Lawless

by Jai Williams

  “So, what then? You’re going to kill us; what the hell would that prove?” asked Ronnie.

  “Yeah, we could kill you. That would be fun but then we would have to deal with an angry boss and we don’t want to get him angry because holy crap, that would be a mistake,” replied the guy.

  “Then what are you going to do to us?” asked Ronnie.

  “Well, since we can’t kill you, we will just throw you in the back of our truck and take you to go see the big angry boss man himself. Now that sounds more fun because the boss is one scary dude; in fact, some people gave him a nickname and by some people I mean his victims, and that nickname is the Torturer,” replied the guy.

  “The Torturer?” said Dave with a curious look on his face. “Sounds like one gay name,” said Dave with a giggle.

  All the men standing feet away from Ronnie and Dave started laughing. “Oh boy, you have no idea how one name can mean so much. So you better say goodbye to the world that you know, because the one you’re about to enter is going to get a whole lot shitting-your-pants scarier,” said the guy at the front of the rest of the men.

  “Okay listen, I got a plan,” whispered Ronnie while he looked straight ahead at the men in front of them.

  “Does your plan involve us getting killed because I kind of like being alive,” whispered Dave.

  “No, we’re not going to die. You need to man up and do what I tell you, no questions asked,” replied Ronnie, still in a quiet voice.

  “What do you mean, man up?” asked Dave.

  “I saw the way you looked at me back there when I killed those two men,” whispered Ronnie.

  “It was more of a surprised look,” said Dave.

  “Well, you better get used to it because to survive in this world you have to do whatever it takes, meaning kill whoever harms you and your loved ones, ergo we kill all these assholes aiming guns at us,” replied Ronnie.

  “Okay then, what’s the plan?” asked Dave.

  “When I say run, we run to the back of the truck,” replied Ronnie as he and Dave were still looking forward at the men so it didn’t look like they were planning to do something.

  “Why the back of the truck?” asked Dave.

  “Because first of all, we’ll be out of sight from them and secondly, when I was putting my bag in the back of the truck earlier I saw grenades and an RPG, so I believe that they will be useful to take out on these assholes. Understand?” replied Ronnie.

  Dave responded with a nod.

  “Go grab them,” said the guy at the front of the bunch of men. Two men started walking towards Ronnie and Dave.

  “OKAY, RUN,” yelled Ronnie. They both ran to the back of the truck. Ronnie ran down one side of the truck and Dave ran down the other side and while they were both running, both men that were walking towards them started running after them. They reached the back of the truck and Ronnie quickly pulled out a handgun from the duffle bag he had in the back of the truck and shot the man behind him and he turned to Dave. “Duck,” he said loudly, so Dave ducked and Ronnie shot the guy that was running after Dave.

  “GUYS, DID YOU KILL THEM?” yelled one of the men from down near the front of the truck. Ronnie pulled out an RPG from the back of the truck and loaded it up. Dave pulled out a grenade belt full of grenades.

  “Do you want me to use these?” he asked.

  “Yeah, yeah, they will be helpful,” replied Ronnie. “Okay, stay covered. I’m going to shoot at them and as soon as I do that you throw a grenade at them and continue throwing one after the other. Make sure you pull the pins first before you throw them, got it?” said Ronnie.

  “Got it,” replied Dave. Ronnie quickly poked his head around the corner of the truck so he could see the men blocking the road. He saw that one of them was slowly walking towards him so Ronnie aimed the RPG at the guy.

  “SHIT HE’S GOT AN RPG. GET DOWN!” yelled the guy as he ran back to the other men.

  Ronnie fired the RPG. “TAKE COVER!” he yelled at Dave so that nothing from the explosion would come flying at him.

  “GET TO COVER!” yelled some of the men as the rockets were heading towards them, but the men that were at the front of the truck were too late. There were blood and body parts flying everywhere; a head ended up landing right near Dave.

  Dave closed his eyes. “Th-there’s a head there that landed right next to me,” he said.

