by Jai Williams
“What happened? Where’s the Captain and the others?” asked Ronnie with concern.
“Some asshole showed up and me and Roger were lucky enough to escape but the others, they…” replied Stan with an angry look.
“They what?” asked Ronnie as he got really worried. Stan started punching the truck door.
“AHHHHHH!” he yelled in anger. He looked back at Ronnie.
“Those assholes took ‘em,” he said.
“What assholes?” asked Ronnie.
“That’s the question – we don’t know,” said Roger.
“So, what does that mean?” asked Ronnie.
“I don’t know, but these guys were wearing gladiator outfits,” replied Roger.
“Wait, you said gladiator?” asked Ronnie.
“Yeah, so?” replied Roger.
“So, Dwayne has his own arena, like in the gladiator times. So, the men who took Captain Harris and the others must be working for Dwayne,” said Ronnie.
“Well, there’s one thing he doesn’t know,” said Stan.
“What’s that?” asked Ronnie.
“That he’s messing with the wrong motherfuckers” replied Stan.
Chapter Seventeen: A Trap
A few hours earlier
Captain Harris, Stan, Roger, Bruce, Alan and Jackson got into a truck, Stan got behind the wheel, Captain Harris was in the passenger seat and the others were in the back of the truck. Two soldiers opened the gate wide open, allowing Stan to drive out of the base. As they drove out of the base, the two men shut the gate behind them, looking at the truck and hoping Captain Harris and the soldiers would have a safe return and find something helpful in the town they were heading to. As the wind blew through the passenger side window into Captain Harris’s face, he felt some relief at finally getting closer to Dwayne. The thought of putting a bullet into Dwayne’s head gave the Captain joy, not the kind that would make you think that he was a coldblooded murderer who finds joy and happiness when he kills, but the kind of joy that would make him sleep better knowing that a monster is put down.
Stan looked over at Captain Harris and saw a smile on his face.
“What are you smiling about?” he asked curiously.
“I’m just thinking,” replied Captain Harris.
“Oh yeah, about what?” asked Stan.
“I’m thinking we’re getting closer. I’m thinking we will find where Dwayne is located. And I’m thinking when we do, I’ll have joy in killing him. So that’s what I’m thinking about,” replied Captain Harris.
“Whatever makes you happy,” replied Stan.
“You realize that, when we kill this motherfucker it’s not the end. There’s still tons more guys out there like Dwayne, probably even worse.”
“Yeah, I know, but at least getting rid of this guy will make some difference,” replied Captain Harris.
“When we do find out where Dwayne is, we’re not just going to go in guns blazing or think that we can sneak into wherever he is, because that hasn’t really worked out that well in our previous missions,” replied Stan.
“No, this time, is going to be different. This time, we’re going to look thoroughly at our surroundings and we won’t make a mistake this time, I can assure you of that,” replied Captain Harris with complete confidence.
Stan kept driving ahead; they drove down a different path this time because Stan didn’t want to drive through the town that Hank died in; it would bring up too much pain, and he wanted to keep his mind clear and focus on the mission. Some of the others probably felt the same way but they were in the back of the truck so they couldn’t see outside. The path that Stan took, was a bit longer but it was worth it, because there were no towns or cities in the way so they couldn’t get attacked by rogues or anyone else. It was just road, trees, bushes and wilderness around them; from time to time they saw abandoned vehicles on the road but they drove around them.
“So, what do you think we’ll find in that torture room?” asked Stan.
“We’ll find a secret hiding place in that room and in that secret hiding place we’ll find something that Ted didn’t even trust his own men with and whatever that is, it will help us find where Dwayne’s hiding,” replied Captain Harris, feeling completely confident in what he said.
“And you’re sure that we’ll find something useful,” replied Stan with less confidence than Captain Harris.
“I’m one hundred percent sure; actually, I’m one hundred and ten percent sure that that’s what we’ll find,” replied Captain Harris.
