68 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
68 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
"WELCOME TO THE PLANET OF KAMPF"
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by Jim Zachary
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The suns were hotter today then they have been for a while and my cup
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of coffee felt like ice tea compared to the dry heat. The dust steamed in the
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distance blurring the sights of the outer wall. I sat and watched the soldiers
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enter and exit the cafeteria laughing and joking about bad and good times. The
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sweet smell of the cafe buried out the gnawing, gruesome smell of death
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scratching at the door. Out of the blur came an earthling looking curiously
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lost. I watched on with pity as Swejs guard stepped forth. The earthling must
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have passed through the lasers without knowing it and stumbled onto forbidden
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grounds. The guard seemed to yell a bit then struck the earthling with the butt
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of his light stick sending him swiftly to the hard, dry ground. It made me
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think of the times before the war, before when men and Swejs would walk the
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planet together with peace and hopes glittering in their eyes like the stars up
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above.
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The first bell rang which meant another ship of earthlings had arrived.
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I got up and started to drag my feet through the dirt. As I walked, other Swejs
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joined in. The white doors of the ship sprang open as crying earthlings
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filtered through it. A loud voice burst over the wails and screams, "You may
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now evacute the ship. Please get into two single file lines, men on the left
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and women on the right."
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The crowd pushed through the doors as we separated them in their respective
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orders. When we were through, the speaker went back on, "You are on the planet
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Kampf, you will be living here temporally during the war. You WILL always do
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what you have been instructed to. You may now proceed to your market area."
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The voice was shut out by the pleads of the earthlings as they were torn apart
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from their families and loved ones. I had a selected group of earthlings piled
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behind me as I always do. They were full of the sick and weak ones of the
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ground, ones that would only cause trouble in this God-forsaken place.
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It's my job to select a group of earthlings everyday and lead them to
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their last glimpse of life inside the well-known furnace. As we walked I
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overheard the prayers of the earthlings whispering behind my back. It made me
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realize how painful this was getting. The people looked on me with pity, the
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hope in their eyes dripping away with the tears.
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The furnace was already jammed packed with the sold out crowd. An
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orchestra of dying children played in my head.
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The mothers' arms reached out with their babes in a last chance their precious
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ones would live a few seconds longer. I slowly reached into my space suit and
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pulled out a box of matches. The box looked like an open tomb with thousands
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of little stick like figures squeezed within it. With a hastened stroke of the
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match, I found myself holding the flame which even I had learned to fear. I
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couldn't stop my hand, the flame seemed to have all the control. Then the
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conductor's flaming baton touched the chamber, and the orchestra played louder
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and faster. The ballet of yellow and orange performed around the helpless
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victims. The violins strong with the screams of death. The woodwinds were
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blowing with hateful winds. The cellos were tuned by the hopeless prayers of
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the earthlings. The clarinets and oboes sounded the pain and agony with every
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note and the drums beat on with every march of the Swejs, drowning out all
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others. I couldn't take it any more, the music kept getting louder, I grabbed
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the furnace door whipping it open. Earthlings started rolling out, coughing for
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air. "Run, run!" I yelled over the swift beat of lasers clashing all around me.
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I saw more Swejs running to the furnace opening fire on the people and me. I
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felt a laser part through my back, my vision turned to a blur as I fell to the
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ground. With one last ounce of energy, I looked up to see an earthling mother
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holding her child in her arms still alive. She smiled at me and said "God bless
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you" as she kissed my blood red cheek. With that kiss, I heard the final clash
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of the cymbals and the Kampf symphony drifted away as my world went black.
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