Lawless

by Jai Williams

  Ronnie and the soldiers walked through the front entrance with their guns held high, ready to shoot. When they entered the building the whole inside was wrecked, there were bullet holes everywhere, glass was shattered and there was even a car in the building, which is why the front entrance looked like a car smashed through it.

  “Okay you guys, check that side of the building out and we will check this side,” said Hank in a low voice. The group of men split up, Ronnie, Hank and Bruce headed to the left side of the building and Alan, Roger and Jackson headed to the right side of the building. Ronnie, Hank and Bruce headed towards a bunch of desks. There were paper, chairs and a whole bunch of stuff just thrown across the room. On a wall it said in painted big red letters, FUCK THE COPS. There was blood and dead police officers everywhere; one of the dead policemen was hanging from the roof and his chest had a piece of paper on it. Ronnie walked up to the body. “To whoever is reading this, the cops are fuckin’ dead. Get over it; in fact, accept it. This is the new world now, so you better join it or join them,” said Ronnie as he read what was written on the note.

  “This is the kind of shit that makes this world fucked in the head,” said Bruce with a horrified look.

  They kept looking around; meanwhile Alan, Roger and Jackson, checking the right side of the building, headed towards the cells. Before they opened the door to enter the cell room they saw handprints of blood on the glass of the doors. They pushed the door open and saw the horror: there were pools of blood on the floor, arms, legs, fingers and all kinds of body parts were scattered across the floor. The soldiers had a horrified look on their faces but they kept walking through it and they stepped over all the body parts. In every cell there was something different. In the first cell they saw a dead police officer lying on the ground with his throat slit. In the second cell there were four dead police officers with a pole going through each of their stomachs and coming out of their backs, connecting them together like a human kebab. In the next cell there were five poles sticking into the ground with heads stuck on the top of them like they were displayed as trophies and in the last cell there were just five bodies stacked on each other.

  As the soldiers were about to head back, a man from the pile of dead bodies in the last cell started to move and Jackson saw it. “Hey guys. That guy moved,” he said with a surprised look as he pointed his gun at the pile where one of the men moved.

  “Yeah totally, a dead man moved. This isn’t the zombie apocalypse,” replied Roger.

  “No, I’m serious. Help me open the cell,” replied Hank. The three soldiers headed over to the cell.

  “Stand back,” said Jackson as he pointed his gun at the cell lock. Jackson shot the lock and opened the cell.

  “Help me move these bodies,” he said. Jackson put his gun on the ground and Roger and Alan helped Jackson move the bodies and the man on the bottom of the pile started moving. “See, I told you,” said Jackson.

  “Shit, he’s still alive. Help him up,” said Alan, so Jackson and Alan helped the guy on the floor up and put him on the cell bench. The man looked like he had been there for weeks. He looked like he was twenty-five years old and his clothes were covered in blood, probably because he had dead bodies stacked on top of him.

  “Are you ok, man? Can you speak?” asked Jackson as he looked at the guy.

  “Yeah, I can speak but I’m not ok,” replied the guy in a soft tone.

  “What happened here?” asked Jackson.

  “It was horrible; there were so many of them,” replied the guy.

  “So many of what?” asked Jackson.

  “There were so many men killing all the people in this place,” replied the guy.

  “I don’t understand; you look like you’ve been here for weeks. I thought all the police stations were the first places to be destroyed when this all started happening,” replied Jackson with a curious look on his face.

  “Yeah, they were. I and the people I was with, who are all dead now, came across this town and it looked abandoned so we thought we’d stay here. So we headed to this police station and it was a trap; there were lots of men ready to kill us. So we fought some of them off but I ran down here and saw all of these dead bodies so I hid under them so I would blend in and it worked but sadly all I could hear was my group being shot and stabbed and I couldn’t do anything about it unless I wanted to join them. So, I stayed hidden under these bodies and tried to block out the noises my people were making. They screamed and begged. The slashing, the gunfire, the noise of their bodies dropping – it was the worst thing you could ever hear,” replied the guy as tears ran down his face.

