by Jai Williams
Jay gave Stan an angry look but he was trying to keep his cool. “That is awesome, isn’t it?” he said sarcastically.
“We will have him tied up at all times,” replied Stan. Ronnie and Stan untied Ted from the chair while Roger, Dean and Jay headed over to the cars where four men were loading them up. In one car there were Ronnie, Stan, Dean, Roger and Ted, and in the other car was Jay and four other soldiers. Jay didn’t want to go in the same car that Ted was in. Dave came up to Ronnie’s side of the car.
“Good luck, guys. I hope you bring them back safely,” he said.
“We will,” replied Ronnie with confidence.
Two soldiers opened up the front gates of the base to let the two cars drive out of the base. They took the cars instead of the truck because the cars were faster, meaning they would get to the city and save Captain Harris, Bruce, Alan and Jackson quicker. Jay was driving one of the cars, and in the other car, Stan was driving, Ronnie was in the passenger seat and in the back Ted was in the middle with his hands tied up and to his left was Dean and to his right was Roger. Dean and Roger had their guns loaded and ready to pull the trigger if Ted tried anything funny. They were in a hurry, so they drove through the town that Hank was killed in, and a couple of hours later they entered the town that Captain Harris, Bruce, Alan and Jackson were captured in. They headed south towards the city where Dwayne would be.
Ronnie turned around to face Ted, who was smiling. “What the fuck are you smiling about?” he asked.
“Oh, just that I’m finally going to be free from Dwayne,” replied Ted happily.
“Yeah, you’re probably free from him but not from us,” replied Ronnie.
“Well, I have faith that you guys will let me go,” replied Ted.
Stan looked in the rear-view mirror. “Faith? You, have faith? No, you don’t get to have faith, not after all the shit you’ve done. If you’re praying to God, there is a reason why he’s not answering and it’s not because he’s busy,” he said.
“I had faith when I was locked up in prison many years ago,” replied Ted.
Ronnie laughed, “Ha-ha. Don’t give us your sob story about when you were getting butt fucked in prison. We don’t need to hear that shit; that shit is for when you’re around a bunch of fuckin’ dumb cunts who think what you did can be forgiven. If it was up to all the men and women you tortured, you would be dead right now. So, count yourself lucky that we haven’t killed you yet,” replied Ronnie.
Ronnie turned around and looked straight ahead at the road. It was nothing but darkness. It was hard for them to see what was around them but if they could see, it would be nature and the occasional abandoned cars and houses that were around them.
Ted turned to Dean. “So, what’s your name?” he asked, smiling.
“What is this, speed dating? Hey, what’s your favourite colour? Shut the fuck up,” replied Dean, angrily.
“No, I just want to know who I’ll be sneaking into a city with,” replied Ted.
“If you must know, I’m Dean,” replied Dean. Ted gave Dean a creepy smile.
“What the fuck? Stop looking at me like that,” said Dean with an annoyed look. Ted looked to his other side at Roger.
“Hey there. What’s your name?” he asked.
“Why would I fuckin’ tell you that?” asked Roger angrily.
“Well, because it’s a long drive and the silence in this car seems boring,” replied Ted.
“You realize that there’s a reason for that,” replied Roger.
“What’s the reason?” asked Ted.
“Well, we’re more focused on finding our people. So, if you’re done playing twenty questions, then shut the fuck up,” replied Roger.
It was silent for a minute, until Ted couldn’t help himself. “I’m so sorry, but I need to know what exactly your plan is,” he said.
Ronnie turned to face Ted. “Our plan is, we get there, you show us the way and we’ll silently kill whoever we have to. Ok? Capisce?” he said. Ronnie turned back and all they could hear was Ted being annoying.
“Ba-ba-bada-ba-baaaaaaaaa,” he said, and Stan couldn’t take it anymore so he slammed his foot on the brake, forcing the car to come to a stop. Jay saw the car in front of him come to a complete stop so he quickly put his foot on the brake so he wouldn’t smash into the back of the car. Stan turned around to face Ted. Stan had a mixture of an angry and annoyed look on his face.
