Lawless

by Jai Williams

  “Move. Fuckin’ move,” said Dwayne’s men.

  Four men stayed in the room to watch Captain Harris, Bruce, Alan and Jackson. The men pushing Ronnie and the others headed behind the stairs that were down the long hall they were walking down, and behind the stairs was a door which had more stairs that led down. So, they went down one by one. They finally got to the bottom and headed through a door which showed another hall, but it seemed dark and cold. The hall was lit up with flaming torches on the wall like in the old days, before electricity. The men turned right and continued walking. They passed cells that looked like they were built in the same image of those in the gladiator times. There were men in these cells who were bruised up and had cuts all over them; they looked like they were in pain.

  Dwayne’s men stopped near the end of the hall. “Okay, split the men up in these two cells,” said Dwayne. Ronnie, Stan, Jay and two other soldiers were pushed in the cell to the right and Dean, Roger and two other soldiers were pushed in the cell to the left; they were locked in. “All right men, go back to your posts, but Ted stay here,” said Dwayne. Dwayne’s men left and Ted stayed right beside Dwayne. “Okay, so this is the cell floor. It was built underground because there was no room in the building and because I don’t want trash like you in the building. So yeah, welcome to your new home. Hope you like it and don’t be afraid of the others, because that shows weakness and if you show them weakness then they’ll assume you’re an easy kill and you’ll be fucked. So, try to trash talk back to them; that usually works, I think,” said Dwayne.

  Ted stood there with a grin. “Well, looks like all those punches I took came back and kicked you in the ass, coz you’re now literally, fully fucked. Now how’s that for a punch?” he said happily.

  Dwayne and Ted walked away before any of them could reply and left them there, cold and scared. In the cells there were two beds each, made out of wood. On the beds they had an old dirty thin blanket on them. There wasn’t a mattress and pillow, only the blanket. Ronnie looked at the beds, one on each side of the cells. “So, who’s got the beds?” he asked.

  “There’s no way I’m sleeping. Nah, I can’t sleep here. We need to escape, we need to find Dwayne and kill him and then go to Captain Harris, Bruce, Alan and Jackson that are chained up and free them and free the other prisoners as well,” said Jay. There were walls between each cell so no one could see and harm anyone from another cell.

  A man’s voice came from the distance. “OI, SHUT THE FUCK UP DOWN THERE, NEW CUNTS. THERE’S NO WAY YOU’RE GETTING OUT OF HERE, SO I’LL SAVE YOU THE TROUBLE AND DEMAND THAT YOU SHUT UP!” he yelled angrily.

  “NO. I DON’T GIVE A FUCK WHAT YOU THINK. JUST BECAUSE YOU’VE GIVEN UP DOESN’T MEAN OTHERS HAVE. SO, DO ME A FAVOR AND KEEP YOUR THOUGHTS TO YOURSELF!” yelled Stan.

  “Whoa, hey, just take it down a notch, ok. These people in here have to fight to survive. I think when one of them yells their truth you should not say anything back,” said Ronnie.

  “Yeah, we should keep our voices down and try to come up with some plan to escape. I mean, we’re not killing innocent people just to survive and satisfy sick twisted fucks. No, we’re getting out of here,” whispered Jay with confidence.

  “I think Jay’s right. I haven’t survived all these years just to give up now, and let the world turn me into one of them,” whispered Ronnie.

  “One of who?” asked Stan curiously.

  “An asshole who kills people for fun,” whispered Ronnie.

  “Oh yeah. Well, that’s not going to happen; we’ll get out of here and kill Dwayne and all those that side with him. And we’ll kill those who had to do what they were forced to do. We’ll try to save those who can be saved but not all these prisoners here can be saved because once they kill and kill again and again and keep doing that, then they will become someone else, someone you wouldn’t recognize, and we can’t risk saving people who are too far gone. It’s harsh to say, but it’s the truth and one day you’ll have to face that,” said Stan, truthfully.

  The two other soldiers in the cell with Ronnie, Stan and Jay were lying on the beds and Ronnie turned around to look at them. “Hey, what are you doing?” he asked.

  “Well, you were too busy talking, so we took them. Sorry,” replied one of the soldiers. In the other cell which had Dean, Roger and two other soldiers, they had already decided who was sleeping in the beds, which were the two other soldiers, because Dean and Roger weren’t going to sleep either.