  “How can you explain the cell door being locked in this cell?” said Roger, curiously.

  “Oh yeah, after they killed all my people I could hear them throwing their bodies in the cells and they shut the one I was in too. I could hear the men bash and slash the bodies and I could hear a guy say yeah, put that here and put that here, like they were displaying my people like decorations. They didn’t, did they?” asked the guy.

  “I’m sorry about your people but yeah, they did,” replied Jackson with a sad look on his face.

  “They didn’t deserve that. They were good people; they helped me when I was alone and scared and welcomed me into their group. If they were going to die, then they deserved to die fighting, not getting butchered to death,” said the guy as more tears came down his face.

  “We’re here to help you. My name is Jackson,” said Jackson with a smile. Jackson pointed to Roger. “That’s Roger” he said, and Jackson pointed to Alan. “And that’s Alan,” he said.

  “It’s nice to meet you all. My name is William,” replied the guy as he wiped away the tears from his face. Jackson and Alan helped William up.

  “Why were you still under all those bodies? No one was here when we entered,” said Jackson.

  “I heard you guys coming and I panicked so I hid under the bodies. I thought you guys were the bad guys,” replied William.

  “Lucky you moved or else I wouldn’t have seen you,” replied Jackson.

  “Why didn’t you try and unlock the cell door?” asked Roger as he thought there was something strange about the guy.

  “I didn’t know how to,” replied William. They all headed out of the cell and walked back the way they came.

  Meanwhile, Ronnie, Hank and Bruce were still looking around the police desk area. They headed to the armoury and it was empty apart from some unused bullets that were scattered across the floor which they picked up and put in their pockets. They headed to the locker room and when they entered the room, they could see puddles and splats of blood everywhere. It was like the whole building was just blood and dead bodies. They looked through every locker and each one had junk in it, nothing useful to them. So, they headed out to find the others. Jackson and Alan were still helping William walk while Roger was in front of them, guiding the way back near the entrance. Ronnie, Hank and Bruce were already near the entrance waiting for them.

  “You guys find anything?” asked Hank. Roger moved to the left to show the guys, William.

  “Who’s that?” asked Hank.

  “Some guy we found in a cell,” replied Roger.

  “His name’s William and he told us he’s been locked up for weeks and he told us the horror that happened here,” said Jackson.

  “So, that means people are here and probably they will come to get him. This is probably a trap,” said Ronnie with panic.

  Roger turned to William and aimed his gun at him. “I knew it and I should’ve said something,” said Roger in anger.

  “Whoa man, just lower your gun. We don’t know anything,” replied Jackson as he was trying to calm Roger down.

  “Exactly – we don’t know anything. For all we know he could have made up that sob story about his people getting killed. It’s probably how he tricks dumb cunts like you to save him and then the next thing you know we’re ambushed and forced to hand over our stuff and then killed,” said Roger.

>   William walked up closer to Roger, leaving Jackson and Alan behind. “This is not a trick. I’m not the bad guy here. The bad guys are the ones who killed my group. The bad guys are the ones who murder anyone they see. The bad guys are the ones who don’t give a shit,” he said and from nowhere a bullet came flying into the police station and hit William straight in the head, leaving a splatter of blood on Roger’s face, and William fell straight to the floor, making a circle of blood cover the floor around his head.

  “GET TO COVER!” yelled Hank, so they all ran to cover. Ronnie, Hank and Bruce jumped over the front desk and ducked behind it. Roger ran over to a tipped-over vending machine and jumped over it and took cover behind it and Jackson and Alan took cover behind a bunch of chairs that were stacked in a large pile.

  They could hear a bunch of men. “THEY’RE INSIDE!” the men yelled and some men started shooting through the front entrance. Five men armed with guns walked through the front entrance with their guns held high. “Okay, they’re in here. Look for them but don’t kill them; we need them alive. We need to know where their stuff is so we can take it from them. Actually, just keep one alive,” said one of the men. The men split up and started looking for Ronnie and the others. Ronnie poked his head up a little bit and saw the men; he quickly got back down.

