The bat was easily stopped, and was held in Gary's hand, he could feel that the attacker was trying to pull away yet was unable to. The situation had changed in a matter of seconds as those approaching the food van soon turned back to look at what was happening, and started to walk forward.
'Gary… you're getting involved because of my family.' Izzy thought. 'I'm so sorry for this happening, it should have been me, I should have been the one to protect my family… but..'
"What are you trying to do?" The man asked, still acting tough. Even if the boy was strong, he had numbers on his side and the person in front of him just looked like a kid. "Do you really want to get involved, you know what will happen right? We won't just stop at you, we will track who this truck belongs to and go after everyone you care about for messing with us.
"So it's better to just take a beating and get out of here! The man shouted.
Moving his other hand, Gary reached into his pocket, he then pushed on the bat slightly, moving the man away, letting go of the bat, and pulled something out.
"Here, this should be enough right, this is what you asked for, so will you let us go in?" Gary asked.
The man almost fell over but caught his footing, when he regained his balance, he could now clearly see what was in Gary's hand, a bunch of green notes, and there weren't just a few of them either.
Immediately, the man snatched it out of Gary's hand and started to count all of the notes, and soon a smile appeared on his face.
"You should have just done this from the beginning, of course you can go through! Men clear the path!" The man shouted.
The others were surprised by Gary's actions. It was so sudden, and being part of the AFA, they thought he was going to fight, especially as a gang member, but he had done what they least expected, and he complied with their request.
Maz got up off the floor, and soon the rest got in the van, and drove off without saying anything. They continued on the road for a while until eventually Shanesea was the first one to speak up.
"I can't believe you just did that. You complied with their request and handed them a load of money. How much did you even give them 2000!" She complained. "I thought you were some gang member, I thought you were going to kick their arse... man, you're much more of a loser than I thought."
Honestly, Izzy was a bit surprised as well. The situation was getting too much for her, that even she would have fought back, and she had seen Gary act before.
"Gary… why did you give them the money?" She eventually asked, still too curious.
"It's because he must be some rich snob!" Another one of the cousins in the van interrupted.
A stare from Izzy that could kill had almost silenced him right away though.
"Trust me I care about money more than anyone. I know how much it can change a situation, and my heart hurts inside knowing I gave away that much."
Gary wasn't lying either, the amount of things he would have done in the past for that amount of money, it was hard for him to remember every time he thought about it, but he had his reasons.
"I believe if we can get out of the situation where nobody gets hurt, that is the best solution." Gary answered.
Once again, Gary's words, the words like that coming out of a gang member's mouth, was unexpected.
"Do you really think so?" Shanesea asked. "The reason why they do things like that is to extort people. Now that you have given them money, they know those methods work, so they will try and try again.
"It's because of people like you who give in to gang members demands that the general public just accept the fact that all these gangs run the towns and cities. You might have saved us, but the next set of people that come along, they won't be so fortunate."
The van was filled in silence once more, as the van continued to its destination. Things in the town didn't seem so bad, there were a few gang members around the street, but they didn't bother those in the van and they had eventually reached their destination, a Hot Pot type restaurant.
It was an authentic place with a wooden sign on the outside. It didn't look like a chain and had that feeling that it was family run.
"We will head inside first, just wait until we call you in." Maz said.
This left Gary and Izzy waiting outside of the restaurant.
"Are you nervous?" Izzy asked.
Gary didn't answer straight away, it was almost as if he had something on his mind, but he did eventually answer.
"I was at first, when we were back at the academy, but when coming to this town, I seem to have calmed down a little." Gary answered. "I don't know what it is, but this town, it reminds me a lot of my place, where I was from before all of the changes."
Izzy was happy to hear that Gary at least wasn't nervous but was wondering what he was thinking, ever since he met those gangsters at the outskirts of the city, he seemed to be deep in thought.
"Well, my parents, they can be stubborn at times, but they are nice people. Don't worry so much, you have done enough by just coming here, I will do all the convincing!" Izzy pumped her fist.
Just then, the door opened and Maz had come back outside.
"They are ready to see you now."
*****
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