Lawless

by Jai Williams

  “No need to be sorry. It’s going to be a long, sleepless night for all of us, especially Luke and the person who is going to fight Luke, and whoever fights Luke, don’t blame yourself for his death, blame the monster responsible for this soulless act. Because if you blame yourself, then it will eat you alive and you won’t ever be the same,” said Ronnie.

  “So, who’s going to be the one to kill me? If you don’t pick someone, I will,” said Luke.

  “I umm, I don’t know; maybe someone should volunteer to do it or we pick someone at random,” said Ronnie.

  A soldier from the same cell as Luke walked up to the front of the cell. “I’ll do it. I don’t want to do it but I don’t want anyone else carrying that burden and losing a piece of themselves. I’ve done heaps of things I didn’t want to do, but I had to so I can survive the guilt and if I have to do it so no one else can feel that pain, then I’ll do it,” he said.

  Luke turned to the soldier next to him. “If that’s what you want, Steve, then ok. You can be the one to do it,” replied Luke.

  “You guys are brave and I wish this didn’t have to happen but in a world run by killers like Dwayne, this is something that would’ve happened eventually. It’s harsh and mean to say, but I’m glad that we have brave men like you with us,” said Captain Harris.

  “Yeah, in a world like this, we had to eventually come across someone like Dwayne. Some days, I wish that just for a day we could have peace but peace is a foreign concept in this world and we have to live with that. But one day, we’ll see the beauty that this world once was and we’ll have peace once again, and that’s what we are fighting for and that’s what Bruce, Luke, Hank and anyone who dies is fighting for. So, we stay alive and fight through this or else their deaths meant nothing,” said Steve, trying to give everyone hope.

  They all sat down in their cells and stayed awake. They couldn’t even think about going to sleep; all they could think about was the undeserving death that Luke was soon going to get. A couple of hours later they heard a door open from down the hall and those who were asleep woke up. Some of the prisoners from farther down were still awake. “Fuck yeah. Finally food time,” they said with excitement. Some of Dwayne’s men had trays of food and they were sliding them through a small gap at the bottom of the cells; they pushed through bottles of water too, and the closer they got to Ronnie and the others, the less food the prisoners got because it was the ranking system that Dwayne explained to Ronnie and Dean earlier. Some of Dwayne’s men finally got down to Ronnie’s and Roger’s cells and pushed through one tray to each cell.

  “There you go, enjoy,” they said. The trays were close to full of food but the tray was small, so it wasn’t much food.

  “Okay guys, make sure we all get the same amount,” said Captain Harris.

  “Maybe me and Dean should get a little less because Dwayne gave us both a sandwich earlier,” said Ronnie.

  “Yeah, that’s probably fair,” replied Dean.

  “Okay,” replied Captain Harris, so they dug into the food.

  In Roger’s cell they did the same thing, so they had equal amounts of food. Roger looked to Luke and Steve. “You guys should have a bit more because you’ll be fighting tomorrow,” he said kindly.

  “A dead man doesn’t need to eat much food so Steve can have my extras,” said Luke.

  “Are you sure?” asked Steve.

  “I’m sure,” replied Luke.

  There were Dwayne’s men standing outside of each cell waiting for all the prisoners to finish eating. Stan looked at the guy standing outside of the cell he was in.

  “Why you standing there watching us eat? It’s creepy. Go,” he said, demandingly.

  “We have to wait till the prisoners’ finish eating so then we can grab the tray right back off them so they don’t keep it and use it as a weapon,” replied the guy outside Stan’s cell.

  “How would a tray be effective?” asked Stan.

  “Well, you could knock it on someone’s head as hard as you can or scrap it against the ground or walls and make it sharp and stab someone. But you won’t get the chance to do that because I’m taking it straight off you when you’re done eating,” replied the guy. Stan and the others continued to eat until the tray was all clear.

  “Hand me the tray, cunts,” said the guy standing outside the cell.

  “What’s with the language? Just ask us nicely. I mean, what did we ever do to you?” asked Stan, acting insulted.

  “Let me think… umm, oh yeah, you killed my brother. So, I think I’m allowed to call you whatever I want,” replied the guy.

  “Well, your brother deserved to die; he was an asshole,” replied Stan with a smile.

