Walking Free; Chapter One - I am Auto.

Walking down the last step of Quick Mart with a can of red bull in one hand and a cigarette in the other there were only two things on my mind; Kade Dover and the red four by four that had been tailing me for the past nine blocks.
Flicking the ash off the end of my smoke and taking a deep drag before studying the lot in front of me. The nose of the four by four is poking out from the far corner behind a beat up old blue Chevrolet. I looked back over my shoulder to see the store attendant waving his hands at me to get off his shop step. Dropping the butt of the cig on the floor and grinding it into the concrete step, I took a last swig from the can in my hand and chucked into the trash can a couple meters away. It was a good shot, if I do say so myself.
A horn blasted out from a black Mustang about five car spaces away from the four by four. A single white stripe down its bonnet and a guy in the passenger seat. His hair long and messy, his mouth pouty and his eyes dark blue globes. Meet Kade Dover, the town’s notorious radical, hoodlum at the age of ten and Juvenile delinquent by thirteen. He hasn’t changed much now at the age of seventeen and he hasn’t left my side for a week now either. What was he, homeless?

I pulled another cig out of my denim shorts and tucked it in behind my ear, I was going to need it soon, and made my way over to the Mustang. The sun beat down drawing out my freckles as the wind blew cool. I hadn’t forgotten the four by four hovering in the corner though.
Jumping over the car door and into the driver’s seat Kade flicked up the collar of his leather jacket "Take your god damn time Raya," He muttered before placing a spliff between his lips and lighting it. It’s Soraya Stoke actually, but nobody’s called me that since my brother Tenner died.
I looked at him then, in his thin, torn, grey T-shirt, his fading black drainpipe jeans, his mucked up trainers and his black leather jacket with the white gold ring on the middle finger of his left hand. Then I looked at myself in the wing mirror of the car. My hair ragged and long. Tied up in a ponytail falling in whips, a light blue bandana tied around my head behind my ears. My lips just as coloured and pouty as his, my T-shirt, three sizes too big, just as torn as his and my trainers poised on the accelerator just as tatty as his.
"Should you really be wearing that ring? If Jacey sees you with it on he’ll batter you senseless,"

Jacey was my other brother, I had four brothers. Tenner, Jacey, Rashaun (but we call him Shaun) and Apple Stoke. My mother had a weird sense of humor I guess. My dad pissed off the second I was born. Mam got cancer when I was four and died of leukaemia, Tenner got shot in a drive-by last year when I was fifteen, he was only seventeen then, and we don’t talk about it that much. I guess my family’s had it pretty rough but we ain't the worst off. Lakin – one of our crew – he grew up in one of them children’s homes his whole life, got beat around a lot and he got tough. Shaun an’ him are best mates; he says Lakin is too hard on the outside. I think Lakin is cool but he’s difficult to dig if you know what I mean.
Jacey’s the oldest, he’s twenty now and we all live with him in a bungalow on the west side of town. Shaun and Apple are both seventeen, un-identical twins born three days apart (Shaun always was stubborn).
"Should you really be driving?" Kade retorted back raising one eyebrow. I looked straight ahead and smiled slightly as I put the Mustang into first gear, touché I thought.
We were seven blocks away from entering the West side of town, our territory, when the red four by four pulled up sharp out of a side street in front of us. Kade cocked his head to one side considering it and flicked the remainder of his spliff over the side of the car, not that there was anything left of it anyway. I slowed down as the four by four started getting handy with its breaks. Kade looked sideways at me.

"Raya, I think I should take the wheel," His face etched in stone. Kade wasn’t like anyone I knew, he could go from chilled to serious to brash in the blink of an eye. Kade could be dangerous, I eyed the ring on his finger as if to prove the point to myself, but the guys in the four by four could be even more dangerous.
"Kade take the ring off, it’s Jimmie Roy and his crew in that car," I couldn’t help it if the panic had crept into my voice. Jimmie’s gang were savage and Kade was wearing his brother’s ring like a trophy.
Jimmie and his brother Don lived on East side, that was their territory, if a Westie like me or even Kade walked around there on our bill you’d be sure to get jumped by an Eastie and it worked both ways. Westie’s and Eastie’s had been feuding over nothing for decades. There were only two differences between us, we wore our hair long and scruffy, they wore theirs neat and slick, we worked in garages and they worked on railways. They call us Auto’s and we call them Railer’s, pretty unoriginal for us I think but whatever I guess. Us Auto’s aint supposed to be smart anyway.
Kade slid the ring off reluctantly and swapped it with his switchblade in the glove compartment. I looked at it, Shaun had washed the blood off it when Kade had come back from a brawl with Don Ray in Midtown that had turned nasty, but I could still see the ruby liquid that had glistened on its surface. I could still remember Apple telling me not to look and blindfolding me when I was too shocked to move an inch. I just stood there shaking.
"I can’t believe we’re getting jumped in our own back yard!" Kade growled becoming agitated. Jimmie wasn’t one to mince words; if that car stopped it meant business. It meant pay back.

