Chapter 188

We arrived at a quiet block in the slump of town. A few meters down the road was a cluster of pubs and clubs with blinding neon lights that lit up the night. The streetlamps were dim candle lights compared to them.
It wasn't the best neighbourhood. The area had gone on TV several times, notorious for its crime rate.
The jeeps lined up by the curb and everyone except the drivers got off the vehicles. "Let's start playing, boys!" Quentin howled as he led the small army with his shotgun in hand.
The malice and coldness in his eyes as he grinned reminded me of the Joker's. Once the jeeps were empty, we started driving away, a jeep after another, and started our 15-minute drive.
It was probably nearing the end of our first round when the sound of the first gunshot rang through the air. My head whipped towards the direction it came from and a horrifying scene greeted my wide eyes as I drove by the dark alley.
Kids were scurrying out of a fire exit door with their mothers as bullets ricocheted off the walls. Their screams penetrated my jeep's windows as their mothers pulled them close and shielded them.
My hands moved on their own accord as it turned the wheel and caused the car to swerve to the side. I parked and practically fell out of the jeep before running to the scene.
I didn't know what I was doing but once the scene reappeared in front of me, my whole body froze.
A woman tripped and fell with her child by the door of the emergency exit and crawled away to put some distance between the door and her.
Not a second after, a man stepped out of the door, walking backwards with his hands raised in surrender.
A gun came into my view next, pointed at the man's head.
The man kept walking backwards and the gun moved along with him, maintaining the distance between them.
The gunman finally revealed himself, stepping away from behind the door.
Quentin's smile was twisted as he quirked an eyebrow at the man and taunted him, waving his gun around as if there were no shrieking children that fearfully hiding behind their mothers near him.
"That's why you should never steal from me, Larry. Didn't anyone tell you that I'm someone you should never piss off?" Quentin shook his head, clucking his tongue at Larry in mock dismay.
Larry's eyes flitted towards the woman and little boy that exited the building right before he did.
I followed his eyes and saw that both mother and son were in tears, staring at the unfolding scene before them with fear-stricken looks.
They must be his family.
Larry fell to his knees and started grovelling by Quentin's feet.
"Please, I'll do whatever you want me to do. Just please don't do this here." Larry begged.
Quentin's laughter bounced off the walls of the alley and echoed into the night.
"Oh, don't do this here? Why? Are you scared that this will scar your family forever? Don't worry, their forever won't be as long as you think it is. They'll be right behind you." Quentin's eyes went unnervingly detached as he raised his gun again and aimed it at Larry's head, pressing the weapon between Larry's brows and pulled the trigger.
The deafening noise made my ears ring and for the next few minutes, I couldn't hear anything else but the ringing.
My legs weakened along with Larry's lifeless body that fell sideways onto the hard ground.
I could see the woman and little boy's mouths open wide in a wail but I couldn't hear their screams.
I could see the dark red liquid spill through the gaping hole on Larry's head and trickle sideways, dropping onto the ground under him and smearing the ground red.
His wife and son scrambled on their hands and feet towards Larry's body, hugging him close to them, their tears mixing with the blood continued to flow down his face.
Quentin snickered sickly at what was happening before him and raised his gun once again. Before I could do anything to stop him from shooting them, a round of gunshots rang through the alley.
The women and children that were still in the alley covered their heads and huddled together, cowering into a dark corner if possible.
Quentin swivelled around. I didn't know what he saw but whatever it was, it saved Larry's family.
Quentin fled the scene, a trail of men on his tail. As the other men chased after Quentin, the shock that had put me in a daze finally subsided and I grabbed the opportunity to make sure that none of the women and children got hurt.
I was guiding a woman and her two kids to the mouth of the alley to get them out of there when a man yelled behind us as we turned around the corner.
"Charlize!"
The next thing I knew, a bullet bounced off the wall beside my head, nearly grazing my ear. I looked to the side at the woman.
"Go, keep your children safe." I ushered her.
She looked at me with fearful eyes but nodded nonetheless, taking her kids with her as she started to run away from the alley.
I pressed my entire body against the wall as I hid around the corner. I squeezed my eyes shut and calmed my racing heart. My jeep was parked across the alley. I checked my watch.
I need to go now to make it in time.
I closed my eyes again and counted to three, peeking around the corner.
I retracted my head just in time as a bullet whizzed by me.
A gunshot came from the other side of the alley's mouth and my eyes flew to the source.
Jax stood there, checking his gun barrel to see how many bullets he had left.
He cursed and raised his head, making eye contact with me.
"Use the fucking gun I gave you, you idiot! What's the use of bringing the gun if you're not gonna use it?! Start shooting or you'll die!" Jax yelled from the other side. He pressed his body against the wall. A few feet to his right was the jeep I drove.
I took my gun out and looked at it. My hand that held the weapon shook. I held it with my other hand, trying to steady it.
The gun had a full round of bullets since I haven't shot at all but I couldn't use it. I didn't have any confidence in my aim. I didn't want to hit any women or children that was still in the alley, caught in the crossfire, by mistake.
