Ballad
Blood
by Josh Wudtke (Trust)
Hear the crack of the whip sound
Hear the painful scream
See the blood as it spatters around
See the stripes for you and me
Darkness glooms over the dayTraded for the worst of man
What injustice was done today
Was this really part of the plan
His blood has saved us
Shed for one reason
Trust in that blood
And live again after death
As the thorns dig into His head
The blood runs down His face
The guards make fun of Him
And lead Him to His death place
Watch Him stumble under the weight
Of that heavy cross
Notice he shows no hate
he knows the devil is at a loss
Now He's on that heavy cross
Guards bring him sour wine
They are casting lots
He forgave them of this crime
His blood has saved us
Shed for one reason
Trust in that blood
And live again after death
Darkness rushes over the land
Completely black for three hours
Poaching Aliens
The past
forty years of my life have been the most interesting. Before that, well, it
doesn’t matter much. I am Ben Poach,
and the world has gone through changes. There was a discovery of three alien
races: the Apoxians, the Ommenites and the Rusharians. The Ommenites live the
farthest away. They have green skin of different shades. Their faces are made
of all points and no smooth curves. They weren’t
much of a concern except for their size, the shortest one was twice as tall as
the tallest human, but they are peaceful. The Rusharians are the most
human-like except their skin is red and hard like rocks. It has cracks in it,
and their eyes would truly glow in different colors. The Apoxiains are the only non-humanoids.
They have six legs that are thin yet strong, four arms that are more muscular than
any human. They are only slightly taller than humans. Their faces are dull and
do not look as intelligent as the others.
The
apoxians and rusharians were always fighting. This scared the humans. What if
they started working together against us? So, all the nations of the world came
together as a whole, and an army quickly arose. I was put in charge of training
the army. All of the aliens use swords and that was my specialty. So, we trained
in sword combat. That was the first year of the forty years.
The next
five years were more disturbing. The humans didn't trust any of the aliens. We
needed to learn how to defat them. Their strengths and weaknesses, their
abilities, and their full potential. We started with the Apoxians. So I took
four average soldiers and we went to Apoxar, the home world of the Apoxians. It
is grey and rocky. A very rough and uneven terrain, which was fine for the
six-legged creatures. We found an Apoxian family of twelve, and we trained
them. They listened to us when we simply told them, “We want to help protect you from the Rusharians, we want to
train you in every way possible so you will be ready when they make their
planned attack.” Unfortunately for the
Apoxians the humans were the ones planning to attack after five years of
collecting data. We trained them nonstop
for five years. And the whole time we learned their strengths and weaknesses. I
worked especially with one of them. To make him the best fighter of Apoxian
kind. His name was Regolath.
I spent
the five years that followed on a ship that orbited Apoxar. The rest of the
army came and led a full fledge attack on the Apoxians. After five hard years
of gruesome warfare, only Regolath was left. One human went and found him and
told him. “In three years, I will be back
to this spot to defeat you.” This was the strategy the
humans had decided to use while I was learning about the enemy. Those three
years would allow us to collect just enough more data to inhabit the planet
ourselves if we needed to. I had to
start traveling to the next planet before I got to see the defeat, but the
reports sounded brutal. Three of the ten humans were lost and five more had
broken limbs. This, however,
allowed the injured to become stronger fighters for the humans.
Rushcador,
the home world of the Rusharians, seemed inverted. The grass was blue, the seas
were green and the skies were orange, but it felt just like earth. Here we
found a family of eleven to train. To gain their trust, I lied to them and
said, “The Apoxians have been
planning an attack for the past five years and will strike at the end of the
next five.” Of course, it was the humans who were planning to attack. One of them
was to be mine alone to train. His name was Chuannazum, but he was hesitant.
“You should know something before you trust me to be the
best fighter of Rusharian kind,” said Chuannazum.
“Go ahead, you can tell me,”
I replied.
“We had another brother, his name was Chaopeiben,” Chuannazum started. “He and I were really close,
but we had some differences,” he paused to take a breath. “He was always more violent, he even got kicked out of
school. He had an obsession with extermination. And he came to me and said he
was going to leave and start a quest to destroy all the species of the
universe.”
“Then what happened?” I asked quickly.
“He asked me to join him,”
he resumed.
“And…,” I responded quickly.
“I didn’t go,” he replied in a way that made me look dumb for asking.
“Right, but did you want to?”
I asked.
“I thought about it for a second then swore never to join
him on his blood quest.” he finished.
“So why are you afraid to become the best fighter?” I asked.
“I don’t want to be tempted to join
him,” he replied.
“You won’t, I promise.” He trusted me as if he had known me his entire life. And
we trained. After those five years, he was the best fighter I had ever trained.
He even learned how to use two blades successfully, and I knew if something
went wrong he would become a monster like his brother.
The next
five years were years of war between humans and Rusharians, all on Rushcador. I
once again did not get to fight and the fight was the same as the Apoxians at
the end of five years. Only Chuannazum was left. A group of three humans went
and found him and said, “In three years we will be back
at this spot to finish you.”
“No you won’t,” said Chuannazum and killed all three of them in one easy
motion. His anger raged out. “You killed my whole family and
for what, to train your soldiers?” he shouted in a way that only
an unstable mind can. “And you thought I would let
you leave.”
A smile
came across my face, and I couldn’t help but feel accomplished.
A speaker from the ship I was watching from rang out, “Someone will return in three years to finish you.” We watched him as best as we could for those years, but he
stayed inside buildings as much as possible and only came out to show us what
he wanted us to see, which wasn’t a lot.
When the
day came, ten humans went in and another went to set up a spike trap at the
exit they would force him to. All eleven died. Next, a group of twenty went in.
