Reluctant Gladiator

RELUCTANT GLADIATOR - Part Seventeen A story by Pete Brown (petebrownuk @ yahoo.com)

Read all of Pete's stories at groups.yahoo.com/group/petebrownseroticstories

Although I thought it looked as if Mike had made some sort of adjustment to his ordeal as we kissed and stroked and then jerked off, it became apparent in the night that he was underneath it all deeply disturbed - he was thrashing around, and crying out in his sleep. I never know what to do when a guy is having nightmares - it used to happen sometimes in the marines after we'd been on a particularly bloody operation when some of our buddies got killed. Is it better to let them work it out, or to wake them? Anyway I decided to let Mike sleep, although I did wrap my arms around him and pull him close to me in the hope that this would in some way get through to his mind - he would know he was in a "safe" place with me.

In the morning, though, Mike looked dreadful - his disturbed sleep showed up in his expression and the way he held his body generally: he simply wasn't the bold, confident Mike I knew. And of course his body was in a terrible state - there were livid marks from the cane easily visible all over his butt and thighs, and his body generally was a mass of blue and yellow bruises from where they had kicked him. Now I know that bruising is nothing special to us fighters, but this was different - there was such a mass of it, all over him, that it was clear that he'd suffered a heavy, sustained beating.

He didn't want to go into breakfast as he was in some way ashamed of the way he looked, although I told him that everyone would understand that it wasn't his fault, and that in a way he should be proud that he was able to take such punishment. "You just don't get it, do you, Steve?" He snapped back at me. "They'll all wonder why I deserved such a punishment, as the Champion is meant to set an example."

Well there was no answering that, was there? So we went in and, sure enough, conversation stopped as the other gladiators saw Mike, and then started again with an electric excitement in the air, although no-one came and asked Mike about it directly (I suppose for fear of being hit). Half way through eating Jason came in, and strode over to where Mike and I were sitting. He had a small light cane with him and to my utter astonishment he struck Mike across the bare shoulders with it. The whole room went silent. I reckon he was lucky Mike didn't leap up and floor him!

"You're the Champion, and I expect you to set an example", Jason told him, his voice loud enough to be heard by the entire room. "When a free man comes in to the room, a slave stands up and waits respectfully. And the next time I have to punish you it won't only be one stroke of my cane."

It was fucking unfair. I mean, this seemed to be a new rule. But Jason went on "We are going to have a lot more discipline here. If you have any doubt about what is 'proper', get Steve to tell you how a marine treats an officer." He stood there looking at Mike for a moment, then brought the cane down a second time. In spite of himself Mike gave a little shout of pain _ I expect his shoulders were still very sore from the previous day. The entire room had fallen silent, and all the gladiators now sat there expectantly, wondering what was going to happen next.

"You fucking slave!", Jason raged. "You heard me say that a slave stands when a free man enters. And you're still sitting there! Get on your feet!"

Slowly, very slowly, evidently making heroic efforts to control his temper, Mike stood up and then a moment later put his hands behind his back and bowed his head. "The rest of you, you all heard me!", Jason raged. "Why the fuck are you still all sitting there?"

There was a noise as all the benches were pushed back, and we all stood, and assumed the position. "That's better", Jason told us, his voice calmer now. "Don't forget it! Every time!" He looked at Mike and went on "We have some unfinished business - I wasn't happy with your performance yesterday. You will exercise and practice this morning, but report to training room four after the lunch break for further lessons in the new techniques you are required to use."

Mike stood there, and Jason added "And unless you want to be punished, you acknowledge my orders properly in future."

"Yes, sir." Mike replied, quietly.

"Good! Now, two of the other special chosen fighters - Jamie and Darren: Follow me. You're going to start your special training this morning."

Without further ado he turned and stalked out, followed by Jamie and Darren who looked at Mike and me rather helplessly. All we could do of course was to shrug, and indicate that they had to obey. The rest of us all sat down to finish breakfast then, and there was a hubbub of conversation as the others talked about what it all meant. Mike leaned closer to me so that the others could not hear him. "Fucking hell, Steve! He wants me to do it all again...."

