Mario arrived in the South Shore neighborhood again around three-thirty. The light was hanging low in the sky, obscured by a grey cloud cover, but true sundown would not be for another two hours or so. He was not a practiced driver, and Deacon’s huge baby blue land boat was difficult to control. It felt like it was floating above the pavement, took up a lot of space when he needed to turn, and the motor was way too powerful. He had to ease the gas to prevent the tires from spinning at every light he came to. It’s not that Mario had never driven a car before; it was just that he had never owned one and driven it daily for practice. Also, it was much easier to ride the train than pay for the upkeep on a vehicle.

The young Chicano managed to make it back to the street where they had been parked before and he pulled up alongside the curb in roughly the same spot. He got out of the car cautiously and looked around to make sure the area was empty. When he was satisfied there was no one roaming around, he then made his way down the street and then through the field that led to the old middle school. He just hoped that he was not too late and that his friends were still alive in there somewhere.

As Mario began to sneak around to the side of the building he froze in place, hearing movement in the weeds ahead of him. He looked around for a place to hide, but besides plastering himself against the side of the school, there really was nowhere to go. His heartrate climbed as the sounds drew near and he remained perfectly still and quiet, hoping that the patrol would pass by without seeing him.

That’s when a group of people came around the corner and Mario saw them for the first time. He had been ducking behind the tall weeds to hide from whatever was coming, but he now stood back up and called out to them.

“Hey, what are you fools doing?”

Nate, Jermaul and Carlos came over.

“Where’s Ian?” Nate asked.

“Him and the girl got kidnapped man, I don’t know by who.”

“What?”

“Yeah, these fools in a van pulled up and snatched them. By the time I got over to them, they were gone. I figured they brought her back here.”

“She wasn’t with us, but then again this place is pretty big.”

“Yeah man, we ain’t even find Deke in there yet. Or the girl’s friend, if she’s here or not.” Jermaul chimed in.

“Yeah we just managed to escape because this nerd knew a way out.” Carlos smacked his hand across Nate’s chest.

“I went back and tried to get Ramon to help, but he’s useless.” Mario said disappointedly.

“So, what’s the plan then?” Jermaul asked the others.

“Well, at least the four of us are together again. I say we do the only thing we can do at this point.” Nate smiled a crooked smile. “We have to go back in.”

The friends all went back to Nate’s secret entrance making as little noise as possible. As they ducked through the low-ceilinged tunnel, Mario was the first to point something out that they had all somehow up until this point missed.

“Hey man, something ain’t right man.”

“What?” Carlos asked his brother.

“Where the fuck is Brian DiMarco?”

“Man, fuck Brian DiMarco!” Came the reply from the other three friends at once. They then disappeared back into the tunnel.

* * * *

“Hey, wake up man.” A voice swirled through the fog and found a way into Deacon’s ears.

Deacon opened his eyes to find Brian DiMarco standing over him.

“What are you doing here? And what time is it?” Deacon asked in a daze.

“I dunno the time. It’s getting late. I just want to get you out of here.”

“Where are the others?”

“They split, I dunno.”

“Great.” Deacon tried to move but found he had little leeway. Again, his hands were still cuffed behind him, and he still felt a severe allergic reaction to something within the room that seemed worse now than before. “Do they have a fuckin’ cat in here or what?” He began looking around but saw nothing.

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“How do I get you out? C’mon man, you gotta come up with something!”

“Can’t you pick the lock?”

“Me? I can’t pick a lock.”

“Where’s Carlos when you need him?”

“I told you I don’t know where they went.”

“That was rhetorical shithead.” Deacon snapped.

“Oh.” Brian DiMarco replied. “What’s that?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Keep it down you assholes!” Came a feminine voice from the other side of the room.

“Shit. You’re still here?” Deacon rolled his eyes at the sound of Zoe’s bratty friend’s voice.

“They got a guard outside the door, he’ll hear you.”

“Shit. Think. Think.” Deacon began trying to do just that, but he couldn’t find a solution to his problem with Brian DiMarco there. If it had been any of the others maybe…

“Can you find the others?” Deacon finally asked.

“Yeah, I can try.”

“Then get going!”

Suddenly a clatter from elsewhere down the echoing hallways erupted. Shouts. Insults. It had to be the rest of the gang.

“Go!” Deacon commanded, and Brian DiMarco slithered away, presumably the same mysterious way that he had entered the room, from somewhere behind where he could not see.

The door opened just as Brian left, and one of the armed Jamaicans came over. With a rough grasp, he unlocked Deacon and dragged him forcefully out of the room, where several others were waiting.

