End of the line

The city was in flames.

When the court dropped the charges against Officer Tenpenny I guess that everyone just went a little crazy. If the law didn’t count for nothin’ for somebody like that, then it didn’t count for nothin’ for nobody. Sweet made me see sense – when your back’s against the wall then all that counts is the hood. Nowhere else to run, nowhere else to hide. We had to come out fighting.

We fought our way through a world gone mad to Big Smoke’s hideout. He was always on his own, always out for himself, and in the end that damned him to hell. I don’t even think he ever realized how Tenpenny was jerking his strings. Poor bastard.

I chased Tenpenny through the flames as the crack house burned – that time spent up in Tiera Robada driving a fire engine paid off big time. It’s funny the things that stick in your mind – stay low, stay out of the smoke, watch the way the fire moves and breathes and then choke it off.

Tenpenny drove his fire engine like a man possessed. He tore up the streets of Los Santos and I stuck to him like glue. Sweet was fool enough to try and hang on to the ladder at the back of the tender and I wasn’t going to let him die. No way. Not ever. I’m not burying another brother.

It ended where it began.

Grove Street. The hood. Tenpenny’s body by the wreck of the fire engine amidst the rubble from the overpass. I was going to put a bullet in him, just to make sure, but there was no need. Bastard was dead and gone.

It wasn’t over though. The car exports in San Fiero are waiting, I might check out some of the races down at the track, roll some dice with Woozie up at the Four Dragons. Maybe I’ll start with buying myself a ten thousand dollar tux up at Didier Sachs …

I’ve learnt a lot these past couple of months. Cesar taught me that family is more than blood, Woozie taught me that honour is blind, the Truth opened my eyes and Mike Toreno gave me my wings. Most important of all, Sweet taught me to put the hood first and last and always.

Right now,  I fittin’ to hit the block. See what’s happening.

See you around, homie.