Titas looked at the raft that would have to hold four adults and a child to escape. It was safely tucked away in a hidden spot on the beach nearly two miles south of the fort.

Titas' hands were starting to blister horribly after working (since sunrise) on it. All he wanted was to go back and hold Siri in his arms. But he new she'd look at him with hope in her eyes and ask him if the raft was finished. When he would tell her "no", that look of hope would vanish to be replaced by an agonizing sadness in her eyes that made his chest hurt.

He would finish. He had to.

As he tied another piece of leftover timber from the fort to the raft, he thought about Starved dog. He hoped he was doing okay in trying to get Burning ant back.

Then he thought about leaving both them... His chest ached again, almost as bad as with Siri.

In the end he made a raft that could hold seven people. He smiled at his handy work before heading back.

With any luck they'd leave tonight. All of them.

...

Reyes punched one of the recruit legionaries square in the nose. He seemed to ignore it as his nose bleed terribly. Instead he grabbed at her breasts again while his two buddies tried to grab her by the arms again.

They were a couple of teenage boys who thought she was just some pretty slave girl. They were wrong.

The NCR trooper turned slave managed to elbow the one to her left in the face and kneed the other one right in the testicles. The one struck in the face shrugged it off, while the one who got a knee to the testicles lied on the ground in pain, his hands held over his family jewels to prevent further attack.

"Bitch!", The one with the broken nose shouted as he managed to tackle her to the ground.

The other one left standing held her head up while the other lifted up her skirt. No one did anything as they walked by the two men about to rape her.

The one in front of her pulled his dick out from beneath his tunic and she knew the one behind her must be doing the same. The one in front grabbed her chin and forced her mouth open.

'Oh God help me', she thought desperately.

Then the one in front was suddenly kicked in the side of the ribs.

"What the hell man!", The one from behind shouted at the new person but suddenly went dead silent.

Reyes looked up to see who it was.

Starved dog. He was dressed in just his tunic, but he didn't require his armor and decanus feathers for men to know who he was. After the fight with ranger Stella everybody in the legion knew about the prime decanus with the half burned face.

"My slave", he growled to the three recruits.

All three ran off as fast as they could after apologizing to the man.

Reyes got up. She looked at the man, "Thanks."

He grunted in response.

"Are you okay?", Reyes asked him. She hadn't seen the gladiator fight, but he looked almost as bad as Siri had described.

He ignored her question and instead asked, "Is Melody okay?"

"Yeah. these guys just jumped on my way to the latrine. She should still be at the brahmin pin."

He grunted with a nod before walking off.

...

"Mr. dog!", Melody cheered as she ran towards him in the brahmin pin.

She huddled like she always did.

"Did you save your friend?"

"No."

Melody's smile quickly disappeared from her face. "I'm sorry", she said as she hugged him tighter.

"You did nothing wrong."

"Well I'm your friend and I care about you! I'm sorry you lost another friend.", She said with a determined look in her eyes.

...

That night Starved dog told Titas of the news. Of the torture and Burning ant begging to die. Of how he had slit his throat.

"Dammit!", Titas said as he held back the tears. He would not cry in front of Starved dog.

Starved sat there quietly next to him.

'Tonight!', Titas decided, 'We leave tonight.'

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