The Vault

1.1 Breaking In


"It’s all set!" Bill stuck the modified touched tablet on the titanium vault door to gain access to any possible codes combination to break through the most advanced security encryption.
"Did you take down the security cameras?" John was making sure everything was going on according to the plan.
"A piece of cake," Bill replied proudly.
"Seriously Bill you need to get over your attitude," Amy interrupted as the looked on her face getting irritated.
"And did you complete your job Amy?" John cutting through Amy’s words.
"Ay, ay captain almost there." Amy, Bill and John were the three most wanted persons by the CIA, FBI, The NYPD and world authorities. They have successfully robbed three famous banks, The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, The UK’s HSBC and ICBC (Industrial & Commercial Bank of China). Now, they were trying to penetrate the most complicated algorithm ever achieved by the Bank of America.
"Okay John, it’s all done. I’ve replaced all security monitors display with a pause image of the original view, but I keep the timer runs so it will look as if the camera is still running live."
"Good job Amy, that’s my girl." The compliment has made Amy smiled under her black cloth mask revealing her shadowy eyes. John noticed it as she rolled her eyes away from him.
"She just wanted your attention John, she’s obviously still owe me quite a few grands." Bill could not help but to speak it out.
"Fuck it Bill, I told you I’ll pay you back after we got our shares! Now, fuck that shit and remember it inside your fucking brain!" Scolded Amy towards Bill. It was always her main issues of not being able to control her emotion.
"You know, a woman shouldn’t be talking like that to a man, especially to me." Bill had his gun pointed towards Amy. She retreated back.
"Will you stop fighting or I’ll kill both of you my self with my Desert Eagles!" John had his both guns at both hands, facing both of them. There was a few seconds of silence after John threatened them to end their lives. "We got an important job here, I need both of you to cooperate with each other. If we succeed tonight, then it will be our last crime and we can go our own separate ways after this." John has been a great leader to them, without him Amy and Bill would have been captured long ago on their past crimes before they met John.
"Beep! Beep! Beep!" the tablet on the vault door beeping lowly. "The pass codes has been unlocked John, we could get in, the combination is 7-Q-4-V-1-X-9-N-6-Z-8-C," Bill read the codes while John entered the numbers and letters to the security system via his laptop. "Access granted." The vault door suddenly opened with a low buzzing sound. There, lying in front of them were packed of categorized bank notes, from fifty dollars to one thousand dollars. It was sorted by level of steel like cabinet on which each of them fatly filled with cash. The amount could be more than a billion.
"OH-MY-GOD!" Amy was so excited that Bill just smiled unwillingly seeing her face. It was at that moment when Amy grabbed a pack of hundred dollars note, the alarm activated.
"What happened?" said John curiously.
"I don’t know!" replied Bill.
"Amy check the proxy code now!" John shouted.
"Okay!" Panic could be seen on Amy’s face. So as Bill and John.
"Oh my god! The security system has triple firewalls! They have the third firewall that could not be tracked and cracked! It has a function to automate timer in less than a minute if the second firewall was cracked. We’re dead John, We’re dead!" Amy screamed and almost lost hope to continue. She stepped back and sat on the floor disappointed.
"No one is going to be dead Amy, we're stealing not killing." John replied steadily.

