by Jai Williams
Ted put the whip down and grabbed the cords connected to the battery and turned the battery on. He touched the two ends of the cords together and it made a spark. “Now this is going to be quite shocking, ha-ha,” said Ted with a chuckle as he looked down at Jay’s chest. He placed one cord on Jays left side and the other cord on Jay’s right side and all Jay could feel was a shock of electricity running through his body. Ted did this for a few seconds before removing the cord from Jay. Jay’s chest started to pound and he was shaking a lot. Ted went back for more and again Jay felt the current of electricity running through his body. Ted stopped again and he did this another three times. “Okay, that’s enough of that. I don’t want to shock you to death,” he said.
Ted turned the battery off and put it back on the tray and he picked up a small knife. “You are one tough motherfucker, so now I’m going to have to give you a tattoo that shows people that,” said Ted with a smile. Ted started carving into Jay’s stomach. He carved out the letter T. Jay continued to trying hold in the pain. Ted carved the letter O, followed by U, G and H, spelling in big caps, TOUGH. Ted wasn’t done. “Okay, we’re one third of the way through,” said Ted with concentration. Ted carved out the letters M-O-T-H-E-R underneath the word tough and underneath the word mother Ted carved out the letters F-U-C-K-E-R. “All finished,” said Ted with a big smile on his face and in all caps carved across Jay’s stomach it said, TOUGH MOTHERFUCKER, which ended up hurting like a motherfucker. Blood was just dripping down Jay’s sides and onto the floor. They were only small cuts so it didn’t kill Jay; it only caused pain. Ted put the knife down. “Wow, that is a magnificent tattoo; in fact, I’m jealous I don’t have one,” he said with sarcasm. Ted got up close to Jay’s face and he could see Jay was in so much pain from just looking at his face. “How’s it going, buddy? You still alive?” asked Ted and all Ted saw back was Jay looking at him with an ‘I want to kill you’ look.
Ted stood back from Jay. “Jay, you have been a good sport; in fact, I can see a bright future for you. A future where you work for me, and do you know why I would allow you to work for me?” asked Ted, but Jay didn’t reply. “Because you are tough and your stomach says so. I mean, you’re not the only one I have done this to; no I have heaps of men that work for me that were like you and on all of them I carved the words tough motherfucker and you know why they decided to work for me? Because they finally came to their senses and knew that this world wasn’t going to change. So you might as well accept it and join it by joining me,” said Ted with a serious look.
“Jay, don’t listen to him. I know you; you are smarter than this. You’re a good man,” said Captain Harris as he was coughing and spitting out blood.
“Yes, but where does good get you these days? I mean, take a good look around. You guys are chained up and beaten down. What’s that old saying, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?” replied Ted as he turned and looked at Captain Harris.
“No, it’s if you can’t beat ‘em, don’t give up, just kill them,” said Jay in pain.
“That doesn’t even rhyme. If that’s how you’re going to play this, then ok,” replied Ted as he went back to being angry.
Ted left the room and walked over to the same closet he did earlier, opened the door and with a creepy and insane smile, grabbed Lucifer with two hands and took it back to the room he just left. Ted slammed the door behind him and all the men apart from Jay looked over towards the noise and they saw Ted emerge from the shadows holding a weapon that was a baseball bat with barbed wire around it and a shortened pitchfork attached to it. “Oh, you like this? Yeah, I do too. In fact, why don’t you all say hello to Lucifer?” said Ted with a smile, but there was no reply. “Wow, they’ve gone all shy. Now that’s what Lucifer does; he shuts everyone the fuck up,” said Ted.
Ted walked up and down the men chained up. “Now you think you guys can just waltz into my town, disobey my rules and me, and think you’re going to get away with it?” he said with a furious look on his face. He paused for a second as he was still walking. “Think again. I don’t think you guys fully understand this world. No longer do the good guys win; it’s now the bad guys’ turn and it’s going to stay that way forever or until the world explodes. So my next question is, which one of you am I going to kill?” he said with hatred in his eyes. Ted walked over to Jay. “Could it be you?” he said. He walked over to Captain Harris. “Or you?” he said, and he did this to everyone until he got to Finn. “Or what about you? You’ve been awfully quiet,” he said and Finn looked up at Ted and started shaking but he didn’t say a word. Ted kept walking back and forth in front of all the men. “I just have no idea who I want to kill…wait, I got it,” he said with a smile. Ted pointed the pitchfork end of Lucifer at Captain Harris. “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a chicken by his toe; if he squeals, let him go, eeny, meeny, miny…” he said while pointing Lucifer and continuing to walk back and forth in front of all the men and Ted hopped, skipped and jumped. “…hop, skip, jump and moe,” he said. Ted landed in front of one of the men and looked down at them. “Now you can cry, scream – hell, you can even piss yourself but the thing you can’t do is beg me to stop because this is it, man. There is no begging, there is just accepting death,” he said with an evil stare. Ted raised Lucifer up high over his head, holding the bat part and he was about to swing in three, two, one…
Chapter Ten: Just in Time
A few minutes ago
Ronnie shut the door of the motel room that Alice and the kids were in. Alice pushed the bed against the door and locked it and sat down on the pillows she had piled up. Ronnie and Dave headed out towards the school.