Well, what could I say? "Mike, look, know it's tough for you. But you managed it yesterday, didn't you? And you can't afford to get beaten up again - you're supposed to be fighting next week, and if you want to remain Champion you've got to be in proper condition. So it may be hateful to have to pleasure some old hag, but you've got to do it."

Mike sat there ,head bowed, the picture of misery. "I know you're right, Steve. But it doesn't make it any easier."

"Try thinking of it as a challenge, a tough bout that you've got to get through...."

"Shut the fuck up, Steve! A fight's one thing, this is... Well... Disgusting!"

"You can do it, Mike. You know you can. Do you want that reptile to think he's won? If he has to beat you and then you do it, he's won, hasn't he? If you go in there and do the business in a workmanlike way, even though you hate it.... Well, you've shown him that you're tough enough to beat the system, haven't you?"

I don't know if this helped him as Mike didn't reply. He got up and went out to start training.

All day I worried about Mike, but, as it turned out, he wasn't the only problem - in fact he wasn't so much of a problem after all. When we met before dinner he was looking pretty grim, but he didn't have any signs of fresh damage to his body. "So how was it?", I asked very hesitantly.

"OK."

"Just OK?"

"Steve, shut the fuck up. I did it, OK? And I don't want to talk about it."

"You'd do better to talk about it - a trouble shared...."

"Steve, you're my buddy, right? But if you keep on, I'm going to have to shut you up."

I could tell Mike was really upset, and when he turned around to walk away I could see fresh marks on his back - not cane marks going horizontally, but long vertical marks like a bitch in passion makes if you let her and if she's got those long fingernails that bitches like. I could only wonder what Mike had had to go through to allow a bitch to do that to him. I would have persisted, though, except that Jamie came up to me. There were some marks on his body, too - not the usual ones from training, but the tell-tale horizontal striping of the cane.

He looked both upset and angry, as if he was suppressing both a terrible sadness and a consuming rage. "Jamie, what happened....?"

"It was fucking awful, Steve. So fucking degrading. They shouldn't be able to make a guy do things like that.... She was old enough to be my granny...."

"You had to fuck some old hag?"

"Only at the end." Jamie choked off what he was saying, and struggled to compose himself. "You know me, Steve - when I was first with you and Mike I liked fucking bitches. But then I met Darren, and, well, you know.... I fond out what I really liked. I guess that at high school I was sort of pretending to like girls, as I didn't want all the other guys in the class to know... And with you and Mike, well, you're men, men I really respect... And it's not hard for a young guy to fake it, so when Mike offered me those bitches, I just did it. But then with Darren, it's all so different - that's proper sex, Steve, it's what men ought to do together, you know."

"Jamie, calm down. It's OK, what ever you do."

"I want Darren and me to be like you and Mike, real men, having proper sex...."

"Hold it! I think you've got this all wrong. Mike and me are just good buddies. We don't have sex..."

"I've seen you jerking off together..."

"Jamie, all buddies do that together. But when we fuck, we fuck bitches."

Jamie looked really surprised, and I wondered if some of the other gladiators had jumped to false conclusions about Mike and me, too. "But Darren and me, Steve.... Well, since we met, we've never wanted anyone else.... And we, well, we.... We, you know...."

"You go all the way? You fuck each other?"

"That's real sex, Steve! Darren and me we're more than buddies...."

I tried to be as diplomatic as I could, as I didn't want to upset Jamie more than he already was. "You know, Jamie, having very strong relationships isn't such a good idea if you're a gladiator - suppose you or Darren got seriously injured? It does happen, you know. Or what if Straughan decided to sell one of you? You're both rising stars, and some other school might make him a good offer..."

"NO! Steve, don't say things like that." Jamie stopped then with a lower voice went on "Well, Darren and I have talked about it, sort of. We're saving our credits - that's one good thing about not wanting to buy bitches - and if one of us is injured, we'll try to buy each other...."

"You're a slave, Jamie. A slave can't buy another slave!"

