An uneven fight

Joshua crashed onto the light-post with a sickening thud, and fell down by the side crumpled into a fetal ball holding his left shoulder in agony. This was greeted by thunderous applause by the gang of his assailants standing nearby. The person who was responsible for the state that Joshua was currently in immediately came forward to lap up all the attention that his fellow mates were showering. Extending his act of bravado, he walked over to the wreck of the person lying motionlessly on the street, and put one of his big shoes over his head to strike a pose which any experienced hunter would have been proud off. Finally all the months of brooding payback and planning vengeance had payed off, thought Vivian, in between altering his hunter poses in front of imaginary cameras as he lapped up all the catcalls and cheers of his gang. After a few minutes of this bizarre victory statement, he moved away but not before spitting on his the stale mass on the roadside, which moments ago had played the part of his victim in the hunter-hunted parody that had taken place. On seeing this act of utter contempt by Vivian, the gang members, not wanting to be left behind on the action, came forward one by one and followed suit. Joshua didn't have any energy to move, yet cruel fate didn't let him pass out. He lay there hurt and defeated, witness to his own defilement. At the end of their sadistic act of inhumanity, the rogue group of ten calmly started walking away to the same forest road, from which they had emerged only a few minutes ago, like a pack of wolves stalking their prey.
Vivian led the way, happy and content. A job well done, he thought, a job well done indeed. "Halt" . The word seemed so loud that it derailed Vivian's train of thoughts. "Halt", this time the voice, originating from the sidewalk,  was so deep that it reached a fever pitch , going deep into the forest wombs, stopping the gang in their wake. First Vivian, and then one by one the rest of the mob looked back to the street. Stunned and alerted they knew something was amiss, as the inanimate body they had left on the road was no longer there. But it wasn't long before they could see why as there standing on the sidewalk was none other than Joshua Greening. He was standing almost as if was on his last legs- all bloody and messy- covered in human filth. Swaying but not falling, and on his lips was a wry smile. He spoke once more in his deep voice, "Poor bunch of dingbats. Can't even get anything right." The astounded group of ten on seeing all this, rushed back towards him with frantic pace. Just as they got near him, Joshua stumbled and and was headed straight for the ground, when he was saved in the nick of time by large and huge arms of Vivian.
"Are you ok?" one of the guys shouted from the back.
Joshua who was now resting his head on the lap of a kneeling Vivian, turned to the speaker with cold, unemotional eyes, "Never felt better my friend.  Was that the best you guys could do?", and then looking up at into the eyes the person holding him "And you must be ashamed of yourself, after the beating I gave you a few months ago, you even had personal motive to hit me hard, and yet here I am still conscious, after your ten minutes finished off. You couldn't at least even send me into a week long coma. " And with this Joshua went off in a crazy maniacal laughter. "What can I say you are one tough Cookie, Josh" replied Vivian after a  prolonged silence. This was greeted by more maniacal laughing - this time from the rest of the mob.
And so ended another day in the "You can break my bones , but not my spirit" club. Perhaps the most striking feature of this club is that even though it is much different from anything the society takes for granted yet inspite of all the insanity and bloodshed,at the end of the day people become life-long friends here, because there is no place for hypocrisy here and  cause people trust each other with their lives here. It has been said that if you become a regular member of the club, the club gives you new life in return. The ten minutes survival test was one of the weekly activities that the members carried out, where each member was subjected to a ten minute beating up and humiliation- something that would make them feel that there are always worse things that could happen in life than what is going on to them currently.
"Tim", Vivian said pointing to a person standing on the back row of the club members, " Don't you be laughing out so loud, you sly fox, cause the next week, its going to be you."
A moment's silent was followed even greater laughter as Tim seemed lost in deep thought.
"Well I guess we are friends for life now, as all the bad intentions I had in my mind for you has now evaporated Josh." Vivian chiped in as all the eleven guys started heading out on to the forest path to the club headquarters, with Joshua being carried by his fellow mates. "I don't know about that but I could surely use a beer right now." smiled Joshua.