by Jai Williams
Born in Frankston, Australia, on January 10, 1996, Jai Williams was nineteen and a half years old before he truly decided what he wanted to become, a writer. After inspiration from one of his favourite book series he came up with his own idea for a series.
Jai was always moving houses and schools. It was him, his mother, and older sister, until his mother found a man right for her.
Jai graduated high school in 2014. He never planned to attend university; he just wanted to get into writing as soon as he decided that was what he wanted.
Jai Williams
Lawless: A Broken World
Vanguard Press
VANGUARD PRESS
© Copyright 2017
Jai Williams
The right of Jai Williams to be identified as author of
this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All Rights Reserved
No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication
may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,
copied or transmitted save with the written permission of the publisher, or in accordance with the provisions
of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended).
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to
this publication may be liable to criminal
prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is
available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 784652 68 5 (Paperback)
Vanguard Press is an imprint of
Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie Publishers Ltd.
www.pegasuspublishers.com
First Published in 2017
Vanguard Press
Sheraton House Castle Park
Cambridge England
Chapter One: The New World
Law – it’s what keeps the world together and it’s what separates good from evil. Those who break the law find out the hard way through punishments that are dished out to them, which is anything from fines to jail time, but what would happen if law was taken down and leadership like the government and police was taken with it? People would no longer have control over what happens; instead, mobs would roam the streets and destroy what this world has made, a civilized world no longer; instead, a world uncontrolled and unsupervised by good leadership.
Welcome to a world without law and order, a world without a government, a world without any kind of leadership. This is a world that was taken over by criminals. It didn’t take that long for the world to come to an end – well, not in the way you would expect it to but this is now what the world is, and how it all began was brutal. Many people died in the process, places were burned down, buildings were destroyed; the very meaning of what it is to be human was crushed through this long war against criminals and those who want to keep the world sane.
It started with police stations being taken down and policemen and women being killed in the process; higher leaderships were taken down and killed; all the presidents and anyone in the government were shot down and hacked to death. Justice was removed from the world; courthouses were torn down; chaos was the only thing roaming the streets and those who tried to rebel, were killed. So now, the world people live in, is a world where criminals rule and there’s nothing that can be done about it.
This isn’t a journey, quest or story about following criminals in their path to conquer the world; no, it’s about a man who was born into this crazy, messed-up world and was told to do only one thing – survive – and that’s what his parents taught him: how to survive in this world, this world where the innocent die and the bad live, where new rules were made for those to follow and if they didn’t, then there were consequences which led up to death. Ronnie Reed, a man–well, not at this point; at this point he’s a ten year old, but years from now he will play an important role in life, a role that takes courage, bravery and sacrifice and this life all began with a knock at the door.
See, Ronnie was born into this world; he knows nothing of what the world used to be like apart from stories his mother and father told him. He and his parents were always moving, so without any questions as to why they had to move, Ronnie would just trust his parents and keep moving forward.
Ronnie didn’t know this, but his parents were running away because of some bad people that were trying to find them and the reason why, is because years ago, when Ronnie’s mother was pregnant with Ronnie, the criminals that ran the town they lived in, had certain rules for civilians that weren’t like them and if someone didn’t go by those rules they would suffer the consequences. So this one rule Ronnie’s parents broke was having children; criminals thought that if people who weren’t on their side, had children they would keep them hidden away until they were of certain age, and then they would fight and take back their town, city and eventually, the whole world. All criminals thought this way too, which is why they made the rule: no one apart from them was to have children. If anyone already had children way before this, they were to hand over their children to those who were in charge of their town or city so that these children would be taught to be evil and grow up being the new leaders of this new world.
So when Ronnie’s mother got pregnant Ronnie’s father decided to keep her inside so that no one would know; however, a new rule was issued for routine house checks, which would mean that Ronnie’s parents would get caught and it would be moments away from Ronnie’s mother getting killed. This is when Ronnie’s father made the decision that they would run away and keep running until they were safe; which is why they have been moving constantly. Ronnie’s parents thought ten years of running and hiding would eventually pay off, but ten years of this new world still being alive can change, which is why ten years later there was a knock at their door. This was scary to Ronnie’s parents because the last time they ever heard a knock at the door was ten years ago.
They thought about running but they knew it was too late for that, so they hid Ronnie away in a safe place; in fact, every place they moved to, they dug an escape hole that started under the house and led far away from the house. Ronnie was told to crawl through it if anything bad like this ever happened.
“It’s going to be all right, son; just remember what your mother and I have told you,” said Ronnie’s father, looking down at Ronnie, who was in a hole in the house. Ronnie’s father kissed Ronnie on the forehead.
Ronnie’s mother stepped forward and kneeled down to Ronnie. “You be brave, ok? You make sure you keep running and hiding and don’t trust anyone, ok son?” said Ronnie’s mother while tears were running down her face.
