Lawless

by Jai Williams

  Captain Harris and Bruce heard a large noise which was a man’s voice, so they looked up and saw Dwayne in a specially-built area with two of his men and Alan and Jackson with him. Dwayne spoke in a microphone. There were speakers all around the seating and field area so that everyone could hear him. “Okay ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the newcomers’ fight,” he said with joy. The men and women sitting in the seating areas around the field continued cheering. “So, this fight is between Captain Harris and one of his soldiers, Bruce. Who will win and who will die? Let’s find out,” said Dwayne. Dwayne looked down at Captain Harris and Bruce. “Okay guys, I know you’re excited to kill each other but I have to tell some of the rules. Number one, you can’t escape. As you can see, there’s a high barbed wire fence around you and if you think you can climb it, think again, because it’s also electrified. So, escape is a no go. Number two, one of you must die before one of you can go down to the cell and recover until your next fight. Number three, if you stand there and do nothing then you both will be killed. I’ll send in some of my men armed with blades and they will hack you to death,” he said. Selina and Ted walked into the seating area that Dwayne was in and Selina walked up to Dwayne.

  “No pussy, food and water until they deserve it,” she whispered in his ear.

  “Oh yeah, number four, you will only be rewarded when I see that you have changed and given up on escaping this place. Rewards can be anything from food to sex. So, if you don’t want to starve to death, I suggest you give up that fantasy of escape. And number five, just give us a hell of a fight,” said Dwayne.

  Ted and Selina sat down in seats and Dwayne put the mic down and picked up a trumpet and blew it to signal that the fight could begin. Captain Harris looked at Bruce and Bruce looked back.

  “W-w-what does that mean? We start to fight?” said Bruce as he was shaking. Dwayne picked up the mic.

  “You can fuckin’ fight now,” he said. Dwayne put the mic down. “Fuckin’ idiots,” he said, which only those sitting around him could hear.

  “I think he answered your question,” said Captain Harris as he looked at Bruce. Bruce and Captain Harris walked up close to each other. “Now listen here. We’re not going to kill each other,” said Captain Harris.

  “Didn’t you hear him? He said he’ll send in his men to slaughter us if we don’t fight,” replied Bruce.

  “Let them come in. We’ll kill them all,” replied Captain Harris.

  “There will be too many of them. I don’t think we should both die. I mean, what would that prove? It would prove nothing,” said Bruce.

  “W-what are you saying? That you want to kill me, that you want to become like them?” said Captain Harris with worry.

  “No, I’m saying you kill me and you tell the others that I wanted this. Tell them that I didn’t want our Captain to die, that I wanted you to survive so that you can lead the others to victory. I know you will be victorious; you always have been and it doesn’t matter what situation we’re in, you’ll give them hope. They need it and they need you more than they need me,” replied Bruce, feeling scared.

  “So, I tell them I killed you because you wanted me to live? It should be the other way around,” said Captain Harris as he was thinking there was a better solution.

  “No, you tell them that I wanted to sacrifice myself so that the rest of them could survive. You tell them that I believed that this was the right call to make and just remember what I did here today. Also, one more thing,” said Bruce with a tear coming from his eye.

  “Yeah, what’s that?” asked Captain Harris.

  “You let Ronnie kill that monster Dwayne. I know that I didn’t get to know Ronnie that well, but he deserves to get revenge for his parents’ death and when you leave this place, I want you to build a new place far from here and make it so secret that no one will ever get hurt again. So, promise me that,” replied Bruce as a tear dripped from his face.

  “I promise,” replied Captain Harris with sadness in his eyes.

  Dwayne picked up the mic. “What the fuck’s going on? Hurry up and fight or you’ll both die,” he said angrily.

  “So, how’s this work? You want me to just s-stab you in the um…” said Captain Harris as he was thinking that this wasn’t happening.

  “Let’s make it look like a fight so it doesn’t look like a sacrifice,” replied Bruce.

  “If that’s what you want, then I understand,” replied Captain Harris. Bruce swung the axe he had and purposely missed Captain Harris. Captain Harris slit Bruce’s arm and gave him a small cut.

