Safety First
“Donna, would you come into my office for a moment please?”
Karl’s secretary stood up and walked into her boss’s office, taking a seat when he asked her to.
“Donna, Corporate Security have called me and asked if I would see if you were willing to take part in something they’re arranging?”
“Oh, and what’s that?”
“You’ll be aware of the increased risk of attack on our staff recently. Well, they want to produce a video showing how to cope if you are attacked or robbed, and they were wondering if you would like to take part?”
“Me? I’m flattered – what would be involved?”
“Basically, they will stage and film a fake robbery with you as the victim, then walk you through and show you how certain things could have been prevented. They won’t tell you when they’re going to start, but the fact there is a cameraman there should put you at ease.”
“Will I be in real danger?”
“Oh no, Donna – it’s like being in a school play. Just go along with whatever happens, and they’ll take it from there. All right?”
Donna nodded and stood up. “Will there be anything else, Karl?”
“Not for now – good luck, Donna”
As the day came to an end, Donna picked up her beige jacket from the coat rack and slipped it over her white blouse. It had been a long day, and she was still wondering exactly what the Security people were going to do as she drove back to her house in the hills. As she parked the car in her driveway, she noticed that there was a white car parked just down the road that was unfamiliar to her.
“Must be visitors to my neighbours,” she thought to herself as she let herself in and threw her car keys onto the table. A slight breeze was coming through from the kitchen area, and Donna went to investigate.
The first thing she saw was that the entrance to the kitchen was open. The second was the man standing there with a video camera. The third was the dark haired girl with a very large gun in her hand.
“Hello, Donna. Don’t say a word and put your bag on the table there.”
The girl had short dark hair, and was casually dressed in a pair of blue hipster jeans, a light blue tracksuit top over a dark blue t-shirt, and white moon boots. Donna looked at the two of them in the kitchen as she laid her computer bag down.
“These must be the video people,” she thought, “Karl said they wouldn’t warn me of what was going to happen when.”
“Please, don’t hurt me, you can take whatever you want but don’t hurt me” she said as she raised her hands in the air.
“We know you will, Donna – now keep your hands in the air.”
Reaching into her jacket pocket with a free hand, the girl pulled out a length of white rope and began to walk round to behind where Donna was standing. Leaving the gun where she could see it but not reach it, she pulled Donna’s left arm behind her back and started to tie her wrists together.
“Ouch – that hurts,” she muttered under her breath as the girl pulled the rope tightly between her wrists, “Do you have to be so hard with that?”
“We give the orders here, Donna,” the girl said as she knotted the rope off. “Nice outfit, by the way.”
Donna smiled – she had picked her beige jacket and skirt to impress Karl, and now the security crew were complimenting her as well.”
“Thank yoummmmph”. As Donna tried to thank the girl, she took a length of white cloth and pulled it tightly into Donna’s mouth, tying it tightly at the base of her neck.”
“Move, bitch,” the woman said as she picked up the gun and , leading Donna in front of her, pushed the secretary onto the patio area. Donna looked round at the gun pointing to her head, with fear in her eyes, but also thinking to herself “These people don’t miss a trick.”
The dark haired girl had picked up Donna’s bag before they left the kitchen, and the man had kept filming while Donna had being bound and gagged. Now the girl stopped and ducked down behind Donna, looking directly at the camera man as she brought her head round from Donna’s back.
“I’d better look like I’m struggling,” Donna thought, and she began to try and twist round and move her head so that her straw blonde hair fell across her face.
“Quit struggling, and you’ll be all right,” the girl snarled at Donna as she pushed her towards a garden seat. “We just need to make sure you can’t raise the alarm when we’re gone, and that means keeping you away from all telephones and other things like that.”
Grabbing Donna’s arms with her left hand, she brought the gun round with her right and placed her arm around Donna’s throat. The secretary looked down at the size of the firearm, and she began to wonder if it was a real one or not. “Just how realistic do they want this to be,” she thought as the armed girl said “Move over there now and sit down!”
She pushed Donna towards the metal seat, and as Donna sat down she pulled another length of white rope out of her pocket.
The man continued to say nothing as he filmed the girl pushing Donna to the side of the seat, then kneeling down and binding her ankles together, cinching the rope between her ankles, and then securing the ends of the rope around the leg of the heavy seat.
Standing back up, she put her right foot on the seat and rested her arm on her leg, pointing the gun up as she did so.
“I must say, Donna, I thought you would be more afraid,” she said as she stared at the blonde haired woman.
“I must not look afraid enough,” Donna thought, and she pushed herself back with an expression of fear in her eyes as she looked at the gun. “That gun scares me anyway,…”
“Now that’s much better – I do prefer our victims to look at least a little scared. I wonder why you think you don’t need to be.”
She reached down and pulled the gag out of Donna’s mouth.
“Tell me, Donna, why aren’t you more scared?”
“Well, it’s just a film for my company, isn’t it?”
The dark haired girl looked at Donna for a moment, then shook her head.
“Of course it is, Donna. Now, open wide, I’m putting the gag back in.”
AS the girl tied the cloth back into Donna’s mouth, Donna noticed that the cameraman seemed to be laughing under his breath. The dark haired girl started to walk off into the distance, not looking back until Donna tried to call out.
“Hy, wht bt m?”
“Oh, you?” The armed girl said as she looked over her shoulder. “My colleague here is going to film you for a few minutes, and then we’ll leave you until our colleagues come in a few minutes. It’s important we make this as realistic as possible, Donna.”
Donna watched as the girl walked off, laughing, and then the man followed a few minutes later. She sat back in the chair, satisfied that she had completed the first part of the film, and waited for the next part to begin.
Thirty minutes passed before Donna heard footsteps and saw three men coming round the corner into the garden area.
“Dear God,” one of them shouted as they saw the bound and gagged girl on the bench, and ran forward.
“You took your time,” Donna said as the gag was removed, “your colleagues said you’d be along in a few minutes.”
“Colleagues? We’re from Security, Donna – we’ve just arrived to start making the film. What colleagues?”
“How stupid could she have been?”
The dark haired girl was leaning through the car window, talking to her boyfriend as they looked up at the house a few blocks away.
“I know,” he laughed, “thinking we were just a film crew from her work. It was hilarious.”
“Certainly made out job easier. Come on – we’ll call here, then go home and watch the fun on our player.”
The man picked up his video camera, and the two of them made their way cautiously round the side of the house, where the sound of music was coming from the rear.