“Listen here, you annoying motherfucker. We are driving to this city. We are driving there in silence. We don’t need you to say another word or else we’ll tape your mouth shut, and if that doesn’t work I will have no problem throwing you out of the car while it’s still driving at full speed. So, if you understand me, nod,” he said. Ted replied with a nod. “Good, now let’s go,” said Stan.
They started driving again as fast as they could and no one was making a peep. The sun started to rise. A couple of minutes down the road, the road started curving left and right and there were tons of trees off each side of the road, so it was hard to see what was coming up. Stan made a right curvy turn and in the distance he and Ronnie could see four large cars blocking the road and tons of men in front of them. “What the fuck is this?” said Stan with a worried look.
Ted leaned forward so his head was over the glove compartment. “I thought you said that no one was to say a word,” he said, smiling.
“Shut the fuck up. What is this?” asked Ronnie, as he was worried. Stan put his foot on the brakes when they were a couple of meters away from the men blocking the road. Ted looked forward at the road in front of them to see what Ronnie and Stan were talking about.
“What are we looking at?” he asked and Ted saw the vehicles and men blocking the road in front of them.
“Well, fuck. How are we going to get out of this?” said Stan, still with a worried look on his face.
Chapter Nineteen: The City Of Blood
Dean and Roger pulled Ted back by grabbing one shoulder each, which forced Ted to sit back where he was. Ronnie and Stan just sat there, their mouths were wide open. They were speechless. Their eyes were wide open and unblinking and they didn’t make a noise. The men blocking the road in front of them were wearing the same gladiator outfits as those who took Captain Harris, Bruce, Alan and Jackson. There was one man who was standing at the front of them all, but he wasn’t wearing any gladiator outfit – no, he was wearing boots, jeans and a jacket like it was casual Friday.
Ronnie turned to face Stan. “S-s-shit. W-w-what do we do? We-ah, we should turn back and fuckin’ floor it, shouldn’t we?” he said, stuttering with panic.
“They’ve already seen us and we’d have to stop to refuel so they’d catch up to us,” replied Stan.
Ted pushed Dean and Roger out of his way. “Ah guys, this is simple. This is why bringing me along was a good idea. In case something like this happened,” he said with a smile.
“Yeah, and what are you going to do, kill them all? Yeah, I’m sorry mate, but they’re not going to wait in line for you to torture them all,” replied Stan rudely.
“No, I’m going to go out to them and since they know me because they work for Dwayne and I work for Dwayne, they will allow us to drive through,” replied Ted confidently.
Ronnie and Stan looked at each other. “Well, he does still work for Dwayne and these guys wouldn’t know about our little plan. So, this is what we do. One of us goes out there with Ted and we say that we’re with him. That we’re his new men he hired and that he wants to see if Dwayne approves or some shit like that,” said Ronnie.
“That ah, that sounds like a plan,” replied Stan with less confidence than Ronnie. Ronnie looked back to the back car window to see Jay and the others in the other car.
“What about Jay and the others? How do we tell them without raising suspicion?” he said.
“We give them a thumbs up,” replied Stan.
“A thumbs up – why?” asked Ronnie with a blank look on his face.
“We have all these hand si
gnals we do to indicate to each other what’s going on without saying a word, and a thumbs up indicates that everything is fine,” replied Stan.
Ronnie pointed to his rude finger. “Can I ask what this finger indicates?” he said.
“It means we’re fucked,” replied Stan.
“Of course, it does. It’s either that or fuck you,” replied Ronnie.
Dean volunteered to go with Ted. “Okay, I’ll go. Me and Ted will sort this out,” he said with confidence.
“Okay Dean. Good luck,” replied Stan with a worried look. Dean untied Ted’s hands and opened the car door and hopped out, leaving his gun behind so it didn’t seem like he was going to open fire on the men. Ted hopped out after him. As Dean was shutting the door he turned a bit to face the car Jay and the others were in and he gave them the thumbs up. Dean and Ted started walking towards the men. The men had their guns held high, ready to shoot.
“STOP RIGHT THERE!” yelled the guy not wearing a gladiator outfit.
“Now that’s no way to treat some of Dwayne’s new men,” said Ted calmly.
“How do you know Dwayne?” asked the same guy.
“I’m Ted. You know, the one and only torturer,” replied Ted with a smile.
