The Purple Haze Read Online Free PDF Page A

bystanders. But the scuffle had been resolved by the stocky looking man who he had been communicating with since he first spoke through the loud speaker. He turned to Ken. “The deadline passed one minute ago, what the hell is going on in there?”
    “ No idea, sir,” said Ken, “but you might want to try and find some way of ending this soon in case they carry out their threat.”
    Myers looked around at the scene again. He picked up the bullhorn and addressed the robbers again. “The deadline you gave us has passed, what are your demands?” He waited for a response, but the stocky man didn't return the window. “Please respond,” he said through the horn, but he got nothing. He hadn't heard any gunfire. He picked up his radio. “Team two, this is Inspector Myers, please respond.”
    “ This is team two, James speaking, over,” replied a voice.
    “ James, has there been any movement at the rear of the bank, over?” he asked.
    “ No sir, no contact here, over,” said James.
    “ Okay, prepare for breach in five minutes. All teams prepare for breach in five minutes, over.” He put the radio down and turned to Ken. “Tell the paramedics to stand ready,” he ordered. Ken jogged over to the paramedics to pass on the message. Myers looked back at the bank and took a deep breath. “OK, this is it,” he said to himself.
    At the west end of the street, Mike Heys was carrying out his given role to the best of his ability. The only side of the job he had never liked was that people didn't take PCSO's seriously. He had been telling the public for the past twenty minutes that there was an extremely dangerous situation and that they needed to move along, but still they all lingered. He kept looking back over his shoulder to see what the situation was, but due the sheer volume of people, he couldn't look long enough to see anything of interest.
    A woman approached him. “Excuse me, what's happened?” she asked.
    “ Nothing to worry about, miss, there's just been a police incident, please move along,” he told her.
    “ What kind of incident?” she asked.
    Mike was beyond caring at this point. He had been asked this so many times now he didn't care how he sounded. “Miss, just move along, there is nothing concerning you here,” he sternly said.
    She pleaded with him, “Please, I'm supposed to be meeting my boyfriend, he works at the bank.”
    “ Shit,” Mike thought. He knew there would be hostages in the bank as the police hadn't entered the bank yet. Otherwise they would have attempted to storm it when they arrived. “What's his name?” he asked her.
    “ Simon McMahon. He's a teller at the bank.”
    “ OK, leave it with me.” He stepped away from her to use the radio. “Inspector Myers, this is Heys on the west side of the street, I have a woman here asking for news of her boyfriend. She says he works at the bank, has anyone heard from him, over?” He waited for a response but didn't get one. He thought it strange and looked up towards the scene of the incident.
    When he looked up he immediately saw why he didn't get a response. Everyone on the street was now looking down to the east side at a huge wall of fog coming towards them. The fog was purple in hue, and reached as far up as anyone could see. As it came closer, the fog swallowed up any building it moved over, so thick that things just seemed to disappear into it. He heard a commotion behind him and looked back to see pedestrians stepping back, fear dominating their eyes. He looked back to the fog and saw it swallow up the roadblock at the east end of the street. Without realising it he was stepping back with the crowd now. It came closer, and it was when it swallowed up the armed response vehicles and inspector Myers vehicle, he turned and ran with the crowd. He didn't make it far before the first vapours came past him. Within seconds he couldn't see past the length of his arm. He tripped on something and tumbled to the ground. He felt dizzy. He