1.2 Conflict


"Amy stay focus, don’t panic, get on your feet now! I want you to kill the alarm before it reaches the outside area. There are more alarms out there, our first mission was not to wake the guards and attracting the public’s attention!" John commanded Amy in a very respectful way of how a great leader should be.
"But how?" She replied while her lips tremble under the black cloth mask.
"Change the proxy code, use proxy red." He answered.
"Proxy red? Send in the virus?" Amy added curiously.
"Yes, that’s why I said I want you to kill it." He explained.
"But sending in the virus will take about eight minutes and the alarm will reach the outside area in less than six minutes!"
"Then make it fast . . ." John insisted.
"I’ll use a shortcut. But I can’t promise it will work."
Amy started hacking the firewall system by inserting the proxy red codes. "Two minutes left before the alarm reaches the outside area." She told her two friends while her fingers still repeatedly typing in the codes.
"Come on, come on!" The expression on John’s face was very anxious, like a person hoping to get things worked.
"God bless us." Bill prayed in silence.
"Beep!" The sound came from Amy’s laptop. "We're saved! It stops at 3 seconds. That was very closed." Amy sat back on the floor while her body against the wall just in front of the vault door.
"Congratulation Amy, I know you could do it. Good job!" John praised Amy for the second time, but Amy did not show any signs of flattering and interest on her face.
Without wasting any more time all three of them started to put those cash in packages inside their bags. They tried to put as much cash as they could, but only then conflict was about to begin. Bill has already came out from the vault, so as Amy. While John was still busy putting in those dollars inside his bag, Amy began to talk,
"I am so sorry John, I have to do this." Amy had her gun pointed towards John.
"It’s all over John, your glorious time ends here." Bill said to him with a sharp glare while he had his gun on his hand pointed at him.
"You guys had planned this?" he said.
"Since the very beginning John, you were only using us because of our abilities and skills, for your benefits." Bill answered with a nasty grinned.
"I treat you guys as family so we could build a better a life." John replied in a heart broken tone in a man’s voice could ever been heard.
"Cut the bullshit! We’re going now Amy let’s go!"
"Goodbye John." Amy closed the vault door leaving John trapped inside.
"Amy let me out! I know this is not you, you are being brainwashed by Bill! Amy!" John shouted, but he was not answered. They had left, leaving no traced that the bank has been robbed.

1.3 Day One


Alone, trapped in a vault was not a good thing to start with. There was no window, no backdoor, no food, and limited air. The only thing that John was grateful for being trapped in a vault was the light. The light was still on. He could not even imagined what would happen if he was in total darkness. He saw the security cameras on each corner of the ceiling. There were four cameras. They were still running but the images were pause so it looked like the vault has never been touched, and the cameras wont be able to see him. Thanks to Amy for that. It could be John’s Luck or his total nightmare. John tried to use his cell phone to make calls. But it was useless. There was no signal. How could someone be that stupid to make calls from inside the vault made from titanium, when waves and frequencies could not pass through titanium walls.
All John could see around him was lots and lots of cash. But what was the point of having them when you could not even spend them? John has nothing else to do inside the vault, so he started singing like a mad man. He made planes out of the cash, throwing them up in the air so it looked as if the place was raining with cash. He was out of his mind. He laughed, he cried, he went amuck. . . . . and get naked in the vault. Lying on the floor naked, crying whispering something saying, "Why? Why? Why? Why?" He kept on repeating the words again and again. "What did I do wrong my friends? I hate YOU! I Fucking HATE YOU!" John went crazier than ever. "Betrayed me huh? I will kill you guys if I get out of this place! But how can I get out? HAHAHAHA!" A sound of a mad man laughing. Mentality going on level below than twenty percent. The whole day John was a complete disaster. He took a look at his watch on his left hand. The time showed about 8.42 PM in the evening. Still starring at his watch, he imagined about the time going on backwards. He smiled. Then he laughed."How could things like that shall happened? If only I could turn back time, I would have killed them both back then and changed the whole the story! HAHAHAHA!" Sadness on his reddish-white pale face could be obviously seen. A face of a total despair!
Self-hallucination has become John’s best friend in about 20 hours trapped in the vault. He imagined about being able to punch the vault door single-handedly, "I AM SUPERMAN! I AM NOT FROM THIS WORLD. I WILL SAVE EVERY ONE OF YOU FROM THIS MADNESS. NOW WITNESS MY KRYPTONIAN POWER!" After saying those words he rushed towards the vault door and punched it. "ARRRGGGHHH! THAT’S SO FUCKING HURT!" The punched he made created a "Thunk" sound and caused his right hand to bleed and trembled. John sat back against the titanium wall and breaking up.

