Travis's Journey Through the Apocalypse

Chapter 19

Coliseum fight Janet Smash

We made it back to the inn and passed out as soon as we took the pills and lay down on the bed. We were both mentally and physically exhausted, and a good night's sleep was just what we needed. When I woke up the next morning, Janet was still sleeping, but I felt fucking fantastic. I mean, all the way around fucking good. I felt better than I had in a long time. The Fighters Slumber pill was no joke. I would need to find more of those little beauties.

I went to the bathroom, and Janet was awake and yawning when I got back.

“You're finally awake?”

“Shut the fuck up, Travis. I know you only got up a second ago, asshole.” Janet replied, then threw a pillow at me. I caught the pillow, but Janet didn’t seem to care. She just yawned again.

“So, should we eat something, then head over and scope out the fights or see who our opponents will be?” Janet took a sip of water and then gasped as she finished her sip

“Fuck, that's good. Um, and yeah. I think we should definitely eat. Then, yeah, maybe we see who you're us up against. If that info's up yet. What time is it?” Janet answered her own question by looking at her watch.

“Okay, so it’s nine right now, well, nine-twelve, so that means we got two hours, and I need to check in thirty minutes before as well, so that really only leaves us with an hour and a half. We probably only have time to wash up, eat, and then head over to check in.” Janet was right. We didn’t have too much time to doddle.

“Shit, your right well, let's get to it. Do you want to shower first?”

“Why don’t we just shower together?” Janet asked me. Giving me a wink. I just looked at her for a moment, confused.

“What? You don’t want to shower with me?” Janet asked me, and she actually looked a little offended.

“Janet, I would love to shower with you, but the bathrooms here are communal. Did you forget again?” Janet froze, and then her face got red.

“I fucking hate this place!” I couldn’t help but laugh.

Janet and I were eating breakfast at the tavern connected to the inn, where we had met Michael and his crew. I was rubbing the back of my head, where I swear I had a lump forming.

“Stop rubbing it. I didn’t hit you that hard. You're being dramatic.” Janet said through a mouth full of pancakes and bacon.

“It hurts, okay, and I’m not being dramatic. You don’t know your own strength. It fucking hurt.”

“Okay, well, my bad, jeez.” I stopped rubbing the back of my head and got back to my food.

“It’s fine, let’s just finish eating. Then we can start heading over to the Coliseum,” I said.

“Fine.” She said. Then, muttered under her breath,

“but it was your own damn fault.”

“What was that?” It probably would have been better to let it go, but I was already in a bad mood.

“I said it was your own damn fault. If you hadn’t laughed at me about the shower thing, I wouldn’t have hit you in the first place.”

“That’s not the point. Ug, you know what? Never mind, okay?” I was regretting I said anything now.

“Okay, fine.”

“Fine.”

“Okay.”

“Janet.”

“Travis.”

“Okay.”

“Okay!”

“Okay.”

“Good.” I shut up. I wanted to say something back and be a snaky ass, but I knew where that would go, and I didn’t want to do that before our fights. I had already pushed it too far. Janet had played her part, but I could have been the bigger person, and I had chosen to be an asshole. It was time to be done with that now. It was time to prepare for the fights to come.

Once we were standing outside the tavern, finished with breakfast, and about to head to the Coliseum, I turned to Janet and took her hand.

“Hey, I’m sorry about this morning. I was being insensitive, and then I was just being an ass because I was upset. So again, I’m sorry, Janet.” Janet looked like she was about to answer me sarcastically, then she sighed and looked at me more earnestly.

“I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have hit you. That wasn’t good. You just know how to push my fucking buttons, but I’ll try not to get so mad at you when you do.”

“Love you.”

“Love you.” We put our foreheads together and then kissed deep and long.

“Now come on, we don't want to be late, do we, lover boy?” I laughed and let Janet drag me down the street toward the Coliseum.

We made it to the area where the fighters were supposed to check in before their fights with little time to spare. It was 10:25 a.m., but we had made it to Janet's check-in on time. A short line led to a minotaur checking weapons and gear before offering each person a small bin and then letting them pass. Janet and I made it to the front of the line in less than a minute. When we did, Janet stepped forward.

“Weapons and gear you plan to fight with,” the minotaur said before holding out his hand. Janet pulled her axe from a bag of holding and offered it to the minotaur. Janet then gestured to the armor she was wearing.

“This is what I will be fighting in.” The minotaur finished looking over Janerts axe, and then it briefly looked at her armor. Then, he handed her a small bin.

“Put any bags of holding or extra gear and weapons in this container. We will ensure that it is kept safe and untampered with on the honor of the Coliseum.”

“Can I just have him hold them?” The minotaur glanced over in my direction, where Janet was pointing and snorted. Then, after a few seconds, they nodded.

“Sure, whatever, I don't give a shit. You just can't fight with them on you.” Janet handed the small bin back to the minotaur and then passed me all her shit. After that, Janet was allowed to pass, and we parted ways. This was the last time I would be able to see her before she was in the arena facing her opponent. For a few seconds, I didn’t really know what to do. I didn’t need to check in myself for another hour. After about five minutes of just standing there like an asshole, I was asked to move by a short and stocky person that looked like a dwarf from middle earth, and I decided I needed to do something.

