“Back off, pigs, or the cute nurses get it!”

The door to the storage room did little to muffle the lead gangbanger’s ranting, and Vineeta groaned, sharp brown eyes glancing about the darkened interior, only the intermittent flash of the lights atop the police cruisers outside illuminating the room’s contents. The criminals had never intended to take hostages, never mind become cornered in the east wing of the hospital with law enforcement all around, and she dared hope that they’d taken a similar lack of diligence in stripping the small room of anything she or Stephanie could use to free themselves. It had all happened so fast, the horrifying sound of gunshots within the hospital’s warning their only warning before the trio of thugs had burst into the staff kitchen where the two women were taking their lunch together, the blood on their clothes and the levelled handguns sufficient to ensure their compliance. Perhaps they’d intended on taking the nurses with them in a getaway vehicle, but the police responded faster than expected, and what was meant to be a quick, in-and-out killing of a rival gang member had devolved into a tense standoff. Time trickled away slowly, like ice melting at the first thaw of spring, and every moment, Vineeta remained on edge, convinced that this was the instant one of the gang would burst in and murder them out of sheer spite rather than quietly submit to the police.

Grunting, the tall Indian nurse shuffled over to her colleague as fast as her bonds would permit, any words of reassurance reduced to meaningless sounds by the gauze that filled her mouth and the tape sealing her lips. Like Vineeta, Stephanie had been bound with a spare roll of packing tape the gangbangers had snatched before they were cornered, legs secured at the thighs and ankles, wrists bound behind her back. She’d been struggling valiantly ever since they were shoved into the storage room, and at Vineeta’s approach, she gave a frustrated shake of her head, blue eyes bright with frustrated tears above the gag. “Mmmmppgggh…”

“You think we’re weak, huh? You think we’re weak?! Maybe I’ll kill one of these stupid bitches now, show you how tough we are!”

All the colour bleaching from her face, Stephanie let out a whimper of fright, slender figure trembling uncontrollably at the threat. Closing the remaining distance between them, Vineeta let the blonde’s head rest on her shoulder, trying to offer what comfort she could, her own fears likewise intensified as the gang leader’s defiant shouts became all the more unhinged. Moaning, the two bound nurses renewed their struggles, neither willing to simply stand by and wait to be rescued. For the more the gangbangers felt they were cornered, the greater their peril became…