Congratulations Tween Gang Leader!

When The Fall came no one thought Detroit would be there in the morning. But no one wanted to risk harming Toronto so they were spared bombs and fire and terrible, terrible light. Instead they were left to their own devices, left to die the slow death of their own unraveling. Entrenched gangs began campaigns of open warfare and citizens found themselves pressed into service for factions they had never had to deal with.

Half of the adult population of Detroit was dead in a matter of months, and before long orphans started to rule the streets. Like some science fiction novel they formed their own social order and established a sociopolitical system with the end goal of preparing them for the harsh reality of gang life in their dying city.

You were one of the best of the best as an orphan. You knew how not to be seen, how to run fast when you’d taken something and were seen, how to kill an adult with a loose brick or a golf club. But tomorrow you’re turning 13, and that means you’re going to be cut loose to make your way into the heart of a gang’s territory and try to prove yourself.

Most people have pretty inauspicious plans for their 13th birthday. They hope to show up on a doorstep and just be asked to recover some simple thing or kill a rival gang member. Young women rarely have it so easy, but that is simply the way of things in Detroit.

You, though, you’re sick of the new status quo, of living bullet to bullet and kill to kill. You don’t want to take it anymore, and you think you’ve found a way out.

The Windsor Boys control the border to Canada. Blessed, blessed Canada, where your little brothers and sisters could still be children. The Windsor Boys, though, don’t want anyone to get out of Detroit. They know they wouldn’t have it nearly as easy if the Canadian authorities were to come in and try to clean up the city, but they also know that the Canadian military is spread so thin keeping order that there’s no way they could do it without help from inside the city.

You know this, and you decided what you wanted to do with your birthday long ago. You’re going to become a member of the Windsor Boys.

You’ll begin this process by climbing up the five story apartment building they use as a headquarters. You’ll do it without rope, with nothing on you except for a rusting machete the clothes on your back. You’ll find hand holds that an adult would never be able to use, scrambling from balcony to balcony like a spider. If anyone were to watch you it’s doubtful that they’d believe what they were seeing. But before long you’ll be on the penthouse balcony, machete in your hand, sweat beading your body.

You’ll creep into the gang leader’s antechamber, doing your best not to look at the young women scattered about like broken dolls. You won’t want to see someone you knew and lose your nerve. You’ll want to do this right.

You’ll slip through his unlocked door without making a single sound and find him on a soiled mattress, alone. He’ll be the oldest man you’ve ever seen, in his mid thirties by the look of things. He’ll have a patchy beard and a sawed off shotgun within reach of his outflung arm. You’ll pause as you look at him, wondering if he’s really sleeping.

Then he’ll snore, like an owl’s hoot breaking the night’s spell, and you’ll explode forward with your machete and take it to his neck.

It will take six cuts. It will be over after the second.

The next morning you’ll be seated on his “throne,” an overstuffed armchair. The former concubines will be arrayed around you, pensive and hopeful and you’ll clutch the sawed off shotgun in your hand, the symbol of your new leadership. The peons who were bringing the leader’s breakfast will be shocked to see you there with his gun, but they’ll know what it means. This is The Windsor Boys way, after all.


They’ll assemble the elder gang members, a few of whom you recognize. They won’t have aged well out in the streets, but few people do. You’ll announce that you plan to dominate the future populace of Detroit by bringing several orphan groups under your protective fold. From there you’ll only have a brief period where you build your power base and ensure that the gang is loyal to you before you lead them marching across the river into Windsor and into healthcare and safety.

Congratulations Tween Gang Leader!