The Price of Respect

I was only eighteen when I joined the Redbackers. I thought it would earn me respect. But sometimes, as I was to discover, sometimes the price of respect is simply too high.

I was there the night they turned on the Redhounds for good. One of the first things I learned when I joined the Redbackers was that our rival gang, the Redhounds, were pure evil. They were barbaric, unschooled, ungoverned life forms, and ranked just above pond scum, just below cockroaches on the scale of life.

At first, I could not see the distinction between the Redhounds and the Redbackers. I could not see how they could be so despicable, when they looked the same as we did. The longer I spent in company of the Redbackers, however, the more I came to believe the same as other gang members.

It was almost as though they had brainwashed me; forced me to conform to their beliefs. Every time I encountered a member of the other gang, my heart started pounding. My blood started pumping and my hackles rose. I became as ruthlessly devoted to the Redbackers as any of the other dedicated members.

Had anyone told me that the Redhounds were like us, I would have punched them square in the face, and asked questions later.

That was the Redbacker way.

~*~*

Although I had been part of the gang for six months, I had never met Boss, our leader. I associated quite freely with his girlfriend Joella, however. In fact, she had become somewhat like my role model.

Until Boss summoned me to his presence early one evening, I had never even seen him. I paused at the grey door that led to his office. Glancing around, I tried not to look like the frightened, fresh-faced new recruit I was.

I was determined to show Boss how strong I was, so I turned the doorknob and stepped inside. A dodgy yellow light, swinging slightly on a fraying cord, dimly lighted the room in which I now stood. Joella and a man I guessed to be Boss were huddled over a stressed looking table, peering at a piece of stark white paper. Boss looked up as I entered. He surveyed me with a look that clearly said he was giving me the once over.

"Come here," he growled, beckoning me closer. I was hesitant to obey, but suddenly, and without rational reason, I wanted very much to please this man, to earn his respect. So I walked quickly across the room.

Boss looked me up and down, and gave me a disappointed look.

"Is this all we can find these days?" He muttered to Joella out the side of his mouth. Then he turned to watch her as she walked across the room. Her footsteps echoed on the hard, concrete floor. I felt her pass by me, and gave an involuntary shiver.

"You can come in now." I heard her say, opening the door and speaking to the other gang members who were waiting outside.

"We're going in." Boss said, as the gang assembled. None of them gave me anything more than a cursory glance. "We're going to send an informer in, and they are going to give me what I need so that I can find a way to get rid of them once and for all." He spoke quietly, meeting the eyes of every gang member. His eyes glittered as he stared at the men, daring them to volunteer.

"I'll do it!" I piped up, eager to prove my worth. All eyes were suddenly on me, and I swallowed nervously.

"You, pipsquick?" Boss said scornfully. He opened his mouth to say more, but Joella interrupted him.

"I'll go with him." She said, keeping eye contact with me. "It makes sense. I know what to do, and two are safer than one."

~*~

So that was that. It was amazingly easy to find ourselves accepted into the Redhound gang. Joella was well known for being fickle, and Slick, the gang leader, accepted her with open arms. Arms that were opened too far, in my opinion. On the first night of our joining, Slick took Joella to his bed. I cried out as I saw him beckon to her.

What was she thinking of doing? She was Boss's girl! He would lose it if she betrayed him. It was something I had always understood about Boss; you didn't betray him. I grabbed onto her arm.

"I won't let you do this!" I cried, thinking of Boss.

"I have to, kid." She said simply, and disappeared with Slick. This did not bode well for either of us.

~*~

Seeing Joella with Slick upset me more than I cared to admit at the time. Slick was known as Slick because of his reputation. Slick as a razor. I wanted to protect Joella from him, but I didn't know how. Joella and I had a strange relationship. We weren't exactly friends, but we certainly weren't enemies. It couldn't be called a working relationship, but neither was it informal. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Something about her intrigued me. I didn't know whether it was her mannerisms, her sense of duty or the way she looked after me that affected me.

In a perverse way, I was glad of the time we had together, even if it was with the Redhounds. Working as an informer gave me an opportunity to get to know her better, and I was sure that was something I wanted to do.

I made the mistake of telling my best friend about my experiences with the two gangs. He put the seeds of doubt into my mind. He made me wonder whether being involved in such violent rivalry was a wise move. Thomas gave me a puzzled, upset look that gave me a queer, almost guilty feeling.

"You have to get yourself out of it." He told me forcefully. "Now! Before someone gets hurt."

Thomas was a peaceful person, and he didn't hold with such violence as naturally came with being in a gang. He didn't understand my craving for respect either. I considered his words carefully, but I couldn't make a decision. The situation with the Redhounds consumed my thoughts, and eventually I decided to see out the informer situation before I made a decision as to whether I wanted to continue with the Redbackers.

~*~

The time Joella and I spent with the Redhound gang was filled with uncomfortable moments and a feeling of blatant dishonesty. I had never done something this underhanded before, and it played upon my sensibilities in a way I didn't like.

I knew, however, that I shouldn't really have been so worried about my actions. My Redbacker training told me that our rivals were underhanded and dirty, and didn't deserve to occupy my thoughts. My sense of gang loyalty told me that it was ridiculous to think that these people felt anything at all.

