Читать книгу Sinbad: Rogue of Mars - John Garavaglia - Страница 16

The trek to the coliseum was a long journey. The two heavily armed guards forced Sinbad to march ahead through the gulag’s stone doorway. The passage was clearly the way into the prison. The way out was very different indeed, as a number of ill-fated captives learned by watching their fellow inmates fall in combat and succumb to disease and malnutrition.

Sinbad was greeted by the venomous harangues of jeering and catcalls from a gallery of murderers, marauders, and disgraced soldiers. Even the other guards didn’t show the Earthman any respect at all. Sinbad didn’t pay any attention to their coercions. He knew they were all trying to scare him. But they weren’t trying hard enough. The sailor has seen almost everything in his world. From nature’s wonders to the supernatural, there was nothing else that could frighten him. However, he was on another planet and he was the only human in this world. This made him the minority and an outsider to every society on Mars.

The equipped guards nudged Sinbad further with the tips of their sharp spears.

“Advance, outlander!” threatened the one on the right. “You do not have time to lavish in the company of your friends.”

“What friends?” asked the other guard, as they both laughed cruelly.

When Sinbad proceeded down the passage he kept his eyes straight to the giant double doors that separated the prison and the arena. He blocked out the cruel hecklings, obscene gestures, and the rotted fruit and stones he was pelted with by the prisoners in neighboring cells. He would not give these vipers the satisfaction of retaliation or yield to their bullying. Even though more than half of the general population wanted to lynch him, they all knew Zhar Akhdar had something worse planned for the otherworldly stranger.

SINBAD: ROGUE OF MARS

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