“But I don’t want you to leave; I want you to come too,” cried Ronnie.
“I know, son, but one of these days you’re going to realize that we can’t keep doing this. We can’t keep running but you can because you’re brave, smart and you are going to survive this world. I can see it just looking in your eyes: you are going to make a difference; whether you save people or take back this world, you will make a difference but you can’t do that if we are holding you back. Your mother and I don’t want to leave you. I wish we could never leave you but these men will never stop hunting us down and it’s better that they take us instead of you,” said Ronnie’s father while he had his hand on Ronnie’s shoulder.
“I promise, Dad, that I will keep moving on and survive however I can,” replied Ronnie while he was wiping away tears from his face.
“I love you, son,” said Ronnie’s father as tears came from his eyes.
Ronnie’s mother gave Ronnie a hug. “I love you, son, and you just do what your father told you and everything will be fine. It feels like just the other day I was
holding you in my arms when you were a baby, but now you’re all grown up and ready to conquer the world all by yourself,” said Ronnie’s mother as tears were still running down her face. She let go of Ronnie and Ronnie’s father handed Ronnie a torch. “Now you turn on this light and keep on crawling through that hole until you reach the end and then you keep running without looking back. All you’ve got to look for, is safety; you find yourself some shelter and hide yourself away from everyone, and then you look for food and water, ok?” said Ronnie’s father.
Ronnie responded with a nod. They shut the hatch above Ronnie and all Ronnie could see after was complete darkness apart from the gaps in the floor. Ronnie turned the torch on and started crawling through the deep, dark, muddy and cold hole, which led far away from the house. While Ronnie was crawling through the hole, he remembered the day he, his father and mother started digging this hole. Although it was quite a long hole that took weeks to dig, Ronnie did enjoy the time that he spent with his parents doing it. He could remember the time that they all tossed mud at each other and on the days it rained they splashed in the muddy puddles. Although it doesn’t sound like a fun activity you would want to do with your parents, in a world like this where you treat every day like it’s your last, you would want to enjoy every second with your loved ones, even if you were doing something like digging a hole. Ronnie kept pushing through the hole, getting farther and farther away from the house. He was thinking that wasn’t the last time he would see his parent because he knew his parents were tough and would convince whoever was at the door to go away, and Ronnie thought he could just run straight back to them. Ronnie told himself that he would have plenty more time to fill his head with great memories with his parents; that is what motivated Ronnie through the tunnel, even though he was tired.
Ronnie saw in the distance a small bright hole that was getting bigger and bigger the more he moved, which meant he was getting closer to exiting this muddy and cold hole. Ronnie got to the end and with both of his hands he grabbed the outside of the tunnel and pulled himself out. He started shaking his head to remove some of the dirt and mud from his hair. He dusted down his shirt and pants and looked up to see how far he had crawled, but when he looked up at the house he left his parents in, he could see smoke and fire coming from it. Ronnie was about to run towards the house until he saw a bunch of men walking down the side of the house so Ronnie ran in the opposite direction, heading into the woods. Ronnie’s parents thought staying in a house in the middle of the woods would be safe, but they were wrong. Ronnie kept running straight through the woods until he stopped to look back to see if the men were following him, which they weren’t. He wiped the tears from his eyes. “Okay, Mother and Father, I will do it; I’ll survive this world for you,” he whispered to himself.
A few minutes earlier.
Ronnie’s father and mother closed the hatch on Ronnie, looking at their son for the last time and praying that Ronnie would do whatever it took to get through this horrible, cruel world. They heard a knock on the door again. Ronnie’s mother and father looked at each other with fear in their eyes but they knew that this day would come, the day that they had to say goodbye to their son and send him off so that he could do what they taught him to do – survive.
So they walked up to the door and before Ronnie’s father opened the door they both held each other’s hands. Ronnie’s father looked into Ronnie’s mother’s eyes. “It’s going to be all right, we are going to do what we always planned, we’re going to lie and stall them long enough for Ronnie to get as far away from here as possible,” he said with some confidence that their plan would work.
Ronnie’s mother kissed Ronnie’s father. “I love you, Brad,” she said as tears ran down her cheeks.
“And I love you too, Robin,” replied Brad with a smile. Brad messed up his hair and unbuttoned some of his buttons on his shirt. Robin did the same. They did this to make it look like they just had sex, which would give them a reason to offer whoever was outside the door why they didn’t answer the door straight away. Brad breathed in and out, trying to be calm. He opened the door, as he and Robin both gave a look to make it seem like they just had sex and there stood in front of them four large men holding guns.
“Why did you take forever to answer the door?” asked one of the men with a serious look upon his face.
