“Apparently, fighting in the arena isn’t enough for them,” Marco said and laughed.
“True dat. Can you believe Dean?” Thad said and laughed.
“He’s a fucking show out,” Marco snorted and shook his head.
“Yeah, I followed him yesterday, the crowd was losing their ever-loving minds. I doubt his opponents like it. He’s taking the spotlight. I crack up when the audience start clapping and stomping, like in that movie. It’s so surreal,” Thad said, shaking his head.
“Got that right. He needs to be careful. With all that flipping around, someone’s gonna take an opportunity and stab the shit out of him,” Marco said.
“I’ve warned him.”
“He’s just wanting that coinage, for Zaza. Man, did he tell you what Felix offered?”
“Sure did, that’s so awesome. We now have a plan and a place to go once we can buy our freedom. We also have a job, though I’m really not sure what we’d be doing. But I don’t really give a shit, if we can get out of this place,” Thad said and he looked over toward the training grounds where the Caledonians were training. He thought of them as Scots, since he figured that was where they came from. He’d heard them talking and couldn’t understand a thing they said. He watched as one of the il domatore took a long stick and was beating a man. He nudged Marco and they watched, both shaking their heads.
“We never really got beat like that,” Marco said.
“I think because we were used to training, you know, from boot camp. We had learned to become focused and picked it up. These guys may just be farmers or fishermen. They might not know a lot about the different weapons,” Thad said.
“I feel bad for them. It sucks.”
“We’re in the same fucking boat dumbass,” Thad said and laughed, looking down at Marco, who grinned and shrugged.
“I still don’t know why in the hell Felix would put himself through this shit. Seriously man,” Marco said, bringing them back to the subject at hand.
“Why did we join the Marines? We were just lucky or maybe unlucky, to get stationed in Italy. We could have landed in the Middle East somewhere, in the middle of IED land.”
“True. I guess when you want adventure, you don’t really think about the dying part of it,” Marco said. Their attention was brought back to the two Greek men below. They saw doctore walking toward them.
“Doctore’s a pretty cool dude. He just gives you a look, like you should know better,” Thad said.
“He hates Philo, he’s always giving him the stink eye.”
“Nobody likes that skeevy fucker. I’m glad he doesn’t bunk with us anymore. His breath always smells like he ate the ass out of a hippo,” Thad said and snickered.
“Oh, forgot to tell you, I’m matched up with Septimus tomorrow,” Marco said and shifted from foot to foot.
“What the hell? I didn’t think you fought anyone else but other Provocator,” Thad said.
“Suppose to, but you know how it is, they want to mix shit up and it is getting near the end of the season.”
“He’s gonna kick your ass, you know that,” Thad said and laughed. Septimus had about six inches on Marco and about thirty pounds. It was hard for Thad to hold his own with the man. He had only won one bout in all the times they had gone up against each other.
“I know, I’m going later to talk to him and see if we can come up with a strategy that will let us fight for a good amount of time without me losing my head or a limb. We both know he’s gonna win, we just have to make it look good for the crowd.”
“Sounds reasonable, glad you’re a realist,” Thad said and laughed.
“Yeah, I’m crazy, not stupid. If you can’t beat him, I figure I’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell,” Marco snorted. Both men watched as doctore spoke quietly with the two Greeks below. Doctore ran a tight ship and the man reminded Thad of his drill sergeant in boot camp. The words highly proficient and highly motivated came to mind. He looked over to the Scots training and noticed that there was some shoving going on there, between the trainees. The men were gaining weight and looked better, though still rough. Once they finished their basic training, they would get a shave and haircut.
Thad’s hand went to his head and smoothed the short hair on top. He had let it grow out a bit, but kept it in the Marine Corps’ style haircut. It somehow kept him connected to his beloved corps.
“Some of the guys are going into town, to the dens of iniquity,” Marco said.
“They’d better be careful, I heard that two of the guys got the drip,” Thad said and made a face.
“Ouch, that’s gotta hurt,” Marco said and grabbed his crotch in sympathy and hopped around.
“Yeah. Dean’s lucky, he has Zaza. You know you have Septimus,” Thad said and snickered, his eyes crinkling up.
“You’re a dick, you know that?” Marco laughed and punched Thad on the bicep.
“You keep hitting like that and Septimus will wipe the floor with you,” Thad said and backed up as Marco drew back a fist.
It was late afternoon and Marco shifted from foot to foot, his nerves stretched thin. He and Septimus were up next. He wasn’t happy because he could see that Emperor Shitbird was in attendance. He reminded Marco of some of the rich pricks he’d run into,