“Well, I’ve heard about you but you went AWOL. And now you came here thinking it’s ok. You know how Dwayne runs things and when he doesn’t hear back from someone, that person better have a good reason or they’re fucked. So, what’s your reason for abandoning your post?” the guy asked.
“It is a good reason. I decided to go with some of my men this time on a salvaging trip and we came across this—well, you could say it was a military base but it was hard to tell because it was tremendously destroyed. So, me and my men thought let’s still check it out, so we went in and there they were. A bunch of men dressed in army uniforms – maybe they were in the army or maybe they just put it on. But the reason my men and I didn’t kill them is because we saw what they were doing. They were putting bullets in all the soldiers who were still alive. So, that’s when I thought, hey these guys aren’t part of the army; no, these guys are coldblooded killers like us. So, after introducing ourselves, lowering the tension and lowering the guns, they agreed to work for me but I told them we’d have to meet the big boss first to see what he thinks, and that’s the reason why I wasn’t at my post,” replied Ted, lying the best he could. The leader of the group of men blocking the road looked back at his men with an impressed look and he looked back at Ted, still with the same look.
“Wow. Ok, so these guys have got what it takes to, you know, kill whoever they have to, take whatever they have to and just in general watch the world burn,” he said.
“Oh brother, the world’s been burning for years. I think we can continue watching it burn,” said Dean, trying to lie the best he could.
The leader turned to his men, “OKAY, WHY ARE WE STANDING HERE WITH EACH OTHERS’ DICKS IN OUR HAND? MOVE THE FUCKIN’ CARS!” he shouted, so all the men apart from the leader hopped into the cars and moved them out of the way.
The leader walked over to the side and blessed them with safe passage. “You’re free to pass,” he said politely. Dean and Ted walked back over to their car and got in. Bruce turned to Dean.
“So, we’re free to pass?” he asked.
“Well we lied and they bought it, so yeah. Let’s go,” replied Dean. Stan put his foot on the pedal and drove ahead, with Jay and the others following them. They only drove for another hour or so until they reached the city. They decided to stop just outside of the city and walk the rest of the way. They stopped in front of a big sign with words written in blood. Ronnie opened the door on his side of the car and got out.
“The city of blood,” he said. Ted hopped out of the car after Roger got out.
“Oh yeah, the city of blood. That’s what Dwayne calls this place,” he replied.
“But why?” asked Ronnie. “Because blood is shed in the arena every day and because Dwayne felt like calling it that,” replied Ted.
Jay walked over to Ronnie’s side of the car away from Ted who he still loathed. “Okay guys, so back there how did you persuade those men to let us through?” he asked.
Ronnie pointed to Ted. “I hate to say this but it was actually Ted’s doing. In a way, it seems like the stuff he told us about Dwayne forcing him to torture people is true and I hate to admit that,” he said.
Jay looked over at Ted, trying not to get hostile. “Well, did he now?” he said.
“I’m trying to redeem myself here. So, it’s the least I can do,” said Ted.
“Redeem yourself? I don’t think so,” replied Jay with a vexed tone.
“How about we get through this city unnoticed, find our people, get back home and Jay, you can bash the fuck out of Ted and cause him all the pain he did to you. Okay, sound great?” said Stan.
“Now the last part doesn’t sound fun,” replied Ted.
“Okay,” muttered Jay.
All the men gathered up around the hood of the car Stan was driving. Stan put a large map of the city on the hood of the car. Stan planned out what they were going to do. “Okay so here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll go through the subway and head up top and go through all the alleyways. We’ll take cover behind vehicles and anything large enough for us to hide behind, and we’ll travel toooo…” he said as he dragged his finger around the map. Stan looked at Ted. “Where is Dwayne located in this city?” he asked.
“Why should I tell you that?” asked Ted.
“Listen. We trust you, some of us more than others. So, after you tell us where he is, we’re not going to kill you, if that’s what you’re wondering,” replied Stan in a calm manner.
“Okay, then I’ll tell ya,” said Ted. He pointed to an NFL stadium on the map. “There, that’s where Dwayne is hanging out,” he said.
“An NFL stadium. But why?” asked Stan. Stan had a realization. “Oh yeah, that’s right – he has his own gladiator arena. So, I’m guessing he uses this stadium for that,” he said.
