The Warlord Domination, Sovereign Race

Chapter 25 : You are the Breaking Wall.

I guess the cage would look something like this...many less hospitable, though.


Planet: Faoe

The blasting heat of the west pole of this accursed nature continues hours without ceasing…and then more hours…
    From atop the near-vertical shale wall, Shax ‘Brute’ howls out in laughter for the tenth time as yet another prisoner succumbs to the unbearable heat while attempting to escape their three-walled cage. He had been walking down the endless pathway between the two side walls of stone- a pathway which travels straight towards the two blinding balls of sunlight!
    This poor individual joins the bodies of a good dozen other comrades scattered here and there along the infinite pathway.
    About an hour later, a dark skinned, toothless thug with a skull for a necklace approaches the pit, carrying a duffel bag in his clawed steel gloves.
    Shax makes a head-jerking motion to him, and he tosses the bag down the shale into the gulley below.
    Everyone just looks at it curiously…
    “The law of the land requires us to give food and water to the prisoners!” Shax calls down, though he hides a dark smile which only Zeelu notices.
    Three or four of them stir up the courage to approach the bag. One reaches down hesitantly and unzips it…
    To their surprise there is actually food in it! The man pulls out a dirty ration bar and holds it in his hand; he pulls out a small bottle of water with the other.
    That is all it takes. The other prisoners bolt toward him like savages! They push him away and begin fighting over the bag, each one clawing and pulling to get at it!
    Finally the bag rips in half, spilling out its contents over the rock floor… Except, there is hardly anything in there to spill! The bag is almost completely empty… just a few pitiful scraps of food and two small bottles of water.
    They look up at Shax; a pleading expression on every face.
    “The law never stated how much food or water!” he roars in laughter. All his thugs join in with him, hollering without restraint or pity.
    They laugh again, doubly hard, when another fight breaks out over the pathetic amount of food which the bag contained. Fists fly, and people fall. Even a woman is knocked to the ground by a greedy, desperate soldier, who seizes a bottle of water and rushes away with it-
    Only to run right into Zeelu, who knocks him to the ground with one punch from his mighty arm!
    The soldier drops the bottle. Zeelu grabs it and brings it over to Mex, seated against the scorching rock wall. The captain takes a quick sip and then hands it to him. “Drink up, son”, he says, putting the bottle in his hands.
    Mex does, taking a few big gulps of it before his conscience gets the better of him and demands that he share this most precious resource. He looks to his side. Siva is there, looking completely parched, staring at the bottle. He hands it over to her. “Here.”
    She is only able to get a small drink from it before an older man rushes over, snatches it from her hands, and runs away; fending off anyone who comes at him along the way.
    Zeelu doesn’t bother giving chase.
    Mex leans against the wall again wearily, afraid suddenly to come close to anyone- even his stepfather. Men turn into barbarians when it comes to life and death scenarios. Best to not give them any reason to want to hurt him… Even Zeelu might.
    Soon he begins to think strange thoughts again behind his weary eyes- which he refuses to let shut, lest they never again reopen- as he stares into the burning light on the horizon. He thinks of his old home, his parents- gone for many years now…
    His baking mind turns also to all his now-impossible aspirations, such as exploring the universe for a better home- a home without all this insanity. “Insanity”, he coughs out like a wretched laugh as he watches two or three of his fellow captives still warring over the few rations left. He thinks about his purpose among all beings, and how that purpose now is but a meaningless thought.
    Purpose is gone. All that remains is a slow death. This is the end page of the story of Mex Vomer: one of many victims claimed before their time in this wicked curse!
    He is scared to go. ‘Life is so cruel! Why does it have to end so pitilessly!?’ he wants to cry out. The dying thoughts which we almost all face on our deathbed play through this desolate creature; breaking him down into miserable tears.
    Siva, who is also obviously fighting the same interior battles, from the awful look on her once beautiful face, crawls over to him; and they hold onto each other tightly for what little consolation it’s worth.
    Hours continue on…
    The guards never cease taunting those still surviving by either offering them a rope to climb out with, or by taking huge gulps of clear, shimmering water, and pouring it all over their heads and arms.
    The laughter of inconceivable cruelty towards their fellow man never leaves their mouths for long.
    Zeelu hears it all; hears them time and again wagering on which prisoner will be the last one to go; and it leaves its mark…
    ‘The sentence of death has been passed out”, he thinks, enraged with a fury he has never known before. ‘We are its innocent recipients. For without a shadow of a doubt This was the plan of our King from the very beginning! To have his own people, his own men and women subjects, killed by the hand of these hideous beasts!’ He starts trembling with unbridled rage, furious at himself for only being able to hurl mental curses at King Emasse Shunt and Shax ‘Brute’. (Not something I want you to start practicing, buddy!)
    (I won’t tell you all the vengeful thoughts that beat through what remains of Zeelu Atrosa’s tortured mind; but this I will tell... As more and more hours drag by, this once invincible soldier comes apart inside, piece by piece; all valiant thoughts, all courage and honour crumbling down like the foundations of a besieged fortress.
    (In these awful moments, hatred tears through him with a fury which could never have been imagined by any who have known this brave, charitable heart, who has only ever tried to deal out what is just and right to all those he has ever encountered.
    (But now that brave heart is being torn down to its knees, and being replaced by something terrifying! Something unrecognizable!)
    And so, foaming at the mouth; mind filled with only dreadful curses, he screams aloud at the fate which brought him to so wretched a state! And for many long moments he beats at the ground beneath him violently; searing anger burning off him hotter than the rays from the two suns!
    Even Shax takes a moment out from his heinous laughter to peer curiously at the man consumed by a rage this intense.

Zeelu IS The Breaking Wall!