Mwari Chronicles

Chapter 12

Clack, clack, clack, the droning sound of shovels and hoes striking the earth rang out with only the occasional loud banging of the Thunderbolt-50 riffle unleashing its projectiles into the air. Eversince they had started digging out trenches the previous day, they had found themselves adapted to the ear pounding sounds unleashed by Kagoma's riffle.

The one thing which he was not yet used to was the reverberations that ran up the shaft of his hoe every time that it struck the unforgiving earth, his hands blistered and caked with dirt, Mwanza couldn't shake the dull pain that came with every strike, stirring a cocktail of fear, anger, and frustration as he looked at just how little they had advanced.

"Keep going," Juane Leduarc barked nearby, his voice cutting through the tension. "We finish faster if we work harder."

Jaune's attempt to encourage his fellow recruits was responded to with all that frustration within them being unleashed in insults and abuse in the similar vein of.

"No one asked you, school teacher!"

"Do you think that we are just here to play you scoom licking bastard"

Kagoma didn't seem to care much that his senior man was being insulted, infact the company instructor seemed to have found the sight entertaining if the grin on his face was something worth going by. Mwanza knew that it wasn't his business but some of these insults had become just too disrespectful for his liking.

It didn't help either that the those who were cursing out the increasing red faced senior man, were infact the least hard working of them. One could easily tell from how their section of the trench was still two meters higher than that belonging to the rest.

Seeing Lenshina amongst their company didn't make things any better. He still didn't know why his parents would burden him with someone who hated everything sensible so much, she was one of the thieves who attacked Hamanymu for Leza-Mulungu's sake.

He tried to keep digging with his mind elsewhere but from his mouth came like thunder beyond his control. "Will You All Shut Up, Perhaps If You Didn't Spend So Much Time Muling And Prooning At Someone Who Is Actually Working You Might Accomplish Something You Cathmaks!"

A few gasps of suprise erupted from the rest of Phantom company who had halted their digging. Mwanza was usually a quite individual, if he wasn't with Hamanymu, Musonda, Bruce and Andrew, he kept to himself and whilst others had began taking up the insults and aggression in their tongue in mimicry of their instructors, he kept himself shut.

"The hell did you just say!" one of the hecklers shouted at Mwanza.

"You heard me!"

"Who the hell does this Mufibila think he is?" the heckler asked his friend and though Mwanza wasn't that well versed in insults, he knew that mufibila had some particular connotations about his mother.

"He is a pampered brat." Lenshina sneered besides and her eyes met Mwanza. "A fool with a unfortunate opinion of himself."

"That is rich coming from the same person who cowered when Ander..." Mwanza caught himself from saying that, he remembered that Anderson had killed one of her allies but thar did not stop her face from twisting into a mask of pure rage.

"I think you should go back to your business, Mufibila." the heckler said in a calm rage drawing Mwanza's attention from Lenshina.

"Oh I will, you can also start doing your damn part and spending less time trying to cost on everyone else's efforts with that pile of waste you call friends!" Mwanza could feel a bitter venom in his very words.

"Excuse me!"

Mwanza began taking steps forward and was halted by a hand upon his shoulder that he knew all too well. But the fog of red eyed rage made him push away Hamanymu's attempt at restraining him.