“Ten, and twenty makes an even two-hundred. There you go, Mr. Anderson. Is there anything else I can get for you today?” Caitlin Ryan, one of the pretty young tellers at the bank asked the kind old man.
“Nothing else dear. As usual, you’ve been a doll. See you next week.” Caitlin straightened her navy blazer while she watched him leave. Caitlin Michelle Ryan, twenty-four years old, fresh out of college and highly intelligent, worked at LaSalle Bank in the heart of downtown Chicago. Although Caitlin had grown up in the south suburbs, there was something about downtown that always made her feel so exhilarated. She loved the environment and the people. It was almost never a boring day, even in the dead of winter. Working with the public gave her a chance to deal with all kinds of people, which for an aspiring writer, was always good news.
Caitlin was quite a beauty, with skin the color of shined bronze, sandy brown hair that dusted the top of her chest, chocolate brown eyes, and a very toned, lovely hourglass figure that she maintained by exercise and a special diet. Caitlin was a juvenile diabetic and had been diagnosed at the age of eleven. Since then, she kept her disease under control with daily injections of insulin, exercise, and checking her blood glucose level regularly. She never had an episode of the dangerous condition ketoacidosis, in which ketones aren’t eliminated in the urine but instead build up in the body, since she was first diagnosed. Sometimes, if she didn’t eat regularly, her blood glucose level dropped too low but she only had that happen once in a great while. Caitlin prided herself in keeping her life in such good condition.
After graduation, she took a vacation with her fraternal twin brother, Richard Ryan, whom everyone called “Rick” for short, to the island of Oahu in Hawaii. Two weeks of sunshine, ocean, and balmy breezes had done them both a lot of good. Caitlin and Rick had a special bond between them. Rick was about three years older than his sister and prided himself in being her “big” brother and protector. When Caitlin first became ill, it was Rick who often beat up the kids who teased and taunted her. As they got older, Rick scrutinized every boy she went out with but she in turn did the same for the girls he had proudly on one arm. Now however, neither of the twins had a significant other? Rick had just broken up with one girl but for Caitlin; it had been almost three years since her last serious relationship, which had fallen apart because of some dumb gossip that her boyfriend believed.
“Caitlin?” A familiar voice jarred the young woman out of her daydreams. She looked up and saw an old school chum of hers, David O’Connor, coming towards her. He was very nicely dressed in a black pinstriped suit and patent leather wing-tipped shoes. His dark hair was freshly cut and his hazel eyes seemed to dance as he laid eyes on Caitlin.
“David! Hi! What’s up?”
“Oh, I just came to see how you were doing. How have you been feeling?”
“I can’t complain, the sugar is under control, my weight is good, and my doctor is happy. What can I do for you?”
“Put all your money in here,” he said quietly. Caitlin almost laughed when she looked down and saw a gun pointed at her waist.
“David, what are you doing?”
“Shut up and you won’t get hurt!” Caitlin’s eyes darted around the bank. Four other men, dressed similarly to David, except they were wearing black gloves, were strategically placed. She knew that this was no joke, it was every bank teller’s worst nightmare, an armed robbery! Caitlin didn’t panic, at least not yet. She reached for her right hand drawer, where a silent alarm would be triggered.
“Trigger the alarm and I’ll shoot you right here! I don’t want to have to kill you Caitlin, but I will if you don’t cooperate!” David’s voice had dropped to a low, dry base tone that sent chills down Caitlin’s spine.
“Okay, just don’t shoot!” She took the bag and began to fill it with crisp bills when suddenly; she heard a gunshot and glass shattering. All the women screamed and Caitlin herself hit the floor. She heard a voice yelling,
“Everybody get on the floor except the tellers! Face down! Anybody who doesn’t go along with me and my boys is going to wind up playing harps!” Caitlin didn’t have to see who it was to know that she was in deep trouble along with the rest of her colleagues. Cherren White was a notorious bank robber that had recently escaped from prison. He had been terrorizing banks throughout the Midwest but the police had trouble catching him. He was considered a genius by modern book standards, which is probably why he was always able to escape the long arm of the law. From the videos she seen about Cherren, she knew that he was about six feet, two inches tall, he weighed 215 pounds of solid muscle, he was a superb martial artist, and he had bronzed skin, closely cut, jet black hair and a goatee. He was a handsome man, he was just nuts!
At hearing his yelled threat, Caitlin looked up and saw Dave now aiming his gun at her.
“Get your ass up now and fill the bag!” Trembling, Caitlin got to her feet. She quickly filled the bag and watched as other tellers did the same. All the customers lay flat on their stomachs, not daring to move. Some of them were crying. Cherren held a huge rifle, poised to shoot at any moment. He went to some of the more wealthy customers, snatching jewelry and watches. He got to one lady and tried to take her purse, but she would not let go.
“Give me your money!” he screamed at her.
“No! I’ll die before I let you take my savings!” Caitlin felt sorry for the woman, but at the same time she wished the woman would comply before…BANG! Caitlin screamed as she saw a huge gaping hole in thew woman’s chest. Cherren snatched the purse.
“Now, who wants to be next?” Out of the corner of her eye, Caitlin saw Willie, the bank vault guard, pull out his piece.