"Raya, your brother’s’ll f’ckin’ slaughter me if they know I got you jumped. If that car stops you better run!" Kade was flexing his fingers in and out of fists.
The last Westie to get jumped alone by Roy’s crew didn’t turn out so good. I remember when Apple’s best mate Charlie Mayer got jumped by them. I aint never seen Charlie cry, but heck I aint never seen a face so mashed as his was.
Charlie and Apple were the colts of the crew, always could make anyone grin. It wasn’t right seeing Charlie without a light in his eye and it was just plane wrong to see the storm Apple through up. Apple wouldn’t touch nobody unless it was a good skin fight, all fair and that, but he was screaming black murder that night we found Charlie dumped at the side o’ the road. I saw Apple cry when Charlie’s head pooled out so much blood he fainted, Apple’s the only one who still has a heart enough to cry. The rest of the crew; my brothers, Kade, Lakin, Torrence, Fletcher and his girl Hartlyn Crewth and my best mate Masie Dune, we didn’t cry. I think half of us forgot how to and the rest of us just never knew. We aint mean though, except maybe Fletcher but he still would’a cried, we just couldn’t.
I looked at Kade’s face for the second time this afternoon, Kade could be a cock at times but there was no way I wanted him to end up with the same scars as Charlie Mayer. Us Auto’s stick together, we ain't got much else. I sure ain't got two dollars to rub together and I doubt anyone else in our crew has either.
The four by four in front came to a complete stop two blocks away from our bungalow. I could feel Kade’s frustration beside me, we were so close. Jacey was really well built; just having him stood here would be enough to scare off a crew of Railers, maybe even Jimmie Roy.

But then again, I saw Roy’s face when he turned to get down from the car and I would have run for the hills if I could, I swear but my legs refused to follow orders. Jimmie wanted blood. Kade jumped up onto the windscreen of the Mustang and rested his feet on the bonnet. I guess he was tryin’ to be as far away as possible at the same time as being as close as necessary. I looked at the bulge of my radio in my short’s pocket and I was sorely tempted to call for Jacey or Apple, Shaun would still be at work in the garage till eleven tonight. They were only two blocks away for god’s sake! Jacey always made us carry the mini radios just in case we were close and needed each other. Everyone in the crew had one and there was one at our home as well.
I can’t stand fights; I’ll tell you this now. If you aint clever enough to used your mouth then you don’t have no right to use your fists. But the guys are always fighting and I ain't got no say to stop ‘em unless I think real quick. I’m good like that; know what to do at the right time. Lakin says I got Apple’s charm but I don’t think even I got that much cunning. Me and Apple are close though, he understands me more than the others.
Jimmie is a big lad for eighteen, built like a boxer. I heard Torrence talking about him after Charlie got beat bad; he’s been in and out of jail for the past four years. He hasn’t got kid records to match Kade though; Kade was making trouble long before Jimmie came to town.

Five kids got out the back of the red car; they all had shaved heads and a tattoo of a cross on their shoulders. They wore sleeveless vests and cargo pants and all of them were sixteen or seventeen. Jimmie’s crew was a proper gang, all organized. We were all just some mates that stuck together. Jimmie’s crew don’t rat to the cops when their caught because they’re scared of what the rest of them would do later, but our crew keeps its traps shut because we like each other.
I got out the car as Jimmie started for Kade. That shocked him, and Kade too. Kade’s eyes widened in fright, his big dark blue globes.
Jimmie looked me up and down and grinned. I pulled a red lollypop out of my shorts and began sucking on it innocently. I could see Kade frowning out of the corner of my eye and the five Railers didn’t know what to do. I was only sixteen and even Jimmie’s crew didn’t know I could fight if I had to. I had my own blade stuffed in the rim at the back of my shorts but I wouldn’t use it, it was only for bluffs.
"You Tenner Stokes sister?" Jimmie’s voice was rough and laden with the stench of beer. His eyes were some kind of wild. I saw Torrence with eyes like that once when we was at the garage and some new auto’s had just come in all supped up with extras. He didn’t leave those cars alone for the next eight days, which was the week before Tenner was shot. Torrence hasn’t touched no supped up car since.
"Yeah, I am," I said, brash and young. I knew age and gender were on my side. I don’t need to tell you how desperate I was to swap the lollypop in my mouth for the cig still tucked neatly behind my ear. I needed to chill, looking at my right hand resting on the car as it shook nervously.
Jimmie looked at me for a long time, I didn’t want his pity and I could feel my face stone over. I told you we don’t talk about Tenner no more. He just nodded at the other boys who turned back to the red car; its colour matched my candy I thought. Jimmie Roy pointed at Kade.

"I knew your boy Tenner. He helped me escape the fuzz after a bad fight in Midtown when he could’a jus’ left. But if he," Jimmie snarled at Kade "ever touches my brother again there will be blood,"
Jimmie looked at me for a response, I decided it was best not to give one and Kade jumped back into the car. He nabbed the driver’s seat stealthily. I chucked the lollypop down the drain as soon as Roy and his crew pulled away and got back in beside him.
"Tenner never told me he saved Jimmie’s skin," I looked at Kade to see if he had any recognition. Kade and Tenner had been good mates, almost like Charlie and Apple but Kade hadn’t said a word the night he died.
Kade’s face clouded "No, he didn’t tell me either," I realized Kade’s problem then. He was still living in Tenner’s shadow. "You were tuff Raya, held your cool real good. You should come Midtown with the crew more often,"
I pulled the cig out from behind my ear and lit it quickly, Taking the deepest drag I could and holding it in. Kade was still watching me. "Jeez, go easy doll face,"
I knew it wasn’t tough to drag so hard but I wasn’t gonna kid myself, I ain't though like the others. Me and Masie is the only one’s who don’t seem to be made tough like that. We don’t cry, but we ain't tough, Jacey says I shouldn’t never become like them ‘cause it ain't pretty on a girl’ but Shaun says if I don’t get tough living in West side then I ain't gonna be nobody and I'm gonna get hurt.
I wanted to be home with Apple. I wanted Kade to stop watching me. Kade thinks I'm a doll. Kade just invited me to Midtown. Kade doesn’t know jack shit about me.
I took another drag and told him to shut up and drive. He grinned and followed orders.

I don’t like being in a town full of gangs.
I don’t like being a girl in the middle of a fight.
I don’t like being tough.
I don’t like the look of the future.
I don’t like Railers.

I don’t even like Auto’s.
And.

I am an Auto.