"I reckon we cold work something out.... But that's not the problem now, Steve. It's Darren - I'm really worried - he's in a terrible state after our 'lesson' today, and he won't talk to me about it."

"What do you mean?"

"We were made to strip - well that's no big deal as it's not unusual for Straughan to want to inspect Darren and me. Then they brought this old hag in - and told us that we were to work together as a team to 'pleasure' her...."

"I started, as although it was pretty disgusting, I can manage to fuck a woman, and I know what to do, obviously. But Darren doesn't - and he refused! So they held him down over a chair and they got the old hag to cane him on the butt - and she really knew what she was doing, Steve - she said she knew how to do it as she often had men who liked that sort of thing done to them, but never with such a lovely pert butt as Darren's. It was terrible, Steve - not just the pain - we both know how much the cane hurts - but the fact that a bitch was doing it to Darren, just as if he was a naughty kid! The guards and that Jason were all laughing."

Jamie stopped, collected himself, and continued. "The worse thing, though, was that the new guy told the bitch to stop, then asked Darren if he wanted more or if he was going to obey. Darren told him to fuck off ,of course, and then the new guy asked me to start doing the business, to 'inspire' Darren. Well I wasn't going to do that, was I, Steve? If Darren could take a caning, so could I. That new guy is evil, though: he ordered one of the guards to start caning Darren - and not only on the butt, but across the shoulders and thighs - and said that the guard would only sop if I started pleasuring he bitch!"

I thought Jamie was going to explode, he looked so angry. "I had to do it, Steve. Even though I hated it. I couldn't let them keep on caning Darren like that. So I had to go down on her until she was writhing, and then they told me to fuck her properly and play with her tits - I hated it, Steve. And it was worse because of all the guys watching - I suppose I didn't mind the guards all that much, but it was Darren, Steve - he saw me fucking this vile old bitch, and he screamed at me to stop, but I couldn't as I didn't want them to start caning him again...."

Jamie heaved a big sigh, and he sounded so wretched. "...and now he won't speak to me, Steve. He won't let me near him. He won't tell me what they made him do after I'd finished and they kicked me out...."

"I'll go and talk to him...." Jamie went to follow me, but I stopped him. "Best if I do it by myself. He's probably ashamed and embarrassed, and it's easier to say some things one-on-one."

Jamie looked uncertain, but told me he'd last seen Darren out by the pool when they'd quarrelled, so I set off to find him. He wasn't with the other guys around the pool, actually, which was strange as Darren was a guy who liked to swim, and particularly to dive - most afternoons if we had any free time he'd be there climbing to the top of the high board and then diving off, his lithe sun-tanned body and his general physique being displayed to perfection. I'd almost given up and gone off to look for him in the gym or somewhere, when I noticed a foot sticking out from behind a screen at the far end where the pool cleaning kit was kept, well away from the other guys. I went to explore, and found him sitting there, his knees drawn up to is chest, his head right down, and his arms wrapped around his knees, as if he was trying to shut the world out. There's something about a guy sitting like that which always makes him look utterly forlorn, I reckon, and

Darren was no exception - and even his dick looked a bit shrivelled up as it poked out from between his thighs, just hanging there.

He looked up and saw me, and didn't wait for me to say anything. "Fuck off, Steve. Leave me alone."

"Jamie's really upset, Darren..."

"I told you to fuck off, Steve." He stopped, then went on a moment later. "...he should be!"

I stood there, then hunched down so I was crouching in front of him, more on his level. I simply waited - most guys can't resist saying something if you wait long enough, I've found, although the waiting can be pretty dreadful. I had to use all my will to stop myself from saying something, as I knew that anything I did say would simply stop Darren from having to talk.

"Tell him not to come back to our room tonight, the bastard! I don't want him anywhere near me. He'd better bunk with you and Mike like he used to - you're all into fucking bitches...."

"Is that what all this is about?" Now he'd started talking, I knew it was OK to carry on.

Darren raised his head a bit and looked at me. "Yes. He fucked some bitch, and she wasn't even a good looking one. Right in front of me. And proud of it, too - waved his dick around in front of the guards...."