  “This is just great. We’re locked up in a cold, dark cell and we’re probably minutes away from having to kill someone,” whispered Dean.

  “We will get out. We won’t kill anyone – well, apart from those who work for Dwayne and Dwayne himself. We will survive, always have, always will,” replied Roger.

  “No, we won’t. Just face it: we’re trapped here and we’re outnumbered. It’s like a game of cat and mouse, where we’re the mice and out there is the cat. We’re either going to run and survive or get caught and die. So, don’t tell me we’ll get out of here because this was eventually going to happen. This world is hell and eventually everyone will become a demon. So, just face it, we’re going to have to kill people to survive in this place or if we can’t do that then we’ll have to face death,” whispered Dean as he was thinking that it was the end for them.

  Roger looked over at the cell that Ronnie was in. “Hey guys, can I talk to you? Dean’s fuckin’ bumming me out,” he whispered.

  “Why? What did he say?” asked Ronnie.

  “I think he’s given up and accepted what he has to do to survive in this place,” replied Roger.

  “No-no-no. You don’t get to give up. Get him over here,” whispered Ronnie with disappointment.

  Roger grabbed Dean and pulled him over to the front of the cell. “Okay, here he is, the one and only has no hope man,” whispered Roger.

  “What’s the deal, man? I thought you were brave and full of hope. Well, after I told you that everything was going to be ok after Hank died, not in a mean way though. So, why give up? We can fight, we can escape and…” whispered Ronnie, who had a look of thrill on his face, “…I can kill Dwayne and get revenge for my parents and those who have died here. After all, that’s why I came, and even if this guy didn’t kill my parents I would still want to kill him for all the deaths he is responsible for,” whispered Ronnie as he had a thrilling thought of killing Dwayne and ending this horror.

  A few minutes later, the noise of a door opening came from the distance and footsteps followed, getting closer to where Ronnie and the others were. And there they stood, Captain Harris, Alan and Jackson with three of Dwayne’s men behind them. Captain Harris had blood dripping from his hand and had a mournful look in his eyes. The man behind Captain Harris pushed him into the cell Ronnie was in and Alan and Jackson were pushed into the cell Dean was in. Stan stood there petrified and waited for Captain Harris to fully get in the cell so he could speak to him. “W-w-what happened? Where’s Bruce? Where is he?” asked Stan with a concerned look. Captain Harris looked at Stan and responded with just a guilty and sad look. Stan got out of his petrified stance and knew that something horrible had happened to Bruce. “No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no. Nah, i-i-it can’t be. It can’t. You kill…you killed him. Why? Why would you do that? You’re our Captain; you’re supposed to protect us, not kill us,” he said angrily.

  Before Captain Harris could reply Dwayne came out of the darkness and stood in front of the cell Captain Harris was in and looked at Stan with a delighted look. “Yeah, oh boy, he killed him. It was awesome. It was well, yeah, just awesome and you want to know the sad thing? Well, to you it’s sad. Anyway, he didn’t even hesitate, he just blah right in the blah so it was all blah. Ha-ha. You understand what I mean by blah, obviously,” he said with a joyful smile.

  Stan gave Captain Harris an incensed look. “You’re no Captain. You’re just a killer,” he said. Stan walked to the back of the cell and sat on the ground with his head to the floor.

 
Dwayne clapped his hands. “Well-well-well, who’s next? Who’s going to fight who?” he said as he rubbed his hands together. Dwayne looked back and forth at the two cells that all the soldiers and Ronnie were in, and finally came up with a decision. “I think you,” he said as he pointed to Dean. “What’s your name?” asked Dwayne.

  “Does that matter?” asked Dean nervously.

  “Oh, it does. I want to know who’s going to win or die. So, what’s your name?” asked Dwayne.

  “Dean,” replied Dean without hesitation.

  “Well Dean, who’s going to be your opponent?” asked Dwayne with a smile. Dwayne looked in the cell that Ronnie was in and pointed to Ronnie. “Looks like you’re going to join your parents soon. Or maybe not,” he said. Ronnie looked back with anger. “What’s your name?” asked Dwayne.

  “It’s Ronnie. Remember that name because I’m going to be the one who kills you,” replied Ronnie, Dwayne laughed.

