Lawless

by Jai Williams

  “It’s about time,” said one of the men.

  “Okay, whoever can walk head out the front entrance and you’ll see three army trucks out there which have some soldiers in them,” said Ronnie. Four men and four women got up and headed out of the room but one man and woman couldn’t move due to really bad injuries so Ronnie picked up a woman that was extremely hurt and Dave and Finn picked up the man who couldn’t walk and they carried them outside to the trucks. All the men and women got outside and hopped into the truck in the middle. Ronnie, Dave and Finn got outside and put the man and woman into the back of the truck on the left side where Jay was. More men and women came outside; there was about ten or so. Ronnie, Dave, Finn and Captain Harris helped them into the trucks.

  Ronnie, Dave and Finn went back into the school and this time they each went to a different classroom so that they could help out the captured men and women quicker. The room Ronnie went to, only had three men in it, the room Dave went to only had two women in it and the room Finn opened up had three women and four men but they were dead. Finn had a sad look on his face when he saw the horror, so he shut the door and went on to the next room. Eventually, all the men and women locked up in the classrooms were freed.

  Ronnie, Dave, Finn and the three soldiers in the school looked around for anything they could use. They took the guns and ammo off all the dead guys on the floor. They searched every other room and Ronnie ran upstairs and saw the principal’s office, which was what Ted used as his office. Ronnie ran over to it and turned the handle of the door but the door was locked so he started kicking and slamming into it to knock it down. One of the soldiers heard and they ran towards the noise and he aimed his gun at Ronnie. “Turn around,” said Bruce, so Ronnie turned around.

  “It’s just me. Don’t shoot,” he said with his hands in the air. Bruce lowered his gun.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I’m trying to open this door. Can you help me?” replied Ronnie, so Bruce helped Ronnie kick the door down and they entered the room. Ronnie turned on the light in the room and they saw the photos of Ted’s victims he tortured.

  “What the fuck? He takes photos of those he tortures. What a sick, twisted man,” said Bruce with a horrified look on his face.

  “Okay, I know Captain Harris said that it was classified when I asked him, but why do you need the guy I was punching? I need to know why? Can you please tell me?” asked Ronnie with a curious look.

  “Okay only because you saved our lives but you cannot tell anyone, ok?” replied Bruce.

  “Yes, I promise I won’t tell anyone you told me,” replied Ronnie.

  “His name is Ted Pines. His victims call him the Torturer, mainly because he tortures people. Anyway, we need to get information out of him about a man we are looking for,” said Bruce.

  “What man?” asked Ronnie.

  “I can’t say what his name is, but what I can tell you about him is that this man we are looking for, is a horrible, mean killer. If you think that Ted is mean, then you have no idea what this other man is capable of doing,” replied Bruce.

  “Can you give me a little hint on how twisted this guy is?” said Ronnie.

  “Well, he owns an arena and forces men and women he captures to fight to the death just like people used to do in the gladiator times, and he does this just for fun,” replied Bruce.

  “What is wrong with him?” replied Ronnie, giving Bruce a horrified look.

  “Yeah, you see the problem. That’s why we have to find him and kill him, and the only person we know that knows this guy we’re looking for, is Ted,” replied Bruce.

  “Well, let’s look around in here and see if we can find something,” replied Ronnie. Ronnie and Bruce searched the office. Ronnie looked on one side of the room and Bruce looked on the other side. Ronnie started looking in the desk drawers. He found a file, which he pulled out and put on the desk. Ronnie opened the file and in the file it had lots of paper and the first bit of paper had a name on it, and the name was Dwayne Duke. Ronnie flipped through the file and came across a bunch of photos and all the photos had a guy in them, which Ronnie assumed was Dwayne. “Hey, I found something,” said Ronnie, getting Bruce’s attention, so Bruce walked over to Ronnie and saw the file Ronnie found and Bruce scattered it across the desk.