They finally got to the town and Stan drove to the school that they were at last night. Stan parked the truck right outside the front of the school. “WE’RE HERE!” yelled Captain Harris. The men in the back jumped out of the truck and joined Captain Harris and Stan, who were at the front of the truck. The men all grouped up.
“Okay men, this place seems dead but if you see anyone, shoot at them,” said Captain Harris.
“What if they’re just an innocent civilian, sir?” replied Roger.
“Then we won’t shoot at them but we must make sure they’re innocent. Anyone can look innocent but it’s what they say that can change that,” replied Captain Harris. All the men checked that their guns were loaded and that all their gear was ready for use and they headed into the school. Inside the school, they saw the dead bodies that were still there from when Ronnie and Dave went guns blazing on them.
They headed straight downstairs to the torture room and the light in the middle of the room was still on.
“Okay men, find a switch to turn the lights on. This room is too dark to see,” said Captain Harris. Bruce headed back outside the room and saw a switch on the side of the wall so he flicked it.
“Got it,” he said. The whole room lit up and revealed the spikes all across the walls. Captain Harris’s eyes lit up with surprise and horror.
“What the fuck?” he said. Bruce walked back in the room to see what all the fuss was about and he reacted the same way Captain Harris did. Stan walked over to the back wall.
“Shit, this guy is a psycho. No wonder there was only that one light on,” he said.
“Maybe it was caution for when one of his victims tried to escape,” said Roger.
“Fuuuck. Just imagine running into this,” replied Stan with a horrified look on his face. Captain Harris clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention.
“This room is fuckin’ crazy but we’re not here to admire the room; we're here to find something that would help us locate Dwayne. So, if you’re done jizzing in your pants, then let’s do our mission,” replied Captain Harris, demandingly. The men walked around the room but all they could see was the torture chair in the middle of the room with a tray of bloody tools beside it, the chains and cuffs on the floor that they had on them last time they were here and the spikes all across the room. It seemed like there was nothing that looked like an entrance to a secret room or secret hatch.
“Sorry to disappoint, sir, but it looks like there’s nothing but spikes and tiles,” said Alan as he turned to look at Captain Harris. Captain Harris was still trying to keep that positivity of something being in this room.
“There’s got to be something in here. Just keep looking,” he said.
So, the men kept looking high and low until Stan looked at the wall with the spikes all over it and thought to himself, What if the spikes aren’t stopping people from leaving? What if they’re protecting something behind the wall? “Wait Captain, I think I know where we could find something,” he said with complete confidence.
“Where?” asked Captain Harris. Stan pointed to the spikes on the wall.
“What if these spikes aren’t here to stop people from leaving this room? What if their real purpose is to stop people from entering a secret room?” he said.
“You’re on fire today. First you say that something could be in this room, then you say that it could be behind these spikes. Roger and Bruce, you guys check the back wall for an entrance to a secret
room. Alan and Jack, you guys do the same on the other side of the room, and Stan and I will check this side,” said Captain Harris.
So, Captain Harris and Stan started checking the left wall, Roger and Bruce were checking the back wall and Alan and Jackson were checking the right wall. Bruce felt a small rush of air against his face so he looked closely without touching the spikes and he could just make out a small gap in the wall.
“Guys, I found it,” he said with a smile but before anyone could walk over to Bruce they heard a bunch of footsteps; it sounded like people were running downstairs, so they all turned around and the Captain, who was the closest to the door, aimed his gun at the entrance and had his finger ready on the trigger. “Okay men, get ready to fire,” he said.
A man ran through the entrance to the room wearing a well-armoured gladiator-style outfit with the helmet included. Captain Harris and his men fired at the guy but the bullets bounced off him because the armour the guy was wearing, was made from something tough. The guy aimed his gun high at Bruce.
“I haven’t got time for this shit,” he said. Captain Harris charged at the man and tackled him to the floor. Stan ran up to the door and shut it quickly before another man from outside the room could enter.