  “Ha-ha-ha-ha. What a funny joke. Anyway, Ronnie versus Dean, who will win?” he said. Dwayne turned to his men, “Get these motherfuckers ready. It’s time for another fight,” he said with a smile.

  Chapter Twenty Three: The Sacrifice

  A few minutes earlier

  Dwayne and all of his men left Ronnie and the others and headed upstairs back to Captain Harris, Bruce, Alan and Jackson. Before Dwayne got there, Captain Harris was talking to his men trying to calm them down and give them hope.

  “Guys, guys,” he said.

  “Yeah Captain,” said Bruce, Alan and Jackson.

  “Listen, it’s going to be ok. We’re going to escape. We’re going to make these men pay for their mistakes and we’re all going to live. So, please don’t give up hope. I know we haven’t been in a situation like this before but we’ve been training for it and we’ll know how to survive it and as long as I’m your Captain I promise I will keep you safe,” said Captain Harris confidently.

  One of Dwayne’s men that were in the room laughed. “Ha-ha-ha-ha. What are you doing, man? Giving your soldiers false hope, promising them you’ll keep them safe. Da fuck is wrong with you?” he said smiling.

  “No. Whatever you say doesn’t mean shit to us because we’ll do whatever we have to, to escape, because we didn’t survive all these years just to give up now,” said Captain Harris as he looked at the guy, who laughed.

  “Okay, whatever you say, man,” replied the same guy. The door opened and Dwayne and Ted walked in the room.

  Dwayne looked at his men. “So, did I miss anything exciting like one of these fuck heads begging for you to let them go or one of them begging to work for me?” he said.

  “Nope. Their Captain was just telling them how they will escape and survive and shit, so just the usual. It seems like everyone we capture and chain up in this room is boring and has nothing good to say. It’s a huge fuckin’ bummer,” replied one of Dwayne’s men.

  “Well hold on, there was that one group that was brought here and they told us about the factory massacre that they did,” said Dwayne. Dwayne looked at Captain Harris and the other soldiers. “Now the factory massacre is an awesome story; you’re going to want to hear it. It’s got blood, blood, blood and yeah, more blood. So, these guys we brought in, told us that they started this massacre in a factory. They barricaded all the exits and windows and everything so no one could escape and they turned all the lights off in this place and it went all dark apart from gaps here and there but it wasn’t that noticeable. So, what they did, was they had night vision goggles on and they went around killing all the people in this factory. There was about fifty or so people that were killed and only four men did this. So, when they told us that I was like fuck me, colour me impressed. I had heard about this story before, but I had no idea that I would be the lucky one to come across the men responsible for it. So, I told them about this place and what we do here and gave them the choice which you never got, which was they either choose to work for me or fight in the arena, and all of them chose to work for me and I was so happy they chose that. And you guys are so lucky because you know what?” he said. Dwayne turned to his four men in the room. “These four men here are the men from the factory massacre. So, you’ve had some celebrities in the room with you this whole time and you didn’t even know,” he said.

  Dwayne looked back to Captain Harris. “Wwwwwhat. No way. Really, which is what you guys are supposed to say,” he said. None of them replied; they just looked at the ground. “Okay, now that that’s out of the way it’s time to get down to business. So, which one of you will fight in the arena?” said Dwayne. Dwayne walked back and forth from Captain Harris to Jackson, thinking who he was going to pick and he finally decided. “Got it. Oh, this is going to be cruel; I mean, I haven’t done anything like this before–well, I have but not to soldiers. Okay, so you’re the Captain, Captain who? What do I call you?” he asked.

  “Harris,” replied Captain Harris as he looked at Dwayne, incensed.

  “Okay Captain Harris versus… Oh wait, I haven’t told you the cruel thing I was going to do. Well, it’s not cruel to me but it’s cruel to you guys and what it is, is that the Captain is going to fight one of his own soldiers. Yay,” said Dwayne, smiling. Captain Harris, Bruce, Alan and Jackson gave Dwayne a dirty look. “Hey we’re just talking here. We’re not doing it yet; we have to first prepare you. You know, get you to choose your weapon, which is like a lucky dip – you pull out a piece of paper and it has written on it what weapon you have to use, which could be a sword, axe, knife, hammer, machete, chainsaw or anything else except anything that can shoot. That’s a no-go because we don’t trust anyone in the arena with a gun because they could fire at us. So, anything melee-like can be used. Now after the fight, whoever’s still alive will join the others downstairs in the cell area. Oh that’s right, I got myself a fuckin’ cell area and that’s where your other people are at the moment. They’re just down there waiting for two of them to be next. Because once one fight is over, another begins. We try to make all the newcomers fight within the same day. So, one by one your people are going to die and you can’t do anything to stop that,” said Dwayne.

