Lawless

by Jai Williams

  “But why? You don’t owe any of us anything,” said Finn with a worried look.

  “I have spent ten years of my life running, hiding and not trusting anyone because that was my parents’ dying wish but earlier tonight, I decided to trust again and in all those ten years I could have saved people but I didn’t. So right now, I’m making up for all those people I could have saved by saving you guys because after all, that’s what makes us human and if this is the last time you guys see me, then I’d like to thank you because now I know that I didn’t die alone,” said Ronnie.

  Captain Harris put his hand on Ronnie’s shoulder. “You are one brave man. You will be remembered as a man who did whatever he could do to save other men’s and a woman’s life. Now what do you need?” said Captain Harris.

  “Flares, a fuck load of them, and a gun and ammo,” replied Ronnie.

  Captain Harris handed Ronnie a duffle bag with flares inside, as well as guns and ammo. Ronnie took a good look around the room at all the men, giving them all a goodbye look. Ronnie walked up to Finn. “Thank you, Finn. You saved my life earlier tonight; now it’s time for me to do the same,” he said. Ronnie walked up to Alice. “We never really got to talk but I think we would have gotten along. I hope you get your grandfather back, and say goodbye to those kids for me if you can, even though they don’t really know me,” he said with a smile.

  Alice gave Ronnie a hug. “Thank you, I will, and please come back,” she said. Alice let go of him and Ronnie opened the door. He turned around to give everyone a smile before he shut the door behind him. Ronnie’s heart was beating fast and he was scared out of his mind even though he hadn’t yet lured the men over to him. Ronnie took one step at a time, he looked around so see where he could lure the men into and he saw a path going into a forest which led in the direction behind the motel, so he lit up a flare and took a deep breath. “COME AND GET ME ASSHOLES!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

  Chapter Four: Welcome to the Castle

  One hour earlier

  “HELP,” yelled out John, but before Ronnie and the others could get to him, the men started shooting at them and it was too late. The men ended up capturing John and taking him. “What are you doing? No stop, don’t kill me,” said John with a fearful look on his face.

  All the men surrounding John started laughing. “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ho-he-ha-haaa, that’s not funny guys. Come on, what if it was your grandfather or old man friend? Anyway, that’s enough joking around. Put him in the back of the truck and let’s get out of this bitch,” said a guy with a sarcastic laugh.

  One of the men pulled John up forcefully and pushed him. “Move,” he said, demandingly. He pushed John into the back of the truck and three men got in the back with John. John sat down in the back of the truck with the other man.

  “Where are you taking me?” asked John with fear in his voice. All the men in the back sitting near John, looked at him.

  “Listen old man, if we say you can talk, then you can but until then, shut your God damn mouth or we will burn it off, got it?” said the guy who was sitting next to John. John responded with a nod. “Now listen very carefully old man, if you think we’re mean you have no idea who you’re about to meet,” said the guy sitting across from John.

  “They call him the torturer and that’s not just a pretty nickname he gave himself; no, his victims started calling him that. So, I do not envy you right now; in fact you should’ve gotten up and ran away so that we would’ve had to shoot you because you are about to walk into a shit storm and there is no way of getting out of it,” said the other guy sitting across from John.

  The truck came to a stop. “ALL RIGHT, WE’RE HERE!” yelled the driver.

  The guy sitting next to John stood up and looked down at John. “Get up,” he said demandingly, so John got up. John was shaking, his heart was pounding, and he was thinking in his head, God damn it, if I was to ever have a heart attack, now would be the right time. He took one step forward, followed by another and another, until he reached the back of the truck and he jumped down and landed on the ground. John looked around and saw that it was an elementary school. John wanted to ask why an elementary school? Why not a police station where there’re bars you can lock people up in? But he remembered they told him not to talk, and he was about to find out why they used an elementary school. They got closer and closer to the entrance and the closer they got, the more scared John got, because he had no idea what he was walking into. There were a couple of steps in front of them. So, up the stairs they went and John could see two men at the door. You could say that they were guards; in fact, this place was well guarded. There were six or so snipers on the roof of the school: there were two at the front of the building, two at the back of the building and one on each side, so they could see if someone was heading towards them.

