◆ Chapter 21: Of Course, They’re in the Mines too

 

 

 

◆ Chapter 21: Of Course, They’re in the Mines too

 

“…IT’S still circling overhead, m’lady.”

Lex has returned from scouting the cave opening. Since we entered the cave, the dragon moved away from the entrance and started circling the area from the air. Nothing has changed since—just as Lex reported.

“I don’t think we can get to the floodgate the way we planned,” I say.

“Nor do I. We were lucky to escape the dragon the first time. We should proceed by thinking we won’t be so lucky the next time.”

“Yah, but it’s not like we can stay cooped up in here forever, right?” Rosso raises the biggest problem with a furrowed brow. He’s absolutely right. Staying in the cave keeps us safe from the dragon, but we don’t have enough supplies to last long.

We will have to leave eventually.

Lex pulls out a map. “As far as that problem is concerned, I checked the map Master Pino gave me and it seems this was once a coal mine. This is an old tunnel, but it seems to connect two different entrances. One leads out near Cladorca, and the other—”

“Oh! It’s near the floodgate!” Too happy to contain my excitement, I interrupt Lex.

“Precisely!” he answers with a smile.

“Meanin’ we’ve just gotta travel these tunnels! Now we’re talkin!” Rosso slams his left fist into his right palm to express his delight.

Though…not every problem is solved yet.

“But the horses are frightened,” Nady mutters in a concerned voice as she pats her horse.

“The tunnels have many areas that are too difficult for the horses to traverse. We must leave them behind,” Lex decides on the spot.

Bringing the horses could be more dangerous for them, but zombies still roam Torstana in droves. Not to mention there’s a dragon nearby. I can’t shake the feeling it might be even more dangerous to leave them.

“Will they be okay?” I ask.

“…Vianta is a smart girl. I am confident she will lead the other horses away from danger should the need arise.”

His decision means leaving Vianta, who is like family to him, behind. Obviously it's tough on him. But Lex only grimaced for a fraction of a second before deciding.

“All right. I’ll abide by your decision.” I keep my response brief because I think that’s better for Lex in the long run than trying, and failing, to console him.

Once we finish dividing up the bags we had tied to the horses, I face the cave’s dark depths. “Ready to go?”

“Mizuha, shouldn’t you do something about her?”

“…It’s not nice to leave her behind, is it?”

I knew the problem without Nady having to point it out to me. I hadn’t forgotten about that problem person, but I’m hesitant to speak to her the way she’s acting. Giving in, I call out to Iris who’s weeping on her knees near the cave entrance.

“Iris, how long do you plan to sit around?”

“My goddess statue…ahhh…! Waahhh…!” she wails.

“I’ll leave you behind.”

“How will I ever be able to fall asleep again…?”

“If you come right now, I’ll pat you on the head.”

“Coming!”

Wow, she got over that fast. And for that matter, I almost missed what she said, but does being unable to sleep without my statue mean she uses it as some sort of hug pillow? I can’t imagine falling asleep hugging that hard and knobby thing, but I can picture Iris doing it, which is scary.

In any event, we have begun advancing deeper into the cave. Our formation consists of Lex at the vanguard, Iris reveling in her head massage from me, Nady behind us, and Rosso bringing up the rear. Only Lex and Rosso have torches.

“..It’s uncomfortably quiet,” I whisper.

“You would certainly expect there to be at least one or two zombies wandering around given Cladorca’s population,” Lex responds.

“Personally, I’d love not to run into any at all, but we should stay vigilant just in case.”

Encountering zombies in the dark without being mentally prepared for it might give me a heart attack. Bracing myself, I keep repeating “zombies are gonna come from somewhere, anywhere” in my mind as Lex heads deeper inside the tunnel.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

“Say, Nady? Do you hear something?” I ask nervously.

“Y-Yes. Sounds like metal striking rock—”

I hear a sudden loud crack from my right. When I look toward the source of the terrifying sound, I find a cracked wall. Welp. This can’t mean anything good. No sooner do I think that then the crack spreads and the cave wall shatters in every direction. A pickaxe wielding zombie springs out.

“BWOAAAAAHHHHH!”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The zombie raises the pickaxe in its right hand and brings it down on my face. Though not as agile as the nighttime zombies, it’s plenty faster than the normos. At this rate, my eyeballs are going to be mined by a pickaxe! Just in the nick of time, the zombie disappears with a dull thud. Lex had intercepted the zombie with his shield, knocking it back into the hole it came from.