“Shit, looks like we’ve got some company,” he said. Captain Harris pulled the helmet off the guy he had pinned to the floor and threw it across the room. Captain Harris pulled his arm up with his fist clenched and gave an angry look to the guy.
“Who are you? What do you want and tell me why I shouldn’t kill you?” he asked the guy. The guy started laughing and the other men from outside the room started banging on the door, trying to open it.
“Hey, open the fuckin’ door,” they said.
Captain Harris punched the guy across his face, splattering blood across the floor. “How many of you are there?” he asked.
The guy laughed. “You fuckin’ idiot, you dumb shit. Think you’d just come back here the next day and think everything is going to be ok, but you’re wrong. Everything is far from ok,” replied the guy. Captain Harris swung his fist across the guy’s face again.
“How many of you are here?” he asked. The guy laughed again.
“It doesn’t matter how many of us there are, ten-twenty-one hundred. You’re fucked either way and you know why you’re fucked? Because Dwayne will say so,” said the guy.
“Dwayne – you mean you work for Dwayne?” asked Captain Harris with a surprised look on his face.
The man nodded his head. “Ha-ha. You have no idea how this area is run, do you?” he asked as he didn’t care that Captain Harris was beating him. The men at the door kept banging, trying to knock it down, but Stan was trying his hardest to make sure that didn’t happen. The guy on the floor wasn’t yelling out in pain; he was just smiling.
“When we get to the big boss, he’ll tell ya how it works and how you have broken some rules and when you break rules, there’s consequences. So, it kinda sucks to be you right now,” he said happily.
The door was slowly opening, which Roger saw, so he headed over to Stan to help him.
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you,” he said. The men from outside the door stopped banging and the guy Captain Harris was punching on the floor started laughing again.
“Ha-ha-ha. Should’ve stayed where you were,” he said. The men from outside the room started shooting at the door. Stan and Roger dived to the floor.
“EVERYONE GET DOWN!” yelled Stan. So all the other soldiers in the room ducked. There was a hole in the door from the gunfire and it started to get bigger. All the soldiers crouched over against the wall that the door was on so they were out of sight when the other men came charging through the door, but they made sure they kept their distance from the spikes. Captain Harris picked up the guy he had on the floor and held him hostage with a handgun pointed at his head, and he stood a couple of feet away from the door.
Four men kicked the door down and ran into the room. Captain Harris looked at all the men, who were wearing the same outfit as the man he was holding, except these men weren’t wearing helmets.
“I will kill him. You don’t want me to do that, do you?” said Captain Harris. One of the men aimed his gun at Captain Harris.
“We don’t give a shit what you do,” he said, and the guy shot the man that Captain Harris held hostage.
Captain Harris dropped the body to the floor. “That was your own man,” he said in shock.
“That guy was stupid, coming in here without us. He deserved to die. Stupidity killed him; I just pulled the trigger,” replied the guy.
Captain Harris wiped the blood that was splattered on his face. “Looks like you did the same thing. NOW, MEN!” he yelled and the soldiers from behind the men shot them down, leaving a pile of blood and bodies in the room – not that it was the first blood spilled in this room. Captain Harris stepped over the body in front of him. “Okay men, we don’t know how many more of these gladiator-wearing dick-bags there are, so we stick together and we will get through this,” he said confidently.
Captain Harris stepped over the other bodies and walked over the door, exiting the room. The other soldiers followed. Roger walked up to Captain Harris and stopped him. “W-what about the secret room?” he asked.
“Whatever’s behind there, will still be there when we come back. Besides, we need to make sure we clear the area so we can get out of this town safely,” replied Captain Harris. They continued walking. They quietly walked up the stairs so that no one could hear them. Although they made a loud noise by shooting, they still didn’t want any other men to know that they were heading towards them.
