Thursday, November 19, 2015

A Loss for words (4th installment)



She was caught in the middle in more ways than one. She was between the two cars, but she was also between a new gang rivalry. A small group of a larger group decided they wanted their own territory and this was the area they were trying to carve out for themselves.

The first car came to a stop again in the alley and prevented her from going forward. There were five men in this car. The second car pulled up behind her blocking her from going onto the street. Her back fender pressed up against the side of their car. Just like the first time she blocked the other gang members from getting out of the side doors. Six young men drove in this car and they hurriedly exited the car.

She knew exactly where the gun lay, but for now she kept her hands on the steering wheel waiting to see who would make the first move. She didn’t know about the gang situation, but she could instantly feel a great amount of tension between the two groups by the way they lined up on each side of her car. She just wished they had originally built the alley wider and she would waste no time going around them, but this was impossible.

The first set of gang members starting shouting at the new set. She could hear them tell the new car this was their territory so she was their bitch. She sat quietly, but inside the anger began overcoming the fear.  The second set of gang members laughed and called them old and of no importance anymore. Both sides began yelling, cussing, threatening each other over her and the territory.

She saw a police car two blocks up pull into the alley. The car turned around. She did not know they would come back when they thought it would be safe to come collect their share of whatever happened. Seeing the car leave only increased her anger. One other fact that no one knew, including her, was that she was the only one who actually was armed outside of a couple of gang members in each car having a lead pipe. If she knew they didn’t have guns this might have ended real quick. She had multiple sleeves for her gun under the seat. Neither set of gang members had seen the police nor would they have cared if they had. Both sides focused on winning.

And the younger newer gang members wanting to assert themselves actually started attacking the first car’s gang members. The gang members met each other on both sides and front of her car. The younger gang quickly overwhelmed the older gang members and the outcome started turning very nasty. All members of the first gang were beaten into the ground and since they held a small 6 to 5 advantage one of the younger members could rotate amongst the others and add to the pounding. Blood was starting to flow on the ground in significant quantities. The yelling slowly quieted down as the older gang lay on the ground severely beaten. The younger gang continued to kick them in the head and body as the younger gang could not stop themselves from the blood lust they were feeling. 
She just watched in horror. She could not believe people could become so barbaric so quickly. She knew that sooner or later they would come back to her. Five minutes later there were now five very horribly beaten and dying men on the ground and on top of them were six dying men from multiple gun shot wounds. She had gotten out of the car and began shooting. The good news was that when the fighting started no one watched including the shopkeeper who hid in his store. No one wanted to be a witness because no one wanted someone to come back. She was able to go back to the car behind her and since they left the keys in the car she could quickly move it back enough to back her car and go home.

It had all happened so fast that she could not remember what happened. She just knew she had to do something to protect herself. She waited in her house for days expecting a knock on the door. It never came.

The police came back later that morning. And no one had seen anything. No one knew who had the gun. The shopkeeper didn’t know anything and his wife made sure he didn’t think he knew anything. The police were angry. They had one huge mess on their hands and there nothing for them. Even when they searched both cars they couldn’t find anything worth having. Just two old cars that barely had enough gas to drive. They became angrier each moment about the mess because the responsibility fell on them to make sure it got cleaned up and they did notice the fact that six were shot and shot a bunch. This scared them. They knew rarely shootings occurred. And this not because of lack of guns, but because no one could afford ammunition. The fact that someone could indiscriminately go through ammunition like this meant there was real trouble somewhere out there.

They completed the written police report for public record for formalities;  It did mention that some suspects were shot. And since most people were not well educated anymore it really didn’t say much more than that. Their oral report to the boss contained more details. The Boss was nervous since the older gang members were his. Did he need to worry more about new gangs or some unknown identity that had shown more firepower in a couple of minutes than most of his gang members could produce in total? He called his boss and relayed the information. Who in turn called his boss and so it went up the chain. And since both the written and the oral report never mentioned that she was involved many people up the chain were concerned since they could not understand who had this much power. Were there whole new gangs?

The people who knew everything though, knew and they never reported back down the chain. They were a bit fascinated, so they made it a point to watch her even more.

After a few weeks she started to feel comfortable that maybe there wasn’t going to be anyone coming. She didn’t know much, but she knew enough about the neighborhood that retaliation was quick. Hot head gang members were not ones to wait and the police always wanted something for their efforts and wanted to be paid quickly. So more and more she got out and again started trying to engage and educate the children that would walk by. The months then years began to pass. All the while children that stayed were monitored. They knew something was going on inside the house. They were patient though and she kept them vigilant which they knew they always needed to be.



To be continued

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