  Ronnie looked carefully at a photo of Dwayne and noticed something. It brought up a flashback to the time his parents told him to go through the tunnel under the house and leave them behind. He remembered seeing a man walking around the side of the house wearing a bandana around his head, a black leather jacket, black jeans and boots. He had a biker kind of look and when a man kills your parents you tend not to forget what he looks like. Ronnie dropped the photo he was holding and took a step back with a shocked and sad look on his face.

  “Are you ok? What is it?” asked Bruce. Ronnie looked at Bruce with the same shocked and sad look on his face.

  “I know who Dwayne is,” he said.

  “You do? How?” asked Bruce with a curious look on his face.

  “He was the man who killed my parents. Well, I never saw him kill them, but he burnt the house they were in and he started heading in my direction when I saw him, and that’s not a face I’d forget,” replied Ronnie.

  “Oh, I’m sorry about your parents. We’ll have to give this to the Captain because it will be quite useful and when we find this man you will get your revenge. I can make sure of that,” replied Bruce.

  Ronnie and Bruce put the paper and the photos back in the folder and Bruce grabbed the folder and they left the room and headed back to Captain Harris, who was outside. They were the last two to exit the building. When they got outside Ronnie and Bruce walked up to Captain Harris and Bruce handed the folder about Dwayne to Captain Harris. “We found this, sir. It’s a folder with information about Dwayne,” said Bruce.

  “What about classified don’t you understand, soldier?” replied Captain Harris with a frown.

  “Ronnie found it and he knows who Dwayne is,” replied Bruce.

  Captain Harris looked at Ronnie. “What do you know about him?” he asked.

  “I didn’t know what his name was, until I saw the folder. I didn’t know who he was until I recognized him in a photo, and he’s the guy who killed my parents and that’s all I know about him,” replied Ronnie.

  “I’m sorry about that but do you know anything about where he’s located?” asked Captain Harris.

  “No, sorry. Ever since I saw him burn the house down with my parents inside I’ve been running and hiding, because that’s what my parents told me to do and if he caught me, he would have had something horrible planned for me,” replied Ronnie.

  “Thanks for finding this. We’ll head back to the motel and pick up the woman and children and then we’ll head to our base,” replied Captain Harris.

  They all got into the army truck and one by one they drove off. They passed buildings and dodged destroyed cars and they finally got to the motel that Alice and the three children were staying at. They stopped the trucks and Ronnie, Finn and two of the soldiers got out of the trucks. The two soldiers headed into the motel room next to where Alice and the kids were and they grabbed everything they left in there, which was guns, ammo and other equipment that was theirs, and they put it in the back of one of the trucks. Ronnie and Finn headed to the room Alice and the kids were in and they knocked on the door. Alice, inside the room, was asleep so she couldn’t hear the knocking. Ronnie and Finn knocked louder and louder. “Alice it’s Finn and Ronnie. Open up, we’re leaving this town,” said Finn with a loud voice.

  Alice slowly woke up and she picked up the hand gun she had. “Who is it?” she said with a panicky voice.

  “It’s Finn and Ronnie. Open up,” replied Finn, so Alice put the gun on the floor, stood up, pulled the bed away from the door and unlocked the door to see Finn and Ronnie standing there. Ronnie and Finn pushed the door all the way open and Alice gave Finn a big hug.

  “I’m so glad you�
��re ok. You’ve been gone for ages. I thought something bad happened to you,” she said with joyful relief.

  “Well, something…” replied Finn.

  “Something amazing happened. We rescued your grandfather,” said Ronnie, butting in to stop Finn from saying anything else.

  “Yeah, that’s what happened,” replied Finn with a strange look.

  Ronnie walked over to the kids that were sleeping on the bed and looked back at Alice and Finn. “Okay. let’s carry them to the truck,” he said.

  “Truck?” Alice replied with a curious look.

