Trojan: The Red Spade

|Memories|Chapter 1: Part 2

Ace's P.O.V

After looting a few more buildings, finding some canned foods and med kits, I decide to head back to base.  A few minutes fly by before I have visuals on the entrance, its pretty hidden, and take a few encounters to know exactly where it is.  I approach the entrance and pull out a quarter, and insert it into a hidden slot, after a few seconds the door loosens and becomes visible after the sounds of the silenced hydraulics ceased their hold on the door.

  I entered and knocked on the wall 3 times in quick succession to let others inside know I'm a friend, and go down a series of stairs.  I enter an open room which was underground, the room has a vending machine which is stocked with cans of foods, which I drop a bag with some that I have collected, and a male at the height of 5' 9", with hazel brown hair and green eyes,

"Hey Mark." I greet as he picks up the bag,

"Hey Ace, seems you had a successful run, this should keep us stocked for a few days." Mark informs me as he opens the machine with a key and inserts the cans. Seeing as this gang is made up of 50 people, food and water are always a necessity.

"Ace!" the feminine voice from the phone calls me from the other side of the room.  I look over and am greeted with a relieved face with a few blonde strands hanging in front of her sapphire blue eyes. "You made me so worried, quick, into the med room." she instructs and pulls me by the arm, not giving me a choice as I follow her.

"I'm ok Val.." I sigh with an annoyed tone, since this happens almost every time I come back from a run,

"Sure you are now take off your shirt." Val instructs me as she closes the door and throws my jacket onto a hanger,

"What?" I ask blushing,

"C'mon! I've seen you shirtless before." She responds ignoring the fact of me blushing,

"And you liked it..." I mumble with a sneaky grin as I slowly pull my shirt off,

"Sh-shut up!.." she says in a hushed voice, and I could see her blushing.

I watch her face as she examines my body for any cuts or injuries, then feels my biceps, chest, abs, back, then checks my legs, to see if I landed incorrectly and bruised something. She then looks back at my right shoulder, and slides her finger across a red spade that's been somewhat tattooed, but looks almost brand new. 

  I have a flash back of when I was with Daren, me being 12 years old,

"Listen son, this will hurt, but it'll keep you safe someday.." Daren admitted as I sat on a table without a shirt, holding a rag to my mouth while Daren held this weird tool that had the end a shape of a spade,

"You ready?" he asked me as he looked into my eyes, I shakily nodded not knowing what to expect, "One...Two..." and before he said three, he pushed the tool between my right incline barbell bench press and shoulder. I groaned from the pain and foreign sensation on my flesh, as some tears started coming from my eyes.  What 30 seconds felt like 5 minutes, before Daren removed the tool and applied an ice pack to it, which had somewhat relieved the pain.

"It's over Ace, you can let go of the table, your knuckles are completely white." he tells me as he take the rag from my mouth and I let go of the side of the table,

"That hurt.." I admit wiping the tears from my eyes,

"You did better than most adults do, your a real man.." he says with a smile,

"So what is it for?" I ask curiously,

"You see son, we live in a time where gangs have power, and each gang has a poker symbol. There are, The Crimson Diamonds, seems to be the strongest at the moment, then The Golden Hearts, Sapphire Clubs, and finally the Shadow Spades." he informs me.