I'm late but I'm choosing to blame Fictionpress for making its servers unavailable to writers for several days! Glad to know I'm still getting new followers like ghostlyKiller.

~ CHAPTER 36 ~

Broodfester Throes of the Cadaver Festival

When it was dark Dwayne carefully climbed down the hive block for some well-needed sleep. Going in through the main entrance he wound through the corridors to a private bedroom and sealed the door behind him. There was still the case of Reagan, but he hoped the others would be taking care of her. For the moment he was buggered. Dwayne's head hit the pillow and he struggled weakly to get the blankets over his body and a few seconds later he lost consciousness. Once asleep he dreamed of lying broken in a dank dark cell, alone and waiting for death. His terror awoke him in the night but he quickly fell back into sleep. Upon waking that morning Dwayne had no recollection but afterwards he decided he'd probably sleep better with the light on.

The sopor slime had helped him, but it hadn't erased the memories. Regardless of how much they seemed like a distant nightmare. Getting out of bed he spent a moment rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and then got up, still in the clothes he wore yesterday. Going into the main room for his supplies Dwayne sprayed hearty amounts of deodorant under his arms and then left to find the others. Camila was sitting back on a sofa chair and Wesley was doing something in the kitchen. They looked at Dwayne and he looked at them. Wesley went back to what he was doing and Dwayne walked over to the living room. Three days worth of dirty dishes remained untouched by the kitchen sink.

"I can't believe the mother grub didn't get a TV." Camila began "How could trolls not have TVs?"

"What have you both been doing the last few days?" Dwayne asked, taking a seat on an armrest.

"Wesley's been moping," she sat forward "Apart from that we talk or he reads. I tried looking through one of the books out of sheer boredom but pretty much gave up on that."

"That's true," Wesley walked in to stand in view "You've been spending most of your time talking to Reagan." and at that the short girl blushed.

"Not most of my time!" she grumbled stubbornly.

"What could you be possibly talking about?" Dwayne asked her.

"Nothing," she answered awkwardly frustrated and turned away in her seat. Dwayne raised his head to give Wesley a look but he'd already returned to the kitchen.

"Does Reagan have proper water yet?" Dwayne asked.

"Not unless Wesley gave it to her," she muttered now slouched in the chair. Dwayne got to his feet.

"We're going to have to move the mother grub's body out of the hive today," he spoke, knowing how very unpleasant that would be.

"How the hell are we gonna do that?" Camila asked and Wesley called from the kitchen.

"I saw a load crate carrier in the garage."

"Probably for faulty scuttlebuggies," Dwayne mused. "That should be enough to carry her." Then he went into the kitchen and saw his Moirail bite into a wrap he'd just made. Dwayne looked through a few different drawers while Wesley just watched him chewing. Tapping one of the higher ones he found a pitcher and then filled it with water from the tap. Then he gathered a plate full of the usual fruit and bread and then left.

In the first room Dwayne noticed all of the books still gathered for them on the billiard-like table. He picked the first one he'd ever read about the hemospectrum and balanced it on his arm cause his hands were full. If Camila was feeling bored than Reagan must be going insane doing nothing in a blank cell all day. Well... more insane. The white-haired girl was sitting cross-legged again but facing the side. Her dark eyes followed Dwayne in.

"Don't get up," he instructed. "And if you try to jam my fingers again you'll get nothing. It's ridiculous how I'm the only one trying to keep you alive..." he got open the metal drawer by his pinkie with difficulty, then he paused at the gross mess inside. It looked like chewed up pieces of pork spat inside – what they had for dinner last night. "Charming Camila..." Dwayne muttered and put what he was carrying down before picking up the pieces of gross meat and putting them on the plate in his hands. Then he slid the drawer of stuff through to Reagan and she continued to sit there, saying nothing.

Dwayne headed out of the room and down the corridor, leaving her. There he saw Wesley tugging the huge load carrier behind him from the garage.

"Lets get this over with," he said and went past Dwayne. Fortunately it was small enough to fit through the corridors.

"Camila!" Dwayne cupped a hand round his mouth and called her. A few moments later she appeared in the front room. "We're gonna need your help with this." He told her and she sighed, which Dwayne found irritating but said nothing.

It saddened him to see the mother grub's body again, so still and clearly lifeless. But what saddened him more was the process of moving her. She was just way to heavy, their only option was to push her over onto her side. All three of them were a bit sickened to have to get so close to something dead, her soft cold skin beneath Dwayne's hands made him cringe. They heaved with all their might: Wesley getting his arm right under her belly, Camila pushing forward with both arms in front of her and Dwayne with his back against trying to knock her over. The giant corpse fell over onto the carrier with a crash that would've been painful were she alive. It was like loading garbage, and she was starting to smell. A few more collective pushes got her onto the platform properly and then Wesley tugged the carrier from the front while Camila and Dwayne helped push from the back.

As they went her body dragged against the wall and her legs were bent back. They got her outside and in the hot Australian sun and then the three stopped to catch their breath.

"So what now?" Camila asked.

"Do we bury her?" Dwayne asked and they both turned to look at him like he was crazy.

"That would take all day," Wesley told him.

"So? It's not like we're doing anything anyway. You guys complain about being bored but there's dishes you could be cleaning and the floor of the front room still sticks to your feet because Camila still didn't clean it properly. Why don't we all dig together, get it done today and then finally have a serious talk about how we're going to complete the mission now that it's just us?"

"First off, I never complained-" Wesley started but was cut off by Camila.

"I'm not going to bury that thing."

"Thing?" Dwayne repeated "She was our friend."

"Your friend maybe."

"How fucking dare you. You're the biggest brat I've ever known." he spat and the girl said nothing.

"Hey!" Wesley snapped "I'm not inclined to spend the whole day digging for her either. There's petrol and lighter fluid in the garage. I'll carry her away and burn the body, it has to be far enough to not draw any attention to us."

"We're sitting out in the open!" Dwayne yelled.

"We're camouflaged," Wesley rebuked "Up to so many metres away from the base, I know because I've seen about three helicopters go by without coming near us. The mother grub set it up when we came here."

"So that's it then? You're going to just drag her off and burn her?"

"If you want to start digging a hole by yourself be my guest," Wesley stated "but it'll probably take you three days of non-stop working to get a hole wide and deep enough for her by yourself."

Dwayne looked at Wesley and then looked at the silent Camila.

"What the fuck ever," and then he went back inside.

Each troll is currently equally voted for on the polls! Maybe I should have made the results secret until one votes themself... oh well! I wish some of you other readers would join the A-Team reviewers: KazzieLegran, Akasha10199 and Michi-chii!