“So, do you think we have a chance?” asked Dave.
“I believe we will make a difference in helping out whatever trouble Finn and the soldiers have gotten themselves into,” replied Ronnie.
“Finn huh, so that’s…” replied Dave.
“Alice’s boyfriend and the guy who saved me when I came into this town,” said Ronnie, finishing off Dave’s sentence.
“How did he save you? You never really told me the details and we have a long walk ahead of us. So?” said Dave with curiosity.
“Okay, well, first of all, if I hadn’t made the mistake I did that Finn then helped me with, then I wouldn’t be here right now and in fact nobody would have been taken, so in a way it’s kind of my fault. Anyway, for years I have been moving from place to place by myself,” replied Ronnie.
“So, you had no one with you? No family or friends?” asked Dave as he butted in.
“I did, but they’re gone now,” replied Ronnie with a sad look on his face.
“I’m sorry,” replied Dave.
“Anyway, the way I lived for years was that I snuck through towns finding whatever kind of food and drink I could, as well as shelter. Sometimes, I would find abandoned buildings and sleep the night and sometimes I just camped in the woods. I always travelled through towns and cities at night because it seemed easier. So earlier this night, I was walking down this alley and I accidentally bumped into a trash can and that made a loud noise, which some men patrolling the streets heard and started heading into my direction. So, I thought I would just head back the way I came, but I heard men coming from that direction too, so at that moment I thought I was screwed. Until I saw a door open that led into a building, and I heard a voice coming from it telling me to come inside, so I thought it was better to go in there than to stay outside and get caught. So, I entered and down a hallway I could see a light, which I approached, and when I pushed the door open I could see Alice, John, who is the guy that was taken, three kids on the floor and Finn, and that’s how he saved me. So we need to save him and the others,” said Ronnie.
“So, have these soldiers got a place they are living or are they just going from town to town and you were just lucky enough to be here the same time they were?” questioned Dave.
“No, they’ve got a place. They even offered to take us there,” replied Ronnie with a smile.
&n
bsp; “You think that they would take me too?” asked Dave.
“Yeah, as long as they don’t think you’re one of them,” replied Ronnie.
“What do you mean by one of them?” asked Dave with a confused look on his face.
“The bad guys. As long as you’re not a bad guy and they can trust you, then there’s going to be no problem,” said Ronnie.
“Well, you don’t think I’m a bad guy, do you?” asked Dave.
“No, if you were a bad guy then you would’ve hit me earlier with your car. If you were a bad guy you wouldn’t have closed your eyes when that head landed near you and if you were a bad guy, don’t you think you would’ve killed or knocked me out by now?” replied Ronnie.
“Yeah, well, I’m not a bad guy then,” replied Dave.
Ronnie and Dave kept walking towards the school. They passed so many destroyed buildings and vehicles; there were army tanks and trucks everywhere, destroyed as well; there were even dead bodies just lying on the road and footpaths. It was like a war zone. Ronnie and Dave were lucky they never experienced the horrible war that the criminals caused. Ronnie was still in his mother’s womb at the time of the war and Dave was about a year old so he wouldn’t have remembered anything. They kept walking, avoiding any dead bodies on the road, and they reached a public garden – what was left of it, anyway. There were piles and piles of dead bodies there; it was like they were grouped up in a circle and executed. These people were grown men and women that were wearing police uniforms, suits and all kinds of clothing that leaders and anyone involved in law would wear. It seemed like whoever killed them was sending people a message that they were in charge of this town now.
Ronnie and Dave kept walking until they reached a street that was blocked off by a huge truck and piles of smashed cars, and it seemed too high to climb. “Damn, the road’s blocked. That’s the only way we can head to the school,” said Ronnie with a troubled look on his face.
“Can’t we just go around another way?” replied Dave, thinking it would be the solution.
“No, it would take too long and we might get lost,” replied Ronnie.
“What now, then? We can’t climb it,” replied Dave. Ronnie looked around and saw the door of a building kicked in.
He tapped on Dave’s shoulder.
“I got it,” he said. Dave pushed Ronnie’s arm off his shoulder.
“What, what is it?” he asked.
“I will enter that building, run up the stairs and look from the rooftop to see how far we are away from the school and to see if there’s another way to get there,” said Ronnie as he pointed over to a building.
“You want me to stay here while you go up to that rooftop and look for another way to get to the school?” asked Dave with wide open eyes.
“Yeah,” replied Ronnie.
“I’m not going to stay here in these streets,” replied Dave. “Then what are you going to do?” asked Ronnie with a frown.
“I’m going with you. We’re not splitting up,” replied Dave.
“Well, you better keep up and prepare yourself to run up a load of stairs,” replied Ronnie.
