YESTERDAY’S WARRIOR
S.A. ISON
Yesterday’s Warrior
Copyright © 2021 by S.A. Ison All rights reserved.
Book Design by Elizabeth Mackey
Book Edited by Ronald Ison Esq. Editing Services
Book Edited by Boyd Editing Ent.
All rights Reserved. Except as under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without prior written permission of S.A. Ison
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the production of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons – living or dead- is entirely coincidental.
OTHER BOOKS BY S.A. ISON
BLACK SOUL RISING From the Taldano Files
INOCULATION ZERO Welcome to the Stone Age
Book 1
INOCULATION ZERO Welcome to the Age of War
Book 2
EMP ANTEDILUVIAN PURGE
Book 1
EMP ANTEDILUVIAN FEAR
Book 2
EMP ANTEDILUVIAN COURAGE Book 3
POSEIDON RUSSIAN DOOMSDAY
Book 1
POSEIDON RUBBLE AND ASH
Book 2
EMP PRIMEVAL
PUSHED BACK A TIME TRAVELER’S JOURNAL
Book 1
THE RECALCITRANT ASSASSIN
BREAKING NEWS
THE LONG WALK HOME
EMP DESOLATION
THE VERMILION STRAIN POST-APOCALYPTIC EXTINCTION
THE HIVE A POST-APOCALYPTIC LIFE
PYTHAGORAS FALLS
MY NAME IS MARY A REINCARNATION
THE MAD DOG EVENT
DISTURBANCE IN THE WAKE
OUT OF TIME AN OLD FASHION WESTERN
PUSHED BACK The Time Traveler’s Daughters Book 2
FUTURE RELEASES
A BONE TO PICK
NO ONE’S TIME
THE INNOCUOUS MAN A.I. APOCALYPSE
Per la mia Bellissima e Preziosissima figlia, Mariagrazia
Many years ago, I had the privilege of being stationed in Italy. During my seven years living in Italy, I was able to visit Rome many times. On several occasions while visiting Rome, I visited the Colosseum on the Piazza del Colosseo Via Labicana, and the Ludus Magnus across the street.
When I stood inside the massive walls of the Colosseum, there was a palpable feeling of sorrow when I looked down into the arena. To this day, I cannot even fathom what it must have been like two thousand years ago. To stand on blood-soaked sand and know that I would be slaughtered in either a fair fight or outright murdered.
The horrific violence done down there resonates through centuries, you have only to stand on the walls and listen to those distant cries. I hope to convey what I think it might have been like to get thrown back into that time. Forced to kill in order to live. To kill those who cannot defend themselves and hate yourself for doing so, but wanting desperately to live.
This book is full of violence. Most of my books have some degree of violence, but this book is filled with it. I tried to get as close to the accuracy of the time as possible. This book is not for the faint of heart.
IL PROLOGO
Sextus stood at the gate beside the muneraruius, manager, of the Flavian Amphitheater, Aurelius Scauras. The screams of the prisoners were piercing but it rivaled the snarling of the dogs. Sextus was in charge of dogs, lions, bears and tigers, when they could get them. He was a Beastiarius and though he fought and killed many of the animals, he was in charge of the dogs’ care. He fed them and trained them, but he did not beat or harass them, that was left up to the slaves. Unfortunately, his dogs were more often left to starve before a performance. Sextus, however, secretly fed bits of meat to them; he couldn’t stand for the dogs to suffer, though most of the time it was out of his hands. It wasn’t much, but it kept the dogs loyal to him alone and lethal to all others.
His favorite dog was the Neapolitan Mastiff and he watched as the massive dog yanked at a prisoner’s leg. He heard the bone break and the man screamed in agony. The other dogs, most of them mutts, tore at the prisoners, shaking them like rags. Snarls and barking filled the air along with the shouts and taunts of the crowd above. Laughter and jeers filled the air as the prisoners, who were this morning’s lot of criminals, were torn apart. Sextus heard a very loud man, up above him. Because Sextus was within the walls of the amphitheater, behind the gated portal that led to the bloody sand, he could not see the egregious man.
“Those mongrels are useless; they have no teeth. I have dogs worthy of a fight,” the man above boasted. There was hooting and laughing and the man kept at it. Sextus snorted. Everyone had an opinion about their animals. He watched as a large hound was ripping the intestines out of a man who was screaming and trying to hold onto his slippery guts. The dog yanked and yanked and the crowd cheered and heckled once more. He heard more filthy remarks from above and then a scream and he jerked back when a fat man fell nearly in front of the gate. It seemed that his companions were tired of his comments. The man laid there at first, his robe up around his balding head. Sextus thought perhaps he was some kind of merchant. One sandal had come off and lay off to the side. The man was stunned for a few moments and then scrambled up. By then, the large mastiff was running toward the fallen spectator. The fat man screamed and ran toward the gate. The guards at the portal stood near but made no move to open it. Only Scauras could give the order to open the portal and he did not.
The Neapolitan Mastiff hit the man and knocked him to the ground, his breath knocked out of him, his face planted into the sand.
“Help me, get this mongrel off me!” the man screamed as he kicked ineffectively. The