  “I see that; it’s pretty horrifying but you should be throwing those grenades,” replied Ronnie. Dave pulled the pin off the first grenade he picked up and walked out from the back of the truck and threw it so that it landed near one of the trucks of the men blocking the road. “GRENADE, GET DOWN!” yelled one of the men, so it seemed like some of them were still alive.

  “Okay, you keep doing that and I’ll run through the trees so they can’t see me and see how many are still alive at the back of their trucks,” said Ronnie. “O-ok, sounds good,” replied Dave with a worried look on his face. Ronnie put the RPG back into the back of the truck and grabbed his assault rifle from the duffle bag that was in the back of the truck and he headed off towards the trees and ran through them. Dave pulled the pin off another grenade and threw it. Ronnie got near the back of the enemy trucks “OKAY, STOP THROWING GRENADES!” he yelled out to Dave. Ronnie got closer and saw three men behind a truck crouching and without hesitating Ronnie pulled the trigger on his gun and killed all three of the men. He searched all the other trucks and he saw no one else “OKAY, IT’S CLEAR!” he yelled out. He and Dave both searched the trucks to find weapons, ammo or anything that would be of use to them. They ended up finding ammo and guns in the backs of the trucks.

  Ronnie got into the truck on the left because it was the only one that wasn’t too damaged and he drove it out of the way so that they could drive through with their truck. They threw the guns and ammo they found into the back of the truck they were driving and they drove off towards the town. They got near a residential area, the same area Jay and Finn looked around, and Ronnie stopped the truck. “Okay, we’ll go on foot from here. We don’t know if there will be any others searching for us so to be careful we’ll leave the truck here and grab what we need from the back and head off,” said Ronnie.

  They hopped out of the truck and headed to the back. Ronnie grabbed the duffle bag and Dave carried a gun that Ronnie handed to him. They started heading towards the motel.

  “Where are we heading?” asked Dave.

  “There’s a motel up here that I was staying at until those men showed up, then I had to lure them away,” replied Ronnie.

  “Wait, you were luring them away? So, they weren’t chasing you the whole time?” asked Dave.

  “Yeah, I was luring them away,” replied Ronnie.

  “From what?” asked Dave.

  “It’s a long story,” replied Ronnie.

  “Well, we have a long walk, so tell me,” said Dave.

  “Okay then. So, I was with other people, a man, a woman and three kids, and there was an old man with us but he got taken by some men. So we headed to this motel so that the woman and children could sleep there while the man and I planned to get the old man back but then some soldiers showed up and we then filled them in with our situation. So, they agreed to help us but then all those men that we killed back there showed up and I volunteered to lure them away from the motel and I ran into you and that’s it. That’s the story,” said Ronnie.

  “Wow, you are one brave guy,” replied Dave with an impressed look on his face.

  “No, I was just doing what needed to be done,” replied Ronnie.

  They got to the motel and Ronnie opened the door from the room he was in before he left. The room was all dark so Ronnie flicked a switch to turn the light on and saw that the room was empty.

  “Where are those people you were talking about?” asked Dave.

  “They must have already gone out, but I don’t understand. There was supposed to be a guy here that was to man the radios, unless they needed him to go with them becaus
e they were down one man,” replied Ronnie.

  “What about the woman and children?” asked Dave. Ronnie turned the light off and he and Dave left the room.

  “They’re in this room here,” said Ronnie as he and Dave were walking to another room. Ronnie tried to open the door that Alice and the kids were staying in but it was locked. Meanwhile inside the room Alice suddenly woke up from the banging noise Ronnie was making. Alice stood up and pointed her gun at the door with shaking hands. “Alice, are you in there?” asked Ronnie. At first Alice was scared because she thought it was some of those bad men that took her grandfather, but she recognized the voice coming from outside the room. “Ronnie, is that you?” she asked. “Yes, it’s Ronnie. I’m back,” replied Ronnie.

  Alice placed the gun on the floor and pulled the bed away from the door just enough to unlock the door and open it. Ronnie and Dave steeped in the room, closing the door behind them. “I’m so glad it’s you. I’m glad you’re alive. How did you escape those men? You said that there were twenty of them.” asked Alice. Alice looked at Dave. “W-who are you?” she asked.

