Chapter 1: The Rage
It’s 7 pm, Shane is lying on his bed in his small but spacious apartment, nothing too fancy but the basics, a bed, radio, a window with the view of other apartments, empty beer bottles thrown around the room along with dirty clothes thrown on the floor.
Shane, a 25-year-old, grew up in foster care since he was 5 years old along with his best friend Shelby. Both of them were no angels, constantly causing havoc in the neighborhood whether that be causing vandalism to property and having the police called to both their foster parents who happened to live a few doors away from each other.
Shane, weary of the time, gets up off his bed and grabs his leather jacket with the logo of his gang on the back “The Zodiacs”. He continues putting his jacket on him and combing back his slicked dirty blonde hair. As he opens the door to leave, Lex appears just about to knock. “You ready for Rage?” Lex says to Shane. “Ready as I’ll ever be” he replies. “Good, now let’s go before they start without us,” said Lex. Rage, an illegal underground fighting competition, where gangs come from around the city in duos to fight each other. No weapons, just fists.
Shane and Lex are driving to Rage in Lex’s 1972 Jensen- Healey, a car that Lex adores and is constantly making sure there is not a scratch on the car or its interior. “You nervous,” says Shane to Lex, “I don’t want anyone touching this moneymaker,” he says as he waves his hand in front of his face, “So you better be on you’re a-game tonight, not only for that but “The Zodiacs” can finally show the other crews we mean business”. “We will, just get us there in one piece please, I think I’m getting motion sickness from your driving,” Shane says with a chuckle. “Hey, at least it’s not Shelby driving, then we would be in trouble” replies Lex. After a moment of silence “So? You and Shelby? When are you to confess your love to her?” Lex says raising his eyebrows up and down smiling. “I’m just… waiting for the right moment” Shane replies. “Oh that’s bullshit, you’ve literally known her your whole life, don’t be a bitch” Lex answers back. “That’s exactly why, I’m afraid of what she will say if she doesn’t feel the same way” Shane snaps back. “We are literally driving to a place where we will get our heads punched, kicked, and elbowed and you’re afraid to tell someone your feelings? Wow, you really are something,” Lex said snickering. “Enough of the criticizing, we’re here,” Shane says rolling his eyes at Lex. “Hey, I saw that”.
As Shane and Lex make their way to the makeshift setup, They spot all the other crews waiting about, to their left they’ve got The Eclipse, formed after a falling out with The Zodiacs co-founder Frank and has been bad blood since, past them, there is the biker gang “Seven Sons”, a new gang recently set up trying to play with the big boys, preparing beside them is “The Fury” a bunch of loose cannons that thrive on pain, most of their members have scars from fights they have been in. Win the fight and scar yourself, they use it as a ranking system. Finally, past them are “Blaze”, these guys get their name from when they were kids growing up, setting areas on fire, arson is a big play for them, the name resonates with all of their members.
As the members gather around the makeshift arena, full of old shipping containers and makeshift cages from old barbed wire fences, Shane and Lex huddle together, “Ready to show these who we are?” Lex says. “Absolutely” Shane replies, with a sinister look on his face.
The announcer makes his presence known and begins to speak using a megaphone, ”Alright you low-life degenerates, you know why you are all here, you’re here to put some more respect flying your colors. We have the new boys from the “Seven Sons” looking to wreck the rest of y’all, beside them we have “The Fury”, I’m not gonna lie, y’all scare me, next up we have “Blaze” looking to set the place… a Blaze. Everyone in the arena just moans and groans including members of “Blaze”. “Rough crowd huh, anyway, onto “The Eclipse” and “The Zodiacs”, two crews with a lot of history which will certainly make this an entertaining night,” the announcer says. “Now ladies and gentlemen, IT’S TIME FOR RAGE!!!” The announcer shouts as the gangs all charge towards each other ready to cause havoc.
The gangs all charge at lightning pace, none of them analyzing the other's moves, just full-on brawling. Lex, squaring up next to a member of “Blaze”, whilst Shane is already with the ground & pound on one of the “Seven Sons”. Shane gets up leaving the member bloodied and groaning on the floor, he turns and sees Lex just after knocking out the “Blaze” member. Shane makes his way over, looking at the chaos that is has been going on, bloodied gang members on the floor clutching their stomachs and faces, now realizing that it is just two other members left, “The Eclipse”. Shane and Lex are both slightly bloodied but nothing too major square up to the others. “Slade? That you? I didn’t recognize you with your broken face, thought you were some sort of a boxer,” Shane says as he and Lex laugh, “No Shane, he is a dangerous man, he has a 1-6 win/loss record,” Lex says as they both break down laughing. “Enough talking you bastards, me and Vic are gonna put you pups down” Slade replies. As the four get ready to finish the fight off “whoop, whoop”, police squad cars fly into the area sirens flashing and wailing. Seeing this, all the attendees and what’s left of the gangs begin the make their exit. Shane and Lex go their separate ways from Vic and Slade as they all try to escape from the police. All around them are police cuffing and battening down others who are putting up a fight. They both sprint for an exit through an isolated alleyway but are quickly in pursuit by two police officers with their helmets on and batons at the ready. The chase goes on for what seems like an hour until Lex turns to Shane whilst still running “You tired yet” Shane, already beginning to heave nods “Good” Lex says “I was getting sick of running”. Lex stops immediately “CRUNCH”, the police officer immediately falls holding his nose groaning in pain as Shane, sluggishly tries to throw punches at the other officer, Lex then turns his attention to Shane getting a baton full to the stomach and begins to tackle the other officer to the ground, pushing his baton away, “Not so tough now are we” he proudly states to the officer as Shane throws the baton to Lex. The officer retreats to his fellow officer slowly, leaving Shane and Lex to make their escape back to “The Zodiacs” base. “Tell you what Lex, I could really do with a Whiskey when we get back”.
