Incident at the supermarket (2)

"You're supposed to gather everyone, tie them up and use them as hostages to guarantee your safe exit," I sighed.

Seriously, why am I teaching a bunch of inexperienced criminals what to do? Haven't you watched movies about robbing banks?

Norwood is definitely judging me right now. I should've thought about it more and let him handle the situation instead. Profilers should know what to do when panicked robbers want to kill everyone.

I not only didn't look scared by the armed robbers but I even helped them. I would understand if Norwood thought I was one of them hidden amongst the victims.

Robber n°1's eyes widened before he nodded.

"Oooh. Yes. Yes, that's right."

Robber n°2 frowned.

"Wouldn't killing you be simpler?"

I shook my head.

"Yes, but then your sentence would be aggravated and at least one of you would definitely be caught or killed while leaving, whatever your skills are. Do you want to take the risk?"

When will the police organize a special force made of humans with superpowers to fight against players using their abilities to commit crimes? They are a bit slow.

Actually, I think that the most amazing part of this situation is that people have already degenerated this much in a few days.

Robber n°2 didn't find anything to refute and could only stay silent.

He sighed and raised his voice.

"Everyone, raise your hands up and gather in the center."

People followed the order and came, raising their arms.

Then, the robbers tried to find something that could be used as a rope.

I mentally facepalmed.

"Bandages, threads or string toys can all work as ropes."

Are you stupid?

Why do I have to help the criminals here?

Then, they began to tie up people.

"That's not how it should be done. If you do it in this way, people can get rid of it easily. Moreover, it's not tight enough, even more so since it's elastic."

And I had to instruct them again.

I showed the robbers the correct way to block people's movements then put my backpack on the side and got tied up too.

I know this is probably a bad idea since I could have used the looseness of the improvised ropes to escape and I'm also in danger. This may not be the best tactical decision.

Outside, the police didn't show any sign of entering. They were probably waiting for them to come out.

"…There. That's how you do it."

The voice of a police officer using a loudspeaker was heard once again.

"Come out right now or we will open fire."

The robbers grew agitated.

Are they dumb?

"Relax, they're only bluffing. They can't shoot since you took the people here as hostages."

…Probably.

"Now, you only need to come out while using at least one hostage as a shield until you escape and the police won't be able to touch you."

They nodded, about to leave.

Now that the situation is settled, I realize that I've really done something absurd and extremely dangerous.

Thinking about it now, I could've just hid under people's corpses. I should keep it in mind for next time.

I should also stop being so impulsive in a perilous situation.

Nevermind, I shouldn't even get into a dangerous situation to begin with.

However, you can't deny that my impulsive actions still got me out of trouble.

"Then…"

I lifted my head toward the one who had spoken.

"You don't mind if we take you hostage as we escape, right?"

Mastermind-looking robber n°4 faced me.

Hmm…

This wasn't what I expected?

I tilted my head.

Did I jinx it?

"…It's not like I have a choice, do I?"

Robber n°4 smiled.

"You're right."

I shouldn't have attracted their attention. I should've made Norwood deal with them in the first place.

I guess I have only one choice left. It's not too late to let him deal with the situation.

After they untied me, I turned to Norwood and made a thumbs up.

"I leave my safety up to you. I believe in you."

Please, come save me.

Norwood made an exasperated face.

I know, you didn't sign up for this, me neither.

Now, let's find a backup plan just in case.

"…By the way, shouldn't you tie my wrists to at least show I'm not an accomplice? Or else the police will only kill us as we leave."

Why do I have to tell them everything? We're going to die at this rate.

The robbers bound my wrists behind my back with what they used as a rope and dragged me out of the front door.

Then, we were face to face with the police.

Robber n°4 put the barrel of his gun to my temple and spoke up.

"Let us pass or I will kill this girl. If you let us escape, we can solve this situation peacefully. Don't follow us."

Hello, I am just an innocent victim.

We slowly passed through the police cars as the latters had no choice but to let us pass.

Since the robbers were paying attention to the police officers around them as they threatened to kill me, I seized the opportunity to let the phone I had discreetly put into my sleeve before they tied back my wrists earlier slide down. It was pressed against my back all along so its shape wasn't visible in my sleeve from an external point of view.

I reduced the movements of my shoulders as much as possible as I let my phone fall and barely caught it between two fingers.

Thankfully, the fact that I was standing in the back to shield the robbers from bullets made this plan possible, or else they would have noticed my movements immediately.

Moving my phone with my fingers to hold it in a more comfortable position, I used my fingerprint to unlock it, pressed on the calling app where I remembered it to be and lowered the volume to the minimum.

