else as the robbers fanned out, herding us into the central area. Cautiously, I scooted forwards into a half crouch, making myself smaller and ostensibly, a harder target to hit. The thought of that made me gulp. When we reached the middle of the room, the robbers pushed us down onto our stomachs, forcing our hands over our heads.
"Mommy," whispered the kid behind me in line.
"Stay calm, honey. Extra big ice cream after this is all over."
"But, Mommy."
"Shhh, honey," she whispered. "Just lie there and pretend to sleep for a short time. Remember our sleepytime game when you were little? Let’s play it now."
I nodded at her with a small, tight smile, and she gave me a worried nod back. There was nothing else we could do.
"No talking! Everyone stay down and be quiet, and no one gets hurt."
Stillness spread through the room. No one coughed. No one muttered. I thought I heard a soft, muffled sob but when I checked the kid lying between me and his mom, it wasn't coming from him. I lay there, feeling utterly useless. What else could I do? I wasn't armed, and even if I were, there were six of them and just one of me. I didn't like those odds.
The only thing I could do was stay calm and observe what unfolded.
I turned to look the other way, glancing toward the tellers. I couldn't see any of them now so I figured they were all huddling behind their bulletproof glass. I wondered if any of them pressed the alarm buzzer. If they did, I couldn't see or hear any evidence of it. No alarms blasted. None of the small offices or internal doors seemed to lock either and there was no wail of a police car siren.
"Head down!" A hand on the back of my head pushed my forehead onto the cold floor. It wasn't hard enough to hurt me but I blinked in surprise and froze. Now, with my eyesight restricted to the back of someone's head, I could only listen to the footsteps moving around the group. Somewhere behind me, close to my knees, I decided, I could hear two men talking.
"I'm an off-duty cop," said the low, male voice in little more than a whisper. "I have my weapon on me."
"Keep it holstered," said the other voice, coming from another man. "There's too many people in here. The casualty risk is much too high!"
"We can't do nothing, man. You're a security guard!"
"I'm a security guard on minimum wage. The most security I can provide is to swiftly escort irate people out when they see their overdraft charges."
"It's our duty to protect these innocent people!"
"Right now, everyone is good. No one is hurt."
"Yeah, but for how long?" The voice paused. "What if they starting using the customers as human shields? I can take out the two at my twelve and three. You take the other two on your six and seven. The guys by the door will run as soon as they realize the rest of their gang is out of commission. This could be over in a matter of a few seconds."
"Really? With six of them carrying semi-automatic weapons? There's just two of us and I'm guessing not a whole lot of ammunition between us."
"Shut up," hissed a woman at my right. "Do you want them to shoot us?"
"Quiet!" yelled a bank robber.
The fierce whispering stopped abruptly and I breathed a sigh of relief. I had to agree with the security guard's assessment. Two against six were not good odds and considering the twenty-or-so people lying together on the floor, the chance of someone getting caught in the crossfire the moment the shooting started was too high to risk. I thought about what my brothers and Solomon, and all of my colleagues, would say. I was pretty sure they would advise me to stay quiet, avoid drawing attention to myself, and let the bank robbery play out.
I glanced around again. Why wasn't anything happening? My bag full of cash remained on the teller’s station. None of the bank robbers demanded any money and instead, the bank remained quiet, and the atmosphere tense.
Then I heard the rustle of someone jumping to his feet and yelling "Police! Don't move!"
Bullets cracked and rapid fire followed. I threw one hand over my head and shuffled closer to the kid, using my hips to create enough momentum to close the gap as his mom and I sandwiched him between us and kept him safely