  The two men guarding the front door opened the door to allow the men approaching them to enter. When they entered the building, the first thing John could see was a guard at each classroom door. There would’ve been twenty or more rooms in this school. Each room he passed, he couldn’t see what these men were guarding until he saw a person banging on one of the classroom doors from the inside and from the look on his face you could tell that this person was scared out of his mind. So, the guard of that room opened the door up and started brutally beating this man. “Get back to sleep,” said the guard while pushing the guy he beat up back in the room.

  These guys didn’t mess around. It was a mystery why they had people locked in these rooms – were they slaves or could they just be lining up for their execution? Who knows? But one thing John could tell was that these guards didn’t give a crap if their prisoners were young, old, female or male – they just did what their boss told them to do.

  John got up to a part in the building where he had to go up some stairs. The men pushed and shoved him up the stairs and when they got up the stairs to the next floor John could see more classrooms with guards in front of them. John knew that he was getting closer and closer to where he had to be. They turned left and kept walking until the men pushing John stopped him in front of a desk. Sitting behind the desk was a beautiful woman, who looked around her early thirties. She had red hair to her shoulders and she was wearing a black leather jacket with a tight purple tank top underneath. You could tell this woman wasn’t a nice person because she was in this place surrounded by horrible men and didn’t care about the innocent people locked up, so you could say she was a total bitch.

  The woman leaned forward in her chair, exposing the top of her breasts. “Naughty, naughty old man. You need to be punished,” she said with a sexy voice. She looked up at the two men behind John, “I’ll tell the boss you’re here to see him,” she said. She got up and John could see she was wearing tight leather pants which gave a better look to her sexy round ass. She opened a door that had Ted Pines written on it and walked through, leaving the door wide open. “A couple of your men are here to see you and they brought you a surprise,” she said to the mystery man in the in the room she entered.

  “Tell them to enter,” replied the man in the room.

  So, the woman walked back out of the room and looked to the men that were behind John. “You may enter,” she said, nicely. She sat back down on her chair and the men pushed John into the room, which looked like a principal’s office minus the principal.

  The room had photos of bleeding men and women all over the walls like they were trophies. John saw a desk and behind that desk, sat a man in a chair that was facing away from John.

  “We found this man roaming the streets, sir,” said one of the men behind John. The mystery man spun around on his chair to face them and revealed himself for John to see. This man was scary looking; he was bold and he had a mean-looking face that said, ‘Yeah, I kill people, big fuckin’ deal.’

  “Is this supposed to impress me – one old man? I mean, how did this old man survive on his own?” asked the guy in the chair with serious look on his face.

 
“Well, he wasn’t by himself, sir, he was with others,” replied one of the men behind John.

  “Okay, where are the others then?” asked the guy as his face was slowly getting angry.

  “Sorry Ted, we couldn’t catch them in time; they ran off,” replied the guy behind John.

  “You don’t get the privilege to call me Ted, not till you find the people you let go,” replied Ted with an angry look on his face. They stood there in silence for a second. “WELL DON’T JUST FUCKIN’ STAND HERE. GO OUT AND FUCKIN’ FIND THEM, FOR FUCK’S SAKES,” yelled Ted with an annoyed look on his face. “Selina, can you please come in here and tell these fuckin’ fucks that if they don’t find those other people they let run off, I will make one watch me kill the other then I will make the other one watch something gay as fuck on TV while I kill him,” said Ted with a loud voice.

  Selina walked through the door into the room. “Okay you two shitheads, you better go find those other people or else say goodbye, because you will be dead,” said Selina.

  The two men left the room, leaving John standing there about to piss himself. Selina left, shutting the door behind her with a bang, a noise that pretty much said, ‘This is it John, you’re dead.’

  But no, at first Ted wanted to get to know the man that was standing in front of him. “You’re about to piss yourself, I can tell. You’ve survived all these years without being caught, thinking everything’s going to be ok but no it’s not. You can’t run and hide in this world forever; eventually you’ll get caught, which has just happened to you. See, this is the new world and it’s fuckin’ awesome, I mean, I get to do whatever I want and that is the true meaning of fun,” said Ted with a joyful tone.