"That's not exactly the way I heard it, Darren. Wasn't he trying to stop them caning you?"

"I didn't ask him to do that! I can take a caning, you know. I'm a gladiator...."

"You idiot, Darren! This isn't about Jamie, is it? It's about you - your pride! Jamie's worried sick about you, he's upset, as he did something he really didn't like to try to help you, and you won't even talk to him..."

Darren simply sat there, the picture of misery. "You are OK, aren't you? Not physically hurt - well not hurt too much?"

"I'm sitting on the cement here to try to cool my butt down. But it's OK. He should have let them carry on doing it, Steve, I can take it..."

"Come on, tell me what happened - Jamie said he had to play with the bitch to stop them beating you. Then they threw him out. So did they start beating you again, afterwards?"

Darren was silent, and I just crouched there, still and quiet. Then he muttered, so low I could hardly hear "It was awful, Steve. They made me fuck her. The guards were all laughing and said that a gladiator like me ought to know how to fuck bitches, and not just other guys' asses. So they made me do it."

I waited, remaining calm and still. Then with increasing speed Darren blurted it all out. "It took four of them, and a bit of the taser, to hold me down. They put a collar around my neck - a leather thing - and tied my wrists to it behind my neck. I wasn't able to fight them off as well after that, and one of the guards - that big gross one they call 'Bear' - put his arms around me and there was no way I could break his hold. Then another one began to play with my dick - and it's no use, is it, Steve, particularly when they scratch just behind your balls? I couldn't help getting an erection. Then the Bear guy half carried me over, and two of them grabbed me and pushed me into her.... They were all laughing and joking, Steve, and they forced me in and out of her.... And it went on and on.... And I couldn't help it, Steve, I shot my load, right inside her! And they all carried on laughing and said I was a proper man now. I could have killed them,

Steve - I mean, I'm a gladiator, and these guards, especially that Bear, all fat..."

"Is that all? Look, millions of guys fuck bitches, all the time..."

Darren was silent again, then gradually, he told me the whole story. "After that, one of the guards said that he'd never fucked a guy - he asked the others if they thought it would be different from taking a bitch up the ass. They were all laughing, and decided that the only way to find out was to do it! So they held me down, and one of them raped me, Steve. And then another, as he said it was good. And a third. And then I had that disgusting Bear on top of me...."

"Is that all?"

"All? All? I've been raped, and you ask if that's all?"

"OK, I'm sorry. I guess it's pretty bad. But not enough to fall out with Jamie over, surely. Look, Darren, it's not as if they really hurt you, did they? Your ass isn't torn or anything - I mean..." I stopped, as I didn't quite know how to say it. But I had to. "I mean, Jamie's pretty big, from what I can see, and you and he.... You must be used to it..."

"You're fucking typical of a straight guy, Steve! You think that just because I've had a dick up my ass it must be OK for me to take any other guy's. Well it isn't.... It's terrible, Steve. I've been raped...."

"So go and talk to Jamie. He thinks you're upset because of the caning...."

"I am! But I can see why he did it. No, I can't tell him about it."

I moved and sat down by the side of Darren, and put my arm around his shoulders. He winded a bit as I did, so I guessed the caning must have hurt more than he admitted to. "Listen, Darren, it was pretty terrible what they did to you. But not all that much worse, I reckon, than some of the things we have to do as gladiators. You need to talk this through with Jamie - he'll understand..."

"Steve, we're.... We're.... Well, neither Jamie nor I had been with another guy before we got together. I'd always wanted to, ever since I was a kid, but never had... And then Jamie and I started to bunk together, and it sort of happened.... And now it's spoiled, destroyed... All those guys... We had each other before, totally, from the start...."

"Oh stop being so melodramatic! Jamie fucked a lot of bitches before he met you, didn't he? He was in with Mike and me, so I know: when Mike offered him a bitch, he was more than eager to take her? And they made him do another one today, with you watching. So it's not as if he's a blushing virgin, never had sex.... Now, as I said, he's really upset and worried, as he thinks he's done something wrong. Now you go and talk to him...."