1.4 Day Two


John woke up from his deep sleep. He did not put his clothes on. He was still naked. The atmosphere inside the vault was getting humid. He was sweating like a pig and he got the feeling of getting sick. He was weak, less energy than he had yesterday. The time on his watch showed 2.03PM in the afternoon. His stomach making funny sounds. He knew that it would come to this moment. He was hungry and thirsty at the same time. There was no food and water. "How long can I survived?" He thought to himself. He had no choice but to eat as many cash he could to kill the hunger he was experiencing. At times, John wanted to vomit, the cash tasted like ink. Of course the smell was good, but even after for so long sniffing the smell of those cash, it made John had a headache.
Now it was time for John to kill his thirst. Have got no water to drink and the floor was almost wet with his sweat. He was thinking about collecting his own sweat and drank it. It was so nasty to think as such. But in the case of surviving, you would have no choice but to do it. It was about life and death. Suddenly, John has the urge to urinate. Now it skipped to a new level. He wanted to drink his own piss. He urinated at the corner of the vault, collecting some of his piss using his left hand. Without hesitating, he started to lift up his hand to his mouth and started drinking his yellowish colored piss. "Oh God kill me, please kill me now! I hate my life! Please kill me now!" John pleaded that his life to be taken away even though his heart strongly said he wanted to live on. He coughed after drinking some of his piss. "I can’t do this anymore anyone please let me out." He begged but no one will ever heard him.
"This is not how it ends." Strength could be seen in his eyes. The strength believing miracles could happen. He prayed to God in his poor condition asking for helped and begging for forgiveness for all the sins he has done. At that sudden moment he remembered about his guns he had put inside his trouser pockets. He moved quickly with the remaining energy he had left and grab the weapons. He directed both guns pointed towards the vault door. Without delay, he started shooting "BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!" the bullets flying almost in every direction as some of it bounced back. This was what adding to John’s worst nightmare. The bullets could not penetrate the eighty-centimeter thick titanium vault door. The worst ever that the titanium made vault would not let sound to go pass through, easy being said that the walls were sound proof. John fall down to his knees crying, screaming, frustrated like a person who deserved an asylum as a homestay.

1.5 Day Three


Time showed 9.45 AM in the morning on his watch. The atmosphere inside the vault was getting hotter than before. Less oxygen was consumed and more carbon dioxide was released to the atmosphere. This was the effect of John’s breathing activity. John was suffocated gasping for air. He was very weak now and to think how he would actually die. He never thought that he would end up dying like this. Trapped inside a room full of cash but no use to it. He just wanted to get out but no one would come to his rescue. He would rather get shot to the head rather than suffocating like this. "Maybe this is it." John whispered to himself. Then he started singing "Amazing Grace" softly in a low weak tone.
John was looking at one of the security cameras while singing the song. An idea came to his mind just at the very tip of his life. With a little bit of his energy left, he got up and walked slowly to the steel cabinet of where the cash was sort up. He climbed up the cabinet and started to reach the security camera, talking on the screen asking and begging for help while knocking it slowly. Unfortunately, there was no answer or any signs of anybody noticed his appearance in front of the camera. The cameras were still running the codes after being hijacked by his friend who betrayed him, Amy. He thought he would have the slightest chance of being able to get helped. But that was just a dreamed that would never come true.
Lying weak on the floor naked, John’s face facing towards the vault’s door. "Titanium huh? I should have known." He giggled to think that this was his last moment. The vault has used up its oxygen. John was struggling to stay alive, trying to breathe in air but no more oxygen left. He felt like he was drowning, the whole vault seemed to be like in the outer space. Suddenly a moment of miracle came, the vault door slowly opened. Cool air rushing in towards the vault room and cash flew in every direction as air took in place.
"Oh my God who are you?" one of the bank employees saw him right after he opened the vault door. "Security! Come to the Vault Prime now we’ve got a problem, there’s a naked man inside the vault!" The bank employee communicated through his walkie-talkie. Probably a teller. Soon after, the security guards came and dragged him out of the vault.
"Holy crap, this guy smells like shit, what did you do inside there? Hang on a sec, aren’t you John Philips wanted by the government?" One of the guards said to him. But John did not reply. He was too weak to talked or moved.
"Who? Oh mother fucking cow it’s him alright!" interrupted the other guard. "Whatever it is, you're going to jail for trying to rob the bank, a bad idea for someone who can't escape the vault. Thank you for making our job easier." Added the guard.
John couldn't be more happier, he just smiled, to think that God has answered his prayers. Better jailed, than dying. They got food and drinks there. He never thought he would be so happy to be put in jail and continue his life onwards to be a better person.

THE END