Gods of Chicago — A.J. Sikes

Quarter-finalist for the 2014 ABNA! It's the hit of the century, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, and Chicago City's top newshawk, Mitchell Brand, has the scoop. But the killings are more than just one mob wiping out another, and soon enough, Brand wades knee-deep into a world of gangsters and G-men locked in a power struggle for control of the city. The bodies pile up and Brand worries that he's bitten off more than he can chew when his newsboys are added to the stack and the Governor sends his army into the city with one mission: clean house. In devastated neighborhoods, citizens fight back and flee. Brand and his last remaining newsboy, Aiden Conroy, have to get the real story out on the airwaves. In scenes that take Brand back to the trenches of the Great War, he and Aiden must get the evidence the city needs to see the Governor for what he is. Through it all ride a corps of tramps on rusty bicycles, the mysterious Bicycle Men, and one of them has a message for Brand.