Darren sat there, and muttered "No. I won't. I can't."

"Don't be so fucking stupid! Don't you value what you've got with Jamie? Are you going to throw all that away because you're too scared to say that you were made to have sex, and a few of the guards forced themselves on you?"

He just sat there, and I admit it, I lost my temper. I was so worried about Mike that I simply ran out of patience to carry on arguing about something that was so bloody obvious to me.

"Listen, Darren - you're a gladiator. And a gladiator has to do some tough things sometimes. And a gladiator fights. And if you don't get up off your butt and go and find Jamie and talk to him, I'm going to make you."

"You can't...."

Well, that was it! No one tells me what I can and cannot do. "Get up, Darren, or I'll make you."

He sat there, obstinately, so I grabbed him by the arm and hauled him to his feet. I suppose I felt really sorry for him for a moment or so as his butt and thighs carried a mass of parallel livid red lines from the cane, but I slapped at his butt with my hand and he shouted out with the surprise and shock. "You're acting like a stupid kid, not like a man.", I snarled at him as I carried on hitting him. "And a kid gets spanked when he doesn't do as he's told...."

He went for me, of course. He's a trained fighter - and a really good gladiator as I've told you, one of the rising stars. But so am I. And there's no way a young guy like that, however well trained he is as a kick boxer, is going to win against an older, heavier, more mature guy who's a real "bruiser" like me, especially if, like me, you're almost the best in the school! We swapped a few punches, then I slapped his butt a lot until he was shouting in frustration and rage as there was no way he could break free of the body hold I had him in. Then, in spite of his constant kicking and squirming, I held on to him, carried him long the length of the pool to the amusement and amazement of the other guys who were watching, and threw him in!

He came up spluttering and coughing, and I dived in - nowhere near as elegantly as Darren would have done. I swam up to him and we faced each other, treading water. "Cooled off?", I asked. "Look, the guys all think it's a bit of a joke right now - a kick boxer like you and a bruiser like me having a bit of a fight. So let's leave it like that, shall we? Now... Come on, let's swim to the side together, then you can go and find Jamie...."

Darren looked at me, and somehow the physicality of what we'd done had given him some sort of release. "I guess you're right, Steve", he said. But then the bastard, as I turned to swim to the side, jumped up and pushed my head under! I came up spluttering and listening to all the guys laughing, but even though I powered after him there was no way I could catch him.

I thought I was doing pretty well sorting out the emotions of Mike, Jamie and Darren, and said so to Mike as we sat together over dinner. "It's OK for you, Steve", Mike told me. "But even though I managed it today, remembering what you said about seeing it as a challenge, it's not right, is it? I mean forcing a guy to have sex?"

"We're gladiators, Mike. They force us to fight."

"Well, not force, exactly. Well not for me, anyway, Steve. I reckon men are born to fight, and once we're properly trained, and we're properly fit, well, fighting another guy is almost natural, isn't it? But forcing a guy to fuck a bitch, that's something else..."

"It's natural, Mike. If you reckon fighting is natural, you must think fucking is as well."

"It's not the same, Steve. Not the same at all."

"Well, anyway, we all don't have a lot of choice, do we? We're slaves, and if Straughan wants us to fuck, then that's what we have to do. That or get punished. And there's worse things that he could think of, you know...."

I was about to tell him about what had happened to Darren - in confidence, of course - as a sort of warning to Mike about what might happen to him if he didn't co-operate properly with the new program of "pleasuring" clients, when a guard came up. I got to my feet, and stood there respectfully, hoping that Mike would see that this didn't really cost a lot to do. The guard grinned at me - we knew most of them quite well - and laughed. "You're a quick learner, Steve! Pity some of the others aren't. Anyway, follow me. Jason wants to see you."

"See you later", I told Mike cheerily, and followed the guard.

I was surprised when we went past the training rooms, and then the offices. The guard told me that I was going to the guards' quarters, as Jason wanted to see me in his room. I hadn't realised before, but there was a facility at the school for guards to rent rooms - it suited some of them who were not married, or guys like Jason who had recently joined from the forces and who had not yet decided where to rent or buy for themselves.

