The Battle for LA | Teen Ink

The Battle for LA

April 6, 2016
By Anonymous

“Beep” “beep” “beep” John rolled over to his side to turn off his alarm clock. John groaned to himself, “ugh man I do really hate Monday mornings.” He got up and tried to be quiet so he doesn’t wake up his wife. John started to go through his normal morning routine, he walked into the bathroom to take a piss. As he is washing his hands he looks into the mirror, rubs his hands over his stubble beard, and starts to feel his hair as he starts having flashbacks back to when he was in the Pacific War. He throws some water on his face and walks into the kitchen and turns on the TV, as he is starting to make some coffee he hears in the background, “Good Morning LA it’s Monday June 21, 1950 glad to you have on Fox 6 in the morning.” John looks at his coffee and wonders to himself, is it really too early to start drinking. He thought about it and realized that today was Monday as he opened the cabinet he grabbed the bottle of Jack and splashed it into his coffee and persisted to go sit down at the table. John hasn’t been able to eat breakfast since he returned from the war, so usually him and his partner grab something to eat when they have some free time during the day. To John drinking is something that can he can do whenever he wants, he doesn’t believe that he is an alcoholic, he just uses it to get rid of the bad memories he has of the war. John went back to his bedroom and silently grabbed his suit and went to the bathroom to take a shower before he went to work. It was only a 25 minute drive to work from his house to the police station. It was a beautiful morning and for some reason John had a bad feeling about today. He gets to the station and before he can even get out of his car his partner Darrell came running out, and told John to get back his car, we already got a case. Darrell has been John’s partner since he returned to the force, John thinks of him as almost as a brother that he never had. Darrell was a 25 year old African-American and is classified as one of the best cops in the force, which is why he was hired at such a young age. Darrell handed John the file, John opened it to read the address “35th and North” John looked up and asked Darrell if that was by the clothing warehouse. Darrell shook his head, John started his car back up and they started to drive to the warehouse. Darrell asked, “Isn’t this the area with a lot of mob activity?” John thought about it and said,”I believe so we might be dealing with another encounter with Ricky Caffo. Ricky Caffo is a notorious gangster who came from Chicago with his partner Jack Brolin. Since Ricky’s arrival in LA around 6 years ago crime has gone up as he is now the leader of all organized crime in LA. Which doesn't help is the fact that he uses his money to buy off cops to leave his operations alone. It’s hard these days to find true cops and John is starting to believe that him and Darrell are the only real cops left in LA. As they pulled up to the scene they see a couple police cars and ambulances outside the building. John parks the car and him and Darrell walk to the building, where they are greeted by Sergeant Josh Waters. “Good Morning Detective Josh says.” “Morning John replies, so what do we got going on here.” As they walk up the stairs on the second story of the building you can start seeing the trail of blood. Josh turns around and says, “three dead men, looks like it came from the same gun, and by the way they are dressed it must of been a business meeting of some sort.” John looked at Darrell and they both knew this came from Ricky Caffo’s men. John asked Josh if he could help them look for any clues on why this shooting went down. Josh nodded and they started to examine the area. John walked to the backroom and the first thing that he noticed that the safe was open and all the money was gone. John wrote that down in his notebook and also stated that maybe the business was behind on the payment which must of upset Caffo. While examining the body, Darrell found a bullet hole in the wall, with the bullet sitting right inside. He carefully grabbed it and put it in a plastic bag for evidence, this could help ID the type of gun was used in this shooting.  John walked back into room and look at Darrell and made a signal that the job here is done. He looked at Josh, and told him to send the evidence to the station for us to look at. As they sat back down in the car John looked at Darrell, “I think that was Caffo was apart of this shooting.” Darrell looked at him and shook his head in agreement. As they were driving back to the station, John was thinking about how they were gonna take down Caffo and his business in LA. As they pulled up into the station, Darrell looks at John and says he has an idea. John asks what is that? Darrell replies saying, “We know that most of the police force is corrupt and won’t help us with taking down Caffo, we need to form our own squad of good cops and go against the Caffo.” Darrell continues, “We might have to quit the force because we know the Captain won’t agree with this, plus it we might need to break a couple laws to get some points across if you know what I mean.” John sat there in the car and thought about what Darrell just proposed to him. After a few minutes of thinking about it John says, “I think this is a great idea we just need to find the right men to join our crew.” John knew he needed to find at least two more men to help him, plus one guy who can work with technology and be able to find weapons or build weapons. John turned the car back on, Darrell knew they were gonna go and try find the new members of