  Back up at Dwayne’s seating area, one of the men sitting behind Alan and Jackson was really annoyed. “This fight is so shit. I mean, look at how fuckin’ shit it is. It looks like two schoolgirls having their first ever period,” he said.

  “Nothing can compare to that fight last week,” said the other guy sitting behind Alan and Jackson. “That was so fuckin’ crazy, man. I mean, slash, a fuckin’ arm came off, then the other arm, the legs and head. It was fuckin’ awesome,” replied the other guy.

  “There’s something wrong with you guys, you know that?” said Alan.

  “No, there’s something wrong with you. You can’t enjoy this world for what it is,” replied one of the guys behind Alan.

  “What? Death?” said Alan.

  “Not just that but freedom. Being able to do whatever you want – no law, no cops and no taxes. See it’s those things that make the world better and those who can’t accept that—well, I’m sorry for saying this, but you deserve to be in that arena,” replied the same guy.

  Bruce dropped his axe so Captain Harris purposely dropped his knife and they started to just fight with their fists. Dwayne saw it and got frustrated so he aggressively picked up the mic. “THIS IS FUCKIN’ BORING!” he yelled furiously. Captain Harris and Bruce stopped fighting and looked up at Dwayne. “OH NO-NO-NO. PLEASE STOP. YEAH, THAT’S FINE, THAT’S COOL. YOU MOTHER CUNTS ARE PISSING ME OFF. THIS FIGHT IS LIKE MY MOTHER COOKING, IT’S FUCKIN’ DISGUSTING. SO ONE OF YOU PUSSIES PICK UP THAT AXE AND CUT THE OTHER’S HEAD OFF OR I’LL KILL YOU BOTH!” yelled Dwayne. Dwayne sat back down and waited.

  Captain Harris looked at Bruce. “Y-y-you sure about this?” he asked as he was feeling so guilty about what he was about to do.

  “It’s ok. Pick it up and swing it across my neck. Just please do it in one shot. I don’t want to feel the pain,” replied Bruce as his eyes started tearing up. Captain Harris picked the axe up while shaking his hands.

  “It would be easier if you kneeled,” he said. Bruce got on his knees and put his head down like he was about to get executed. Captain Harris stood on one side of Bruce and faced him. He pulled the axe up high above his head. Dwayne stood up and grabbed his mic. “Oh my God, it’s a fuckin’ execution. This is getting crazy up in this bitch,” he said with excitement. Dwayne pulled the mic away from his mouth and looked at Selina. “No offense,” he said.

  “None taken,” Selina replied.

  “You know, because you’re a huge bitch sometimes,” said Dwayne.

  “I got it.” replied Selina. Dwayne put the mic back in front of his mouth. “Okay, you have been convicted of being a huge pussy bitch. How do you plead?” he said with thrill. Dwayne paused for a second. “Guilty, which is what you’re supposed to say. Okay, so from all of us here, we sentence you to death by execution. Got any last words? No? Good. Harris, cut his fuckin’ head off,” said Dwayne.

  “You are a great soldier. You will be missed. I wish it didn’t have to go down like this,” said Captain Harris as his eyes teared up.

  “Thank you, Captain, for everything you’ve done for me. I wish there was another way but it’s ok. At least I did survive and didn’t give up, that’s what matters. And hey, I’ll get to see Hank again. Goodbye, Captain Harris,” replied Bruce with tears dripping from his eyes onto the ground.

  “Goodbye, Bruce Dixon,” replied Captain Harris as tears ran down his face. Captain Harris breathed in and out slowly and s
wung the axe straight to the back of Bruce’s neck, cutting straight through his whole neck and forcing his head to come off. Bruce’s head dropped to the ground a few feet away from where Bruce’s body landed. Blood filled the ground around the body and Captain Harris had blood on one of his hands and constant tears dripping from his face and he thought to himself what the hell had he done.

  Dwayne picked up his mic. “We have a winner. Captain Harris, you get to live another day. Congratulations. Now men, take him back to the cells. It’s time to pick who will fight next,” he said with so much excitement. One of Dwayne’s men unlocked the door from the side Bruce came from and walked over to Captain Harris and pointed a gun at him.