“Willie! Don’t!” Her warning came one second too late. Willie fired, missing Cherren and hitting the wall. Cherren returned with three blows from his rifle. Before she realized what was happening, David had jumped over the counter and pinned Caitlin under his weight. She figured maybe he’d come to his senses and was trying to protect her. She tried to crawl away, but he stopped her, clamping his hand over her mouth and stifling her screams. Caitlin struggled futily to get away. She grabbed David’s arm, hoping to pull it away from her mouth, but his grip was like iron. He pinned her other arm behind her head.
“You might as well stop struggling because it is only going to make me angrier!” Caitlin answered him with a pitiful, muffled scream that only he could hear.
“No one is going to help you! You’re coming with us as an insurance policy, whether you like it or not!” Oh God, anything but that! If they took her away from her medicine and food, she would be very sick in a matter of hours. Dave quickly pulled Caitlin to her feet, keeping his hand over her mouth and pinning her arms behind her back, he started to half walk, half drag her towards the door.
“Don’t follow us, or this girl will die!” he screamed before pushing Caitlin out the door. She was ushered into an alley, where their getaway van was parked. To Caitlin, it meant that she could be entering a realm that she, the doctors, and her parents had worked so hard to keep her away from, death.
“Get inside!” With a hard shove, David knocked Caitlin onto the carpeted floor, knocking the wind out of her as she wound up on her stomach. A sharp knee cut into her back as he began to truss her wrists up with heavy rope.
“Please David, don’t do this! You know I’m not well!”
“Quit your whining! None of us care how sick you are! You keep your mouth shut!” He tied the knots and then worked on tying her ankles and then her knees.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here? A beautiful traveling companion?” Caitlin heard Cherren’s deep voice looming over her head.
“Sit up!” David ordered. He pulled Caitlin to a kneeling position while he looped a rope around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides and making her small breasts protrude. She winced as he pulled it tight.
“What is your name, princess?” Cherren cupped Caitlin’s chin in his gloved hand.
“Caitlin,” she whispered.
“Caitlin, what a pretty name for such a beautiful young lady.”
“You won’t get away with this!” she said, raising her chin defiantly.
“Baby, I always get what I want. These stupid cops out here are too dumb to catch me.”
“Open your mouth!” David ordered her. Caitlin saw him holding a white cloth. She clamped her mouth shut, knowing full well want he planned to do with it.
“She wants to do it the hard way,” he said to Cherren.
“Sorry baby, but we can’t have you screaming, now can we?” Cherren pinched Caitiln’s nose shut. She held her breath as long as she could before she had to inhale and Dave stuffed her mouth. He held her mouth closed with his hand while Cherren ripped off strips of silver duct tape. When he had about seven strips, he started applying them. Two went under each side of her chin, to prevent her from dropping her jaw. Two others were pressed in an X shape across her lips. The remaining three were plastered from under her nose to her chin. Cherren smoothed them with his fingers.
“There now, try saying something, princess.” Caitlin glared at him and tried to tell him to let her go.
“Ah, perfect! Can’t understand a word she’s saying.” Dave and Cherren laughed evil laughs.
“Get up front with the others. I’m going to enjoy being alone with our little friend here.” He tickled Caitlin’s chin and she snatched away from him.
“No problem, Boss. See you later, Caitlin.” Dave jumped up front just as the van’s engine came to life. Caitlin shrunk back against the wall of the van. She felt her heart begin to race and her palms grew sweaty. She knew that her insulin was in her purse, safely tucked away in her locker at the bank! Now she was a bound and gagged prisoner of bank thieves, a soon to be very sick prisoner.
“What’s the matter baby? You look scared. You shouldn’t be afraid of me.”
“I’m going to die,” she thought to herself. “I’m really going to die.” Cherren still held on to his rifle, but the wild man she’d seen a few moments earlier seemed to have vanished, or did he? She wondered if just maybe, she played on his sympathy that he would let her go or at least if they were going to hold her hostage, find a way to get her the medicine she needed to survive. She moaned through her gag and pulled at her binds.
“Struggling won’t help you any, princess. You might as well sit still and enjoy the ride.” Caitlin shook her head and pulled frantically at her wrist ropes. She hoped that if she tugged hard enough, they would give slightly and he would see her Medic-Alert bracelet. Almost as if touched by her guardian angel, part of them slipped down, revealing a shiny glow of silver highlighted with the red symbol.
“What’s the matter, you sick or something?” Cherren pulled up her wrists and saw the bracelet. She nodded.
“Hey Dave, what’s the story on this girl? She’s wearing one of them bracelets.”
“She’s diabetic,” he called in a dry tone from the front seat. Cherren laughed and grabbed Caitlin by the lapels of her blazer.
“Listen you little bitch, nobody gives a damn how sick you are! You belong to Cherren White now, do you understand? If you don’t like it, I can certainly show you an alternative!” He picked up his gun and she shook her head. Tears began to pool in her eyes. Cherren put down his gun and pulled a folded scarf and a bottle of brown liquid out of his pocket. Pouring some of the liquid on the scarf, he pushed it up to Caitlin’s face.
“Just inhale it my dear, and take a nice long nap.” Caitlin fought to hold her breath but once again, she was beaten by the buildup of carbon dioxide in her lungs. Her world spun around her in a rainbow of mixed colors. Her eyelids drooped as the drug dulled her central nervous system.
“Yes, sleep my princess. When you wake up, the fun shall begin.”