their squad. John was thinking that the first person they were gonna try and recruit will be Sergeant Josh Waters. When John told Darrell they both felt pretty confident that Josh would join the squad and help take down Caffo. It was getting late as they found Josh just about to leave the station and about to head home. “Hey Josh Darrell yelled.” Josh looked up as he saw John and Darrell walking towards him. Josh says, “What can I help you guys with?” John looks at him and asks “Josh myself and Darrell are trying to form a group of guys who are willing to quit the force and try and take down Caffo and his men.” Darrell also added in that this is the only way we can do it because we have to remember that most of the police is helping Caffo and his men so we don’t know who we can trust or help us, which is why we are forming our own squad. Josh thought about the offer and knew how much of what they said was true, plus that fact that he doesn’t like seeing more people die from the hands of Caffo’s men. He looked up at John and says, “So when do we start?” John replied, “We still need to find two more guys to join the team but we will get back to you in a short amount of time.” Just continue to live your normal life but don’t mention this plan to anybody. Josh shook his head and got into his car and drove off. John was thinking and he knew who the last two guys were gonna be. The next morning John go into his car and started driving for a while before pulling up to a house. John hasn’t visited this friend since the war. Back in the Pacific fight Lester was a member in his platoon before he was shot and paralyzed waist down. John always felt that it was his fault but he doesn’t know if Lester thought the same. John walked up to the door and knocked. He waited a while before a man opened the door with a cane. He looked up and couldn’t believe that it was John. Lester opened up the door and asked John if he wanted to come in. John accepted his offer and walked into his house and sat down on the couch. They started talking about their pasts and what they have been doing since they returned from the war. John started talking about his plan about the squad and taking down Caffo, he looked at Lester and asked him if he wanted to join the team because they need some with the technology skill and can also build other types of weapons. Lester thought about it and he knew he needed to change up his life so he decided to accept his offer. John told Lester to come along with him because they need one more person and they both know who to get. They both got in and if they knew what ever happened to Michael. Michael was their Lieutenant in the Marines when they were in the war. He was kind of an old gentleman plus he was sort of crazy. When knew he was in the police force somewhere on the south side of California but that was almost three years ago. With being more on the crazy side we wouldn’t know if he would still be in the force. It was around a two hour drive to where his last known job was. While on the drive John called up Darrell to get Josh and meet up at the safehouse where they will be coming once they try and convince Michael to join the team. As they arrived to the Police station in Southern California, as John and Lester walked into the station they approached the front desk and asked if Michael Scott was still an officer at this station. The man behind the desk said yes he does, he should be in his office around the corner. They walked around the corner to knock on the door, without looking Michael said come in and sit down. Michael looked up and said, “I’ve been waiting for the day to come when you two bastards will show up to talk to me.” “So what can I help you guys with?” Michael asks. John says. “We have an opportunity for you.” “We came here to ask if you wanted to join our team to take down Caffo and bring back LA to it’s original form. Michael sat there leaning back in his chair smoking a cigarette. He ashed his cigarette and looked at them, “Well looks like you came at the right time because there’s nobody I hate more right now then Caffo.” “When do we start?” Michael asks. John replies saying, “well we wanna head to our safe house and now and start getting together our first part of the plan.” We can brief you in the car ride back but we have been planning this for a while and our time to execute the plan is coming up. Michael stands up and puts his jacket on “alright let’s get going then.” As they arrive at the safehouse the guys start to introduce themselves as John went to the planning room to start getting everything prepared. John walks back into the room, “I want everybody to get some sleep tonight and get back here by 9am tomorrow to start getting everything ready to attack Caffo’s stronghold where all his money and weapons come in.” The next morning everyone is sitting in the room listening to the plan on how they will attack and burn down Caffo’s stronghold. The plan beginnings we will have two getaway cars waiting for us behind the building. We will arrive in a van and the front of the exit. Myself, Darrell, and Michael will enter the building and start to take the workers hostage. While that is happening Josh you will enter from the back and start pouring gas on all the money and weapons to start the burning stage. When this is all happening Lester will be in one of the getaway cars cutting the power and blocking call towers from people calling the police or backup to arrive. We will attack at 9pm when the guards are switching so we will have a quicker entry point. Darrell and I are gonna go pick up the gear from a supplier everyone just sit around here and get ready for