He finally reached the sanctuary. As he paced slowly down the back-street, he felt the chill on the back of his neck, so he pulled the red basketball jersey out of his jeans where it hung, and slipped it over his sweat dripping, dark brown, muscle defined body.
“Yo!” He spotted the other boys from his posse, dressed in red bandanas, jerseys and doorags. They were passing round guns, pistols and rounds, which Nas had pulled out of a black rucksack. Jermaine shoved a “fo-fo” into his chest. After identifying the gun, he reached for the rounds and slid them into his jeans’ pocket.
“Yo, y’all ready?” They paced out of the alley in a huddle. The sunlight pulled away the shade from Ray-J’s anxious face. Scanning for a gang of boys in blue colours, they made their way to the park and stood behind the barbed fence. Their nine heads turned as woofers blasting out bass, roared up the street – hellish music getting closer and louder as it diffused through the light like a rank odour. Ray-J’s heart pounded – the bass getting harder; a battering warning to his heart.
“Go!” Bodies dived left and right. The out burst of metal being spat, shrieked. The light reflecting off the car flared and it was difficult to keep their eyes on the target.
Ray-J scrambled across the rickety paving slabs, and squatted behind a trashcan. His fingers fumbled as he distraughtly reloaded his gun. He pushed in the rounds. They clicked like loading his gun had triggered his adrenalin. On impulse, he sprang out and started firing again. Patriotic for his gang.
In a flash, another car appeared from the other side of the park. The Reds were surrounded. Bullets were pelting in through the net of barbed fencing. The target became the predator.
The Reds scrambled again frantically. Spotting shelter, Ray-J fled for the benches and dived behind them. Battered and old though they were, the eight others followed his judgement.
The vehicles circled like tigers trapping their prey. Then the inferno’s crackling was heard, approaching fast, and warded off the predator.
“Cops! Cops! ...” The cars screeched away and the Reds rushed for the park exit. Jermaine and Tyrone scurried to one of the nearby stoops and bust the door in to hide inside the building. The door sealed behind them. Jake curtailed down the withering street. Desperate for escape, Ray-J dashed in the same direction.
Panting, Ray-J scurried round the corner. He sucked in as much air as he could in the few seconds that he had stopped in. He raised his head. Which way did he go? He scampered forward slowly. He heard footsteps echoing from an alley further down the street. Then silence. The still cut through his throat as he gulped with ominous suspicion. The gunshots tore through the stillness.
Ray-J felt a shock of pain in his chest. Without realising what had just happened, he fell to the concrete like a tree being deforested.