The Diner

Quiet little diner, tucked away between the financial district and chinatown. Classic, silver pill full of stools and a few booths. Good pie, decent milkshakes, food good enough to eat if you felt too guilty just eating the pie. peaceful little place. maybe handled 20-30 customers after 5pm. closed at 11. not this night though.



It was round about 9 and Sarah was counting the minutes left in her shift. 117 was way too many. she decided to start counting minutes until her next smoke break. 27, much more comfortable.

In the past two hours there had been 3 customers, and one guy looking for directions. So when the door chimed and two men walked in she wasn't too busy to notice. They sat in the last booth next to each other, both facing the rest of the diner.

"Hi, I'm Sarah. I'll be your server." She handed them the menus and they took them without so much as looking up.

"Anything to drink?"

"Water" they said in unison.

Sarah went to get the waters, muttering under her breath while she got the ice and glasses

"Always at Night, all the weird ones come out at night. just hope they're not looking to rob the place"


The bell rang again as the door swung open and four guys, looking distinctly like trouble walked in, laughing and yelling at each other. They sat in one of the booths next to the door while Sarah took the waters to the two gentlemen.

She knew they hadn't looked at their menu's but she asked anyway.

"Decided what you want to order yet?"

"No" the severe looking one said.

"We need more time" said the shaky one.

"Alrighty, I'll come back to you then."



"Hey how about some service here" said the new guy in the red and white jogging suit , "my balls have been aching all day" He laughed and exchanged high fives with his friends.

"Great, freaks and mysogynists, all in the same night just what I need." She muttered under her breathe.


"Alright, what do you guys want?"

"Hey no call for being unfriendly" said the one in a white T, loose button down (unbuttoned of course), and jeans.


"Well I figured since we were getting all buddy buddy I could drop the waitress politeness"


"That's not the only thing you could drop sweet cheeks" no laughs.



"Dude that was lame"



Ding! the bell rang again. A three more serious looking men walked in. Clear fashion sense, but not dressed up. Probably club goers waiting for the clubs to get interesting.

Sarah sighed under her breath and decided to come back to the the four later. The three men sat down on theopposite end of the diner from the first two. She went over to them.


"What's good?" the dark haired on in the striped shirt said before she could even say hi.

She paused, "Well the Pies are all good. The key-lime is the freshest. But if you mean ent..."

"key lime then, three slices. Thank you" the man said and the looked back to his companions.


"ah... sure. Coming right up."


As she turned and walked behind the the counter she heard a noise that scared her more than any she had heard before.


Shuck-click, chick-chick, click-shick.


As a CJ major she had some familiarity with guns. That was definitely the sound of three hand guns being cocked. nothing big, probably nine millimeters, maybe a .45. Shortly followed by simlar noises and the sounds of a number of people standing up all at once.


Sarah froze up, and stood as still as she could in the silence that followed the commotion.



...



...



...



Ding! the whole store almost went straight to hell right then. A man walked into the diner, walked to the counter, sat down and waited patiently.



...



More silence. The man looked up at Sarah.

"Miss?"

...

"Miss? Could I get a water?"



Sarah looked at him. He was dressed up but had the fashion taste of the average male... bad. Probably middle management for a chain of stores or something.

"I would really appreciate a glass of water, miss."



Sarah surprised herself by slowly picking up a glass in front of her and and filling it with water before placing it in front of him. He was right there after all, right in the middle of it with her. When she turned around she saw that the three clubbers had hand guns out and were pointing them at the four punks, who also had weapons drawn. One was still in the booth. Behind them the two freaky ones were standing still next to each other in the aisle.



"Thank you, here's a nice tip"

In her assessment of the rest of the scene she had briefly forgotten about the man in the middle. She looked down. There was a $100 bill lying on the counter.


"um... gentlemen" Frank, the night chef, said "perhaps we could all be calm for now and move this out of the diner. Were just innocent folk here and we don't want to get caught up in all this."

"No one is innocent" the man at the counter said, putting his wallet back into his jacket. At least that is what Sarah thought at first until she remembered that he had reached to his back pocket when getting her tip.

"Shit" she said as the gun under his coat went off. CRACK!

The shaky one, first one in for the night, went down. The severe one reached under his coat and started pulling out a sub machine gun. A couple of the punks started to turn to look behind them. The last thing sarah saw before hitting the deck was one of them get clipped in the back of the head. The fight that ensued must have lasted all of 3 seconds and it felt like it. But that image wouldn't get out from behind Sarah's eyelids.


Then she realized someone was holding her, and gently trying to turn her over. She looked up and the rather plain man was crouched by her. Then she realized he was whispering.


"shhh shhh shhh, it's ok, its ok,"

Click

"They're gone, they can't hurt you"

Click

"its over, shh shhh shhh"


Then she recognized the noise.


CRACK!


"No one is innocent"


Ding.