I looked at Jax before looking down at the gun again.
"What are you doing, Johnson?! Get shooting!" He raised his voice to beat the sound of the guns going off and the bullets hitting the walls.
"Jax!" I yelled at him to catch his attention.
I showed him the gun. He looked at me as if I was dumb. I crouched and threw the gun across the alley's mouth towards him. The gun fell to the ground near him, scraped the ground and skidded to a stop by his feet.
Jax looked at the gun and then at me. His expression screamed, "You're fucking crazy." But he picked up the gun nonetheless and started shooting into the alley.
Taking that as my cue, I made a break for it and sprinted towards the jeep. The sound of guns going off so many times made it feel like that bullets were flying around me, and they probably were.
I threw the jeep's door open and jumped in, Jax right behind me, getting into the backseat.
I slammed the gear into place and pulled out of there like the hellhounds were on my tail.
My hands couldn't stop shaking but I held onto the wheel tightly, treating it as my lifeline.
"Turn here, we'll get to the pick-up point quicker." Jax directed. I followed his instructions and sure enough, our jeep fell in line with the others, just in time to witness the horde of Mafia men running towards their escape vehicles.
My ears still had a slight ringing in them and it took more effort than usual to force my vision into focus. I was half out of my mind right now. The scene that I had just witness was rearing in the back of my mind and causing pressure.
"Focus, kid!" The Mafia man sitting on the passenger seat beside me snapped as he started to notice my state.
The sound of sirens in the distance started to grow louder and the jeeps that were lined up in front of me started to drive away.
As I watched the jeeps before me go in different directions, my hands started to tremble even more as I panicked.
Where was everyone going? Where was I supposed to go?
Suddenly, Jax's voice reached my ears from behind me. "Right."
I turned right.
"Everyone's splitting up and taking a detour in case we have a tail." He explained.
For some reason, his explanation helped calm me down a bit.
I didn't know how I was able to drive with my mental state at that moment but we somehow managed to arrive at the basecamp safely at the same time as all the other jeeps arrived too.
Everyone got off the jeeps whilst I sat behind the wheel a moment longer, trying to reign in my panic.
What did I just witness?
The door to the driver's seat opened and Jax stood there with a look I've never seen him wear before.
"Get off." He ordered.
I complied. Jax shut the door and stood in front of me, not making a move to follow the others back into the warehouse.
"What was that?" Jax asked me.
I looked at him in disbelief. Was he asking me that? "Yeah, what was that?" I threw the question back at him.
"Your job was to be the driver. It was the easiest job in this mission and you managed to fuck it up. You almost got both of us killed tonight, Johnson."
Jax's stare as he looked at me was hard, it was probably a contrast to my fleeting and unstable look.
"I didn't sign up for this! There were children and women and they were caught in the crossfire. A man was murdered!" I clenched my hands to stop them from shaking. My fight or flight mode was screaming at me to flee instead of fight.
Jax blew air through his nose, closing his eyes and raking his hand through his hair in irritation.
I can't believe someone could be irritated after witnessing what just happened. How could he be so calm after what just happened. A man lost his life. Didn't he realize how urgent the matter was? Was death a normal occurrence in this unfamiliar world?
"Get over it, Johnson. Those women and children were the families of the opposing side and they stole from us first." Jax sighed with his eyes closed, head craned back to face the night sky.
"What stolen thing could have been worth a man's life?" I asked.
This was just outrageous.
Jax's eyes snapped open and he glared at me sharply.
"Get your shit together, Johnson. This is the world you sheltered motherfuckers are oblivious and blind to. You were living a life where none of this could touch you and yet you willingly jumped into this mess. Remember this, you got yourself involved on your own free will; whether or not you signed up for the things that you went through today doesn't count as shit."
I opened my mouth to say something but Jax beat me to it.
"What? You want to quit?" Jax scoffed with a sarcastic smile.
"Did you think that this was something you can get out of that easily? Did you think you could quit just because you say you quit? Even in the movies, they had to get beat up before they could quit. In real life, quitting isn't even an option."
I had a bad feeling about what Jax was saying.
"What do you mean?"
Jax smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. "Seriously, Johnson. Are you dumb? You came to the Mafia to ask them to keep an eye on your sister to 'protect' her. There's this monster that you should never tell your name to because once it knows your name, it'll be able to control you. The Mafia is that monster."
"Are you saying that they'll hurt her?"
Jax sighed in mock pity.
"Well, they certainly wouldn't be protecting her. You know how the Mafia doesn't like loose ends. They'll probably use her as your leash."
Jax took a gun from his back and pressed it against my chest.
I grabbed it before it could fall to the ground.
Jax took another look at me. "Start learning, Johnson. Otherwise, you won't survive another second in this world."
With that, he turned and walked towards the warehouse.
It was only then that I finally realized how deep the hole I dug for myself was.
That was the first lesson I learnt.
Never tell the monster your name.