  The guy pointed his gun at Stan with a furious look on his face. “You motherfucker,” he said.

  One of Dwayne’s men walked up to the guy pointing his gun and tried to calm him down.

  “Woo-woo-woo, man, put the gun down. I don’t think Dwayne would appreciate you killing one of his prisoners. He’d rather see them die in the arena, so just lower the gun,” he said, so the guy lowered his gun.

  “This ain’t over. I hope you die in the arena,” said the guy that lowered his gun.

  “I hope you get aids-wait, you already have them, ha-ha,” replied Stan with a smile.

  “Ha-ha, so funny. Now slide the tray to me,” said the guy rudely.

  “Just pass the tray, Stan,” said Captain Harris, so Stan slid the tray to the guy and the guy picked it up and walked away and soon enough, all the other trays were picked up and Dwayne’s men left the area and headed back upstairs.

  Captain Harris looked at Stan with a serious look. “Why do you have to pick a fight with everyone? I know he deserved it but he has a higher authority than you. He could convince Dwayne to kill you; did you ever think about that?” he said.

  “Nope, I don’t give a fuck. I just want to survive by killing people like that and fucking women,” replied Stan.

  “Wow, that’s a great lifestyle. Just kill and fuck,” said Ronnie with a smile.

  “Yep. It’s the only way I get through this shit,” replied Stan. They sat there in silence; some of them went to sleep but some couldn’t. Hours went by, and the more time that went by, the more scared Luke and Steve got. Luke was more scared because he was the one who was sacrificing himself. So, those two stayed wide awake because if they went to sleep, just like that it would be morning and Luke would then be minutes away from death. So, staying awake gave him more time to live.

  The time finally arrived. It was morning. “YEAH, MOTHERFUCKERS, IT’S MORNING. IT’S TIME FOR DEATH AND VICTORY. WHO’S PUMPED?” yelled one of the men from a cell farther down from Ronnie. Luke’s heart was pounding. It was only minutes away until his death.

  Roger walked over to Luke. “It’s ok, I mean…damn, that was a poor choice of words,” he said as he was trying to calm Luke’s nerves.

  “It’s ok, don’t feel bad,” replied Luke.

  There was a noise of a door opening and footsteps followed it. Some of Dwayne’s men and Dwayne approached the cell Ronnie was in. Ronnie and all the others stood up and faced Dwayne. “Good morning, guys. How are we all feeling? Good, I hope, because it’s a long and brutal day. So, let’s get down to it. Ronnie and Dean, who did you pick for the fight?” asked Dwayne with a delighted look on his face.

  “Luke and Steve there in that cell,” replied Ronnie as he pointed to the cell straight in front of him.

  Dwayne looked over to the cell. “So, Luke and Steve put your hand up so I know what you look like,” he asked. Luke and Steve put their hands up. “Well, an old guy and a whatever the fuck your age guy. This is a good choice, but I changed my mind about the deal,” said Dwayne with a smile.

  Ronnie grabbed the bars of the cage with fury. “We had a deal. Don’t tell me you changed your mind,” he said with a furious look.

  Dwayne turned to Ronnie. “No, the deal is still there; it’s just changed a bit,” he replied.

  “Wh
at do you mean?” asked Ronnie, still with a furious look.

  “Well, I’ve changed it, so instead of one more fight it’s going to be me killing one of you, except you and Dean, of course, because I need my destructive dream team,” replied Dwayne.

  “But why kill one of us instead of a fight?” asked Ronnie.

  “I need my revenge for you guys killing my men and I think me killing one of you guys will give me that revenge. You guys are lucky because you killed lots of my men and only two of your men are going to die–well, one’s already dead and one’s about to die and soon some of you will die. So, consider yourselves lucky,” replied Dwayne in a calm manner. Dwayne looked back and forth at the two cells, trying to pick someone to kill. Dwayne finally walked up to one of the cells and pointed to someone. “You. What’s your name?” he asked with a great big smile.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Another Body, Another Loss

  Dwayne stared down someone in one of the cells. “I repeat, what is your name because I gotta know who I’m gonna kill,” he said with an evil smile.

  “It’s ah A-Alan,” replied Alan as he looked back, scared and standing still like a deer being spotted by a spotlight.

