The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 75

Zane POV

I took off toward the mine entrance, and the smell inside was bad. Some warriors could not enter, they doubled over and left their breakfast on the ground. I could sympathise with them, I almost did the same, but the need to get in there and rid ourselves of the rogue plague, helped me overcome the need to leave my breakfast on the ground alongside the others.

Just inside the entrance, I found the bodies of dead rogues, their faces in a morbid twisted look of agony, their eyes bulging out of their sockets, and they looked like they were trying to pull their stomachs out of their bodies.

The deeper we went into the mine, the more bodies we found, at different levels of decay, some looked like they had been hacked apart by others.

It was a big shock and nothing I had expected or had planned for today to be like. I was geared up for fighting and death, not this type of death.

Then, I heard Gerome over the communicator.

‘Warning,’

‘Warning.’

‘Warning.’

‘Do not, I repeat, do not drink or even touch the water. The mine water is toxic, and a painful death will result from drinking or touching the water.’

‘I repeat do not drink or touch the water from the mine.’

Gerome’s urgent call made us all stop and look around at the corpses and understand the c*****e that was before us.

I turned and went back out of the mine, not bothering to go deeper, and headed to the container that Jonathon and Graham were trying to open.

Seeing that it was bolted shut, I looked around for an axe or something that would break the frozen bolt, and found a crow bar.

I handed it to Graham and he put the end of the crowbar into the loop that the bolt was through and I grabbed the handle and together we strained and broke the bolt loop with a loud clunk.

Pulling the door open, we were hit with the smell of death. Lying on the bed, not yet dead, but very close to it, was the advisor. His face was twisted in agony, but he was too far gone to even make much of a noise. His eyes met mine and they widened in shock, and then he resigned to the fact that his life was over and closed his eyes and let our one loud painful g***n, and took his last breath.

Jonathon said, ‘A fitting end to a man who has caused so much pain, to die in agony of his own making.’

Graham and I nodded our agreement and closed the container door.

Madison will be glad it is over, and I wonder how she is doing, if the rogues over there are in the same way as here.

Alpha Ezekiel told Gerome, to let everyone know that the advisor had died and, so it seemed, the fate of the rogues.

‘How about we go about throwing the advisor’s body in the mine and sealing it shut. It is not worth our time to remove all those rogues; I think it best to just seal them.’ Jonathon suggested and we were happy to agree.

We had some warriors take the body out of the container and throw the advisor’s body into the mine, to join the other conspirators. His body should lie on the ground and rot with the rest.

We would need some way to collapse the mine entrance and maybe we could move the container and jam it in the opening.

‘Dad, how about we get that container, shoved into the mine entrance as deep as we can and then blow the whole lot up?’ I suggested.

‘Sounds good to me, I will have to get a tractor up here and push it in, and then have the explosive guy come and blow this menace up. We don’t want anyone else drinking that water.’ Dad said firmly.

Dad called all the warriors out of the mine and asked Gerome to send Harry over with the largest tractor we had and some explosives.

‘Dad, if we are like this, then it is a good chance all the caves will be the same. I think we have to get all the warriors over to the caves and help clear out the bodies and burn them. There is no way I want to drag those dead all the way down here to throw in the mine, and we have so many warriors here, they might as well use their muscles.’

‘Gerome, can you put me on all communicators please.’ Dad requests

‘Ready.’ Gerome replies.

‘Attention all warriors, the advisor is dead and the battle is won, the rogues are also dead or they are close to it.’ cheers could be heard from the warriors nearby as the announcement of the battle was over was made

‘Please proceed to remove the bodies from the tunnels and caves and lay them outside in the snow, which will slow the rotting, until we can prepare a pyre for the burning.’ he continued in a monotone voice.

‘We shall get some fires organised to burn them, all at the same time.’

‘Alex! If you could confirm where you would like the fires placed, that is best for you, and your people. Thank you.’

Dad sent the warriors that were there with us, to the nearest cave, and then, they would continue to the next cave, until all the caves and tunnels, until all bodies and body parts had been removed, and out in the snow, where. Hopefully, the decay will slow down, until we can get the fires sorted. Hopefully, wildlife will not try to eat them, as we do not know if being consumed would kill the wildlife.

I stayed at the mine with dad and Jonathon, until the tractor arrived and the mine could be closed for good.