alright, I got it.” I replied

Mike got us to a pretty long stretch of flat-land next to the train tracks. The train was approaching.

“So… how do we stop the train?” I asked.

“We aren’t stopping it, you’re jumping.” That was the last thing I wanted to hear.

Mike floored the car and began driving parallel to the train. He urged me to jump. With my life flashing before my eyes, I jumped towards the closed cart. I caught the small handle that was above the door with one hand and the other I used to wiggle the handle. Luckily, it opened quite quickly. I got inside and began scavenging. I found crates labelled ‘Bank Of Slavarbete’. I lifted the crate and walked towards the opening of the cart. Mike was awaiting my throw. I mustered all my strength and threw it. Somehow, it made it. I repeated the process twice and then Mike told me to just jump back on. Sounded easy enough.

I took a step back and launched myself forward. Liz got the car in the perfect position for me to jump on the last millimeter of the car. I was so close to death… again.

Liz stopped the car and we inspected the money. 1 million in cash. Liz was slacking off on the side like she does. I decided to sit on the tracks after we had counted them. I sat down and I realized that if we don’t launder the cash, we would get in huge legal trouble. Suddenly, I heard a strange laugh behind me. We all turned to face the man again.

The cult leader appeared again.