StALE-mAtE

The rain fell heavy, the wind blew fierce.. but tonight was not like
any other night. Tonight was strange, tonight was full of dark
prophecy. Lucian sat in silence sweat forming on his brow, he should
have warned them, should have said something; but who would have
listened, noone would have believed him, maybe locked him up, called
him insane.

He waited uneasily, soon these things wouldn't matter, perhaps he had
kept quiet because he felt it was for the best. Humanity were like
parasites anyway, there were too many of them, it certainly wouldn't do
the planet any harm in the long run. It would rebuild itself again, new
animals would probably evolve from rats: the only animals likely to
survive this madness.

What did he owe them? All his life he had known nothing but misery,
judged because he looked different than them. Bullied at work and
mocked for his constant ramblings about how messed up everything was.
He felt like a misfit.

No in a strange way he looked forward to it. Looked forward to putting
an end to this madness within, the constant bickering; the intense
inner conversation he had constantly in his head. It drove him to the
brink of insanity everyday; he realised that everyone was having the
same internal struggle, but some seemed to be stronger at resisiting it
than others. TV and radio waves - microwaves - repeatedly bombarding
the brain with an overload of subliminal messages. Buy this -buy that -
believe this - believe that. Most of the time people were walking
around and not realising where a lot of their attitudes and
competitiveness came from.

The flash lit up the horizon. Lucian looked at it, it hurt his eyes -
it was brighter than anything he had seen before. It made it's arching
way towards him. It would be burning everything in it's path. Lucian
felt the fear, would it hurt when it reached him. Would he feel pain or
would the death be instant? He imagined the people's panic as some of
them tried helplessly to get away from it, but there's no way to get
away from this beast once it has been unleashed. Nothing can withstand
it's glare. There is no reasoning with this manmade monster. It cares
not about who you are or what you've done. It takes the rich and poor
alike, swallows whole families in a second.

The warlords they don't care: people are just pawns on a chessboard. An
extension of their competitive egos. When one warlord challenges
another, or doesn't approve of another, they drop bombs on them. Or
more like on the people they see as an extension of them. Why is it
this whole world has to suffer because of the madness of a few? Why are
the innocent always the ones who get caught up in their sick twisted
game?

Lucian had no time to answer these questions as the bright molten flame
engulfed him and his thoughts. Though he died long before the flames
reached him; his final thought had been one of regret. Maybe he should
have warned them. Even if they hadn't believed him, he should have
spoken out, shouted from the rooftops; proclaimed the TRUTH! Spoke the
dark prophecy that had been haunting him all these long years, then
maybe this would never have happend... maybe..

Too late now... the damage was done, what possible defence has anyone
got against a nuclear attack? There isn't any.

The war lords and their toys, the only defence is another bomb, another
missile, another weapon of mass destruction; till eventually everything
dies and they're left standing in their steel helmets holding their
battered flags: but there's noone left to rule.

Just two kings stood on an empty chessboard.

-stalemate-