  “This is the guy who saved my life,” said Ronnie.

  “Hi, I’m Dave,” said Dave with a smile.

  “I’m Alice,” said Alice.

  “Ronnie filled me in on the situation. He’s so lucky I showed up in time to pick him up,” said Dave.

  “Wait – pick up; you mean you have a vehicle?” asked Alice. “Well, I did have a car until we got rammed off the road by a truck, and we then took that truck to get here, followed by other things we had to do, but to answer your question yes, we do have a vehicle,” replied Dave.

  Ronnie and Dave sat on the bed and Alice noticed that Dave was hurt. “You’re hurt,” she said with worry.

  “Ah yeah, this happened from the car crash,” replied Dave. “Well, we need to get you patched up,” replied Alice. She walked towards the bathroom of the motel room. “I saw a medic kit in here earlier,” she said. Alice walked out of the bathroom with a medic kit in her hands. “Turn the light on, please,” she said to Ronnie, so Ronnie turned the light on so that Alice could see. She pulled out a bandage from the medic kit and Dave un-wrapped the torn-up piece of shirt around his leg to reveal the cut.

  Ronnie saw a bottle of whisky on the bench in the kitchen so he grabbed it. “Here, use this to clean the cut so he doesn’t get infected,” he said as he handed Alice the bottle.

  Alice poured a bit of the whisky over a bunch of cotton balls she had in her other hand. “Okay, this might sting so try not to scream,” she said. She started wiping the cut with the alcohol. Dave was trying his hardest not to scream out in pain but he pushed through it and next Alice wrapped a bandage around the cut, over and over again until the bandage was all used up. Alice got a clip and clipped the bandage together so it wouldn’t come undone.

  “All done,” she said with a smile. “Okay, let’s check you,” Alice said as she looked at Ronnie.

  “Oh no, I’m fine. I swear,” replied Ronnie. “So where did Hank go – you know, the guy who was told to stay back?” said Ronnie.

  “Oh yeah, it seemed that all the men patrolling the town were in fact following you,” replied Alice.

  “So, where have they gone now?” asked Ronnie.

  “They went to the school. That’s where they think they would’ve taken my grandfather,” replied Alice.

  “Oh boy, that wasn’t a good idea,” replied Ronnie.

  Alice looked at Ronnie with more of a worried look on her face. “Why was it not a good idea?” she asked.

  “All the men chasing me ended up blocking me and Dave on the road so we had to kill them but before we did, one of the guys said something along the lines of they were going to take us to the Torturer, which I think means something bad,” replied Ronnie. “The Torturer? Is that a nickname or something?” asked Alice. “It could be a nickname for a guy who tortures people for fun. I mean, this world is full of psychopaths,” said Dave as he butted in.

  “I don’t think they’re going to get in and out without being seen, so we need to save them,” said Ronnie. “What, you want to do go in there guns blazing? We’ll just end up in the same situation they’re in and then we all die,” replied Dave.

  “No, I’ve got a plan,” said Ronnie.

  Ronnie opened the door of the motel room. “I’ll be right back,” he said. He went outside and opened the door of the room next to them and went inside to see if Captain Harris left the map on the bed, which he did, as well as the photos of the school and the plan drawn up on a small white board. Ronnie grabbed all of those things and went back to Alice and Dave. He placed the map on the bed with the white board next to it and the photos too. Ronnie picked the white board back up. “Okay, now this was their plan. It seems like they entered the back of the school. These X’s I think indicate enemies on the roof and the circles must be them,” he said confidently. Ronnie flipped the white board over to see what was on the other side. “Okay, so when they were inside they must have thought that there were only a couple of men patrolling the halls of the school, which is where they made a mistake and were probably caught,” he said.

