Fighting Chance 2-6 Outline (Patreon)

They're at the same diner they always hit after jobs

It's 2 AM two days later, with three tired vigilantes in a booth

Vince and El are making fun of Zain's "girlfriend".

"She's not my girlfriend."

Elvin: "Yeah, yeah, big dawg, we see you."

Vince: "Woof woof."

Zain: "Stoooooop."

Waitress, Maria, mid-40s, has been watching them come in for weeks

She approaches their table, nervous: "You boys... you the ones been hitting the drug spots?"

Elvin, defensive: "Yo, what's it to you?"

Maria: "My neighbor's daughter. Sophia. She's been missing two weeks."

Vince, suddenly alert: "Missing how?"

Maria: "She was walking home from school. Some men in a van..."

Zain: "You call the cops?"

Maria, bitter laugh: "Cops don't care about missing Puerto Rican girls."

The address:

Maria slides a napkin across the table with an address

"There's a building. Downtown. Girls go in, they don't come out."

"I seen men with those... those symbols. Like little hands."

Elvin and Zain exchange looks—they know those symbols

Vince: "How old is Sophia?"

Maria: "Fourteen. Same as you boys."

Location: Abandoned warehouse district, 3 AM

Three-story brick building, most windows boarded up

Handprint symbols carved into the doorframe, barely visible

Two guards outside, both armed, both bored

Zain: "This ain't like the other spots."

Elvin: "Nah, this feel different. More serious."

Vince, studying the building: "I seen places like this before. Back home."

Zain: "What you mean?"

Vince: "Girls used to disappear from my school. Nobody talked about it, but... everybody knew."

Elvin: "Same as always? I go big, you chain the guards, Redneck burns shit?"

Zain: "Nah. This time we go quiet first. See what we're dealing with."

Vince: "What if there's kids in there?"

Zain: "Then we get them out. Whatever it takes."

Zain uses chain to reach third-floor window

Helps the others climb up

Window leads to empty storage room

They move through the building silent as they can

Hear voices below—men laughing, speaking in what sounds like Russian

Smell hits them: unwashed bodies, fear, human waste

Vince: "Aw hell. I know that smell."

Elvin: "What smell?"

Vince: "Traffickers."

Hidden door behind a false wall

Metal stairs leading down

Sound of muffled crying from below

Twelve kids. Ages 8 to 16. Chained to pipes along the wall

Some barely conscious, clearly drugged

One girl looking up at them with hollow eyes

Conditions are horrific: no bathroom, no beds, little food

Vince: "Jesus fucking Christ."

Elvin: "Yo... yo, this is..."

Zain can't speak for a moment. Just stares.

Most are too drugged or traumatized to react

One girl who looks around thirteen or fourteen whispers: "Are you here to hurt us too?"

Zain: "No. We're here to get you out."

They walk forward find a "menu" on a table

Photos of the kids with prices next to them

Sophia's photo: "$1,500 - Virgin, Hispanic, 14"

Vince's hands start smoking: "They're... they're selling them."

"Like fucking cattle!"

Flames begin crawling up his arms: "I'M GONNA BURN THIS WHOLE PLACE DOWN!"

Vince starts moving toward the stairs: "THOSE FUCKING BASTARDS"

Flames getting brighter, hotter

Kids in chains start crying, terrified of the fire

Sophia: "Please don't hurt us!"

Elvin tackles Vince

"Bro, you gon' hurt the people we hear to help."

Wrestling Vince to the ground as flames lick the ceiling

Vince: "GET OFF ME! THEY NEED TO BURN!"

Elvin: "Not with the kids here, dumbass!"

Vince: "I DON'T CARE! LOOK WHAT THEY DID!"

Elvin, pinning him: "I SEE IT! But we save them first!"

Flames start to die as he begins crying

"This... this" He wipes his face as Elvin lets him up.

"This happened to kids back home. Nobody did nothing."

"Nobody ever does nothing."

While his friends struggle, Zain is staring at the ceiling

Through the ceiling, he can hear them laughing

The thought process:

These aren't just bad guys

These are monsters

They buy and sell kids

They deserve whatever happens to them

Something cold settles in his chest:

Not anger. Not rage like Vince.

Certainty.

These people don't deserve to live

The world would be better without them

His hand goes to his chain

For a moment, he imagines going upstairs

Imagines wrapping it around their throats one by one

Imagines how easy it would be

How right it would feel

Elvin breaks locks

Him and Zain carries the ones too weak to walk

Vince, calmed down, helps guide them to safety

Kids' condition:

Some are catatonic

Others keep asking if they're in trouble

Sophia: "Are you taking us somewhere else?"

Zain: "No. We're taking you home."

The plan in his head:

Get kids to street level

Call 911 from payphone

Wait for ambulances and cops before leaving

Traffickers upstairs are still oblivious

Team climbs to the roof

Vince: "We just gonna let them walk?"

Elvin: "Cops gonna arrest them, fam."

Vince: "For how long? They got money. They got lawyers."

Zain: "So what you saying?"

Vince: "I'm saying some people don't deserve trials."

Zain's internal struggle:

He's right

These monsters will be back on the streets in months

How many more kids will they hurt?

How many more Sophias?

Zain: "We call it in. Let the system handle it."

Vince: "The system don't work!"

Zain: "Then we make it work. But not like this."

But even as he says it, he doesn't believe it

They're watching the arrest on a water tower several buildings away

Police cars, ambulances, news vans

Traffickers being led away in handcuffs

Vince: "My cousin Jenny. She was taken when she was twelve."

"Some men in a truck. Said they'd give her modeling work."

"Found her body three months later in a ditch."

Elvin: "Yo... man, I'm sorry."

Vince: "Cops said it was a runaway situation. Case closed."

"I always wondered what I'd do if I found the men who did it."

"Now I know."