Blood for the Masses

by B. L. Morgan

  Well, that's fucking great, I thought. If I could have gotten on the other side of those bars at least I would have had a chance at surprising those guards and maybe letting a few slaves loose to help out and maybe pull this insane rescue off. I was so close to Sherry but from this side of the bars all I could do was watch her die.

  The beast hunt was finishing up. The last animals were being cornered and chopped down.

  The executions would come next. That wouldn't take very long. Then the caestus fights. After that Sherry St. Clair, a woman totally untrained in any combat would be handed a sword and be made to fight for her life.

  She didn't stand a chance.

  I had to figure a way to get her out of there and fast. Time was running out. The clock was ticking.

  CHAPTER 47

  The Smell of Rome

  Trying to get to Sherry through this entrance was a dead end. I looked out through the bars that gave a view to the arena floor.

  The executions were in progress. The announcer was listing the crimes of the accused and the victims were being dispatched. The people in the stands weren't even paying attention.

  Most of the executions were a simple running through with a sword or having the throat cut. Only one of them was any different.

  A guy was supposed to have burned his neighbor's house down with his neighbor and family inside. They stuck him inside a box with a hole for his head to stick out one end and his feet to stick out the other. Then they built a large fire and sat him on top of it.

  His screams drew some light applause. Guess he won't be burning down any more houses.

  I headed out in search of another way to try to get through another entrance to the slave holding area where Sherry was.

  * * *

  The ventilation down in the tunnels wasn't the best. With as many fires that were burning down here, I would have expected the smoke to be a real problem. But except for a slight burning of the nose, the smoke wasn't even noticeable. The thing that was bothering me about the ventilation down here as the day wore on was the way these rank sons of bitches smelled.

  The day was getting warmer up top and more people were coming down to Sin City below the Coliseum. The more people that came down, the more it stank down here.

  After a while it took on the smell of rotten milk and eggs mixed with piss and shit. People were crapping and pissing where ever the feeling hit them and to top it off so many whores were doing business that the air had a tinge of old cum to it.

  It was a real nice place for a Saturday afternoon picnic.

  After I'd run down a couple of side tunnels always trying to keep the arena floor to my left, I came back to another barred gate that lead onto arena floor.

  This gate didn't have a side to it that lead into the slave holding area, only stone walls. Looking at it closely the gate didn't look like it had been used in a long time. It was rusted and kind of rickety.

  The barbecuing of the guy in the box was over when I shouldered up to these bars. He was being dragged away and the fire was being put out.

  I looked around and spotted two openings to the arena floor from the slave holding area where Sherry was.

  The announcer started announcing the names of the pairs of fighters who were going to be fighting in the caestus matches. Five pairs were going to be fighting on the arena floor at the same time.

  People were starting to gather in a crowd around me at the gate to watch the caestus fights. These must be popular contests with the people underground.

  The combatants were coming out as they were introduced. It didn't surprise me a bit when they got to a pair that was fairly close to this gate and one of the fighters that ran out after being announced was Julio "Padre" Paez.

  What did surprise me was that when the announcer had all the fighters turn and salute the people in the Royal box the one who sat in the large marble throne was the slim attractive lady who I'd seen in Micea when I'd fought there.

  Sitting beside her, in his accustomed position of consort was none other than Caesar Lanista.

  CHAPTER 48

  Julio the Great

  The caestus fights started and I didn't really have the time to just stand and watch Julio in his contest, even though I did want to see if he survived. Julio's opponent was a huge guy. He easily was over six foot four and weighed around two fifty.

  A really big boy to be sure, he was announced as Saccus. What instantly worried me was that I knew what Julio's boxing style had been back in St. Louis. At his best, he was an aggressive wade in brawler that never backed up. He was a brave warrior.

  Against an opponent with the size advantage as big as the one Saccus had over Julio, bravery will get you killed.

  The guy came in swinging at Julio with punches designed to crush his skull. Julio surprised the hell out of me by slipping and dodging and landing a quick one-two, then moving away. Maybe Julio was learning a little bit in his old age, I thought.

  He repeated this pattern of dodging, scoring and retreating three times.

  After less than a minute and a half there were only two pairs of fighters still exchanging punches. Let's face it, most caestus fighters were idiots who didn't know what the fuck they were doing.

  All three of the fights that were over ended the same way. The two guys ran at each other throwing wild ass punches. One shot connected, the fight was over. The loser got dragged away.

  The match that was still going on besides Julio's was still in progress because those boys ended up on the ground wrestling. The way those guys were rolling around and clutching at each other and grunting I was beginning to wonder if they were trying to fuck instead of fight.

  One got on top of the other guy and rained down three overhand blows that knocked his opponent unconscious. That romantic interlude was over.

  Now the only pair left fighting was Julio and Saccus. The spectators in the stands were getting into this David and Goliath match-up and were cheering them on with gusto. The crowd around me was urging them on too.

  I knew I had to get to figuring out another method to get to Sherry, but at the moment my options were limited. I just flat out did not have the time to explore all the underground passageways beneath the Coliseum.

