Evolution

“He wants to capture us,” Julian said.

I ceased my shooting. I risked hitting Anna. Instead, I ran forward, trying to reach her first. Then, she was in my arms, and I was pulling her back. The guards raised their clubs upon reaching me.

Samuel and Makara joined me in the struggle, fighting off the guards. Julian dashed in from the side, trying, to no avail, to hold back the crowds that had encircled us.

Finally, we broke free, but the crowd was too close for us to break through. I roared in frustration. Then, a pair of hands pushed my wrists together, roughly tying rope around them.

Makara grunted when a pair of guards forced her to the ground, binding her hand and foot. I felt a boot on my back, and I crashed to the street stones.

Around me, everyone else was also on the ground. Surrounded by guards, we were all restrained and bound. Our worst fears were realized. Instead of rescuing Anna, we had gotten ourselves captured.

The guards forced us on our feet. Ruben, the Lanisto, cast an appraising eye on us all.

“This ended very well,” he said, with an amused smile. “Instead of one gladiator, I now have five.”

It wasn’t just Anna going to the Coleseo now. It was all of us.

* * *

The crowds parted as Ruben and his guards escorted us to the Coleseo. I couldn’t even look up as we passed under a large, stone arch — the Blood Gates, Julian had called them. We approached a metal gate within the building, where two guards stood. Upon seeing Ruben, one reached for a key, unlocking the gate. He opened it, and behind the gate I could see a set of stone steps, leading down into darkness.

We were forced down the stairs. The steps spiraled down into darkness. Soon, orange light appeared from ahead. We were under the Coleseo now, in a large antechamber. Several open archways led to adjacent rooms, and four stone corridors led out from each of the room’s four corners. A wide set of stone steps led upward at the end of the anteroom — I assumed to the arena floor. This was a staging area for gladiators, before they were sent up to their deaths.

We were led down corridor immediately to our left. Ruben threw open a door at the end of it. On the other side was darkness. We were pushed along in the dark, and we could only see from the few torches that Ruben’s guards carried. From their light, I could discern that we were being led to jail cells. Metal bars rose from floor to ceiling from the cells on either side.

Ruben and his guards haphazardly threw Julian and me into one of the cells. We scuttled onto the floor, and the door was slammed behind us with a metallic clang. I heard Makara cry out as she was thrown into her own separate cell, while Anna and Samuel was thrown into the cell adjacent to mine. Two more metal-barred doors were slammed and locked behind us. Ruben, with his guards, stood for a moment, surveying us. It was hard to tell if he was pleased, or angry.

Finally, without a word, he turned for the door from which we had come. Once all the guards were out, he slammed the door shut. I heard a key turn in the lock, leaving us in silence.

“Everyone alright?” Samuel called out.

Everyone answered that they were.

“You guys shouldn’t have come.”

Anna’s voice was sullen.

I rushed to the side of my own cell, reaching my hand through the bars. “Anna, it’s me.”

I heard her get up, and I felt her warm hand on mine.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“You all should have left me here. I wasn’t worth this.”

“It’s not over yet, Anna,” I said. “Don’t give up.”

“By this time, you guys could have met with the Emperor and have gotten out of here. I definitely wasn’t worth this mission getting compromised.”

I didn’t have an answer for that. Anna still held onto my hand. I put my other hand through the bars, grabbing her other hand. It felt good, just to touch her — even if it was a feeling that wouldn’t last.

“We’ll make it, somehow,” I said. “I don’t know how, but we’ve gotten through worse before.”

I didn’t know if that was true. It seemed like we were all now as good as dead, locked in these cells.

“How did you guys find me?” she asked.

I told her about how Ashton piloted Gilgamesh above Itcala, and how we had all parachuted in.

“You…what?” Anna said.

“It was the only way in,” I said. “It was my idea.”

Anna sighed. “You’re an idiot.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“Julian?” Samuel called out.

“I’m here,” Julian said.

“Who’s Julian?” Anna asked.

“I’m Julian. I met your friends in the town. Anna, right?”

Anna didn’t answer. Samuel spoke again.

“What can we expect now that we’re here?”

Julian didn’t answer for a moment. “Nothing good. For what we did back there, our penalty will be death by combat. Whether they will have us fight each other, or simply be executed, I don’t know.”

“What about Anna?” I asked. “Surely, Ruben wouldn’t have spent all that money just to kill her.”

“Imperial Law warranties a slave for up to three months,” Julian said. “Rebellion is included in that.”

A hand banging on metal sounded throughout the narrow confines of the cells. Someone was trying to force the door open.

“Makara, that isn’t going to do anything,” Samuel said in his deep baritone.

“At least I’m trying something,” she said. “I’m not going to be forced to fight.”

“I’ve never seen a Lanisto pay as much for a slave as he paid for you,” Julian said to Anna.

“I don’t blame him,” Anna said. “I took down one of the slavers with my bare hands as soon as they untied me. When they finally got me under control again, I thought they were going to kill me. Instead, they still wanted to sell me. Word got out about what I did, and that’s when they shipped me here. I looked for chances to escape, but I was tied up and in a cage the entire time. There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t even take a piss without some bastard watching me.”

“If I know the Coleseo at all,” Julian said, “then we won’t be here long. A day, at most. And then, we’ll be the entertainment of the crowds.”

“What’s going to happen?” Makara asked. “Do we stand a chance of surviving at all?”

“Likely, we all die,” Julian said. “I was an escaped slave and you attacked Ruben’s guards. The fact that we’re here in this arena tells the entire story.”

Makara harrumphed, just as the door to the corridor slammed open. The torchlight at first blinded me. I shaded my eyes, watching the forms of the four guards and Ruben striding forward. He paused in between all of our cells. We watched him warily from within our prisons.

“As criminals and slaves who have broken the law of Nova Roma, you are all now my slaves,” Ruben said. “You will fight tomorrow in the Coleseo in an execution match.”

“What about Anna?” I asked.

Ruben sniffed. 'Who, the slave girl? She fights, too. I have no tolerance for insurrection.”

With that, Ruben exited with his guards. The door was locked, and we were all left in darkness once more.

“Well,” Anna said, “that’s it, then.”

“No, this is not it,” Samuel said. “This isn’t over until it’s over.”

A long quiet followed Samuel’s statement. I wished I felt as sure as he did, but at least for now, that wasn’t to be.

* * *

I awoke sometime later to the sound of dripping water. I had no idea what time it was. It was quiet, and I heard deep breaths coming from the adjacent cell. The others were sleeping.