Jason's room wasn't bad - a lot better than most of the barracks we'd shared: in addition to a bed, he had a couch and a TV, and through a door there was a private bathroom. He motioned me to sit on the couch, then went to a fridge and got out a couple of beers, and tossed one to me.

I hadn't had a beer since I'd been enslaved, as having us gladiators all living together could be inflammatory enough on occasions without having alcohol to fuel it. I popped the can open, and got that wonderful spray of scent, then gulped about half of it down without stopping. Jason sat down, and I said "Thanks!".

"We used to sink a few beers together, didn't we, Steve?"

I nodded. "We were pretty good buddies, weren't we?"

"Yes, Jase - we were."

"Things are a bit different here, Steve. But I'd like to think we were still buddies."

I nodded, and to my amazement Jason put his arm around my shoulders. The material of his sleeve felt all rough against my bare skin. I tried to push him away, thinking he was just being a bit playful, but he tightened his grip. "Hey...", I said.

"Come on, Steve. We're buddies, aren't we? And I know what you do with Mike - we never did anything like that, did we? A pity really - I always wanted to, but you were always too keen to go off after the bitches - I had to follow you, and go along with it. But at least I did get to see that dick of ours in action sometimes. Now.... Well, we've got all evening.... All night, even..."

"Get off me, Jase... "

"Come on, Steve. Let me get you another beer, let's get comfortable, and let's see what we were missing all those years...."

"Jase, I said 'no'! We were buddies..."

"Yes, and you have sex with your buddy Mike...."

"But we weren't like that. We were two marines who just happened to be in the same unit, got to like each other, went o the same operations together, drank together.... And I don't have sex with Mike!"

Jason seemed to be getting angry. "Look, Steve, I wanted this evening to be fun. But you don't seem to want to play. Now, come on, move over, closer, and let me feel that bronzed skin of yours...."

"Fuck you!", I shouted, leaping to my feet. "I'm going back to my room."

"Steve, you forget that the rules have changed. You're a slave, and I'm a free man. So you're not going anywhere, until I give you permission. But since you won't play nicely, I'm afraid I'm going to have to get rough. Now, firstly, take off that uniform, so I can get a proper look at that dick of yours. Then come and sit down, so I can get a proper feel of it - I never touched it before, in all that time..."

"No way!"

Jason got to his feet, and stood looking at me. "Steve, come on, last chance, two buddies...."

"Fuck you!"

The next moment I was rolling on the floor, as he'd touched me with his taser. Only half power, I suppose, but enough to knock me off my feet and make me almost incapable of moving. As I lay there groaning and muttering all the expletives I could think of relating to Jason, he knelt down beside me and slipped something around my neck. I remembered what Darren had said about a collar, and the next moment Jason had rolled me onto my belly, had forced one arm up my back and was lashing my wrist to the collar, shortly followed by the second one. I lay there on the carpet, and Jason stood up.

"Now, Steve, it's a bit more even, I think. You've put on a lot of muscle these past years, and learned a lot of new fighting skills, I suppose. But tied up like that, I think I'm more than a match for you.... Now, come on, on your feet...."

He helped me up - no, he sort of dragged me up, and I was once more standing in front of him. "All this would have been unnecessary, you know, if you'd done as you were told. Now, where were we? Ah, yes - I'd told you to take that ridiculous uniform off so that I could see our dick properly. Well, old buddy, you can't exactly do that now, can you? So let me help you..."

All I could do was stand there helplessly as Jason pulled my uniform down, then gently teased at my dick and balls to sort of "fluff them up" from where the material of the uniform had pressed them together.

"Really nice, Steve. And so nice to see that foreskin of yours - such a change from all those bare dickheads around here. Now, come on, over to the bed...."

"Fuck you...."

Jason smiled. Not like he used to, when we were having fun together. This was somehow both sneering and sadistic, at the same time. "No, Steve. When it comes to fucking, I think it's you who's going to get fucked", he told me.

End Of Part Seventeen.