A bullet passed straight through my chest. A gush of warm blood rushed out of the wound. I pressed my left hand against the wound to stop the bleeding. With my right hand, I aimed my gun at the terrorist and shot at his head. The terrorist lay flat on the ground as his brain was blown out. I looked around and saw that all the five terrorist lay dead. The hostages had safely evacuated the office building. I could hear loud sirens from the ambulance and the special forces deployed outside the building.
The pain in my body had now increased to a point where I could not stand any longer. My head swirled and I felt the earth caving in. I fell on my knees as my mind imagined the horrors of the past two hours. At last, my body became numb as I fell unconscious.
I woke up to hear the beep of the Heart Monitor. My chest and arms were connected to several electrodes attached to monitor my heart rate. The wound on my chest was stitched and covered with a gauze. I blinked my eyes to adjust to the light in the hospital room. A nurse approached me and asked me to lay down. She told me to take proper rest and took out an injection and injected the serum to my shoulder. The anesthetic took effect within a few seconds as I dropped back to sleep.
It was meant to be a regular day at the office. My boss called me to his cabin and said "David, we need better results this quarter. You need to push your team harder and meet your billable targets". I responded meekly,"Yes Bob, we are planning to work this weekend as well." I came out of his cabin a little upset as the job was taking a toll on my personal life. I was tired and frustrated stretching for long hours every day. I returned to my cubicle and sat down to work.
I opened my Outlook and started reading my emails. I was just in the middle of reading one of the emails when I heard a loud crashing sound of glass accompanied by a gunshot. I panicked and looked up from my cubicle to see a few masked man holding automatic rifles barging inside the office building. People were screaming and running around in panic. A few of my colleagues took cover underneath the cubicles as the masked men fired a few gunshots in the air.
A masked man announced,"You are being held, hostage. Do not move from your place. If you try to do anything stupid, you will be shot". I was in a state of shock. My hands became cold and my legs shivered in fright. I had seen this kind of thing happen only in the movies. I had never imagined that this would happen to me in real life. I immediately ducked and took cover under my cubicle. I heard a few footsteps approaching me and a masked man started dragging the people from their cubicles. They were assembling the people in the break room.
After some time, all of us were assembled in the break room. One of the masked men was giving instructions to the other men and seemed like their leader. They were addressing each other with numbers. The man who was giving orders shouted,"We are making some demands from your government. Till our demands are fulfilled, you will be kept hostage. We expect you to cooperate with us till then. If you act stupid, we will be forced to kill you". He said the last part with a lot of hostility and a chill of fear ran down my spine.
It had been almost half an hour since we were being kept hostage. A masked man had been deployed in front of the break room. I had counted the men and there were five of them. The other men had taken up positions near the office entrance and the fire exit. Our office was located in the heart of the downtown on the second floor of the building. I suspected that they had targeted our office specifically due to the location. They could create more panic in the city if they targeted a centrally located building.
I looked around me and saw the scared faces of my colleagues. Everyone sensed the danger of being shot and never seeing their families again. I had no family. My girlfriend had broken up with me a few months back. Since then I was living alone. I suddenly realized that there was no reason for me to be afraid anymore. Unlike the people around me, I had no one who cared for me. No one was waiting for my safe return. I decided that I should help my colleagues so that at least they could return safely to their families.
I started thinking of a way to counter this threat. I checked my cell phone and saw that the terrorists had jammed all the mobile signals. So, we could not communicate with anyone outside. I could hear loud sirens outside. I looked out of the slits of the closed window to see that the police were evacuating the people from the neighboring buildings. My eyes scanned the area around me to find some sharp objects. I saw a ball point pen in my boss Bob's front pocket. I signaled him to pass on the pen to me. He looked to make sure the terrorist wasn't looking in his direction and carefully passed on the pen to me.
I opened the pen's cap and looked at the shining sharp steel nib. I held the pen with a firm grip in my right hand with the nib pointing to the ground. Carefully, I walked to the terrorist who was looking elsewhere at the moment. As I moved to within a foot of him, he saw me approaching him. "Hey you, what do you want?" he spoke angrily. I made up an innocent face and told him that I wanted to go the loo. He looked at me disgustingly and accompanied me to the washroom next to the break room. As he turned his back to me, I immediately seized the opportunity and drove the sharp pen's nib into the side of his throat. I covered his mouth, to cover his scream. After a brief struggle, the terrorist lay dead covered in a pool of blood. I dragged his body inside and cleaned the blood stains with the napkins. I took out his gun, silencer, magazine, and radio. I flipped through his pockets and found a pocket knife and a wallet. On opening his wallet, I saw his ID card. It looked like he was an ex-military person.
I checked out the gun. It was a powerful M16 assault rifle. I was aware of the nuances of the gun as I used to spend most of my free time at the shooting range. I stepped outside the washroom carefully. I ducked and cautiously checked the positions of the remaining terrorists. One of the terrorists was guarding the entrance to the fire exit. Two others were guarding the entrance of the office and one of them was sitting in Bob's cabin and making some phone calls.