He looks over his shoulder at me with a panic-stricken expression. “Lady Mizuha! Are you unharmed?!”

“Y-Yeah… Thanks, Lex.”

I tried to be mentally prepared, but I didn’t expect them to break through the cave walls. My heart nearly leaped out of my chest! And now it doesn’t even get a chance to stop jackhammering in my ears because another zombie bursts its way through a different spot in the wall next to me. Lex knocks it back with his shield while I’m screaming.

“It’s hard to believe, but it appears the zombies here are capable of breaking down the walls, m’lady!”

“Doesn’t that make this entire cave a death trap then?!” I cry.

Rock cracks as if to prove my worst fears right. The sound is coming from the wall directly behind Rosso. Several pickaxe wielding zombies—miner zombies—spill from the newly formed hole.

“We’re screwed if we stay here any longer! They’ll box us in!” I shout.

“Pushing forward is our only option! Hurry! I shall cut open a path for us!” Lex bellows and the rest of us run right behind him.

However, the miner zombies seem capable of pinpointing our exact location as they smash through the walls and lunge at us with impeccable timing.

“We should stick together as close as possible so we don’t get separated!” I shout over all the noise. “Geh! Iris, you’re sticking too close! I can’t walk!”

“Iris doesn’t think this is close enough yet…!”

I hurry on with the group while prying Iris from my waist. We aren’t in the clear yet, but we have covered a decent amount of ground. I seriously thought my heart stopped for good when zombies started dropping on us from above, but it ended without incident thanks to Lex’s agile reflexes.

“The exit is at the top of those stairs!” he alerts.

Finally, after weaving around dozens of corners in the tunnels, we arrive at a large open space with a staircase. It’s built into the innermost wall and leads up to the right. Making it out of the cave will mean no more miner zombies jumping out of the walls and our overall freedom. Relief spreads over everyone’s faces, including mine.

Just then, there’s a loud crash as half the stairs are destroyed. Multiple miner zombies bust through the innermost wall. Surely it’s just my imagination playing tricks on me, but I swear their “BWOAH” sounds like cries of victory.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me! That’s the only way up!”

“Mizuha! They’re coming from behind!” Nady warns.

“We have to move before they box us in!”

Lex urges us to evacuate toward the right corner of the large hall—right under the exit. I know we couldn’t avoid it with our path of retreat cut off, but now we’re stuck at a dead end. Even after we moved to the corner of the hall, there’s an unending stream of miner zombies hacking their way through the walls and closing in around us.

Maybe it’s because they’re coming at us with pickaxes, but they’re far more intimidating than the normal zombies. Lex bravely steps forward and deflects them with his shield, buying us time by keeping the line. But he’s being pushed back by their sheer numbers. It’s only a matter of time before we’re surrounded.

We have to do something fast…

Rosso steps in front of me with a dead-serious expression while I’m trying to come up with a way out. “Boss Lady! Please give me your spit!”

“Can you at least not ask for gross things at a time like this?!”

“I don’t want it for myself… I want you to purify this!”

“What is that? A rope?”

“Yeah! I spotted it on the ground when we entered the room and picked it up. Zombie decay has gotten to it, but it might be useable if you purify it.”

He has always been a man with a keen eye and a shrewd mind since the day I met him. Now I’m grateful for his tendency to swipe things. Why? Of course because—

“Great! We can use this to climb up the broken stairs!”

“I can scale the wall and pull you guys up with the rope,” Rosso offers. “So spit! Spit like your life depends on it! Gimme all the spit you’ve got!”

I really wish he would stop using the word spit several times in a row, but I don’t have time to correct him.

“Okay!” I say, taking the rope from him and moving further into the corner with it. I turn my back to everyone and privately spit on the rope, purifying it.

The poisonous color gradually fades from the brown rope. It didn’t repair the frayed sections, but it should be durable enough to pull one person up at a time.

“Here you go, Rosso!”

“Leave the rest to me, Boss Lady!”

Rosso winds the rope around his shoulder and quickly scales the cave wall. I’m surprised he can climb it so easily, even if it’s a rock wall with knobby sections that can act as footholds. I know this is a mean analogy, but it’s a bit like watching a lizard crawling up a wall.

He climbed the nearly seventeen-foot wall in no time. Then he wraps one end of the rope around his waist and lowers the other end.

