To Kill A Gladiator

Chapter Six: Cami

We stumble through the forest, with each step Felix takes a sharp intake of breathe and a little more blood seeps through his tunic, the white material turning a bright crimson red in the light of the sunrise. I can feel that my tunic too is sticky with his blood. We had been walking some time, Felix leaning heavily on me. I'm exhausted but we need to keep going and put as much distance between ourselves and Marcus.

"Cami... I... I need to stop..." He groans as he stumbles and falls to the ground with a thump.

"Come on Felix. Just a little further, please." I say, but I know it's useless we need to stop and rest. I gently lean him against a tree, wincing as each slight movement makes him gasp in pain. Suddenly I remember my vow to kill Felix, here was another chance presented to me. I could just leave him here, the wolves would thank me for it I suppose. I look down at Felix again and catch him watching me with his green grey eyes, he looks... Let down, as if he knew what I was thinking. No, I can't leave him here, I'll do whatever I can to save him.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry," I whisper as I tear away the material around the bite wound. The skin is ripped and large holes where the teeth had sunk in ooze blood. I shudder but keep looking, I had seen enough wounds from my time in the amphitheatre, missing limbs, gaping cuts... I had used to help Lucius whenever he had been hurt, and idea hits me. I remember when Lucius had been quite badly hurt by the sharp edge of a shield, the doctor had stitched him up and Lucius made a full recovery. I look again at Felix, his face is deathly pale, if I don't do something soon he will die.

Picking at a the fraying end of my tunic I draw out a long, thin thread. I unpin and shake out my hair, selecting my sharpest and thinnest hair pin I carefully tie the thread to the pin securely.

I remember all my failed attempts at sewing, the messy stitching and the puckered material.

Taking a deep breath I start sewing. Almost at once with the first stitch Felix loses consciousness, which I suppose makes my job easier. Even Lucius, when he had had to have stitches, had lashed out at the doctor in pain. It had taken all my effort to calm him down and allow the doctor to carry on.

I sew for what seems like an age, by the end my hands are covered in blood but the wound has stopped bleeding and Felix's face has regained a bit of colour. I look at my hands and shudder.

"I can leave you for a bit can't I?" I ask a sleeping Felix.

No reply.

"Be back in a bit."

I leave Felix up against the tree, I can faintly here the sound of running water so I make my way towards that. Humming a random tune I walk through the forest, enjoying the feel of the sun on my face and the gentle breeze through my hair. I'm proud of myself, why shouldn't I be, I've possibly saved someone's life and my stitches were quite neat. And now that we've evaded Marcus, if we've evaded Marcus, we can start again.

As the sound of the stream gets louder I also start hearing other things, voices. All too familiar voices...

Quickly I creep forwards until I can just make out the group of men standing by the river. I hide myself behind a bush and listen in.

"Men of honour, we are hear today to discuss..." Starts Marcus but an eager voice interrupts him.

"So did you catch him then?"

"If you must know, no."

"Just I thought..."

"Rufus... Nobody cares what you thought. Anyway as I was saying we are here to discuss our plans for a better future, a future where we have rights that come not from wealth but f..."

"Didn't you say you had found him a couple of days ago?" Pipes up Rufus, interrupting Marcus again.

"Rufus do I need to throw you in the river and hold you under?" Asks Marcus, his voice dripping in irritation.

"No..."

"Good, I would hate to get wet. As I was saying, where we have rights that come from a persons decency towards their fellow man. You have all pledged your lives for this cause and so now comes our greatest act ever. In three moons our Emperor Domitian the beast will be holding games at the Coliseum, the winning Gladiator will receive five hundred gold coins, presented by the Emperor himself. This will be our chance to strike..." Here he paused, I could feel the tension hanging in the air, I lean forwards as not to miss his next words.

"And kill, the beast..."

There was a sharp intake of breath from the group of men, then someone started applauding and soon the whole group was applauding.

Marcus waited until the applause had died down before continuing.

"One of you, will be selected by your fighting ability, to be entered into the games. I will not lead you on, it will be dangerous and if you do succeed in killing the Emperor you death shall be slow and painful. But you shall die knowing that you have died a martyr for our cause and your name shall go down in history as the man who killed the Emperor!"

The crowd cheered, but I remain silent, as the crowd chants, "Marcus! Marcus! Marcus!" I slip away and start running hard for camp.

Hello readers who have stuck with me for this long! Thank you for reading, if you enjoyed this please vote and comment. So what do you think Cami's going to do? And how do you think Felix will react?

Thanks for reading!!! :)