  “I think I saw something behind the desk,” said one of the men.

  “Well, go check it out, for fuck’s sake,” said another guy. So the guy headed to the front desk to look over it.

  “NOW MEN!” yelled Hank as the man approached them. Ronnie, Hank, Bruce, Roger, Jackson and Alan got up from their cover and fired at all men in the room that were looking for them, killing them. Ronnie and the soldiers headed over to the dead bodies and grabbed their guns and ammo.

  “Well, I was right apart from William being a part of the trap,” said Roger.

  “Okay, that was crazy. I mean, wow, those motherfuckers were like bang! William, ya dead, and then we were like ah shit, take cover and they were all like let’s find these bitches then we fucked the fuckers up. Damn,” said Ronnie with a surprised and joyful look on his face while standing in one spot and re-enacting what just happened. Everyone looked at Ronnie with a serious look on their face.

  “Are you done?” asked Hank.

  “Yeah, it was just adrenaline, that’s all,” replied Ronnie as he calmed down.

  “Okay, we know that five men came in the building but what we don’t know is how many are outside, so we better find a back entrance and see,” said Hank.

  They were all about to start walking to find the back entrance when they heard some men running towards the front entrance. “Hide. More men are coming,” said Hank with panic, so they all hid behind the bunch of chairs that Jackson and Alan were hiding behind before. There were ten men this time that entered the building. “There are ten of them and there are only six of us, so they have an unfair advantage,” whispered Roger as he peeked through a gap in the chairs.

  “I got a plan whispered Ronnie. “What is it?” asked Hank.

  “Well, I am fast. I am quick on my feet. So, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to run over to the right and hide somewhere down where me, Hank and Bruce were looking and while I do that, the men will see me and start shooting at me and following me and while they’re doing that, you guys can head to the left and find the back entrance,” whispered Ronnie.

  “God damn, you are one brave motherfucker. But will it work?” whispered Hank. “Well, my luring plan worked back at that town we were in, so yeah. Okay, I’m going to go and remember, let’s kill some motherfuckers,” whispered Ronnie. Ronnie ran to his right as fast as he could, heading in the locker room direction, and while he was running all the men saw him and started shooting at him but Ronnie ended up dodging all the bullets apart from one, which grazed his left shoulder. The soldiers got up while the men were distracted and headed to the left toward the cells. Some of the men shooting chased Ronnie and some others saw and chased Hank, Roger, Bruce, Jackson and Alan. Ronnie took cover behind a police officer’s desk and the three men chasing him stopped.

  “Okay, look around. He couldn’t have gotten far,” said one of the men.

  Ronnie, while holding his shoulder that was shot, quietly moved from desk to desk until he reached a desk that was a few feet away from the locker room entrance. He saw the three men getting closer and he ran for it. He pushed the locker room door open and headed toward the showers, where he turned the hot tap on one of them to see if it would work and it did, so he did the same to all of the showers and suddenly steam started to fill up the room. The steam gave Ronnie a way to hide. The three men came running through the locker room door and saw the steam slowly filling the room.

  “Okay, split up. You go to the left, you go to the right and I’ll head down the middle. Try to knock him out if you can but shoot if you have to,” said one of the men. The men headed in the direction they were told to go. One of the men saw a blood trail on the floor so he followed it and as soon as he looked up, Ronnie smashed the back of his gun into the guy’s head which made the guy bleed and fall to the ground. Ronnie shot the guy in his head and walked away. The two other men in the room heard the gunfire and they headed towards the noise where they saw their guy dead on the floor. Ronnie walked up and stood in front of them. “Boo,” he said as he aimed his gun at the men. He shot the two men and they fell to the ground and Ronnie ran out of the locker room and headed in the direction of the others. Hank, Roger, Bruce, Jackson and Alan ran down a hallway. The men following them came around the corner and started shooting, which forced Hank to split up from the others, making him head toward the cells. One of the seven men chasing them headed in the same direction, and the other six men continued chasing Roger, Bruce, Jackson and Alan. The four soldiers headed to a door which led them outside. They headed towards a wrecked car they saw and took cover behind it. The men chasing them came barging though the same door one at a time and stopped and looked around to try and find the soldiers. Roger, Bruce, Jackson and Alan stood up from behind the car and shot all six men to the ground.