“Yes, and he also changed a bit of the building so it gives a more gladiator look than a football look,” said Ted.
“So, I guess that sick fucks watch the games too?” asked Ronnie.
“Yeah, he does and other people do too,” replied Ted.
“Well, that’s going to stop today,” said Stan as he was outraged with what Ted said.
Stan circled the stadium with a marker. “Okay, so we’re going to head here. Now Ted, what about inside? Have you been around the whole area?” he asked.
“No, sorry, I haven’t been everywhere in that place. I was blindfolded the whole way and the only room I saw was a room I was chained in. It was a room created for prisoners, so I think if I was taken there the first time I was brought there, then your people would be taken there too,” replied Ted.
“Okay, so is there an entrance that no one would be guarding?” asked Stan.
“Well, if we take out the two men guarding the back entrance of the stadium then we can climb up a ladder that goes up to the top,” replied Ted.
“Where would we go from there?” asked Ronnie.
“The ladder doesn’t go completely up to the top of the roof; it goes up to a walkway that would have men up there. And if men are up there, then there’s got to be more than just the ladder they use to get up there. There’s probably a door they go through that leads into the building,” said Ted confidently.
“All right then, looks like we got a plan. Okay men, let’s go,” said Stan.
All the men made sure that they had all the gear they needed: guns, ammo, knifes, silencers, etc. They headed out onto train tracks that had abandoned trains that they could take cover behind, until they reached a tunnel the train tracks led into. They switched their torches on, and proceeded to walk through the dark tunnel. Their first part of the plan in entering the city was to go through the subway and from there, head up to the streets and go into an alleyway. The men ran through the tunnel so that they could ge
t to the stadium quicker. In the distance, they could hear an echo of men talking.
“So, what do you think about that fine bitch they brought in yesterday?” said one of the men.
“She wasn’t much of a talker when I fucked her.”
“Ha-ha,” replied the other guy. “Get fucked cunt; you didn’t fuck her. Only Dwayne gets to sleep with the new ones,” replied the other guy.
“Yeah, I know, but I’m sick of having sex with the old used ones that Dwayne gets sick of,” said the other man.
“Saying it like that, makes it sound like they’re just a bunch of whores,” replied the other guy.
“Well, they are. That’s what their job is in this world now, to fuck and obey,” replied the other guy.
Stan, who was at the front, took cover behind the wall on the train tracks and the others followed his lead. Stan could see the two men he heard talking. These men weren’t wearing gladiator outfits like the rest of the men, so it seemed that only certain men had to wear such a ridiculous outfit, or they chose to wear them. Stan turned to Ronnie, who was behind him.
“Okay there’re two guys up there. I’ll shoot one and you’ll shoot the other. Make sure you aim for the head,” he whispered.
“So, they’re not wearing those stupid helmets?” asked Ronnie. Stan answered by shaking his head. When the two men faced away from Stan’s direction, Stan signalled Ronnie to follow him, so Stan and Ronnie quietly walked away from the wall they took cover behind, so that they could get a better shot at killing the two men. Stan and Ronnie held their guns up high, aimed and pulled the trigger. Stan killed the guy to the left and Ronnie killed the guy on the right, shooting them both right in the head. They had silencers on so no gun noise was made.
Stan looked over to the other men against the wall. “It’s clear; come on,” he said. All the men one by one followed Stan’s lead. They headed up the subway to find stairs that would lead them into the streets. Through their way finding the exit, they saw how horrible the subways were: there were dead bodies everywhere piled up with blood on the floor, walls and ceiling – it was like a massacre. You could picture it, just tons of innocent people running for their lives to get on a train but they didn’t make it. It was gruesome to look at. They finally arrived at the stairs that led into the street, so Stan quietly went up by himself to see if the streets were safe. Stan saw nothing but abandoned cars everywhere so he walked back down to the others. “Okay guys, the coast is clear for now. So, I suggest we go one at a time. There’s an alleyway straight ahead to the left of us, just a couple of feet away. So, Ronnie you’ll go first, followed by Dean, Roger, Jay and so on,” he whispered. Ronnie walked up to the front of the stairs and quickly ran over to the alleyway. Dean did the same as well as Roger and everyone else. Stan was the last person to come across; he got back to the front of the line and continued to lead them towards the stadium.