  Ronnie wiped the white board clean. “Okay, so here’s what we’re going to do,” he said. Ronnie started drawing the inside of the school and drew X’s to indicate the bad guys. He drew an X next to each door of all the classrooms. “Okay, now that’s a lot of men but maybe that’s the mistake they made. So this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to take out the closest man we can see. If we see men outside away from the snipers’ view then we’ll take them out, but if not, then we’ll leave them. When we’re inside, we’ll knock out two men and take their outfits and wear them so we can blend in. Then we’ll tell the next closest man that’s near us that the boss needs to talk to him so we’ll make them follow us and will kill them when they’re out of sight from the rest of the men, and we will do the same thing to the next person, then the next and so on. You with me so far?” asked Ronnie.

  “So, we both get in the outfits and kill,” replied Dave.

  “Yeah, that’s pretty much what we’ll do,” replied Ronnie.

  “Okay, got it,” replied Dave. Ronnie and Dave geared up and got ready to leave.

  Alice gave Ronnie a hug. “You be careful and make sure you bring Finn and my grandfather back safely,” she said.

  “I will,” replied Ronnie. Dave left the room first.

  “Make sure you lock and board this door up like before,” said Ronnie before he left the room. So Alice shut the door behind Ronnie, locked it and pushed the bed against the door, and she turned the light off and sat back down and waited, hoping that it wasn’t too long till she was reunited with her boyfriend and grandfather.

  Chapter Eight: Welcome to Hell’s Cage

  A few minutes earlier

  John was completely knocked out by a tranquilizer. Ted had joy written all over his face in the sense that this was going to be fun. The thrill that Ted got from torturing just warmed his heart in his own sick twisted way of what fun meant to him. Ted wasn’t a man you messed with; all of the prisoners that he tortured knew it – heck, even his goons knew it and if one of them fucked up, they didn’t get a second chance: they instantly went from being one of Ted’s men to becoming one of Ted’s prisoners and it was downstairs to the torture chambers for them and believe me, you don’t want to be down there. Downstairs, is pretty much what hell would look like; in fact, Ted gave his torture chambers a name that would make people believe that hell does exist and he called it Hell’s Cage.

  At first, people think that it doesn’t sound like it gives off a terrifying vibe but when they look at the room and see the blood, guts and smell of death, then they think that this is the work of the devil himself. Hell’s Cage is a place people go to die or if they’re lucky they will live through it just to be locked away with everyone else who has survived and they will go through that torture again and again and at that point these people would be wishing they
died the first time.

  Ted demanded his men to carry John’s passed-out body down to his torture room. Ted walked beside them clapping his hands, yelling to the ceiling how happy he was. Ted pushed one of his men out of the way of a classroom door they were standing in front of and opened the door. “We got ourselves a new one, ladies and gentlemen,” he said with a smile to the prisoners in the room. They continued walking down the hallway with John’s unconscious body. They reached a door which Ted opened, revealing a stairway going down. It seemed like they were heading down to hell. Ted held the door open for his men to carry through John’s body. He slammed the door behind him and walked down the stairs with his men in front of him. Every step they took, got them closer and closer to revealing this horrifying torture room. When they approached the bottom of the stairs, all they could see in the distance was a light shining through a gap in the door. Everything else around them was complete darkness, which is what gave this torture room more of a scary vibe.

  They approached the door, which Ted kicked open with his foot. “Honey, I’m home,” he said with a smile. To describe this room was to describe what hell would actually look like if it was on earth. It was dark and scary, there was a big light in the middle of the room that shined on a leather inclined chair which Ted called Satan’s throne where Ted would place someone and strap them on it. Satan’s throne had blood stains all over it, its straps were completely stained with blood and all around the chair on the floor was coloured in blood and nothing else was in sight, which is what gave it such a horrifying look. The two men carrying John’s body placed him on the chair and strapped him down. Two straps went around each of John’s legs, another one was around his waist, there was a strap around each wrist and the last strap was around John’s neck. There was a reason there was a strap around the victim’s neck: it was so that they could not see where Ted was cutting them; in fact, he played a guessing game with his victims and asked them if they could guess what part of the body he was cutting into. The two men walked away to leave Ted to do his business because Ted liked to be alone when doing this.