There are men who know how to inspire dislike in the people who set their eyes upon them within moments, and without any effort, and the particularly thin man that stood up when the Head of State who had been speaking laid back in his seat was one of these.“Your Excellency, General Rico Stone,” he began, adjusting a large pair of glasses that appeared to weigh his face down. “And to all 119 Heads of State seated here at this august meeting… I salute.”General Rico now found himself more irritated by the man, forming an image of him in his head. These were the kind of men who acted high and mighty, who would wrinkle their noses at the sight of poorer people, and rather throw crumbs of bread at their dogs than at people who needed them. He did not like this man.“I, elected spokesperson of the newly created Union of Heads of States have come, as the lowly servant of theirs, to speak to you on a number of matters. Firstly, is the issue of the governments, and how all power seemingly res
The most amusing thing about sex is that people are just as frightened of it as they are obsessed, especially people who are not supposed to be doing it. It is a touchy topic for them, one not to be spoken of in public, or even suggested at all.It was why ten-year-old Rico could not tell his parents of what Esmeralda had been doing, or who she was doing it with. Indeed, it was an absurd thing to do — what words could he use to express what he had seen, to speak of it to parents who hung their heads in so much misery that they barely saw anything beyond their noses.His courage failed him, and he spoke of it to no one.However, it sat in his mind all the time. Every time Esmeralda smiled at him, he could not help but think of how she felt about her secret activities. He remembered how she offered him a loaf of bread once and how he had refused, wondering which of the men it had come from and what she had done to get it.Sleep eluded him in those days, and he remained awake to see when
The doors swung open into the room where 119 heads of state were waiting for him. He raised his hand to his head in salute before going to the seat reserved for him, while his guards stood on either side of him, armed to the teeth with stern faces and guns.Even then, his mind returned to Jose.Where was he now? Was he alive or dead? Had he even made it past the end of that horrid year? Or had they even passed one another without knowing?He would never know.It was why his thoughts shifted to another sibling he knew, Esmeralda. She had been fourteen at the time, with pretty hair and eyes. He still remembered how her body had still been forming into a womanly shape at the time — things he was quick to look away from. Brothers could not look upon their sisters with that kind of desire.The problem was that other eyes did not turn away the way his did.In the face of disaster, nothing is ever the same, and nothing matters to the victims more than staying and feeling alive. Could General
He marched in his military regalia to his villa, flanked on both sides by two armed men as they started on their way to the military headquarters, where he had demanded that they come to see him. They had asked that he come to the presidential villa of some other country, but he refused, presenting an imagined fear of a coup d’etat for his reason.The true reason was that General Rico wanted to hold onto power for a bit longer, and wished to delay the meeting for as long as he could. Life had changed so fast for him over the course of the war that he did not want to go back to the past, to the scarcity and poverty and hunger he had come from.Who would if they were in his shoes?He was born into a poor family, where his parents were farmers on a small farm. They had guarded that farm with their lives at the time, knowing that any problems with it would keep them hungry for a year, but there were things his parents and the five children which he was the third of were helpless before, t
General Rico Stone stood alone in his office, looking at everything below him as he reminisced on the four months after the final defeat of those ravaging zombies.The world had fallen apart. Many countries’ leaders were either dead, or had their offices become irrelevant as they could do nothing in the face of the zombie threat. Those leaders who remained were only there in name, with no real power. Poverty was everywhere, and people were dying. The Internet was now a thing of the past, with only a few places still having connections. It was much like having the world return to the middle ages, with modern things like cars, trains, and aeroplanes now monuments to an age in the future.The only thing that was still standing was a victorious world army, deployed from all countries to fight the zombies, and united under him. He continued to direct them after the last zombie threat was eliminated, issuing orders that helped to keep people from natural water sources — which were now conta
Back to the war…What started that night stopped only to continue the following morning. And yes, the zombies were dying in their numbers. Where there had been hordes and multitudes of zombies before the bombs were dropped was now miles of clear, blackened ground, the zombies blown to pieces.They started to run helter skelter, breaking the ranks they had previously ordered themselves in attempts to escape, but that only served to make them easier to kill. People who found them were quick to eliminate them, with stones and sticks, battering the zombies into elimination.Then they did something surprising.All of the zombies ordered themselves back into their former positions, returning to match and close in the circle like they were before, which, unsurprisingly made them easier to bomb. A mood of surprise went up as this news went around.Why were the zombies surrendering themselves to death so easily?For the man at the helm of affairs, General Rico Stone, it was an act of God, and
While all this was going on, Ainenrhi's seeds were growing.He had planted his kaput in the Earth's water, something unknown on Rhi, and they had moved from there to land and had even combined to form more complex kaput, until Rhiparuc saw — not just one, but so many beings on the Earth that his once lonely abode was now filled with scores of them.And even if he wanted to ignore them, he could not ignore the ones called Humans. They had gone from clueless apes to beings that had the same power as Ainenrhi — creating. He watched in horror as they created and made, until the Earth was filled with the things they created. At first, he wanted to let them be as he saw that they could die, and would not pose any threat to him, but he also saw that as they died, they left behind offspring who grew to be even more creative than their parents, and filled the Earth with more of themselves.Then the time came that Rhiparuc decided he had enough of this mini Rhisana. It was to him like a memento
Among the Rhisana, it is rumoured that Rhiparuc has a secret weapon.It is a sword that shines brighter than the glow of any Rhisana's skin, and said to be forged from the best materials in the universe by Rhiparuc himself, making it so sharp that it can cut into anything and everything. This remained a rumour, as not a single one of them had ever seen this sword, and those who wanted to believe in the sword for the sake of fantasy simply said in its defence that no one had seen it because there was no need for it — for what was the use of a sword in the absence of war on Rhi and the lack of the need to kill any one of them?Many had come and faded without ever seeing this sword, but that day, they saw it in the hand of Rhiparuc as he descended from the peak of his mountain. It was bright and long, with thoughtfully made, intricate, thread-like lines adorning the body. Not so much thought could be given to its appearance, however, not with what it was being brought down to do.Ainenrh
Back on Rhi, everyone considered Ainenrhi to have faded away. He was as good as lost to them, and even forgotten.However, all of this remained unknown to Rhiparuc, who remained on his mighty, hallowed Minen Rhiparuc without ever coming down the whole time. He was there and largely undisturbed until the fading of the oldest Rhisana that had been at the time happened, which meant the end of that one's life. It also meant that a new glowing piece of rock formed from a faded Rhisana would be brought to the foot of Minen Rhiparuc for him to take from them and throw off the top of the mountain, where it would become a star. It was his duty unto them after all, his created race.His mighty form descended, and immediately, they bowed to him, according him the respect and honour he was due. However, there was something amiss about them as he saw them, and he watched them even more closely, checking. Something was different from the last time they were here, and he soon knew what it was. “