Suspended within an orb of hyper-awareness, and a furtive desire to live, Kirkwood Kenny emerged from the rear of the bank with a duffle bag of cash and a heart set on vengeance.
Shortly before they joined the others, Kenny gave D-Money a slight nod of his head.
"When we get upfront herd those two clowns out of the building, while I deal with Shonda."
"Bet that up," D-Money consented with a grin.
Once Pluto ran from the bank, Shonda saw Kenny pause and begin to search the faces within the crowd.
She could see the look of treachery in his eyes.
Their eyes met and she knew what he was about to do.
Shonda jumped to her feet and tried to lunge across the counter.
She never made it.
Kirkwood Kenny swung his assault rifle in her direction and fired off an eight-round burst of bullets.
Caught in the middle of her lunge across the counter, Shonda felt bullets stitch across her back.
The awesome force of the slugs that hit her, was enough to propel her onto the opposite side of the counter.
Her whimper of fear and pain was drowned out by the gurgle of blood, bubbling from the bullet wounds in her lungs and chest cavity.
Her eyes stared straight ahead with a wild look of desperation.
Kirkwood Kenny knelt at her side and touched a hand to her cheek.
"I told you not to test me, but you didn't want to listen..."
Shonda was breathing faintly.
Her body was convulsing.
But her gaze remained fixed on his face.
"Don't worry though," he added.
"I'll be sure to send them all to join you."
When Swaylo sped out of the bank parking lot, a seven-car pile-up ensued, as he swerved headlong into traffic.
His focus was keenly set on his driving.
Car horns blared in their wake, as a fleet of police cruisers sped after them, like a pack of wolves in pursuit of a Wiley jackrabbit.
Speeding north on Albertine Parkway, Swaylo swerved into traffic on the interstate.
Police cars followed their vehicle, as it dipped in and out of oncoming traffic.
The landscape of Kennesaw county began to dwindle in the backdrop, blurred by the heightened speeds that the van was moving.
Sirens blared behind them as they sped past the Junction Road exit, and hit I-75 South.
Each man sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts.
Swaylo worked the steering wheel of the van, like a professional stock car driver.
With at least two people died that they were aware of, there was an unspoken pledge established between them.
There was no turning back.
Being captured by the cops was not an option.
Swaylo swerved through traffic, with a mask of intense concentration etched upon his face.
Following their preplanned route of escape, he sent the van speeding onto the I-85 East interstate.
The monotonous drone of engine acceleration could be heard resonating about the van.
Commercial districts, housing developments, and vast acres of woodland could be seen shifting past the window, like images on a slot machine.
The landscape changed as they reached the Government Boulevard overpass, and merged into traffic flowing onto the I-20 East highway.
A quarter of a mile into East Atlanta, DeKalb County, Swaylo made an abrupt turn from the highway and sent the van skidding to a stop about three yards away from a dense clump of woodland.
From a random perusal of the area, no one would expect the bandits to use that location, to attempt to elude any immediate police pursuit.
Shonda had devised a plan that would allow them to abandon the van, two miles past the Ashton Street exit.
The location marker was a large billboard sign, advertising businesses and services to be had fifteen miles further.
At that specific mile marker, there were no other exits, on or off of the interstate, for another fifteen miles.
With that lay of the landscape, the cops would have only two possible options to apprehend them...
They would be forced to chase them into the woodland or drive fifteen miles further, to establish a search party capable of combing the area.
According to Shonda's plan, it would take an estimated ten minutes, to travel the fifteen miles and double back to the area, in which the bandits veered off of the interstate.
The expanse of woodland seen from the highway did not display the apartment complex two hundred yards away.
The thicket of trees concealed the neighborhood, railroad tracks, and route to be taken by the bandits after they created some separation from their pursuers.
Once they began their approach to the area, Pluto began dousing the van with gasoline.
When Swaylo brought the van to a halt, before the dense wall of woodland, each of the bandits went into action.
Everyone knew their position.
Over twenty police cruisers were trailing in their wake, as Kenny and D-Money bolted from the van.
It was Pluto and Swaylo's job to provide them with initial cover, as they made their escape with the duffle bags of cash.
A series of gunshots erupted, as they fired shots at the pursuing cops.
It was Pluto's turn to move.
Swaylo had the rear and would be expected to set the van ablaze.
The driver's side of the van was positioned where the body of the vehicle could give the last man a modicum of cover.
Police cars began to disperse with a reckless screech of tires.
Within moments the burst of gunfire ceased, as the trio disappeared into the dense woodland.
Swaylo jumped out of the van, and peered across its bulk at the mayhem; left in their wake.
A collection of over twenty police cruisers were scrambling for position across the interstate.
It was a scene, in which he had no idea would develop throughout his day when his alarm clock first startled him awake.
But the prospect of capture and shouldering a death penalty case made Swaylo move with extreme caution.
When he saw the tableau before him, he decided he would rather die than allow himself to be taken alive.