A Problem Bigger Than the Bicep

Vallum was awoken in his cage by the sound of metal grinding against the gritty floor of the warehouse. He sat up and stretched his sore back, looking around.

"What's going on, sir?" He asked the old man.

The old man pointed a finger, "A buyer. He is a rich one, from the looks of it."

Vallum's eyes followed where the man's finger was pointing and saw a small entourage of people walking around the warehouse. The group was made up of several of the men in white and one man in a black suit. The group would walk around, looking at the cages. Occasionally they would stop and the man in the suit would point at a cage. Most of the cages he pointed at contained young women and small boys. Whenever the man pointed out a cage, some men wearing white would push the cage over and load them on a cart. Every time the cart got full it would be taken outside. When the group got closer, Vallum could see the fear in the eyes of those that were chosen, and in some cases, it was simple resignation. There was no light behind some of the eyes that sat in the cages as they were pushed around. There were at least twenty cages taken out of the building before the group arrived in front of Vallum's cage. By the time they arrived, Vallum could feel the anger as if it were coursing through his body. He stood up against the cage and gripped the bars. His hopes for his strength to return after sleeping were unfounded. He couldn't do anything as the man in the suit regarded him for a few moments and pointed at him before moving on. After the man moved on, Vallum's cage was swarmed by the people in white, who pushed it to the wagon and loaded it up. Vallum remained silent as the wagon was piled up with more cages and then carted outside. When he got outside, he saw three long wagons, filled with people who had been taken out of their cages and shackled in place. There was also a covered wagon, presumably for the man in the suit to ride in.

"They said that were supposed to be real strong," the rough looking man that was undoing Vallum's cage said, "You aren't looking so tough, but the boss wanted you to be on drowsers till we get back." The man finished undoing the cage and walked up to Vallum with a needle. Vallum tried to avoid it, but he was still weak, and the shackles made it impossible. The needle plunged into his arm and the world went black once more.

***

Vallum woke up with a foul headache and found himself in a small, dark room. He was in the bed roll, up against one wall and there was a chamber pot in the corner, but the room was empty aside from that. The only light that the room got was what came through the cracks in the wooden door.

'If they hit me with that stuff too many more times, then I might not wake up again.' Vallum thought as he sat up and put his head in his hands.

A while later the door was thrust open, driving more light into the room and causing Vallum to squint. A small cup was placed inside the door, then it slammed shut. From outside he could hear a voice speak to him.

"Drink what is in the cup. It will help your strength recover from the drowser you took. You are up in an hour." The voice came, muffled through the door.

Vallum wasn't keen on taking the random liquid from the random people that also happened to have enslaved him, but he didn't want to risk opposing them quite yet either. With this in mind he got up and drank the liquid from the cup. Surprisingly, the liquid was tasteless. He gulped it down and went back to sit on the bed roll. Several minutes later he could feel his strength start to return, as if his muscles were reactivating. Then, after what must have been an hour, the door burst open again. This time, two armed men walked in the room and told Vallum to stand up, to which he complied. The men guided Vallum into a long corridor that led out into what appeared to be an arena. The men brought him all the way to the edge of the corridor and pushed him out into the open.

The first thing that Vallum noticed was the amount of people gathered around him in the coliseum-style arena that he was in. When he stepped out, the crowd cheered in anticipation of what they were about to see and Vallum shivered in anticipation of what he was about to have to do. He walked to the center of the arena after the prompting of the men from the tunnel. He stood there for several minutes. The crowd was staring at him. It seemed like they were waiting for him to do something. With no idea of what they expected, Vallum just stood there, until a few minutes later, when something came charging out of the tunnel that was opposite of his: a Gheji bull. Vallum looked at the freak of a creature that he had only seen the likes of once before, at a cattle show he went to with his father. The Gheji bull was three times the size of the average bull, and it had high-quality meat, so they were rare and expensive. This fact, however, did not calm Vallum down as the enraged bull charged him.

"Woah, boy!" Vallum shouted as he dodged out of the way to let the bull charge past him.

The noise of the crowd was starting to pick up now that the bull had shown up, with crying and cheering for either Vallum or the bull to go down.

The bull circled back around and charged the boy once more. Again, Vallum dodged the bull. As he dodged, he tried to yank on one of the bull's lowered horns, to bring it off balance. This was his favorite method of dealing with bulls that messed with him, but the bull easily ripped its horn from his grasp, and it was Vallum who lost balance and fell to the ground. This time, the bull charged at Vallum while he laid on his back and Vallum felt something that he hadn't felt since his childhood: fear.