  “Drop the axe,” he said, so Captain Harris without hesitation dropped the axe and stood there looking down at Bruce’s dead, decapitated body. The man got behind Captain Harris and pushed him. “Move,” he said. They headed to the cells, where they joined up with Dwayne and two men who were pushing Alan and Jackson. They got down to the cell area and put Captain Harris in the same cell with Ronnie, and Alan and Jackson in the other with Dean. Dwayne pointed to Ronnie and Dean. “Ronnie versus Dean. Who will win?” he said with a thrill.

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Not Today

  Ronnie was pulled out of the cell he was in, by one of Dwayne’s men and the same was done to Dean. Captain Harris looked up at Dwayne. “Please don’t do this. Please just stop. Don’t make us kill each other,” he begged.

  “You don’t have to kill each other; remember, you have a choice. You either kill the other person or stand there and wait for me to send in my men to kill you and then you both die. So, be grateful for your soldier sacrificing himself or whatever he did,” replied Dwayne. Dwayne walked away with his men, Ronnie and Dean.

  Captain Harris turned to Stan, who was sitting on the ground at the back of the cell and walked up to him. “Listen Stan, I didn’t…I um…he, see ah…damn. Bruce was, is a great soldier and I originally said to him that we were going to kill as many of Dwayne’s men as we could. I didn’t want us to kill each other, but Bruce requested that we shouldn’t both die, that I should live so I can lead us. So, I could give you guys hope to escape this place. And he sacrificed himself with the belief that he wasn’t going to die for no reason. He sacrificed himself so that we all can live and I understand if you don’t want to look at me or speak to me but that is the truth. Because I would never kill my own men willingly,” said Captain Harris as he wiped the blood off his hand on his clothes.

  Stan looked up at Captain Harris, “It doesn’t matter if Bruce wanted this. You’re our Captain. You are the leader. The one we can look up to. The one who can protect us and give us hope, but killing one of your men, I…I just don’t think that’s something a leader does. So, you can take your reason and sorry and shove it far up your ass and leave it there because from now on, I have no leader. I just have friends that will all die because we aren’t going to do the same selfish shit you did, because when we became soldiers we made a promise that we would protect each other. We stood by that promise every day, so today’s the last day you’ll see all of us. Dean and Ronnie are out there right now and they’re not going to kill each other. No, they will try to kill as many of Dwayne’s men as they can before they go down, because Ronnie may not be a soldier but he acts like one and he’ll die like one, just like all of us except you. You’ll be here all alone, fighting and killing everyone and slowly becoming like one of them, a monster not a human. So, think about all that and when you have, ask yourself what path are you going to go down?” said Stan with so much hatred towards Captain Harris. Stan looked back to the ground.

  Ronnie was brought to the other side of the stadium and pushed in the room where Captain Harris went in. There were two men with him. One walked up with the same army helmet that the Captain picked a piece of paper from. “Okay, so here’s the deal. You’ll pick a piece of paper out of the hat and whatever it says on it, is the weapon you’ll have to use to kill the other person, or you can improvise and steal your opponent’s weapon and use that. Whatever you feel like; now grab one,” said one of Dwayne’s men. Ronnie put his hand in the helmet and pulled a piece of paper out and read what was on it.

  “Sword,” he said. Ronnie looked up at the guy holding the hat.

  “A sword? Like a large motherfucker they used in real gladiator arenas?” he said curiously. “Yep, a large motherfucker. So hold on tight and don’t let it go,” replied the same guy, so Ronnie was given the sword and they headed out to the arena. On the other side of stadium Dean was picking a piece of paper that would have the weapon he would have to use.

  “Barbed wire baseball bat,” said Dean.

  “I’d bash the guy’s skull in, that’s what I would do, but who knows, you probably got some tricks up your sleeve,” said the guy who was holding the hat. Dean was handed a baseball bat with barbed wire wrapped around it and they headed out to the arena.

