The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 74

Madison POV

The waiting was hard, and not being able to see what was going on outside was driving me crazy, so I decided to mind-link Zane to take my mind off what was going on around me. The warriors here have not stopped shoring up the walls and clearing the pathways to the other caves, getting ready to make a large assault. They had originally had the two cave tunnels cleared, but Alex decided to keep the men busy by having some start clearing the other areas.

He was a good leader and I felt honoured that I got to see him in action.

Then the words of the warriors outside said they were ready, and Alpha made the call to attack.

The cave tunnels were suddenly filled with the sounds of feet thundering down the tunnels, and the sound of the final part of the walls collapsing, so the warriors could attack any rogue in the tunnels. Many ran past me, now that the wall was down, and I was okay with that. I was not here to fight rogues, and to make me feel better about not fighting, I kept telling myself, as I had promised dad, I would try and stay out of trouble, but if I came across a rogue, I would fight. Let’s hope I don’t, then I can tell dad I kept my word.

The stench that came through the tunnels once that final part of the wall was breached made many of the warrior’s vomit, the loud sounds of them retching by so many warriors almost made me join them, but I was a seasoned warrior and the smell was not foreign to me. The thought had occurred to me that so many of these warriors might not have had to deal with rogues like we had, and to have so many rogues gathered in one place, had made the smell very overpowering.

I stepped past some of the warriors, who were still retching and I gave them a look of sympathy. As I continued down the tunnel, there was little I could do for them. I didn’t have any tricks up my sleeve to fix an upset stomach.

At the end of the tunnel, instead of hearing the sounds of fighting as I expected, I heard more retching instead, and I frowned at the sound.

Why was there no fighting?

Have the rogues left the caves?

When I reached Alex and Anton, they were looking down to a level below, where the smell was the worst, and I could not believe my eyes at the c*****e I was seeing.

The smell was actually death and not the smell of rogues, as many rogue’s bodies lay on the floor at different levels of decay, some appeared to be only a few hours dead, where others must be dead a few days.

The twisted looks of severe pain were etched on their faces and some had seemed to have tried to rip out their own stomachs as the clothing was torn and bloody and large gouges could be seen gaping open.

A look at the way the face was distorted was something I had seen before, a few years ago, when one of the children had eaten some poison mushrooms.

These rogues were poisoned, these rogues died, with their insides twisted with pain and the pain would have been so bad that these rogues’ only avenue to try stop the pain was death.

Alex spoke softly.

‘I have turned off my mic, I don’t think hearing my men vomiting needs to be heard elsewhere. These rogues must have been using the water from the mines. This is the appearance of the result of the toxins in the water there. I mentioned before that we do not let our children go near the mines. We have seen this before and never wished to see it again.’

‘For this many to be affected, they must have all bathed in the mine site water, and I had no idea so many would get sick. When you mentioned it before, I did not grasp how bad this was.’

‘Guess the fighting will not be in these tunnels, but a long job of removing the dead and burning them. Can your men cope with the removal? The longer these bodies stay here the worse the smell will get.’ I said, as I started down the tunnel and walked among the dead that littered the floor, I headed further down to the lower floors to see where the dead bodies ended and if any were actually still alive, if there are any still alive, I am sure they would be begging for us to take their lives for them.

Alex and Anton and a couple of warriors I don’t know followed me as I stepped carefully around each body.

‘Gerome?’ I called over the mic.

‘Listening.’ Gerome replies calmly.

‘So far, all the rogues in the tunnels at the far end are dead. Alex said it looked like they had been bathing or drinking the water from the mine site, which is full of toxins. Let Eziekiel know not to drink the water or even touch the water from there.’ I say, trying to keep my voice calm, as I replace a few bodies that have been hacked into pieces, and I wonder if that was the effect of the water toxin on the mind or if they had begged for death when the pain got too much.

The deeper we went into the tunnels, the more bodies we found, some from the toxin, and others from fighting among themselves. If we have it like this here, I wonder if the mine is the same, and if the advisor drank the water or had his own bottled water, until I see his body, I would not stop looking for him. Let’s hope he is writhing in pain somewhere and karma has come a calling.