But it was hard to stick to these beliefs when I was confronted with the other side of these people. The Redhound 'headquarters' looked decidedly similar to the Redbackers' warehouse. The people had the same sort of personalities, quirks and traits that the Redbackers' had. It occurred to me that these people were similar to my own gang. Gradually, I began to see that the two gangs were exactly the same, separated only by two men's stubbornness.

It was quite a revelation for me, and I asked Joella when things were going to change. She took a drag of her cigarette and stared unblinkingly at Slick's back.

"The time will come," she told me cryptically. "I just hope that we know what to do about it."

~*~

Joella's proposed time came sooner than expected. Somehow it got back to Boss that Joella had spent the night with Slick, and as I had predicted, he hit the roof. He spent hours raging that Joella was his woman, before he gathered his gang around him like a cloak and swept out of the door, proclaiming that he was going to 'fix Slick good this time.'

At the same time in the Redhound gang, Slick had discovered that Joella and I were informer spies, and had fought heatedly with Joella for an hour, before he too decided to deliver his own wrath down upon his rivals. I sat outside Slick's room and listened to the screaming and yelling and wished I were somewhere else. I winced every time I heard a blow being struck, but I didn't interrupt. You did not challenge the leader. The hour they were fighting seemed like forever to me, until Joella, now sporting a nasty red welt to her cheek, spirited me away. We hid in the shadows, watching the deadly procession file past us.

The gangs met at 11 o'clock that night. They caught sight of each other and stopped, mere metres apart.

"You owe me a penalty, Slick!" Boss bellowed. Slick wasted no time with words. With a gesture of Hollywood bravado, he drew his gun.

"This will be the decider!" Slick hollered back, leveling his weapon. Boss cocked his own gun. The two men took aim at each other, staring each other down across the Brisbane battlefield.

I could feel the tension fly between the two. I knew someone was going to be hurt that night. Joella could see it, too. Her body tensed in expectation. A strange light came into her eyes, and I wondered what she was thinking. "You stay here." She told me quietly, keeping her eyes fixed on the confrontation in front of us. "Whatever happens, you stay here."

I opened my mouth to protest, to ask what she had planned, but her eyes were staring daggers. The harsh, unfamiliar look in them silenced me. I nodded and returned my attention to the battle of wills being fought in front of me. The tension was so thick I could have cut it with Slick's trademark razor.

I wondered at Slick's choice of weapon, but I knew that a gun was more practical for this situation, even if he did favour his razor. Each member of the gangs was sending killing glances at their rivals. They, too, were fondling their own choice of weapon.

The moment reached a climax. Silence heightened my senses. I was waiting, just waiting for the first shot to go off. Just then, at the last possible moment, Joella shot out from our cover of shadows, and sprinted across the field.

"Stop!" She shrieked as she ran, reaching the point of crossfire quickly. The suddenness of her movement and the tension of the moment caused both fingers to squeeze in reflex. Two shots echoed in the night.

Suddenly Joella stopped moving forward.

Her eyes rolled back in her head. She tried to speak, but no words came out. In slow motion, her hands crept from her stomach. I turned, retched to the side and stood up. I could see twin holes in her body. Joella raised her head towards Boss, who had raced to her side.

"So this is what it comes to," She whispered bitterly in a hoarse voice. With these final words, she collapsed to the ground.

I heard Boss's anguished cry, and dimly registered that Slick's gun had slipped from his fingers. It landed on the ground with a loud clatter. I saw Boss slide his arms under Joella's limp form. He cradled her head in his lap. I saw the tears fall down his cheeks, and turning slightly to the right, I saw the pain and shock on Slick's face.

It was time for me to make my move.

I felt everyone's eyes on me as I stepped from the shadows and made my way across to Boss. I placed a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up at me with pain filled eyes.

"End this now." I demanded softly. "End the hate. End the rivalry. End the bloodshed."

"The kid's right." Slick said hoarsely, starting towards us with an outstretched hand. "A truce?"

Boss stared disbelievingly at his offered hand. Surprisingly, he looked to me for advice. Stunned, I nodded, hoping to encourage him to resume the mantle of leadership. Slowly, Boss reached out his hand and grasped Slick's. Two hands joined that night. One was covered in blood; the other was the cause of that blood.

"A truce." Boss repeated. "A truce sworn in blood."

"A truce." Slick echoed. His voice was stronger now, as relief flooded his body.

Members of both gangs united their voices.

"A truce! A truce!" Echoed in the night.

~*~

Joella was the only woman to join the Redbackers, and the last one to leave it. It seemed that Joella got what she wanted. She joined the Redbackers to earn respect. With her death came the respect that she had craved from both foes. But the price of respect is simply too high.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Okay, I don't know what you thought of that, but I think it was pretty awful. Basically, it was an English assignment, which is why it's both very short and very un descriptive. I'm thinking of expanding on it, and telling the story in more detail, but I don't know, so if I get a few reviews, and I can actually DO it, I might. Anyway, catchya later! Lizzy :D

Please R and R!