  Ronnie and Dean both entered the arena at the same time and they looked at each other and saw the weapons they were holding. They heard shouting coming from everywhere so they looked around and saw all these people cheering. They looked to a special seating area and saw Dwayne standing up in front of his throne holding a mic. “Motherfuckers and father-fuckers, it’s time for another newbie fight. We have to the right of me, the very angry guy who wants to get revenge on me for killing his parents, Ronnie. And to the left we have the, I don’t know I haven’t really chatted to this guy yet, but his name is Dean,” said Dwayne cheerfully. The crowd cheered excitement. “Now the rules are simple: you guys have to try and kill each other and whoever’s not dead wins, obviously. So, if you decide to just stand there and not do anything then I’ll just send in my men to kill you and there’s no climbing over the fence either, because it’s electrified. So, to all of us here, as we don’t give a fuck who dies incorporated, let the fight begin,” said Dwayne.

  Back in the cells, all the men were quiet. Captain Harris was sitting down beside the bars at the front of the cell just thinking and remembering all the great memories he had with Bruce, a brave soldier who didn’t deserve to die in the way he did. Bruce deserved to die fighting the enemy, not forced to fight his own people. Captain Harris felt so guilty and he couldn’t think about anything else; all he could think about was how he killed Bruce. Images of the killing kept appearing in his head. Jay, who wasn’t as angry as Stan, walked up to Captain Harris and sat down in front of him.

  “Why’s this happening? Why?” he asked with sadness.

  “I just don’t know. Maybe because the world is so messed up and it took us this long to finally see it with our own eyes,” replied Captain Harris.

  “We were safe. We had what we needed to survive and now it’s all gone,” said Jay.

  “You know why the Captain before me chose me to be the next Captain if he ever died?” asked Captain Harris.

  “I have no idea, sir,” replied Jay.

  “Because he trusted me. He looked at me and said you are a leader, you were born to become one and you’ll die being one. He saw bravery and a heart of gold in me. He in fact, said that I reminded him of himself when he was my age and I looked up to him as a kind of father figure. I told him that when I am Captain that I would never lose that bravery and goodness in me, but today that disappeared and now I’m just a killer. I killed my own soldier and I will never forgive myself for that, but I made a promise to Bruce that I would keep going on. That I would be strong for you guys, and I promised him that I would let Ronnie kill Dwayne,” said Captain Harris as he gave Jay the saddest look he had ever given someone.

  “Ronnie killing Dwayne, yeah, I think he deserves that. After all, that man did kill his parents and if I was Ronnie I would do the same; maybe I would get some closure after. It’s going to be hard for Stan and all the others to understand what you did but…I, um…just because they won’t fully understand and will hate you for it, doesn’t mean you should give up,” replied Jay.

  Captain
Harris wiped some tears he still had in his eyes. “Jay, we will get out of here and after Ronnie gets his revenge, we’ll save the people who can be saved here but those who are too far gone—well, I don’t think they will ever be the same because the constant killing would have got to them,” he said.

  “I believe you, Captain, but if we are forced to kill one another, then how will we all escape?” asked Jay with a lot of concern.

  “We’ll have to convince Dwayne somehow into letting us fight other people and not each other,” replied Captain Harris. “It’s harsh to think of it like that, but I guess we have no other choice,” replied Jay.

  Back in the arena Dwayne blew in his trumpet to start the fight. Ronnie and Dean were just looking at each other thinking, shit what do we do, we don’t want to kill each other. Ronnie walked up close to Dean with his sword aimed at the ground.

  “Listen, I don’t want to kill you,” he said.

  “Me neither,” replied Dean.

  “So, this leaves us in a tough situation,” said Ronnie with a puzzled look.

  “So, what do we do?” asked Dean.

  “Looks like we’re going to have to fight his men,” replied Ronnie with a worried look.

  “Ah shit. That’s-that’s gonna be fuckin’ hard,” replied Dean.

  “Yes, it’s going to be fuckin’ difficult, but there’s one thing they don’t know about us,” replied Ronnie with a smile.

  “What’s that?” asked Dean.

  “We got the fuckin’ skills, man. We can fight. They probably think that we just use guns but they have no idea how wrong they are,” replied Ronnie.