  “You think killing people is fun? You’re a psychopath,” said John while he was shaking in fear.

  “DON’T YOU EVER SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT, YOU OLD SHIT,” yelled Ted angrily. Ted calmed down and opened a drawer on his desk. He pulled out a gun and put it on the desk right in front of him and he pointed it towards John. “So, listen here. Wait, what’s your name?” asked Ted with curiosity.

  “John, m-my name’s John,” replied John in a scared tone.

  “Do you mind if I call you Johnny? Of course you don’t mind. Anyway Johnny, I can be a nice guy from time to time but nice doesn’t get you anywhere these days. I can show kindness to people, but if you do that shit you just did, I call that disrespect and I punish those who are disrespectful to me, but I’m going to let that one go only because you are new here and respect, son. I mean, you’ve survived many years out there. I would have assumed that you would have had a heart attack or put a bullet in your brain but no, you’re not a pussy, you’re a survivor and you need to be a survivor in this world. Whether you’re in here, out there or captured by any other crazy son of a bitch, you need to be a survivor,” said Ted with a smile. Ted grabbed the gun off his desk, stood up and aimed the gun straight at John’s face. “I could kill you. I could kill you right here, and now and no one would give a shit; hell, I call that a normal Monday,” said Ted with a grin. Ted lowered the gun. “But I’m not going to. You know why? Because I need survivors. You see, survivors like you do whatever it takes to stay alive in this world, whether that’s killing someone, watching someone kill someone or hiding from those that could need your help. Every day, you lose more and more of your humanity until you become like me or my successful goons or any other badass motherfucker in this world,” said Ted happily. He walked up close to John’s face. “But between me and you, those men I sent out to capture those other people you were with, will probably die or come back empty-handed and then – well, I’ll have to kill them and you know why I have to kill them?” said Ted. John responded with a shrug. “Because they can’t do a simple task and I can’t just forgive them and let them roam these halls thinking that I made a mistake. I have to punish them because if I don’t, then that shows weakness and I don’t show weakness; in fact weakness is not welcome in this building unless you’re a prisoner,” said Ted in a lowered tone. Ted walked back over to desk and sat on it.

  John raised his hand, thinking that hopefully Ted would allow him to talk. “What the fuck is this? This isn’t school. I mean we’re in a school but this isn’t a working school anymore so put that fuckin’ hand down,” said Ted demandingly, so John put his arm down. Ted clicked his fingers. “Oh wait, I got it, you put your hand up because you want to ask me a question – go ahead,” he said.

  “Why would you kill your own men without giving them a second chance? I mean, even bad, horrible people like you still make mistakes,” said John nervously.

  “Why would I kill my own men without giving them a second chance? Simple: because they become disloyal to me or they become disrespectful because they cannot complete a simple task. It’s all in the job description of what type of people I want working for me,” replied Ted with a serious look on his face.

  John put his hand up again. “Yes,” said Ted.

  “If you don’t want your men to fail, why not go with them?” asked John.

  “Mmm…no, that’s a stupid idea because I’ve got everything I need here and if I leave, what happens if this place gets attacked? See, this is my castle and I am the king and I must at all times keep this place safe so yeah, that’s why I stay here. Any other stupid questions?” replied Ted with a dull look on his face.

  “Yeah, I’ve got another question but it’s not stupid,” replied John with less of a nervous look on his face.

  “What is it?” asked Ted, lacking interest in what John had to say.

  “What happens if this place gets attacked and your men all die and you’re the last one left?” asked John.

  “Well, first of all there are patrols and lookouts all around the town. Then here we have six men armed with snipers on the roof, all the entrances have two armed men, all the windows are boarded up, every classroom has a man armed outside the door, which you would’ve seen walking through the halls, and the best part is, what’s in the gym. Do you want to go see? I think you should,” replied Ted with a smile.

  “I have one question before we do that,” said John.

  “It better be a good one,” replied Ted.