  “Yeah, we have three trucks right outside that are full of men and woman that were imprisoned at the school and we’re heading to the soldiers’ base. So, we better not keep them waiting,” said Finn. Finn and Alice walked over to the kids and all three of them picked them up and carried a child each. They left the room and put the children in the back of one of the trucks. Alice and Finn got into the same truck as the kids and Ronnie headed back into the motel room and quickly grabbed the folder, map and small whiteboard that was left in the room, and he hopped into one of the trucks. They drove off one by one and headed towards the base, thinking that the worst was behind them. They were soon going to find out that the horror had just started...

  Chapter Twelve: Ambushed

  So Ronnie and everyone else drove out of the town, leaving nothing but corpses and bad memories behind. The tortured men and women as well as Jay, Captain Harris and John all got fixed up with bandages and anything else they needed while they were on the road. They believed that the worst was behind them but it was only a dream. In the army truck at the front there was Hank driving and Ronnie was in the passenger seat and in the back of the truck there was Jay, Dave, five men and five women they saved from the school. In the truck behind them was Bruce driving, and Alan was in the passenger seat and in the back of the truck there was Ted with Stan and Captain Harris watching him and there were six men and four women, as well. And in the truck that was behind them, Roger was driving and Jackson was in the passenger seat and in the back of the truck were Finn, Alice, John, the three kids, three men and seven women. In every truck there were ten prisoners from the school, so only thirty in total were still alive from Ted’s torture.

  They drove for hours and it was eventually morning. “How far away is this place?” asked Ronnie, trying to keep himself awake.

  “It’s a couple of hours’ drive,” replied Hank as he was concentrating on the road.

  “Is this the way you came to the town we just left?” asked Ronnie as he was rubbing his eyes and yawning.

  “No, this is another route we’re taking but it will get us there,” replied Hank, still concentrating on the road.

  “How come you didn’t have any vehicles of your own? I mean, that’s how you got to that town, right?” said Ronnie, still struggling to keep awake.

  “Yeah, we drove down in one truck but we ran into some trouble. We drove over some road spikes and the tires of the truck popped, so we then came to a stop and we were ambushed and we survived, of course. We killed them all and we travelled by foot the rest of the way to the town. It was only an hour or so hike,” replied Hank.

  “Why did you head to the motel room where Finn and myself were?” asked Ronnie.

  “What are you saying, you didn’t want to be saved?” replied Hank as he looked at Ronnie for a second.

  “No, I’m not saying that. All I’m saying is that you could’ve gone anywhere in the town but headed to the motel. Why?” asked Ronnie.

  “Captain Harris always had to find motels we could stay in when we were out doing a mission or scavenging for stuff. He never wanted to stay anywhere else. I don’t know why,” replied Hank.

  “Maybe the motels remind him of happy memories he had in his past life, before all this crazy shit happened,” replied Ronnie as he was trying to keep his eyes open.

  “Yeah, probably. I mean, I still try to search around to find ice cream shops when I scavenge towns and cities,” replied Hank with a sad look on his face.

  “Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?” asked Ronnie as he yawned.

  “Hey man, if you’re tired then go to sleep; I don’t mind,” replied Hank.

  “No, it’s ok. So why do you search for ice cream shops?” asked Ronnie.

  “Because it reminds me of better times I had before this shit. The better times I had with my little brother. It was my job to look after my brother and every day we went to the ice cream store and I always brought us an ice cream each day. Anyway, we must keep memories like that and cherish them because that’s what keeps us alive in this world, that and it keeps us fighting for those days to come back,” said Hank with a tear running down his face.

  “Yeah, memories,” replied Ronnie as he brought up an image in his head of his mother and father.

  Hank kept driving. “What about you? Have you got some good memories of the past?” asked Hank.

  “Well, I was born in this world so apart from stories my parents told me and books I read, I have never experienced what the world used to be like but I wish the world one day could go back to what it once was. So, no, I have no good memories of what the world was like,” replied Ronnie as he shook his head to try and keep himself awake.