They found a Rusharian body stopped right at the spikes, a second after this
was reported, they died of a poison released from the ceiling. Thirty-one
people died to kill one Rusharian.
----------
The next
ten years were truly the most unexpected. I traveled back to Earth as a hero. I
was credited with the victories for training our warriors so well and
identifying the Aliens weaknesses. At the award ceremony Bob the presenter of
my medal, asked “Do your eyes always glow that
amazing shade of green?”
“Yes,” I answered. “It seems more noticeable when I am honored,” I quickly added. Before the ceremony was over, a starship
came down right over us. It was black with the logos of both Apoxian and
Rusharians on it. A Rusharian lowered down from it and everyone gasped. He was
in shiny black armor that looked as if it came from a different dimension and a
mask covering his face. It shot up and revealed Chuannazum.
“You, you were killed,” said Bob in a quivering
voice.
“That was my brother's body you found in the spike trap,” Chuannazum replied. “His dying wish was use his
body in any way to help me survive. Your time is up. I will destroy you like
you tried destroy me.”
A soldier
tossed me a sword and I charged at him. His two blades dropped from the ship
and landed directly in his hands. The blades came together in one clash, his
two to my one and my sword wasn’t my good one. He twisted his
blades and suddenly mine broke. The entire army there ran after him and I was
escorted away. The war raged for ten
years. The entire human race against one Rusharian. They kept me hidden. I had trained both sides, but Chuannazum had
the rage that fueled him. The damage was catastrophic. He destroyed every
building that was essential and all food supplies on the planet
At the end
of those ten years, it was just him and me. In a city with tall buildings he
came and said to me, “I believe you are familiar with
this game, but you should know that in
three years I will return to this spot and destroy you.” Then he got in his ship and left.
----------
The next
three years were the longest of my life. I did my best to stay in buildings so
that Chuannazum couldn’t see me. He did a very good
job of destroying all the clothing and food. All I really had to eat was fish.
I only had the clothes I was wearing and they were ripped and became tattered.
I could not handle living in these conditions and knew I could use his ship to
get away from here and start over. Somehow I made it through the three years
and returned to the spot where our destinies would be decided.
That was
the past 40 years that have lead to this point.
I am
standing in the middle of the street wearing my worn down clothes. Everything
is abandoned. I listen for any sound at all, it is silent. Holding my two
handed long sword at the ready I know today is the day and this is the place,
but how will he attack.? I hear what seems to be
gentle footsteps from across the street. They get louder and closer. Then the
building directly behind me implodes on itself with the sound of rubble
crashing down. As concrete comes hurling at me, I run into the alleyway where
the footsteps seemed to be but no one is here. A dust cloud rushes past and
into the alley. I climb the fire escape on what appears to once have been a
brick apartment building. I struggle to stay above the dust as it seems to be
following me, but my sword gets caught as if magic is holding it. The dust
stopped moving then passes completely away. Not knowing where he can be, I run
down back to the street. The skyscraper is now just a pile of concrete. Then
the concrete starts to move and I know it is him. I quickly prepare my sword.
He charges at me with his blades in each hand but I stood firm. He pulled the
blades back ready to swing them simultaneously. He gets closer and closer. Just
as he is ready to strike, I jump, and the blades swing right under my feet. He skids
to a stop. I turn and walk slowly toward him. His mask lifts to reveal a
shocked face. He has no idea what just has happened.
“I trained you to be the best fighter of Rusharian kind,” I said. “That doesn’t mean I taught you everything.”
His mask
lowered and he charged again. As his blades came directly at me, I made one move with mine, a simple slice that
struck both of his and put him on his back.
“I didn’t know I trained you and your
family to be tests for our own army, they told me it was to protect you from
the Apoxians,” I lied.
“The humans killed the Apoxians
before you trained me,” Chuannazum said.
I had
disarmed him and was now standing over him with my blade at his neck.
“I had no idea,” I persisted in the lie.
“Yes you did, you
authorized the attack, you trained them too. You wanted to give your warriors
more of a challenge. Well, am I enough? I killed every human, brother, single
handedly, I might add, and all this for your entertainment,” he said.
I eye him
narrowly. I now realize he knows I am Chaopieben, but wonder how long he has
known.
“How did you know it was me?”
I asked.
“I don’t know how I didn’t see it sooner. You always wanted to eliminate all
species,” he replied.
“Now brother, you know there is only one left and together
we can finish what I started,” I said.
“I vowed never to help you in your blood quest,” he said.
"You
already have, you finished the humans for me" I spoke in a soft tone
hoping he would join me.
He looked
at me with a face of disgust and said, "You lied to me, you
promised I wouldn't be tempted to join you and without knowing I I already did.
No way I continue to help you, I hope the Ommenites rip your body apart in a
way more painful thenthan
the feeling of betrayal you have caused."
“So be it,” I said, as I raised my blade
and plunged it into his throat. I walked away finally able to shed this human
flesh I have worn for forty years. Now I must conquer the Ommenites.
With me
by Josh
Wudtke (JRW)
I have
waited so long
To be
with the one girl
As the
day approaches
I think
through what will happen
I want to
be with her forever
I guess
I'l settle for a day and a half
I'll be
helping her with some math
As the day
gets closer
It gets
hard to concentrate
When I
close my eyes
All I can
see
Is her
waiting for me
She's
wearing gray shirt
And light
blue jeans
A black
jacket
And silver cross necklace
Her eyes
are so blue
They are
more beautiful
Then all
the sapphires in the world
The only
girl I want by my side
She is
always on my mind
I wish
she was a little closer
So she
could be
Always
with me
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