  “Well Alan, it’s time to meet your maker and by maker, I mean your death, ha-ha,” replied Dwayne with a smile.

  “No-no-no, you-you can’t do that. We had a deal and you can’t break a deal unless you’re a fuckin’ asshole,” said Ronnie in an upset attitude.

  Dwayne turned to Ronnie. “Well I must be an asshole then, because I feel that I deserve to kill one of you guys because you killed many of my men. And besides, one of you probably volunteered to get killed and someone else volunteered to be the one to do the killing, and I don’t want one of those pussy fights. No, I want a brutal fight. So, fuck that; I’m killing Alan and you can’t do shit about it,” he said with a serious look. Dwayne turned back to Alan and clicked his fingers. “Okay, one of you guys get this Alan guy out of this cell,” he said to his men, so one of Dwayne’s men opened the cell door and pushed back everyone else in the cell and grabbed Alan and pulled him out forcefully. Alan was held in front of Dwayne. “Okay, you’re going to die and don’t think you can talk yourself out of it because once I make up my mind about something, I stick with it. So, unless you have an amazing set of skills, then I don’t need you, but I can tell you don’t have great skills. I mean, look at you, your shitting your pants right now, and your face is all sad and shit but who fuckin’ cares, you know. So…” said Dwayne.

  Captain Harris interrupted “I beg you, don’t do this. Please,” he said as he feared for Alan’s life.

  Dwayne turned to Captain Harris. “Okay, if I haven’t said this before then I’ll say it now: I hate beggars; they’re just a bunch of pussies who can’t accept their fate or the fate of others. So, have faith – oh wait, you can’t have faith in a place like this or anywhere else because it’s useless. So, you know God ain’t gonna save you. God wouldn’t even take one step in this place; it’s unholy. It’s more holy fuck. So, don’t beg and fuck faith coz faith can suck my dick, so boom I shot a load all over your last hope and no regrets motherfucker, none,” he said carelessly. Dwayne turned back to Alan. “Now where the fuck were we before that bitch begged…oh, that’s right, I was describing how you were shitting yourself and all sad and shit. Now, I’m going to tell you something that I tell all my victims I kill, and that is, it doesn’t matter how young you are or old you are, or whatever gender you are because you die, no matter what. Not everyone is supposed to live in this world and is supposed to be free in this world. This world is run by those who never got freedom. So, you may think you can run and hide like it’s a game of hide and seek or tiggy but you will never win because you’ll never have the guts to do the things that people like me do. So, you can just soak all that information in and pray that you’ll end up in a better place but truthfully, there is no better place after death. It’s just cold, dark emptiness. It’s just a wasteland of nothing, it would probably be like taking a sleep except you will never wake and never dream. So, let me ask you, doesn’t that sound worse than this place or hell?” he said with a serious look.

  Alan wept. “It ah, it does sound worse but the one thing out of dying is that I don’t have to suffer in this world anymore. No more pain and no more anything because I’ll be gone. So, what you’re really doing to your victims is ending their suffering. So, thank you and when you die I bet you’ll suffer all the pain of those you’ve killed,” he said.

  “Ha-ha-ha-ha. You’re just saying that shit so you’d think that dying wouldn’t be so sad but trust me, you’re going to feel a lot of pain. So, don’t think that it’s going to be a quick and easy death like a bullet in the head or your head being cut off,” replied Dwayne.

  Alan wiped away the tears from his face. “Well the pain will be nothing compared to what pain you will get,” he said.

  Dwayne laughed again. “Ha-ha-ha, what my pain? No, I ain’t gonna die. I’m a motherfuckin’ king here. No one would dare cross me and if your people in these cells are planning to kill me, then good luck to them because that would be so difficult for them to do. You know like in video games where they had the difficulty level you could pick. Well, them killing me wouldn’t be easy, medium or hard; no, it would be a difficulty level called cunt, this is so fuckin’ hard, da fuck, why’d I do this,” replied Dwayne with an evil smile.

  Dwayne turned to his men behind him. “So, are we ready to give Alan his pain and show these guys what you get if you cross us?” he said.

  “Yep, we’re ready,” replied all of Dwayne’s men.