I adjusted the silencer on the rifle and aimed it at the terrorist's head who was guarding the fire exit. He was standing with his back to me. I pulled the trigger and the terrorist lay flat on the ground. A spitting sound was produced and I made sure that it was not heard by the other terrorists. I dragged his body to a corner so that it would not attract their attention. I went back to the break room and asked my colleagues to follow me in batches of five people. We all ducked and moved slowly to the fire exit. I made sure the terrorists had not spotted anything unusual and signaled my colleagues to leave the office building. After about half an hour, I had managed to evacuate around eighty people. At last, there were only five more left to be evacuated.
As I inched closer to the fire exit, I saw one of the terrorists head towards us. I sensed there was something wrong and asked my colleagues to rush back to the break room. I took cover under a cubicle. I saw the terrorist check the fire exit and as soon as he spotted the dead body of the other terrorist, he immediately radioed to the other men. I jumped from underneath the cubicle and opened a burst of fire on the terrorist. He was killed instantly. But, the other two terrorists rushed towards me firing indiscriminately.
I ducked and rolled over to the side. I knew if I stayed there, I would be a sitting duck. So, I ran to the other end of the floor as soon as I could.The firing continued heavily, as the terrorists approached me. I could hear their leader shouting,"Where are you hiding, you little coward? I am gonna slaughter you like a pig."
Suddenly, I got an idea and I fired at the closed windows across the floor. I knew that the police snipers would have taken positions in the neighboring buildings. As soon as I fired at the windows, the police started firing at the terrorists. One of the terrorists was shot dead. Their leader took cover and hid somewhere. I rushed to my colleagues in the break room and thought that this was the right time for them to escape. I covered them as we rushed to the fire exit. As I reached the entrance of the fire exit, the terrorist came out of his hiding place and opened fire at my colleagues. One of them got badly injured and I was shot through the chest. My other colleagues helped my injured colleague and carried him out through the fire exit. I aimed my gun at the terrorist's head who had run out of bullets and was running outside. With one last shot, I blew his brains out. After this, I fell unconscious.
After about a month after this incident, I was discharged from the hospital. I learned that the terrorists were ex-Military people who had planned to assassinate the mayor. They were holding the office people hostage so that they could trade the hostages for the mayor. It seemed the mayor had passed a legislation which had cut down on the pensions of the retired military people which had not gone down too well with some of them. After this incident, the legislation was revoked and the mayor accepting his responsibility had resigned from his post.
As for me, I was thanked by the police and my colleagues for my bravery and was presented with the Bravery Award by the President.
The pain in my body had now increased to a point where I could not stand any longer. My head swirled and I felt the earth caving in. I fell on my knees as my mind imagined the horrors of the past two hours. At last, my body became numb as I fell unconscious.
I woke up to hear the beep of the Heart Monitor. My chest and arms were connected to several electrodes attached to monitor my heart rate. The wound on my chest was stitched and covered with a gauze. I blinked my eyes to adjust to the light in the hospital room. A nurse approached me and asked me to lay down. She told me to take proper rest and took out an injection and injected the serum to my shoulder. The anesthetic took effect within a few seconds as I dropped back to sleep.
It was meant to be a regular day at the office. My boss called me to his cabin and said "David, we need better results this quarter. You need to push your team harder and meet your billable targets". I responded meekly,"Yes Bob, we are planning to work this weekend as well." I came out of his cabin a little upset as the job was taking a toll on my personal life. I was tired and frustrated stretching for long hours every day. I returned to my cubicle and sat down to work.
I opened my Outlook and started reading my emails. I was just in the middle of reading one of the emails when I heard a loud crashing sound of glass accompanied by a gunshot. I panicked and looked up from my cubicle to see a few masked man holding automatic rifles barging inside the office building. People were screaming and running around in panic. A few of my colleagues took cover underneath the cubicles as the masked men fired a few gunshots in the air.
A masked man announced,"You are being held, hostage. Do not move from your place. If you try to do anything stupid, you will be shot". I was in a state of shock. My hands became cold and my legs shivered in fright. I had seen this kind of thing happen only in the movies. I had never imagined that this would happen to me in real life. I immediately ducked and took cover under my cubicle. I heard a few footsteps approaching me and a masked man started dragging the people from their cubicles. They were assembling the people in the break room.
After some time, all of us were assembled in the break room. One of the masked men was giving instructions to the other men and seemed like their leader. They were addressing each other with numbers. The man who was giving orders shouted,"We are making some demands from your government. Till our demands are fulfilled, you will be kept hostage. We expect you to cooperate with us till then. If you act stupid, we will be forced to kill you". He said the last part with a lot of hostility and a chill of fear ran down my spine.