  Dwayne turned to his men. “Okay guys, who should we make the Captain fight? Will it be the one next to him, the one next to that one or the one at the end? I just don’t know,” he said, puzzled.

  “I think you should decide, boss,” replied one of Dwayne’s men.

  “Yeah but I don’t know, mmm…wait, I got it. Whoever I point to will fight him. Okay, let’s do this,” replied Dwayne. Dwayne shut his eyes and pointed his finger straight ahead and started to spin around in circles until he stopped. “Hey men am I pointing to someone?” he asked his men.

  “A bit to your left, boss,” replied one of Dwayne’s men, so Dwayne moved his pointing arm a bit to the left.

  “So, I’m pointing to someone now?” he asked.

  “Yes,” replied one of Dwayne’s men.

  Dwayne opened his eyes and saw that he was pointing to the man next to Captain Harris so he walked up to him. “What’s your name, soldier?” he asked.

  “Um, it’s ah Bruce,” replied Bruce as he swallowed air.

  “Well, um it’s ah Bruce, looks like um, it’s ah your time to fight,” replied Dwayne.

  “No-no-no. Don’t do this. I will fight someone else like someone who deserves to be killed but not my soldiers. Please don’t do this,” begged Captain Harris.

  “Shut up, cunt. Don’t tell me who deserves to die. You should be instantly killed for killing my men, but I’m giving you a chance to live another day, so you should be grateful,” replied Dwayne with a wrathful look.

  Dwayne turned to his men. “Guys, pull all these motherfuckers down. I want the other two to watch as their Captain and one of their soldiers fight to the death. I want them to see what they will have to do soon,” he said. Dwayne’s men unchained Captain Harris, Bruce, Alan and Jackson and pushed them forward out of the room. Captain Harris and Bruce were split up and they headed in different direc
tions. Captain Harris went to the other side of the stadium to go into a locker room where he would be prepped for the fight and Bruce headed into a locker room which was on the same side as the room they came from, and Alan and Jackson headed out to the seating area around the arena. There was a special seating area created just for Dwayne and those he wanted with him. Dwayne sat on a chair that was like a throne, Alan and Jackson were tied to a chair each and two of Dwayne’s men were in chairs behind them.

  Captain Harris was in a locker room with three of Dwayne’s men. “Now the rules are simple. Kill the other person in the arena with your weapon or steal theirs. Whatever floats your boat. Okay, now pick a piece of paper out of the hat,” said one of Dwayne’s men that was holding a blood-stained army helmet. Captain Harris pulled a piece of paper out and read it.

  “Hunting knife,” he said.

  “Well, not the best choice because you’ll have to get close. Just hope to yourself that your opponent has a short weapon too,” said the guy holding the hat.

  “He’s not an opponent. He’s a friend,” replied Captain Harris.

  “Who cares. Now let’s get you the fuck out there,” the guy replied carelessly.

  Bruce picked a piece of paper out of a blood-stained top hat and read what was on the paper. “Battle axe,” he said.

  “Nice, nice. That’s a good one. If I was you I would swing straight for the head. Just cut it clean off, but that’s me, not you. So, good luck, I think. Let’s get you out there,” said the guy holding the hat.

  Captain Harris stepped out of entrance that NFL players would use to get onto the field and two of Dwayne’s men were behind him, forcing him to keep moving. There were two high barbed wire fences on each side of them, leading onto the field, which was dry dirt; there was no grass, the goal post were taken down and all around the field was a huge barbed wire fence so no one could escape. Captain Harris was pushed onto the field and one of the men shut a barbed wire door and locked it so Captain Harris couldn’t run back out. Captain Harris looked around the field as he used his hand to block the sun from his eyes. All he saw, was men and women cheering like it was a football game. On the other side of the field, Bruce was pushed onto the field and a barbed wire door was locked behind him too. Captain Harris looked over to Bruce and Bruce looked back. Captain Harris saw that Bruce had a battle axe in his hands and Bruce saw that Captain Harris had a hunting knife.