‘She’s more of a lieutenant than you ever were, or could ever be, scum. Shut your mouth!’
The prisoner’s wiry muscles contracted as he pulled against his chains, and flecks of spittle flew from his mouth as he roared out his acerbic defiance.
‘When me’ boys take ‘dis city, that whore’s cunt an’ arsehole be ripped to shreds by them hungry cocks! They fuck her ‘til long after she stop screaming, long after she stop fucking breathing! They ram them fucking cocks—’
The General sprang to his feet, darted down the steps and smashed his fist across the prisoner’s jaw in a crunching hook that sent the man crashing to the floor, where he lay groaning in a semi-daze.
‘You will address my troops with a little more respect, Reaper,’ the General hissed, his voice bristling with a potent menace. ‘Do not speak like that to any of them again. Do not.’
He turned to the teenage lieutenant, his posture slackening to a more open and loose one, and his tone became gentle and fatherly.
‘Lieutenant Curie, I apologise for this foul creature’s unsavoury words. Ignore his empty threats and disgusting insults, and please, present us with the results of your most recent battle against the LRA.’
‘General, our recent mission against the 23rd Battalion of the LRA, who we encountered stationed at their jungle camp one hundred-and-thirty-seven-kilometres south-east of T’Kalanjathu, was a runaway success, sir.’
Reaper sat bolt upright at this, his eyes widening with surprise.
‘Excellent,’ the General commented, ignoring the prisoner. ‘Details?’
‘Our platoon wiped them out, sir. To a man.’
‘Lies!’ Reaper bellowed as the girl’s words roused him from his daze. ‘Little whore be lying! One little platoon ‘gainst me’ whole battalion!? Fuck you! You a liar, you a fucking liar!’
‘Shut up!’ the General snarled, only deigning to give the prisoner a half-turn of his head before returning his attention to the teenage officers. ‘Sergeant,’ he said, addressing the tall teenage boy who was holding the sack, ‘what have you brought with you there?’
‘Evidence of our success, sir,’ the teen answered in a crackly, freshly broken voice. His slumped shoulders and thin limbs seemed out of kilter with the extravagance of his uniform, but his eyes and grim-set jaw spoke of a deep reserve of inner power.
‘Well, let us show this prisoner the evidence then, shall we,’ the General said, staring with cold menace at the now-confused prisoner before him. ‘Perhaps that will convince him of the veracity of our claims.’
The boy nodded and untied the sack, and then unceremoniously emptied its contents out onto the stone floor. Inside the secret passage, Margaret had to clamp a hand over her mouth to stifle the scream that almost broke through her lips, prompted by the gruesome sight of what came out of the sack: a rolling, bouncing mass of decapitated human heads.
The prisoner’s eyes bulged with disbelief and his jaw hung slack with shock.
‘Do you recognise these faces, Colonel Reaper? Do you?’ the General enquired softly. His eyes were alive with something fierce and terrifying, and they were locked with a withering focus on the prisoner’s suddenly haggard face.
‘I-, I … but-, but…’ the prisoner, spluttered.
‘They are the heads of all of the officers of your battalion, are they not?’
‘I, you-, ga-, they…’
The General nodded, smiling with smug triumph and crossing his arms with casual defiance across his chest as he did.
‘Your battalion is gone, Colonel Reaper. They will never again murder or pillage, and their days of marauding, slaughter and wanton rape are over. Their reign of terror is finished.Forever.’
‘A-, a-, platoon … Y-, you k-, k-, kids against, h-, h-, hundreds a’ me’ s-, s-, soldiers…’
The General blazed a savage grin at the prisoner.
‘Yes. Yes exactly, Reaper. A handful of my elite troops destroyed your whole ragged battalion of drugged-up, murderous thugs. We are the Antidote … and we are coming.’
‘I … I…’ the prisoner gasped, his eyes fixed on the grisly mess of severed heads littering the floor in front of him.
‘Remove this monster from my sight and take him to the wilds to face his death at first light,’ the General muttered, his voice dripping with disgust as he stared with a pitiless gaze at the stunned prisoner.
Margaret kept her hand clamped tight over her mouth, panting through the gaps between her fingers as her heart hammered an icy rhythm of fear through her entire body. Down below her two burly young soldiers unchained the prisoner and then began hauling him off toward the doorway on the right.
‘We’ll give you a fighting chance, Reaper!’ the General shouted after the prisoner. ‘At dawn you’ll be armed with whatever sidearm you wish! You won’t have much of a hope, but at least it’s more sportsmanlike than a firing squad, and it’s far more than a sadistic butcher like you deserves! Sleep well in this very last sleep on this plane of existence … if you can!’ The General stared at the empty door for in silence for many moments after the prisoner had been removed. He clasped and unclasped his hands repeatedly, and it seemed that he was lost in a spiderweb daze of thoughts and memories. Eventually he turned to face the audience. ‘Justice has been served!’ he bellowed, punching a triumphant fist into the air.
His proclamation was met with a resounding cacophony of approval as the audience stood up and cheered with wild abandon.
The General nodded, pacing back and forth before them with slow, deliberate steps as he spoke.
‘Yes, thanks to your dedication, thanks to the inextinguishable fire burning in your hearts for a new world, we have rid this poisoned planet of yet another cancerous tumour! We are the Antidote, and piece by piece we will remove every trace of venom and disease from our Mother Gaia’s holy body!’ Again a roar of approval rocked the