“Well, we were quite busy doing something else,” said Brad.
“Aha, I can see that. Anyway, the boss doesn’t like to be kept waiting. He’s quite an impatient man,” replied the tall man.
“The boss?” replied Brad, curiously.
Two men pushed Brad and Robin forward into the house and the other two men entered after them. These men were wearing leather jackets, jeans and boots. One of them had a goatee, another one was bold and quite a muscled man, another had long hair and the fourth man looked cleaner than the rest of them, like he just had a shower.
Brad and Robin were trying to figure out who was the boss but none of them stood out like they were in charge. The men standing in front of Brad and Robin forced them down on their knees and stood behind them. The man who looked like he recently had a shower stepped closer to Brad and Robin. “You know exactly why we’re here, so give us the child or we will make him or her watch us kill you two,” said the man threateningly.
Ronnie’s parents didn’t spend ten years running just to give Ronnie up now; they stuck to their plan and acted like they didn’t know what the guy was talking about. “I’m sorry, what child?” asked Brad, faking a confused look on his face.
The cleaner looking guy started hitting his fist into his open palm. “You know what child,” he replied with frustration.
“We don’t have a child. We’ve never had children; in fact, we want to have children but guys like you won’t let us,” replied Brad, still faking a look of confusion.
The guy stopped hitting his fist into his palm. “Well, it looks like we just wasted our time coming out here, hey boys?” said the cleaner looking guy. He looked around at all the other guys in the room. “Well, if they don’t have a child they wouldn’t mind telling the boss that,” he said with a smile.
They started hearing a man’s voice that was coming from outside the door. “Okey-dokey,” he said. The mystery man entered the house. He was a tall man with a bandana over his hair and wearing a black leather jacket, black jeans and boots. You could guess that he was a biker just by the way he dressed and the look he gave them made them think that he wasn’t a nice guy. “I have been looking for you guys for ten fuckin’ years. Do you know how pissed off I am that it took this long to finally catch you guys?” said the guy with an angry tone. No one replied. “So no answer – no ‘we are sorry, please forgive us, it will never happen again?’” said the man. Once again there was silence. “Oh, I’m sorry; you guys you don’t even know who I am. I forgot we’ve never met. Allow me to introduce myself,” he said with a smile. He turned back to the door and looked back again at Brad and Robin.
“Hi, I’m Dwayne,” he said.
Brad and Robin looked over at each other, still trying to keep a blank face.
“I could hear you from outside. You don’t have a kid, you’ve never had a kid but you want a kid. Now let me tell you a story that happened ten years ago. I was living in this town, obeying my leader just like you should’ve done, and one day he told me to go and search houses to see if I could find children that people would probably be hiding, so I did and I got to one house and knocked on the door but there was no reply – no one answered. So I was like ok, they don’t want to open the door; fine, I’ll kick it down, so I did and I searched all through this house but no one was there, so I had to report this to my boss and he was angry; he was furious. So he sent me out with some men to hunt these people down and after months went by, I said to myself that these guys were probably dead because I couldn’t find them, or maybe they were just this damn good at hiding. So I never returned to my boss; in fact, over time I became my own boss, a leader. I l
ed my own men and I did this for years. I finally said to myself, well, you know what? I do want to continue finding these people, so me and my men searched high and low until me and these four men with me here came across this house and boom, I found them,” said Dwayne with a smile. Dwayne threw a photo at Brad that showed Brad and Robin. “Now you motherfuckers, you have broken some rules and just like anyone else who has ever broken a rule, you will suffer the consequences, so hand over the kid,” he said with a serious look.
Dwayne crouched down an inch away from Brad’s face. “If you don’t, I will beat you until your last breath and the last thing you will see in your shitty, fuckin’, disappointing life will be me blowing your wife’s brains all over the floor,” he said with an evil stare. He stood up from Brad, clapped his hands together and rubbed them.
“Little boy, little girl, whatever the fuck you are, come out, come out wherever you are,” he said loudly.
“IF WE EVER HAD A CHILD, DON’T YOU THINK WE WOULD HAVE TOLD THEM TO RUN AWAY, SO THEY WOULD BE GONE BY NOW, YOU STUPID SON OF A BITCH?” yelled Brad.
Dwayne swung his right fist across Brad’s face. “You cannot do that shit, you hear me? You don’t get to do that shit; you don’t get to yell at me; you don’t get to call me a son of a bitch and you don’t even get to speak,” replied Dwayne with a furious look on his face.
At this point, while Dwayne was speaking, Ronnie was still crawling through the tunnel. Dwayne told his men to search the place. Dwayne’s goons were tearing up the place, throwing furniture and stuff around. They looked everywhere but they couldn’t see the hatch in the floor that had the hole Ronnie was crawling through because it blended into the rest of the floor.