tonight. As time passed it was time for the first mission against Caffo. We got all the gear ready Thompson machine guns and some Tommy guns were the weapons that were supplied. The van pulls up and John, Michael, and Darrell jumped out and entered the building. They see four guards coming there way. They hid behind the wall, “On three Michael said.” “1,2,3 go.” They turned the corner and sprayed them down. While this was happening Josh drove to the back of the building with Lester. Josh got out and placed a bomb on the door while Lester got in one the cars. “On my mark Lester said.” “Ready... alright blow it.” “BOOM” the door blows open as Lester cuts the power. Josh turns on his flashlight on his gun as he entered the building. He ran in the backroom as he is yelling, “Everybody get down and move to the wall!!!” As Josh secured the area he took all the money and guns and started putting them into duffle bags. On the other end of the building the rest of the guys were still taking out the rest of the guards. Once they finished they started pouring gas around the room and met up with Josh in the backroom. As they arrived Josh had all the supplies in the bags and started pouring gas on Caffo’s drug supplies. Michael and Darrell grabbed the bags and got in one car, Josh followed them into the car and John light match and threw it into the room as the fire started. John got into the car as both cars drove away from the building and back to the safe house. An hour later Caffo arrived at the scene to see what happened. Caffo yells, “Check the security cameras now!!” Check to see who these men are. On the back camera Caffo can see a man in the car. Zoom in on the person in the car and figure out who that is, it’s time to retaliate and send a message back to them. As Lester was dropped off at his house by John, he started to walk to his house when two black cars came driving by and started shooting at Lester and the car. John got down in his car but Lester wasn’t fast enough. As the cars drove away John ran over to Lester to see that there was at least five shots that hit Lester as he was laying on the ground in a pile of blood. John knew this was from Caffo and this just jumped the plan to the final act with the team going after Caffo and killing him. John drove home but he couldn’t sleep, the next day he told the rest of the team that Lester was killed last night by Caffo’s men. This will be the final act of our team because we’re gonna go after Caffo at his house this will take a few days to plan. A couple days later they met up at the safehouse to talk about the final plan to get rid of Caffo. The plan is to attack him at his house, we will drive our car through the gates and toss the bombs out the windows. We will catch the security off guard while taking them out. Once we get up the driveway we will use the car and other objects in this yard as we will be attacked. We will bring all guns and ammo because this will be our last stand and try on taking out Caffo. Once we storm into the house the main goal is to find Caffo and take him out that’s the top priority. Get your gear and let’s get ready to go. We loaded up into the car, John was the driver. John turned onto the street the last house was Caffo’s. He looked back, “Okay here we go get the bombs ready” John yells as the car accelerates the car through the fence and onto his property. As the car slows down you hear the explosions in the background. Get the guns ready here comes the guards. John and Darrell were hiding behind the car shooting the guards while Michael was slowing pushing forward to the front of the house. Shooting continues but they got to the front door and entered his house. On the balcony you see Caffo with a gun shooting while yelling for more guards. John yells, “Cover me I’m going for Caffo!!” Michael and Darrell focused their fire onto covering John as he headed to go upstairs and get Caffo. John was slowly checking each room looking for Caffo. Caffo was hiding just waiting for the moment to strike. John entered the room and BAM Caffo shot his gun and it hit John in the arm as he goes down. Caffo stands up and slowly starts walking toward John, “You shouldn’t of messed with me!!” Caffo yells. He pulls his pistol and points it at John, “Well this looks like the end of you.” Caffo says. John closed his eyes and he heard a gunshot, he didn’t know who it was from. He slowly opened his eyes to see Caffo sitting against the wall with a bullet in his head. John looked over to his right and standing there was Michael and Darrell. Darrell yells, “We always got your back John.” Michael helps up John and says, “We need to get out of here before the police come. They walked outside and Josh pulled up with the car as they got inside. They drove to the safehouse where they started to settle down, John told them this will be the last time we will see each other as the cops will be looking for us, we gotta split up and disappear. Between the four of them they split up the money and went their separate ways. John traveled to Washington and spent the rest of his life there with his family. Josh moved to Texas where he lives on a farm with his new wife. Michael moved to Wisconsin and lives in Milwaukee still doing some criminal behavior but he is doing just fine. Finally Darrell is living on the beaches of Miami with his new family. Los Angeles since has started to become back to normal. The police are now taking back the city and crime has slowly been growing down, and nobody will know who the team that took down Caffo.

The End.


The author's comments:

Still on an Ultralight Beam. 


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