  The crowd gave a lusty cheer yet again when Saccus charged Julio and was skillfully fended off yet again and suddenly the tone of the audience changed.

  I got to admit I was looking somewhere else trying to plan my next move when someone said, "I don't believe he just did that," and several other voices also expressed disbelief.

  Julio had pointed to the bad cuts on Saccus's face and halted the action. Then he untied his own caestus and threw them off to the side in the dirt.

  This was making Julio's David and Goliath match take on an epic feel. It was the same as if David had stopped his fight with Goliath after cracking him with that first rock and said, "Sorry about that. That wasn't really fair was it?" And threw away his sling and offered to start all over.

  The crowd in the stands cheered Julio's incredible show of bravery and heart. The mob around me beat on the bars and chanted his name. Rust and dirt fell from where the bars were inlaid in the stone.

  Julio acknowledged the cheers with but a polite nod of his head. I knew Julio didn't throw away his caestus as a grandstanding gesture. Julio genuinely didn't want to injure any opponent.

  Julio is a nice guy. Too nice for this game.

  The fight began again.

  The pattern that Julio forced the fight into made me realize he wasn't as dumb as he'd always been acting. Saccus would come at him and he'd move, just a little, just a bit to the side, just enough so that Saccus couldn't have his feet set when Julio would stop and snap off some quick hooks to his ribs.

  Whenever the openings were there, Julio would throw a quick flurry to the head just so Saccus never got used to where the punches would be going to next.

  Julio was giving the much larger and stronger and younger Saccus a slow and methodical beating. It was a grea
t exhibition of brains over brawn. This was the same game plan that Ray Leonard used to kick Marvin Hagler's ass.

  Julio wasn't as skilled as Leonard, but he was making it work. And he was a huge hit with the mob in the stands and crowd around me.

  After about twenty minutes of Julio raising knots all over Saccus's head, the audience started chanting his name.

  Saccus was reduced to stumbling after Julio and eating pin-point counters by the time Julio scored his first knockdown.

  When a guy has as good a left hook as Julio does, you don't dare miss a wild overhand right against him. Saccus threw a wild overhand right. Julio ducked it and came out of a crouch with a whistling left hook.

  I could hear the loud pop from that punch even over the crowd's screams.

  Saccus fell straight forward onto his face. Dirt flew up when he hit the ground.

  He struggled to get to his feet. Blood ran from his nose and mouth.

  "Please my friend," Julio said to him. "Do not get up. You have proved your bravery. You are a great warrior."

  Saccus got up anyway.

  When he lurched after Julio, he was dropped by a straight right that folded his legs up underneath him.

  This time he lay on his back and spit blood into the air as the mass of people in the stands roared their approval.

  This time Saccus would not be getting up.

  Julio acknowledged the cheers and shouted for a doctor to be called.

  Someone did come running out onto the field of death from a side door. It wasn't a doctor. It was a Roman soldier carrying an extra sword.

  He stopped in front of Julio and handed him the sword.

  The masses sounded like a rumbling title wave as Julio looked at the sword he clutched in his right fist.

  His face expression showed confusion.

  Then he understood and looked directly at the woman sitting on the throne in the royal box.

  This was the same woman who ordered me to kill Torstan and I had refused. She stood with the red cloth in her hand having it wave in the wind. Julio shouted to her, "I will not kill this brave man."

  Silence reined for a few very long heartbeats.

  The slim attractive woman laughed. "I, Messalina, whose nephew is Caesar Caligula, decide what you do. You do not defy me!"

  From the same door the soldier came from, four archers now marched out. They kneeled and took aim at Julio. Starting softly, then gradually gaining strength, the masses began chanting, "Pabow Paas…Pabow Paas…Pabow Paas…"

  Messalina let the red cloth fall and Julio threw the sword in the dirt.

  Julio raised his hands over his head and looked to the masses of blood crazed people. "A warrior does not have to be a killer," he shouted to them. "A man can be all things, merciful as well as strong."

  The mob went wild cheering for Pablo. He was their hero, a gladiator warrior who actually thought for himself. Scattered shouts were mixed with the roar of the cheering.

  "Julio the Great!" Someone shouted.

  "Julio the Merciful!" Someone else shouted.

  "Look at the bitch!" Came another yell. "She can't make him kill. Even in chains, he is free!"

  The cheers were deafening. Never had a man stood as tall as when my short Mexican friend defied the Roman Royal family.

  Messalina was white with rage at her order being ignored. One shout was heard above all others.

  "Kill him!" Messalina screamed.

  The archers let fly with a volley of arrows and Julio was shot clean through four times.

  For a moment everything stopped.

  Silence reigned.

  Then all hell broke loose.

  CHAPTER 49

  Rioting Romans

  Julio was dead, lying in the sand his blood mingled with all the others who died in this place of useless death. But his death would not be useless.

  I yelled, "We've got to make her pay!" And grabbed the bars in front of me and shook them in a rage trying to tear them from their moorings. At that moment, I could have sworn that from all the way across the arena Caesar Lanista saw me. We locked eyes for an instant. By myself, even with the bars being rusted and old, I could never have ripped those bars loose, but the crowd around me was infuriated.

