No, he would let them kill him. He was responsible and no matter how much they said it was okay, it wasn’t okay. He’d fucked up and in a ginormous way and he’d brought his best friends with him. No, if and when the time came, he would trade his life so one of them could live. He didn’t know how much longer they would live, but he would sacrifice himself when the time came. He swallowed hard and thought about his mother, father and his sisters. By the end of the week, they would get the notice of his disappearance and they would grieve because there would never ever be a body.
He tried to push the image of his mother away; he had been a momma’s boy and he loved her dearly. There wasn’t a week that went by that he didn’t call her. The thought of his mother hung around him and he tried to take comfort in her. She wasn’t even born yet. He wondered when they were? He had been the last of his name and it would die with him and he was sure that he would be dumped in an unmarked mass grave.
“Man, put that dark shit away, focus on the now. You need to be strong for your brothers. You need to help them however you can,” Dean whispered to himself. He nodded, deciding that he would do everything in his power to help and protect his friends. They had forgiven him, but Dean could not forgive himself.
His eyes shifted and took note of his surroundings. They were in a vast underground cavern, filled with cages, people, platforms, ropes, equipment, and other props. There were thick ropes that disappeared into the rafters. The ropes were connected to pullies that would hoist whatever the Roman’s needed to go to the surface. This was the substructure of the colosseum, a vast city below the surface. He watched as men moved potted trees and sceneries onto a platform and began to haul on ropes, moving it up to the ceiling and then out to the sand of the colosseum. It was like some kind of warped backstage theater production. He snorted, he guessed it was theater for these people.
If he weren’t hurting so badly and terrified, he might think all of this fascinating. Part of his brain acknowledged it. The other was wondering how they were going to get back to their own time. A dark part of his mind wondered how long they would survive.
III
Thad brought up the rear as the men walked through the long tunnel. With each step pain shot through his body, from the soles of his feet, to his balls, to his back and ribs. He was a pulsating wound and his heartbeat moved that pain around his tall form. The reek of sewage was overwhelming and cloying down in the tunnels and the staggered torches lit the way. There were several slaves behind him and he knew they were there to block his way, should he choose to turn and run. A grunt of dark humor rumbled in his chest and Greg, who was ahead of him, looked back.
He saw fear in his friend’s eyes and tried to smile encouragingly and failed miserably. Thad felt that fear, but something more as well. An overwhelming sense of foreboding undulated through his body. Even if he wanted to turn and run, there was no place for him or his friends to run to. If they even managed to escape the Colosseum, they would have to navigate the streets of Rome. They could always head south and perhaps find their way to Sicily or just south, but they were naked as the day they were born and the coins that they had were long gone.
Having tried and failed to find the rift in time, they were all stuck here. He had not one clue as to what to do and how to survive. All his knowledge came from movies and TV. He had looked up information about the Colosseum this morning on his phone, but that was just a brief blurb. Had it only been a few hours ago that he’d been in his hotel room? Once more he felt the prickle of tears and pushed those feelings of loss and sorrow down. He looked over his shoulders at the slaves behind him. They were thin and their loincloths were ragged and dirty. He noted the numerous scars that were peppered over their bodies.
He turned his attention ahead. He noticed that he could no longer hear the noise down in the subterranean space of the tunnels. No more roar of the crowd, no people shouting. He wondered where this tunnel led and realized the floor was sloping up. Ahead he saw a sliver of light that was growing and realized that there was a gate at the end of the tunnel. His heart did a triple flip. Were they going back out to fight again? Or were they headed to some kind of execution? He was hit again with the fact that there was nowhere to run, nowhere to go. He and his friends were trapped and they were dead men walking.
They drew close and the gate creaked open and the sewage stench was left behind as Thad Giangreco stepped
