Chapter Four

“Get up you stinking slaves!”

A sharp pain in my gut accompanied by yelling woke me up from my dream. In the dream I was back home, and was just going out to a party with my friends.

Thud!

I landed on the floor as the soldier kicked me again. 

“You slave!” He yelled while pointing at me. “Get moving or I will happily show you what it means to taste the whip! Now! Move!”

I jumped to my feet and rushed past the other survivors to be the first outside. Stepping into the light, I stumbled before catching myself. 

‘It is so bright out here.’

My arm quickly covered my eyes, to block out the sunlight. I barely moved for the next few minutes as my eyes slowly adjusted to the light.

Looking around, I could see that I was not the only one who had trouble adapting to the light. Every person minus the soldier, had their eyes covered. 

The soldier, seeing that I had adapted, began to slowly walk towards me with his whip dragging through the grass behind me. 

Seeing him coming over, I quickly began to move again towards the big open area, in the middle of the camp. 

As I walked I looked around, seeing as I didn’t really see anything at all yesterday.

The most notable thing to me though was the flag, flying over the camp. It was a golden sun, in a blue background. It didn’t seem that impressive to me, but with it being over the camp, I am assuming it is some kind of military flag or I guess it could be a nation flag? If they have that kind of thing anyway.

I also noticed that there were more big tents like what I had been in, with soldiers forcing out people like me. They I assumed were other survivors that had been caught. Alongside them, I saw lots more soldiers today, watching over us. A Lot of them though compared to yesterday were wearing helmets. Each helmet was blacj in colour with nothing differentiating them from the other. It made it look like they were all the same. Well it would have if a lot of them were not different sizes.  

In the open space, I saw that there was a big tent similar to the type that I had been in. However, it was much more grand looking. The poles that held it up, seemed to be all gold tipped and made of a much finer wood. The tent itself also was a deep blue colour, a bit similar to the flag that I had seen.

Standing in front of it, were the three who I assumed to be important yesterday. Their special helmets make them stand out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the soldiers. 

I was one of the first in the square, not due to me however, more due to the soldier with the whip who had seemingly followed me all the way here. His sharp gaze never leaves my back.

His gaze sent shivers down my spine, it felt like I was being stalked by a predator.

A few minutes later all of the survivors which I had dubbed in my mind were gathered together. The soldiers were surrounding the outside of the arena at first glance it seemed like they were there to listen to the special soldiers speech. But as I looked closely, I could see them watching us carefully. 

‘There..no..we are trapped in here. There is no way we could get past them.’

I gulped in some air, as the one with the horizontal plume began to speak.

“Welcome to the Makedon Empire. You visitors have been as some of you are no doubt aware have been enslaved by us. The lawful subjects of his Imperial Highness, Emperor Alexander IV. We are members of the Imperial central army, V Legion. You are now soldiers in the newly formed slave corps. Your job is simple. Attack and kill what we tell you to. However, for you the Imperial Emperor has given you all one divine blessing. If you fight and win ten battles. You will no longer be slaves, but free citizens of the Empire! All you have to do is survive….Your first battle will be in five days. That means we have five days to get to the bandit encampment. Now drink up and eat. We move out in two hours!”

‘His words were inspiring a bit, but what he said. I...no we are not just slaves. We are slave soldiers. Doesn’t that mean we are nothing but cannon fodder.’

As I looked around, most people seemed to be excited..I had no idea why though? Is it just me who is thinking this? 

I felt someone tap my shoulder. 

Turning around I found the same man, he had helped me last night. 

“Come on, let's get some food and some water...I really do want to hear you speak properly. Oh, by the way, my name is Lance.”

I followed him over to where some benches had been set up. Joining the quickly moving queue, I found myself in no time at all in the front. I was handed a cup of water and a bowl of what looked like stew..or maybe it could be a soup of some kind. 

I sat down in the corner with Lance, eating the food up without stopping. It tasted really good! Much better compared to the bread from last night. Though if they were going to treat us to food like this, why give us the bread at all? Maybe, it is to do with the speech. 

As I stated at the empty wooden bowl in thought, Lance spoke.

“They are feeding us up, giving us strength so we just don’t die at once. There is no use for starving soldiers, even if we are slaves.”

His words were like thunder, sending a shock through my body. Of course! It makes sense now, and the speech was about raising our morale. Looking at it, the survivors outnumbered the soldiers by at least twenty per man. If we all rose up together, even they would have a hard time dealing with us. 

Picking up the water. I drank it in little sips. Savoring the feeling of the cold water washing down my throat. It’s funny really. It hasn’t been that long and I already miss a simple thing like a tap and running water. 

Crack! 

“Ahhhhh!.”

Crack!

Looking over at the sudden noise, I saw one of the soldiers whipping someone. There already were long red marks which could be seen through the tears in his t-shirt. In fact as the shoulder continued to whip the poor man. His top slowly began to become soaked in blood. The man continued to wail and scream. 

Some people near him, couldn’t take it anymore and stood up, trying to stop the soldier. Those four people did succeed. But then more soldiers rushed in, each holding a sword.

“How dare you slaves assault a soldier of the Emperor! Learn your places, slaves.”

The soldiers cut the few people down in a few simple movements. 

I went pale, as I saw their bodies drop to the floor. 

“Slaves remember this. You are slaves. Not freemen. There are rules. Now we move out!”

I was grabbed to my feet by Lance and began to slowly walk forward. As we left the gates, I glanced back at the bodies. 

What I saw made the meal that I had just had come straight out of my mouth. 

They had let some dogs to the bodies...the dogs were ripping them apart and eating them.

As my strength left me, Lance grabbed me and helped to walk.

“Whatever you do, don’t stop. Always listen to them. Or out fate will be like them back there. We must survive. One day, maybe we can get our revenge.”