  Everyone at the bars, at least twenty strong angry men took hold of the bars and started jerking them back and forth. Chunks of mortar fell where steel met stone.

  Messalina's guard came out to protect her and Lanista. The mob started pelting them with rocks and garbage and anything they could get their hands on. The crowd erupted as a single screaming crazed mass and came down out of the stands and flooded into the killing field of the Coliseum's arena floor.

  The bars in front of me ripped loose from the stone it was set in and with a loud clang fell forward onto the sand. We ran out onto the arena floor ready to kill anyone who stood in our way.

  The masses attacked the four archers that killed Julio. The archers got off one more volley at the charging mob before they went down beneath them begging for mercy. They were shown the same kind of mercy Julio was given and were clubbed senseless, beaten until there was nothing left of them but broken dead corpses.

  Messalina, Lanista and her guard retreated down a passageway out of the arena.

  I headed directly for the nearest entrance to the slave holding area where Sherry was. The four guards in this area were at the gate to the underground. They were threatening and hacking at the rioting spectators on the other side of the iron bars that separated them.

  Jamming my sword into the gate's latch where it kept the doors locked shut I wrenched with all my strength backward. I got to admit, the Romans did one thing really good. They made some good strong swords. The latch ripped loose and the gate came open.

  I sprang into that slave holding area and confronted four desperate guards. They were between me and a wall of insane maniacs on the other side of that steel gate. Guess I didn't look as threatening as that wall of maniacs. A quick glance told me that Sherry St. Clair was watching me with wide eyed surprise. I think she couldn't believe who showed up to rescue her. In her shoes, I doubt I would have believed it either.

  "Just throw me the keys," I yelled at the guards. "And you can get the fuck out of here. I got no fight with you, but I'm letting these people out."

  Their answer to that was for all four of them to charge me. The strength of their charge drove me backward until my shoulders met the stone wall at the far end of the chamber. I was in there alone fighting four mean-ass guys. Just where the fuck was a crazed mob when you needed one anyway?

  I was slicing and parrying and blocking, mostly blocking, when I got lucky and sliced one across the thigh and he backed off. Three to one now, but the way they were coming at me was designed to keep me working non-stop. They were taking turns attacking me conservatively and keeping a tight defense.

  Things were not looking good because their intention was to tire me out and it was going to work unless something changed.

  I was beginning to get winded when it did. The gate to the arena floor was thrown open and a single man charged the guards from behind.

  The Black Avenger was back on the scene. Johnny ran one of the guards through before they knew they were under attack from behind.

  The next two, like idiots backed against the front of cages and were grabbed from behind. I knew it wasn't very sporting for all four of them to charge me so I didn't feel bad when we ran them through with them being choked by slaves through the bars.

  As we searched the guards to get the keys I said to Johnny, "What the hell are you doing here? I thought you went back to cry in your beer."

  "Don't you know by now a brother can't resist a good riot," he said. "We smell them coming. I knew you couldn't finish this thing without me. So let's get Sherry and get home."

  "I heard that," I told him.

  * * *

  Starting with Sherry's cell we unlocked all the slave cages. As the rest of the freed slaves flooded out through the gate and ent
ered the fighting on the arena floor, Sherry came out and looked into my eyes deeply.

  "You actually came for me," she said. "I'd given up all hope." She looked like she was going to break down and cry.

  Johnny said, "Goddamn it, come on! We don't have time for no fuckin' cryin'. John'll come for any mother fuckin' woman, some farm animals too. Let's get the fuck out of here!"

  We left the slave holding area and Sherry grabbed a sword from a dead guard. Everything around us was bedlam. The crowd was setting fire to anything that would burn. Johnny and me stayed on both sides of Sherry and hoisted her over the arena wall, then climbed it ourselves.

  Anything that wasn't made of stone was starting to go up in flames. People were fighting and screaming and shouts were coming from everywhere. We fought our way to one of the main entrances with swirling insane masses of people around us fighting anything, and each other, in a mad destructive rage. We made our way to the archway where I came into the Coliseum.

  The streets outside the Coliseum were even worse than what it had been inside. Things were just more spread out. The riot was in full swing out there.

  Groups of people indiscriminately attacked shops and peddlers and merchants. The rioters set fire to everything. The collective consciousness was just to loot and destroy.

  We kept close together and threatened anyone who came near us. Across an open space of violent chaos we headed to where I boarded my horse. Johnny saw the small stable where his horse had already been pulled down and the animals were gone. When we got to where my horse was boarded we saw that the owner was nailed to the door and the building was going up fast in flames. If anyone or anything was in there, they weren't getting out alive.

  We set off on foot in the direction of the Temple of the Brothers of Isis.

  CHAPTER 50

  Through Flames

  How long it took us to get to the temple is anybody’s guess. It could have been one hour or it could have been five hours. It just seemed like it took us forever. I don't have a clue as to what goes through a man's mind when he's caught up in the frenzy that a riot is, but the people on the streets of Rome didn't seem like people anymore.