“Hurry up!”

“Goddess Mizuha goes first!” Iris exclaims.

“Agreed! Mizuha needs to go first!” Nady urges.

I almost say I can go last, but bite my tongue at the last second. I’m not only the smallest person here, but I’m also the only one capable of purifying zombies. I feel guilty, but it’s smarter for me to reach safety first.

As it is, Lex is just barely holding back the miner zombies. We can’t waste time arguing over who goes first.

“Okay. I’ll climb up fast!” I grab the rope and put my feet on the wall to climb up.

“AAGGGHHHH!” Rosso groans loudly above. It sounds like he’s trying to brace himself to stop from being pulled down by my weight.

“A-Am I that heavy?! Sorry!”

“You ain’t heavy! You’re light as a feather…!” he calls down through gritted teeth.

“I’ll try to take as much weight off you as I can!”

Rosso isn’t a large or strong man by any means. Agility is where he excels. So lifting anyone would be a struggle for him—that must be it. I near the ledge while trying to save my self-esteem with those excuses. I place one hand on the ledge, swing my leg up, and roll onto the platform.

It wasn’t the most ladylike move with a skirt on, but I didn’t have much choice if I wanted to live. Apparently, I didn’t have to be embarrassed about possibly flashing Rosso with him lying flat on his back gasping for air and all.

“I made it. Thanks, Rosso.”

“No prob… Anytime. COUGH! COUGH!” Rosso shoves himself to his feet and grins at me. I’m grateful he’s being considerate of my feelings, but the more he pretends to be okay, the greater the blow dealt to my self-esteem.

“No time to relax! We have to pull the others up quick.”

“Right. I’ll help!” I’m not that strong, but having some help is better than none.

“Who’s next?!”

“I should go last…because I’m heavy,” Nady answers sheepishly.

It’s natural to weigh more when you’re tall, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. She shouldn’t be embarrassed, but her drooped ears and tail are just too cute.

“Then Iris is next!” Rosso shouts.

“Coming! Iris has been summoned to her goddess’s side!”

“Why does that sound like you’re dying and going to heaven?!”

Iris is pulled up vertically with her hands stretched out toward me like she’s ascending toward heaven. It’s surreal to watch, but we manage to get her up without incident. Iris then assists in lowering the rope to Nady and lifting her up as miner zombies flock below us.

“Was I too heavy?” Nady asks.

“Not at all. You were feather-light.”

I’m pretty sure that’s because we had Iris’s superhuman strength pulling her up, but it’s insensitive to say that. Now everyone except for Lex is safely on the platform near the exit. He’s still fending off the miners. They have him completely surrounded with little room for error.

He’s out of time.

“Lex! We’re lowering the rope. Grab it!”

“Got it!” Lex repels a miner zombie with his shield, turns right around, and grabs hold of the rope. The four of us yank on the rope to pull him up. Out of nowhere, there’s a loud snap and we all fall on our butts.

“No way!”

The rope snapped!

It was old and frayed—it must’ve hooked and come undone on the rock ledge while pulling everyone up. Now we can’t help Lex get up here! I run to the ledge and look below.

“Lex!”

“Not a problem, m’lady!”

How is it not a problem when the only method for helping him up is destroyed? I don’t have to wonder for long because he shows me why it’s not a problem right away. Lex scales the wall by jumping off the knobby rocks Rosso had used as a foothold earlier. He easily makes it to the top and lands lightly beside me. I gape at him.

“Hey, Lex? Did you actually not need the rope from the start?”

“It appears not. Scaling the wall was easier than I thought once I tried it,” he responds with a sunny smile. He looks nothing like a man who was on the brink of death moments prior. Rosso is also staring at him with his mouth ajar.

“…Boss Man really is superhuman.”

“Yeah. I worried for nothing, which happens a lot with him…” I say grudgingly.

“H-Have I done something to displease you, m’lady?”

“Nope, the opposite actually. I’m glad you’re safe.”

I was just stunned by his inhuman movement, which doesn’t detract from my joy at him making it out unharmed.

My moment of relief is cut short by Nady’s panicked voice.

“Mizuha! The zombies are climbing over each other’s bodies!” she shouts, looking over the ledge. “It won’t be long before they make it up here!”

“Crap! We have to hurry!”

I see light at the end of the tunnel when I turn around. The exit isn’t far away. We share a look and dash as fast as we can down the tunnel and hurtle outside the cave.