"You ruined our city!" "You savage murderer!" "You Roman barbarian!"
Those were the shouts that met Octavius' ears as the fists and feet down upon him. He wouldn't fight back. Why? He didn't want the people to think he was a savage. But with each blow came more pain, and more shouts of hatred.
"Sop!" A voice said suddenly.
All the commotion suddenly stopped. Slowly, Octavius looked up, and saw Jedediah struggling to drag himself over to the crowd. When he reached them, he paused, breathing heavily.
"Jed...?" One cowboy asked, frozen in shock to see his leader here.
"Stop it. Just...stop it." Jedediah panted, raising his head. "He's done nothing wrong."
"But he's a Roman! We've been playing host to a Roman spy!"
"Would a Roman spy selflessly save a baby from a burning home?"
"That's right," The woman said, holding the same baby. "he did save him."
"And did he not save the rest of us when we were under attack?"
Slowly, the cowboys lowered their fists and weapons, and looked to the ground, ashamed.
"Octavius would never do anything to hurt us," Jedediah whispered, softly but sincere. "he's never done anything against us since the war, over sixty-seven years ago. He would never harm us, or his own people. It was him who saved me, you know that. It was him who saved the child, it was him who has promised to help us. And your behavior towards him was unacceptable. Tonight, we'll make camp along the ledge. Watch your children, and don't go passed the train tracks. Understood?"
There were a few murmured yeses, and a few nods. Slowly, the crowd disbanded, and everyone stood with their families, using whatever they could find as shelter and blankets.
"Jedediah," Octavius asked, quickly making his way over to him. He noticed how weak he looked, and realized that the speech had taken a lot out of him.
"Octavius," Jedediah replied weakly, his tired eyes filled with relief. "are you alright?"
"I am fine. But you should not have moved."
Jedediah smiled slightly. "What else could I do?"
"I could have handled it."
"No, not my men. You forget who we are."
Octavius sighed, and carefully helped Jedediah back to his place near the wall. As Octavius made him comfortable again, he noticed the white bandages around his stomach were rapidly turning red, and that red splotches could be seen through his thin blue shirt.
"You should not had moved," Octavius said again, taking up the bag Marcus had given him. "you have started the bleeding again."
"Sorry," Jedediah whispered sheepishly.
Octavius just sighed, and began gently reapplying the bandages. When he was done, he made a small fire, and found a few strips of meat, a tin cup, and various different herbs in the bag. He set the meat on a makeshift brisket, filled the cup with water from a nearby well, and set it on the fire to boil. That's when he heard surprised shouts, and footsteps in the tunnel.