Then, I turned back my head as much as possible to vaguely see the screen while making it seem like I glanced at the police, located DNA at the top of the contact list and called him. I felt the vibrations stop after barely 1 or 2 times, so they weren't heard.

After doing this, I looked forward again and hid my phone inside my sleeve again, between my arm and my back.

First brother should have picked up. Even if he doesn't understand the situation, since he is able to localise me, he should understand what's happening by asking 7th sister to hack the surrounding cameras and send the police to us even if they lose our track.

Let's just wait a few minutes for him to come to this conclusion and hope that emo sister of mine is indeed able to hack public cameras.

Now that I think about it, Norwood, I count on you. Even my backup plan is not reliable.

We got away from the police and walked for a while, circling around buildings to make sure we weren't tailed until we got to a van.

Then, the robbers stopped.

As they were about to enter the vehicle with the money they stole, someone raised a valid point.

"But, boss, what should we do with her?"

Robber n°4, apparently their boss, turned to the others and pondered.

Then, he decided.

"Let's kill her."

This is becoming repetitive, why does everyone want to kill me?

I thought that if I ever died, it'd be at DHB's hands or because of my father, but not after a supermarket robbery that worked mostly thanks to me and isn't even a scenario.

Now, what should I do?

I met robber n°4's eyes.

Let's stall for time.

I spoke up without thinking.

"Why would you kill me? We can share a meal together and become friends."

As expected, there was no way I could've taken a reasonable decision under pressure, so I said bullshit.

"Hah? The hell are you saying? Why would we eat a meal together?"

At least it worked.

I addressed robber n°1, hoping robber n°4's subordinates could give me more time by arguing with them.

"It's not like I did anything to you, right? I even helped you leave safely."

"So what-"

"Enough," robber n°4 cut off the conversation.

The cold touch of metal was the felt on my forehead.

Unfortunately, he didn't fall for my trick.

"Whether you want it or not, you're dying now."

I held his gaze.

Then-

Bang!

A bullet was lodged in his brain and his accomplices started to run.

The police had arrived.

I turned to the approaching policemen, soon followed by loud police cars, and Norwood among them.

Nice, he came.

Norwood walked to me with a tired look on his face and held out something toward me.

"You forgot your bag."

Ah, right.

I took it and felt the unpaid soda bottles inside, suddenly feeling complicated.

Should I give them back to the supermarket or keep them? Didn't an alarm ring when he left with this bag?

Norwood seemed to recall something and continued.

"There were a few teenagers who ran off with some… cheese. They were chased by the store owner because they hadn't bought it but they weren't caught in the end. They were the ones you talked to earlier."

Indeed, so he didn't notice the soda bottles because the alarm was already ringing.

As Norwood stared at me, probably waiting for an explanation, I imagined the teenagers running with cheese while talking about conspiracy theories.

They must've said things like: 'They're trying to have the cheese first!' or, 'As expected, they found us thanks to trackers planted in our bodies by the government!'

That's why you should've eaten it before leaving, guys.

"But why did you speak up to the robbers?"

I answered Norwood's question.

"Didn't it solve the situation? In the end, no one was hurt."

Staring at me, he seemed to have too many things to say about this.

After a while, he regained his senses and shook his head with an amused smile.

Looking at his face like this, I hesitated.

We're probably going to never see each other again.

"…Give me your phone number."

I know I should still seem extremely suspicious to him but, even if it was a lie, I don't want to lose contact with this reader whose favorite novel is one I wrote.

"Let's keep in touch to talk about stories."

Norwood agreed.

"Sure."

So we exchanged our phone numbers.

As I stared at my screen blankly, a police officer approached us.

"Excuse me, Miss, I need to interrogate you about the previous events."

I snapped out of my thoughts and nodded.

"Okay."

Norwood also raised his hand and bade me farewell.

"See you later."

I repeated his words and watched him leave.

"See you later..."

"Miss? Can we begin?"

I turned back to the policeman and nodded.

"Yes, sorry."

"What's your name?"

"Ena James."

"Do you have anything on you that could prove your identity?"

I searched through my wallet and found my ID.

It was written 'Ena Watts'.

"Here. I took my mother's last name after my parents' divorce."

I didn't completely lie to Norwood about my name. It's just that my real name as shown in the scenarios' rankings is Ena James while my official name is Ena Watts now.

That way, even if I were first in the rankings, he would think it's the player 'Ena James' while to him I am 'Emma Watts'.

I should tell him my name isn't Emma one day, though.

I explained what happened to the policeman and went back home.

Then, during the night, I received a system message.

[Go to the Eiffel Tower in Paris for the 3rd scenario. Failure to do so within the allotted time will result in death.]

[12:00:00]

It's finally the 3rd scenario.

[11:59:57]

I will need to use Norwood's phone number earlier than expected.