Janet's fight started at eleven, and it was 10:40 now, so I should probably start making my way over to Arena F1A2 so I could get a good seat for her fight. As I started looking for the arena where Janet would be fighting, I found some food vendors and bought some meat skewers and a beer. I found a seat and settled in to wait for the match to start. I figured out that F1 indicated the floor it was on, and A2 was the Arena number. The arenas were shaped like a slice of pizza. It was slightly odd, but big screens showed the fight from all angles, so it wasn’t that inconvenient.

When eleven hit, a chime filled the air, and two doors opened on either side of the arena. Moments later, Janet and her opponent walked out from opposite sides. I immediately started cheering for Janet.

“Woohoo, go, Janet! You got this. Woohoo, Janet, let’s go!” I was definitely cheering a bit too loud, and people were definitely staring at me. No one looked at me angrily. It looked more like they were embarrassed for me. I didn’t give a shit. I wanted Janet to hear me. I knew she heard me once I saw the look of someone trying to conceal their embarrassment, and that's when I turned the cheering up to eleven.

After a minute, I stopped trying to embarrass Janet and let her get ready for the fight. The referee was explaining the rules, and I had missed most of them, but Janet looked focused and ready to go, and that was all that mattered. Once the referee was done talking, he backed away from the fighters. Janet and her opponent were twenty feet apart, facing each other, and right before the match began, a blue-tinted transparent barrier appeared between the audience and the combatants. Then the match commenced.

As soon as the match started, Janet rushed forward. She moved so fast that she crossed the twenty feet in less than a second. Janet’s opponent was a thick-muscled, four-armed alien pioneer. It looked like a bodybuilder, and its muscles looked cut from stone. Looked kind of like that card game creature all evolved and shit.

The guy wasn’t wearing any armor, just loose-fitting pants. He did carry a weapon. Two large metal clubs with metal spikes protruding all over them except near the grip. As Janet charged into the stone man, he raised both his clubs and swung. The boom that proceeded their clash could be felt in the stands. I was cheering my fucking head off right after that. This was it. This was a real fucking fight! Thirty seconds in, Janet was still raining blows with extreme intensity, and the stone man was struggling to keep up.

Janet was a blur. Her opponent was strong, like really strong, but it didn’t matter if the stone man couldn’t touch her. She moved like a dancer, and every step was made with purpose. At one point in the fight, the stone man actually roared with frustration. After that, his speed doubled, and elusory shadows of his strikes joined the fray, and Janet couldn’t move fast enough to get out of the way.

Janet took a strike to the chest, and she was thrown backward, but the stone man didn’t let the opening go to waste. The stone man flew at Janet, who looked like she wasn’t going to make it back to her feet in time to oppose the oncoming attack. Then, out of nowhere, Janet rolled and spun, and the fight was over. It all happened almost too fast to see, but as the proverbial dust cleared, Janet left, standing over her opponent with her axe held up to his neck.

The crowd, including myself, was dead quiet. Then, it was like someone turned the volume back on, and everyone was going crazy. I was losing my shit. I’m pretty sure I kissed the person sitting next to me on the cheek and hugged them as we jumped up and down. It was insanity.

After everyone quieted down somewhat, the referee officially declared Janet the victor of the match, and then both combatants left the arena, and that was that. I think the whole thing lasted no more than five minutes from start to finish, and I was probably being generous. I left the stands and ran back over to where I left Janet. When I got there, I didn’t have to wait long before Janet came sauntering out. She was obviously feeling herself. As she made it to where I was waiting, she made a show of giving me a curtsy.

“Yes, yes, I have returned victorious. You may shower me with compliments now. Go ahead, I’ll wait.” I laughed, but still, her fight was impressive, and I couldn’t help inflating her ego a bit more.

“Janet, you are a goddess of battle taken human form. I bow to your greatness.” Then I did, in fact, give her a little arm flourish and bow. Janet whacked me softly on the arm.

“Oh, Travis, do go on.” We laughed, got Janet some food, and found the arena where my fight would take place. We still had a half hour till I needed to check in, so we sat for a while and watched the match that was taking place at the moment. It was a boring fight. The combatants were both some kind of duelist class. They both use long, thin blades that look like fencing swords. They would dive in for a strike only to be rebuffed by their opponent, and then the whole process would start over.

I'm sure they were great at their craft, but fuck, it was dull to watch, so after about ten minutes, when nothing had changed, I joined Janet as she went looking for a beer. By the time Janet had a beer, it was time for me to check-in. Janet walked me to the check-in area, and we passed a few betting kiosks on our way there. I smacked myself in the face as we walked by.

“Hey, what the fuck was that for?” Janet asked me.

“Oh, I just realized I forgot to bet on your fight. I probably would have made some money. Fucked that up.” I told her. A spark lit in Janet’s eyes at my words.

“Right, Gambling! I totally forgot. Well, here, I'll put ten gold on you to win. I don’t see odds on your match yet, but just win, and we’ll be fine. You better fucking win now.” Janet finished placing her bet, and we continued on.

Once at the check-in area, I went through the exact same experience Janet had gone through. I handed Janet a few bags of holding with my gear and told her I’d see her soon. Janet wished me luck, and I headed off into the belly of the beast.