  Dwayne turned back to Alan. “Good. Let’s do this,” he said with a grin. All of Dwayne’s men – there were four of them – pulled out a weapon they had and approached Alan one at a time. Dwayne moved to the side and the first man stepped forward and looked over at Stan. “I can’t kill you but I’m just going to imagine that this guy is you,” he said with hatred. He turned back to Alan and stabbed him in the stomach. “That’s for my brother,” he said with an angry look as he walked over to the side. Alan put both of his hands on the cut and blood was pouring down to the ground as he slowly kneeled to the floor. Ronnie, Captain Harris and all the other soldiers in the cells looked at Alan with trembling fear. The next man stepped forward and he was holding a hammer. Alan looked up at the guy and the guy swung the hammer right into one of Alan’s eyes, caving it in. He continued hitting Alan in the same spot until blood occurred and his eye was completely bloodshot. Alan was in so much pain, this was the most pain he had ever felt.

  “AGRHHHH, FUUU-SHHHIT!” he screamed. Another man stepped forward. Alan had one hand on his beaten-up eye and one on his stomach.

  “Alan, I-I’m sorry. Y-you don’t deserve this. I’m so sorry,” said Captain Harris as tears ran down his face. Ronnie, Dean, Stan and all the others in the cells were so scared; they had never seen something so horrifying. Another man stepped forward and stood right in front of Alan. This man was holding a nail gun and he shot a nail each in both Alan’s arms and legs.

  “ARGHHH!” yelled Alan in pain. The last guy stepped forward and he was holding a spear. Stan looked at the guy holding the spear and shook his head.

  “No-no-no. Don’t. DON’T!” he begged. The guy didn’t listen and he forced the spear straight through Alan chest and it came out of his back. Blood filled the ground. Dwayne stepped forward and he was holding a large axe, a battle axe in fact. He asked the guy who just speared Alan in the chest to back away. Dwayne looked at Captain Harris.

  “How sorry are you really?” he asked with a smile. Dwayne swung the axe at Alan’s neck; it didn’t cut his head fully off, it only cut a bit into his neck. Blood was filling the floor even more and blood splattered everywhere, landing on everyone near Alan. That first swing instantly killed Alan. Dwayne swung the axe again and again until Alan’s head fully came off. Alan’s head landed on the floor facing Ronnie; Ronnie was petrified. Alan’s body dropped to the ground, splash
ing in the pool of blood.

  Dwayne wiped some of the blood off his face and turned to Captain Harris. “Now, I think we gave him the pain that all of my men suffered. So, we’re even now and you get to live and not kill each other. But how long you live is up to you, so decide what you want, then show it to me in the arena. Now, I’m going to leave this body here so you can think thoroughly about your future and what you want it to be like. I’m going to clean myself up and me and some of my men will be right back to pick the next fight. So, one of you guys versus another one of my prisoners; see ya shortly,” said Dwayne with a serious and careless look.

  Dwayne and his men left and headed upstairs. Alan’s body was just left there in the same position it was in, the spear and the nails were still in his body. Captain Harris and the others looked away. They were all horrified and sad; some were crying but mostly they were pissed off and wanting revenge. Ronnie looked over at the body and focused on the nails and spear in Alan’s body. “I’m sorry to bring this up so quickly guys, but there’s still that spear in Alan’s body and if we can get to it, we can free ourselves from these cells and kill those monsters,” he said.

  “But how do we get to them?” asked Stan with so much rage.

  “Yeah, that’s the question,” replied Ronnie. Captain Harris furiously started punching the brick wall next to him.

  “Stop. Please, just stop. That’s not going to help anyone,” said Jay. Captain Harris ignored Jay and kept punching the wall, his hands started to bleed but he didn’t care. Jay walked up and pulled Captain Harris away from the wall.

  “What are you punching the wall for? Look, you’re bleeding. What did that achieve, huh?” he asked.

  “I’m the Captain. I’m supposed to protect you guys and fight for you guys and all I did was stand back and watch as they were butchering Alan to death. He was only twenty-two years old; he couldn’t remember what the world was once like but I told him that he would see that world, that he was born into. But now, he’s gone and it’s too late. What am I going to tell his parents – well, that’s if his parents are still alive and not killed back at our base,” replied Captain Harris as his hands were shaking from the pain.