It had been almost half an hour since we were being kept hostage. A masked man had been deployed in front of the break room. I had counted the men and there were five of them. The other men had taken up positions near the office entrance and the fire exit. Our office was located in the heart of the downtown on the second floor of the building. I suspected that they had targeted our office specifically due to the location. They could create more panic in the city if they targeted a centrally located building.
I looked around me and saw the scared faces of my colleagues. Everyone sensed the danger of being shot and never seeing their families again. I had no family. My girlfriend had broken up with me a few months back. Since then I was living alone. I suddenly realized that there was no reason for me to be afraid anymore. Unlike the people around me, I had no one who cared for me. No one was waiting for my safe return. I decided that I should help my colleagues so that at least they could return safely to their families.
I started thinking of a way to counter this threat. I checked my cell phone and saw that the terrorists had jammed all the mobile signals. So, we could not communicate with anyone outside. I could hear loud sirens outside. I looked out of the slits of the closed window to see that the police were evacuating the people from the neighboring buildings. My eyes scanned the area around me to find some sharp objects. I saw a ball point pen in my boss Bob's front pocket. I signaled him to pass on the pen to me. He looked to make sure the terrorist wasn't looking in his direction and carefully passed on the pen to me.
I opened the pen's cap and looked at the shining sharp steel nib. I held the pen with a firm grip in my right hand with the nib pointing to the ground. Carefully, I walked to the terrorist who was looking elsewhere at the moment. As I moved to within a foot of him, he saw me approaching him. "Hey you, what do you want?" he spoke angrily. I made up an innocent face and told him that I wanted to go the loo. He looked at me disgustingly and accompanied me to the washroom next to the break room. As he turned his back to me, I immediately seized the opportunity and drove the sharp pen's nib into the side of his throat. I covered his mouth, to cover his scream. After a brief struggle, the terrorist lay dead covered in a pool of blood. I dragged his body inside and cleaned the blood stains with the napkins. I took out his gun, silencer, magazine, and radio. I flipped through his pockets and found a pocket knife and a wallet. On opening his wallet, I saw his ID card. It looked like he was an ex-military person.
I checked out the gun. It was a powerful M16 assault rifle. I was aware of the nuances of the gun as I used to spend most of my free time at the shooting range. I stepped outside the washroom carefully. I ducked and cautiously checked the positions of the remaining terrorists. One of the terrorists was guarding the entrance to the fire exit. Two others were guarding the entrance of the office and one of them was sitting in Bob's cabin and making some phone calls.
I adjusted the silencer on the rifle and aimed it at the terrorist's head who was guarding the fire exit. He was standing with his back to me. I pulled the trigger and the terrorist lay flat on the ground. A spitting sound was produced and I made sure that it was not heard by the other terrorists. I dragged his body to a corner so that it would not attract their attention. I went back to the break room and asked my colleagues to follow me in batches of five people. We all ducked and moved slowly to the fire exit. I made sure the terrorists had not spotted anything unusual and signaled my colleagues to leave the office building. After about half an hour, I had managed to evacuate around eighty people. At last, there were only five more left to be evacuated.
As I inched closer to the fire exit, I saw one of the terrorists head towards us. I sensed there was something wrong and asked my colleagues to rush back to the break room. I took cover under a cubicle. I saw the terrorist check the fire exit and as soon as he spotted the dead body of the other terrorist, he immediately radioed to the other men. I jumped from underneath the cubicle and opened a burst of fire on the terrorist. He was killed instantly. But, the other two terrorists rushed towards me firing indiscriminately.
I ducked and rolled over to the side. I knew if I stayed there, I would be a sitting duck. So, I ran to the other end of the floor as soon as I could.The firing continued heavily, as the terrorists approached me. I could hear their leader shouting,"Where are you hiding, you little coward? I am gonna slaughter you like a pig."
Suddenly, I got an idea and I fired at the closed windows across the floor. I knew that the police snipers would have taken positions in the neighboring buildings. As soon as I fired at the windows, the police started firing at the terrorists. One of the terrorists was shot dead. Their leader took cover and hid somewhere. I rushed to my colleagues in the break room and thought that this was the right time for them to escape. I covered them as we rushed to the fire exit. As I reached the entrance of the fire exit, the terrorist came out of his hiding place and opened fire at my colleagues. One of them got badly injured and I was shot through the chest. My other colleagues helped my injured colleague and carried him out through the fire exit. I aimed my gun at the terrorist's head who had run out of bullets and was running outside. With one last shot, I blew his brains out. After this, I fell unconscious.
After about a month after this incident, I was discharged from the hospital. I learned that the terrorists were ex-Military people who had planned to assassinate the mayor. They were holding the office people hostage so that they could trade the hostages for the mayor. It seemed the mayor had passed a legislation which had cut down on the pensions of the retired military people which had not gone down too well with some of them. After this incident, the legislation was revoked and the mayor accepting his responsibility had resigned from his post.
As for me, I was thanked by the police and my colleagues for my bravery and was presented with the Bravery Award by the President.
The End
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