They ran towards the building and stepped over the kicked in door. With Ronnie at the front and Dave following him, they started running up the stairs as quickly as they could because they had no idea how long they would have until Ted, back at the school, was going to kill one of the soldiers or Finn. They ran and ran up the stairs, huffing and puffing through it all, and they eventually reached the top. Ronnie and Dave stopped and tried to catch their breath. Ronnie opened a door so they could step onto the rooftop. They looked around and saw a better view of some of the town. It would have been a great view if there wasn’t so much death and destruction around them. Ronnie walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down at the street that was blocked and saw on the other side that they couldn’t get to, a bunch of dead bodies. It was like they were trying to climb up the truck and piles of smashed cars but they got shot down. Dave spotted the school in the distance and ran over to Ronnie. “Follow me. I spotted the school,” he said with a smile, so Ronnie followed Dave back to where he ran from. “There it is,” said Dave as he pointed over to the school. The school wasn’t that far; it was only a couple of buildings away, but they were looking to the back of the school, so Ronnie and Dave ended up going another direction from Finn and the soldiers.
“Good job. Now let’s find another way around that roadblock,” said Ronnie as he looked at Dave with a smile. Ronnie and Dave headed in different directions on the rooftop to look. Ronnie saw down the side of the building on the opposite side of the blocked road, an alleyway. He walked around the edge of the building to see where the alleyway led and it made a right, which led it back onto the other side of the roadblock. Ronnie walked up to Dave. “Okay, there’s an alleyway that leads onto the other side of this roadblock,” he said.
“Well, let’s go,” replied Dave.
They went back inside the building and started to run down the stairs. They eventually got to the bottom and left the building. They headed to the alleyway which Ronnie spotted and ran down it until they made a right turn, which led them back onto the street, so they were now on the other side of the truck and cars that were blocking the road. Ronnie and Dave headed down the street. They passed a couple of buildings and to their right, they saw the back of the school. They headed to a tree that was near a small oval on the school grounds. They took cover behind the tree so they could scope out the place and see how many men were guarding the place. Ronnie and Dave saw two snipers on the roof, and they assumed that there were more than just those two on the roof. They saw two men around a playground that were facing the direction Ronnie and Dave were in. They couldn’t see any cover that would help them get closer, so they waited for the two snipers on the roof to look away so they could run across the road and into an alleyway they saw.
The two snipers looked away and Ronnie and Dave ran quickly to a car that was in the middle of the road and waited behind it until the two snipers on the roof looked away again, which they did, and Ronnie and Dave ran the rest of the way into the alleyway. They kept going down the alleyway until it broke up into three other directions, forward, left and right, so they ended up turning left and kept running until they turned left again and headed back out into the streets, but this time they were closer to the school, and it seemed easier to get to the school building. It was easier because there was a kind of zigzag line of smashed cars starting from near the alley that Ronnie and Dave were in and running to a school bus that was a couple of feet away from the wall of the school building. Ronnie and Dave crouched down and quietly went down the zigzag line of cars. They eventually got to the bus, which was horizontal to the school, so it gave them a bigger cover to stand behind. They walked to the back of the bus, which was heading in the direction to the front of the school.
They saw an opportunity to get to the wall of the school and took it so that the snipers couldn’t see them. They headed down to the front of the school because they didn’t want to be caught by the men standing near the playground. Ronnie poked his head around the corner of the building and saw a tree, so he turned back to Dave.
“Okay, there’s a tree a couple of feet away from here. I’m going to go up to it and see if there’s anyone near the entrance,” he whispered.
“Of course, there’s going to be someone at the entrance. They wouldn’t leave it unattended,” whispered Dave.
“Yeah, but I’m going to see how many men are guarding it because I can’t see from here. So, you stay here and I’ll be right back,” whispered Ronnie. Ronnie, crouching stealthily, headed to the tree and took cover behind it. He slightly poked his head out to see the front entrance and he saw two armed men standing there. Ronnie looked around and saw to the right of the men, a bunch of abandoned cars. “Now if I can get over there somehow, then I can get to the other side of these men,” he said to himself. Ronnie looked around and saw an alleyway that was just behind the abandon
ed cars. He looked to his right down all the buildings and saw an alleyway entrance that he could get to without being seen, so he quietly went back to Dave. “There are two armed men at the front of the entrance,” whispered Ronnie.
“Ah great,” whispered Dave.
“But I’ve got a plan and have my plans so far ever failed?” asked Ronnie, still whispering.
“No,” whispered Dave while he thought back to the time they were in the truck and were blocked by all those men on the road.
Ronnie pointed to the alleyway he saw far away from the school. “I’m going to enter the alleyway down there, and from there I will turn left and follow it all the way down…” he whispered. Ronnie kept his finger pointed and moved it to the left where he stopped it at the alleyway behind the abandoned cars he saw before. “…there, where all the cars are and from there I will quietly move from car to car and get to the other side of the school,” he whispered. Dave scratched his head, trying to process Ronnie’s plan.
“But why do you want to go to the other side of the building?” he asked.
“Well, that’s why I have to tell you the second part of the plan,” whispered Ronnie.
“What’s the second part of the plan?” asked Dave.
“You are going to get behind the tree I just came from and I am going to get behind the tree on the other side and when I give the signal, which is me waving, we count to three and shoot them in the head and just like that we can enter,” whispered Ronnie. “Won’t the gun noise be too loud?” asked Dave.