Captain Harris stopped. “The door is open, men. I’ll quietly walk up to it to see if anyone is down the hall,” he whispered, so he silently approached the door and poked his head out for a second to look down the hallway. He saw one man with his back turned heading in the opposite direction. He turned around to his men. “Okay, there’s one man but he’s far down the other side of the hall. So, we’ll have to go one by one down these halls,” he whispered. One by one the soldiers silently walked over to the closest classroom to them; they went from classroom to classroom without making a squeak until they got to the part of the hall where it split into three directions, left, straight ahead and right. Captain Harris walked to the left corner of the wall to look down the left side, and Stan went to the right corner of the wall to look down the right side. Stan saw nothing but Captain Harris saw two men. He quickly turned away. “Psst. Stan, get back,” he whispered.
Two armed men dressed like the other men who were killed, were heading towards Captain Harris and Stan. Captain Harris and Stan headed back into the classroom where they left the other soldiers. Captain Harris quietly closed the door behind them. “I saw two men heading down this way, so stay crouched behind this wall,” he whispered. The soldiers crouched behind the same wall that the door was on. The two men that Captain Harris saw started heading down the same direction as the classroom they were in. They could hear them talking while they were walking by.
“I’m pretty sure I heard a gunshot, maybe more,” said one of the men.
“Fine, we will go and check it out,” replied the other guy. The two men headed downstairs to the torture room.
Captain Harris opened the door slowly and looked out to see if the coast was clear. “Okay men, it’s clear. We have to hurry; those men heading downstairs will see those bodies so have to get out of here quickly,” he whispered. One by one they left the classroom and headed to the right to the back entrance of the school, where it was clear. They were about to head out the back door, when all of a sudden, the men that headed downstairs spotted their dead men.
“WE HAVE INTRUDERS!” yelled one of the men, so they ran upstairs and yelled down the hallway to inform the others. A couple of men ran to the middle of the hallway and saw Captain Harris and the soldiers.
“THERE THEY ARE!” yelled one of them.
Captain Harris quickly opened the door,
“LET’S GO!” he yelled, so one by one the soldiers ran outside while Captain Harris fired at the men that spotted them. The men took cover behind the walls and as soon as the last soldier headed out the door, Captain Harris stopped shooting and followed his men. From outside, they ran around the side of the school, heading towards the front of the school where they left their truck.
The men who spotted Captain Harris and his soldiers headed to the front entrance and got outside near Captain Harris and his men’s truck. Captain Harris poked his head a tiny bit around the corner to see the truck and standing near it were two men, with a third man searching the truck. The men that were in the building ran up to the men that were already outside. Captain Harris could hear them talking. “The men that own that truck are here. They ah, they killed five of our men,” said one of the men that ran outside.
“Well, where did they go?” one of the men asked.
“They headed out the back,” replied the other guy.
“Why didn’t you follow them?” he asked.
“There were more of them than us but with you three, we’ll have a chance. They will be heading this way,” he replied.
Captain Harris looked back at his men. “Shit, there’s six of those cunts, but don’t worry; there’s six of us, so it’s a fair game,” he whispered.
“Okay, what’s the plan? We run out there and fuck em up?” whispered Stan.
“W-what? No, fuckin’ guns blazing is not always going to work. No, what we’re going to do is you and Roger are going to head for the truck while the rest of us cover you. Then you reverse the truck as close as you can to us and we’ll get in the back and get the fuck out of here,” replied Captain Harris. Stan and Roger stood together.
“So, Captain, what direction you want us to run in? Like straight in a line towards the truck or what?” said Stan.
Captain Harris pointed to the middle of the road. “You are going to run to the middle of the road and head to the back of the truck and one of you will get in the driver’s seat while the other gets in the back. So head to the right side and enter from the passenger side. Also, if you can kill some of the bastards, that would be helpful,” he whispered. Stan and Roger got into position far to the right of the others. Captain Harris, Bruce, Alan and Jackson got their guns ready to fire.
