It was a normal day, a normal heist, nothing we haven’t been through before. We had it all planned out. Or at least that’s what I’d thought. We did the usual “Get on the ground!”  , Brandon blows open the safe, we get as much money and gold as our bags can hold. Connor collects all his all his tech equipment he laid out, Alvarez checks to see if the coast is clear, and I get what’s left of the money and gold. I got almost all of the money and gold, but my bags started to get heavy and I couldn’t handle much more weight. I texted our getaway driver, Alex, to be on his way to pick us up before the police showed up. It would probably only take him about two minutes to get here and we’d be gone.
He had parked in an alley way just a mile down the road. He’d gotten here a lot quicker than expected, but I’d soon figured out why. Just down the road behind him were two state troopers! Alex opened the two back doors in hesitation. Connor sprinted to the van with his bags around his shoulders and hurled his bags in the back and jumped in right along with them. “C’mon Christian, we’ve got to leave right now!” Alex yelled. “I’m coming!” I replied. I tossed my bags in the back and closed the doors. Alex opened the passenger door for me and I hopped in and slammed it shut. Alex slammed on the accelerator making the tires spin rapidly. We were speeding down the road in seconds. I knew with Alex’s driving skills that we would make it out of here without getting arrested. I looked to the back to congratulate everyone, but noticed something odd. Alvarez wasn’t there! I looked at Alex hesitantly and told him that he wasn’t in the van. He slammed on the brakes and spun the van around, causing the police cars that were chasing us to fly ahead of us. We headed back to the bank and I saw Alvarez running out the front doors as we arrived. He came out flailing his arms like a wild goose. Connor opened the back doors open and Alvarez sprung into the back along with his bags around his shoulders. Connor slammed the doors shut and yelled, “Go go go!” Alex slammed on the gas once again and we went the opposite direction instead of going towards the cops. Just when I thought we were okay this time, I heard an abnormal whirling sound. I leaned forward to investigate, and what I witnessed shocked me. It was two SWAT helicopters flying ahead of us. I looked further down the street and saw SWAT vans! They’d laid out spikes in the road to stop us. “We have to stop the van right now!” I yelled. “It’s too late, I’m going too fast!” Alex replied. It seemed like it only took an instant just to roll over the sharp spikes and pop all four of the tires. At that exact moment I knew we were done for. We all put our hands in the air and waited to be escorted into a cop car. They took Alex out first, then me, then Brandon, then Connor, then Alvarez. Alex got a car to himself, Brandon and Connor rode in another one, and Alvarez and I had one. We all knew we were headed straight to jail. I looked over to Alvarez and asked, “What were you doing that made us leave you behind?” “I was using the bathroom.” He replied. We both laughed hysterically. “How many years do you think we’ll get?” He asked. “I don’t know, ten, fifteen years maybe.” I answered. “Try twenty.” The cop driver chimed in. Alvarez and I knew we were never going to see each other again after this. We were going to have to split up and restart our lives. No more heists, no more getting in trouble, just a new start. It was going to be hard with our records, but we all knew we could do it. We arrived at the prison and I took one last look at Alvarez. “It was nice knowing you brother, hope life treats you well.” I said. “Same to you, friend.” He retorted. The cops split us up and we made our own ways. I’ll never forget those guys. Hopefully they’ll never forget me. Heck, maybe we’ll run into each other someday. But for now, I’m going to focus on living my life. At least when I get out of jail.