  “You say you don’t give second chances but those men that brought me in here had failed you and you told them to go and find the other people that they let run away. So, wasn’t that giving them a second chance?” asked John with a curious look.

  “No, because that was a new task I gave them,” replied Ted. Ted got up from his desk and headed over to the door and opened it. “Well, let’s go,” he said with a smile. John headed out of the room first and Ted followed him. Although John had no idea what was in the gym, the excitement on Ted’s face pretty much screamed horror. Ted pushed the gym doors open and they entered. “SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER. WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!” yelled Ted with excitement.

  John just stood there in fear but he also felt a bit angry because what he saw was wild animals caged up. There were wolves in one cage, lions in another, tigers in another and a lot more dangerous animals. John couldn’t keep it in anymore. “This is animal cruelty, in those rooms out there is just human cruelty and everything you have done and will do is–well, you’re just…” said John, angrily. John took a deep breath in and out and thought that these would be the last words he would say. “…fuckin’ crazy. You’re an insane, messed up, twisted human being that needs to be killed,” said John with an upset and angry look on his face.

  “Oh snap. This crazy old man’s fucked. He is fuuucked. Damn son, damn. Oh shit, put him in a body bag,” said one of Ted’s men who were one of the animal keepers..

  “Okay, shut up. Like how much cocaine have you had today?” asked Ted.

  The man pulled out a small bag of cocaine from his pocket, opened the bag up, put some cocaine on his finger and snorted it. “I’ve only had a little bit, but sir, when you have the time I’ve got so many great ideas that you can do to improve this place,” replied the guy, full of energy.


  “If you come up with another childish idea like adding a jumping castle in here, then I’m taking every single bit of cocaine you have off you, got it?” replied Ted with a serious look.

  The guy calmed down. “Yeah, I got it. I’m just saying it would be fun and all but whatever; I don’t care,” he replied.

  Ted looked back at John. “Are you finished? Because wow, you sir, you’ve got some balls. I was wondering when you would lash out like that and finally this was it. I thought that I would have had to kill someone in front of you, for you to lash out like that but no, the wenimals did it,” said Ted in a calm manner.

  “Wenimals? Don’t you mean animals?” asked John, still with anger in his voice.

  “No, I mean wenimals: weapons plus animals, wenimals. I know it sounds stupid but I don’t give a shit,” replied Ted.

  “So, what are you going to do to me now, since I’ve disrespected you?” asked John.

  “You’re going down to the torture room, bitch, because after all, actions have consequences and you’re about to find that out. Ok men, grab him,” replied Ted after cracking his knuckles.

  Before any of Ted’s men could grab him, John decided to run for it. John opened up the doors and left the gym in a hurry. He ran as fast as he could down the hallway and saw the exit down the other side of the building, so he ran towards it but before he could reach the exit a man walked out from a room and shot John with a tranquilizer, which made John fall to the ground and it was lights out for him.

  “We are going to have some good old torturing fun,” said Ted with a smile, which was the last thing John heard before he blacked out…

  Chapter Five: Run Ronnie, Run

  Present time

  There he was: Ronnie was holding a lit flare and waving it at about twenty men. His heart was pounding, he could hear a voice in his head saying, Oh boy this is a bad idea; what the hell have you gotten yourself into? What are you trying to prove man, that you’re brave or just fuckin’ stupid? All of a sudden he could hear “GET HIM,” which is what one of the men yelled out, so at this moment Ronnie ran straight towards the forest so that he could try and lose them in there while still luring the men away from the others that were in the motel room. With his heart pounding, Ronnie ran the fastest he’d ever ran; no one would be able to catch up to him, he thought. All the men came charging towards him with their guns held high and with a murderous look on all their faces and as Ronnie fled, all the men charging at him, opened fire. Ronnie panicked but none of their bullets ended up hitting him; he was one lucky son of a bitch. Ronnie wanted to stop for a second to celebrate how lucky he was and to catch his breath but, unfortunately, there was no time for that because the men chasing him were still right behind him, so Ronnie just kept running until he was out of sight of the men that were shooting at him.