* * * *

The four warriors came down the hall under the unity of battle. They came upon one of the gangsters and Carlos managed to get the drop on him, knocking him out cold with his brass knuckles. A little further down the hallway they came on another enemy. This time was sloppier, since the man saw them coming, but they managed to swarm over him and overwhelm him with numbers before he could call out and alert the others. This was done with no direction from any of them, they were all hardened veterans of the streets and knew what to do.

At this point the four friends weren’t sure where to begin their search for their missing friend, but they figured on coming in and raising as much hell as possible was about as good a strategy as any other at this point. They moved down the darkened halls after that for some time unchallenged, before finally coming upon the lunch hall again, where they knew the boss had been before.

The four hellraisers nodded to each other silently when they saw the opened doors down the hall and the lights and shadows moving within. They knew what had to be done. They were outgunned, outmanned and outmaneuvered, leaving them with only one option, an option they all knew and were prepared for. Rush in and do as much violence as possible as quickly as possible. It wasn’t their first time.

“Now.” Nate spoke, and all four of them charged the hallway, gaining the threshold to the door before anyone inside could react.

In a moment, the four friends uprooted what seemed like a quiet drug producing operation into total chaos. Jermaul, being the tallest and quickest, managed to overtake one of the armed men and wrestle his assault rifle away from him while Mario dropkicked the distracted gangster next to him. As the other armed men turned to react to this sudden assault, Carlos entered the cafeteria and swung his brass knuckles with everything he had at one of the armed gangsters as he was looking at the scene unfolding across the room. At the same time Nate flipped over a table, and something caught on fire. Jermaul aimed the assault rifle at the two other guards in the back of the room and opened fire. As the pair fell to the ground dead, even more chemicals spilled over, causing another fire to ignite.

It was perhaps the chemicals that were amassed for the drug operation, or maybe it was the decrepit state of the abandoned building, but the fire spread with alarming quickness. All four friends looked around panicked.

“Shit!” Nate screamed.

“Guys?” Nate turned towards this new voice, coming from down the hall. It was Deacon.

“Deke!” Mario called back.

They ran out of the room, leaving the downed and knocked out thugs to their fate. The fire was now climbing the walls rapidly, it was time to leave.

The group of zombified thugs took Deacon and Ava, still handcuffed, down the hallway and led them outside. As soon as the doors leading to a side exit opened, however, they were blindsided by a rabid Southsider, Brian DiMarco. Brian waited for them to come out, slammed the door forcefully closed and knocked two of them to the ground before leaping on another.

Deacon did not need an invitation to join in his rescue attempt. Though his hands were cuffed behind his back, he began kicking out at another one of the zombified thugs. Moments later, the rest of his friends had come up from behind, knocked the rest down and stomped their faces in until they quit moving. Jermaul emptied the rest of the magazine from the assault rifle into the idling car along the street, which took off away from the scene quickly. It wasn’t quite clear what their plan had been, or where they were wanting to take Deacon and Ava, but the Jamaican Posse members fled away out of sight at the sound of the gunplay.

“Thought they killed you.” Nate smiled when he saw Deacon again.

Carlos went to work unlocking the handcuffs, and the young girl gave the group a dirty look.

“Is this the girl?” Mario asked, jerking his thumb in her direction.

“Are you poor people going to rape me?” The girl asked, trying to pull away from Carlos as he began to pick the lock to her cuffs.

“She’s a bright one.” Carlos commented. “Hold still so I can open these.”

“Don’t nobody want to rape your bony ass.” Jermaul frowned at her while tossing the rifle into the tall grass outside the building.

“We survived.” Brian DiMarco looked around, happy to see everyone still alive and back together again. “Let’s get the hell out of here and go home. Wait, where’s Ian and the girl?”

“They took them fool.” Mario replied.

“They took Zoe?” Deacon blinked. “God dangit! We get one girl and lose another!”

“We gotta go.” Nate looked back into the abandoned school, the flames were visible now from outside.

“Yeah, that fire is gonna spread quick. Probably gonna be police and fire here soon.” Jermaul nodded.

“You guys can go but I can’t.” Deacon rubbed his sore wrists as the cuffs came off and sighed.

“I know that look.” Nate watched Deacon’s determined face. “What are you thinking?”

“I gotta finish this. I gotta get her.” Deacon’s eyes met with Nate’s. “They went to the Aon building.”

“How do you know that?”

“I just do. The dumb fuck…her boyfriend…” Deacon thumbed toward Ava, who was watching the friends distrustfully. “Said something about a ritual or something. I dunno what kind of stupid shit is going on anymore, but that’s where they went.”

“You guys go on and get out of here.” Nate addressed the others while stepping up to stand by Deacon. “But I’m not going to let you go alone.”