  “I can tell you from experience that the world was amazing and I can also tell you that no matter how long it takes, we will make the world what it once was,” replied Hank with pure confidence.

  “Yeah, I hope so,” replied Ronnie.

  “Well you’ve got to have some good memories about your parents, don’t you?” asked Hank.

  “Well, there were little things that me and my parents enjoyed,” replied Ronnie with a smile.

  “Well go on, tell me,” replied Hank.

  “My parents some days took me out to abandoned towns and showed me around and told me what each shop and building used to be. They told me stories about the town they lived in before all this happened and I could remember my parents smiling every time they talked about the old world, and that’s what made me smile. So yeah, that’s one memory that I think of every time I feel sad,” said Ronnie with a smile.

  “I’m sorry you didn’t get to see what the world was once like but at least you were with family,” replied Hank.

  “Yeah, I was with family,” replied Ronnie as the smile left his face.

  “I know losing your parents at a young age is horrible but just remember you will never be alone. Now that you’re with us you can wake up in the mornings with a smile on your face and see smiles looking back,” replied Hank, trying to cheer up Ronnie. “Well, with years and years of being alone I think I deserve to be with others,” replied Ronnie.

  In the distance, they could see a small town that looked like no one would still be there, or that’s what they thought. Hank picked up a hand radio. “Okay guys, we’re coming up to a small town. I think it would be best to stop the trucks before we drive through and some of us should look around on foot to make sure there’s no ambush up ahead,” said Hank into the radio.

  “Okay Hank, that sounds like a good idea. We don’t want to drive into another ambush,” replied one of the soldiers on the radio. The three trucks stopped a few meters away from the first building in the town. Ronnie and Hank got out of the truck and headed to the truck behind them, where Bruce and Alan had just got out. Roger, Jackson and Captain Harris walked up where Ronnie, Hank, Bruce and Alan were standing.

  “Why are we stopping?” asked Captain Harris.

  “There’s a town ahead of us. We don’t want to run into another ambush,” said Hank.

  “Okay, so what’s the plan?” asked Captain Harris.

  “All of us standing here – apart from you, Captain, because you’re badly hurt – will head out quietly towards the town and look around to make sure there’re no surprises waiting for us,” replied Hank.

  “Okay, sounds good. I’ll inform everyone of what’s happening,” replied Captain Harris.

  Finn came out from the back of t
he end truck and ran over to Ronnie and the others. “What’s going on? Some of the men and women are worried,” he said with concern.

  “Nothing to worry about, just a little hiccup,” replied Captain Harris.

  “What do you mean by that?” asked Finn. Ronnie stepped over to Finn.

  “By that he means there’s a small town in front of us and we have no idea what’s waiting for us there. So, I and all these men apart from the Captain are going to run into the town and look around to make sure that the coast is clear,” he said in a simple, descriptive way.

  “Okay, that sounds great. Do you mind if I join you guys?” asked Finn.

  “Well, you could but the question is why?” asked Ronnie.

  “Because back there in that town I was seconds away from death and I think that I owe you big time for that. So, I think I should come and help you out,” replied Finn.

  “I did what any human would do so you don’t owe me anything and if you’re trying to prove how brave you are, then you can do that by staying here and looking after these people,” replied Ronnie.

  “Okay, sure thing. Just know that if you ever need another man to join you, I’m that man,” replied Finn.

  “Okay, I’ll keep that in mind,” replied Ronnie.

  All the men that were heading out to check the town went back to their trucks and grabbed a gun each and ammunition and they ran off towards the town. They headed to an alleyway that led them into the town. They approached the end of the alleyway and saw a police station just across the street in front of them, so they stealthily went across the road. They could see a fairly big hole on the side of the building, and they saw some of the letters that spelled police on the ground, as if someone ripped them from above the front entrance. There were also police cars smashed up; one of the cars was flipped over and the front entrance was smashed up – it looked like a car had driven through it.