  Meanwhile, Hank was running from the one guy chasing him. He ran to the end of the cell room and saw that he was trapped so he headed into a cell, the same cell that he found William in, and he took cover there. The guy chasing Hank looked in each cell until he stopped at the second last cell. The guy pulled out a flashbang, pulled the pin off and threw it into the cell Hank was hiding in. Hank saw it and before he could turn away it went off and Hank went deaf and started blinking flat out. He looked up and saw a guy standing in front of him and before Hank could aim and shoot his gun at him, the guy pulled out a knife and came charging at Hank and stuck the blade through Hank’s neck. Blood splattered and ran down his neck, blood started pouring from his mouth, and the last thing Hank could see while he fell to the floor was the guy who killed him getting shot in the chest repeatedly…

  Chapter Thirteen: Dead But Not Forgotten

  Roger, Bruce, Jackson and Alan ran back inside the police station after they killed the men chasing them. They headed towards the cells, and they ran down every cell block until they stopped at the end one, and saw a man standing there facing away from them. “HEY,” yelled Roger, so the guy slowly turned around and when he did, Roger and the others could see Hank’s throat bleeding and when the guy standing in front of them fully turned around they saw a knife in his hand with blood all over it dripping to the floor. Roger had an angry look on his face; his eyes were filled with rage and his mouth was wide open, showing his teeth.

  “AHHHHHHHHH,” he yelled as he shot the man standing in front of him repeatedly. The guy fell to the ground, covering the floor with blood.

  Roger crouched down to Hank’s dead body. “No Hank. No, you can’t die, not this way,” he said as tears dripped down his face. Roger stood up and hit the wall with his fist.

  “Y-you were a great man, Hank. You were more than a friend; you were a brother to us. You will be remembered. You wi
ll be missed and you will be revenged,” said Bruce with a sad look on his face.

  “Okay Jackson, can you help me carry him? We’re not leaving him here to rot; he doesn’t deserve that,” said Bruce. Bruce grabbed under Hank’s armpits and Jackson grabbed the bottom of Hank’s legs and they pulled him up and at that point Ronnie came running to them.

  Ronnie stopped outside the cell and saw Bruce and Jackson holding Hank’s body. There was blood dipping to the floor and Bruce had some of Hank’s blood on his hands and arms.

  “No-no, w-w-what happened?” asked Ronnie, although he knew what the answer was.

  “We didn’t get here in time,” replied Bruce.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know Hank well like you guys, but I did enjoy talking to him on the road here and I got to know a bit about him,” replied Ronnie as he gave them a sad look. Ronnie and Alan moved out of the way so that Bruce and Jackson could carry Hank’s body out of the cell. They walked away from the cell with Bruce at the front of Hank and Jackson at the back of Hank. Alan followed and Ronnie stood at the cell door and looked at Roger, who was still standing in the cell looking at the ground.

  “Are you coming, Roger?” he asked but Roger didn’t reply.

  “Look, I know that this is sad but you have to keep fighting; that’s what Hank would have wanted,” said Ronnie.

  “You don’t know what Hank would have wanted. You don’t even know how tough this is,” replied Roger as he looked over at Ronnie with an angry and sad look on his face.

  “Actually, I lost some people I cared about too, but I’ll let you say that because you’re upset,” replied Ronnie.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Who did you lose?” replied Roger with a sad look.

  “I lost my parents. They were burned alive in a house,” replied Ronnie.