Professional Documents
Culture Documents
DESTROYER OF
WORLDS
BY ROMAN NAVARRO, Summer 2020
PROLOGUE
Warren the Sheep was a major stockholder in the massive Strategic Investments
International conglomerate. One day, not long after the ceasefire between the countries Ariesa
(Land of the Sheep) and Sweimanland (Land of the Pigs) following the First Genocide, Warren
is called over -along with hundreds of others- for the annual mandatory share-holder conference
at the SII headquarter complex in Aries Utilitaria -the capital and largest city in Ariesa. This
conference was apparently to be unlike any other, as it regarded ambitious plans for Ariesia’s
economic recuperation from its current post war depression, as well as the climb back up to
global dominance by its people. It received much publicity and major media attention around the
world.
Upon arrival, Warren is met with roiling tides of bodies and strobe-like flashing of
paparazzi cameras. The attendees came from all over the world: monkeys, penguins, chickens,
goats, pigs, tigers, Warren’s fellow countrysheep, and even elephants, to name a few. He had
no difficulty navigating through the life-sized ant farm; everyone is going the same way and the
destination is clearly stated in the pamphlet the attendees were given: Presentation Room
317E, Floor 267, SII Building North, Second Wing. Just like in the previous yearly conferences,
the elevator lines are so long that they trail outside the lobby. Not wanting to walk all 267 floors,
Warren cuts the entire line of hundreds of people and gets in one of the elevators, just as he’d
done for the countless other mandatory conferences.
When Warren arrives at the conference room, he finds the atmosphere no different from
that of an oversized high school class before it starts: hundreds of voices speak at once, and
there is a sense of annoyance in the air, as well as an occasionally blurted politically-incorrect
slur. Just like every other year, Warren thinks. Absolutely no one in the room is looking forward
to the ensuing conference on economic affairs -on a Friday no less! Warren makes his way
through the aisles until he comes across a seat with the very fancy label stenciled in high quality
ink: “Mr. Warren Kilgore, Sheep; Exclusive High Priority Shareholder, Strategic International
Investments™”. The room itself doesn’t resemble a conference room in the slightest; anyone
would be forgiven for mistaking it for an oversized college classroom, with hundreds of elevated
seats surrounding a tiny speaker podium in a semicircle. On the fringe of the semicircle of seats
there are dozens of large TV cameras and their crews from the biggest news networks from
around the world.
After a moment, the hosts of the meeting arrive: the Head Director of SII, and his
subordinate, the Public Affairs Manager; both of them looking like older Sheep yuppies trying
hard to look and sound younger and hipster. Despite being some of the richest individuals in the
world, Warren always forgets their names. They go off on an exciting and very dramatic spiel,
talking over one another about how Ariesia will return to her former glory as the world’s leading
economic powerhouse and other such topics that Warren could honestly care less about. Who
knew that this whole get-rich-quick scheme would come with so many mandatory conferences?!
Suddenly, the power goes out and it becomes pitch dark, even at the speaker podium.
The Head Director continues speaking, but this time he’s gone on a loud angry rant -and not
towards the power failure- but the people attending the conference, calling them all kinds of
horrible names and accusing them of many barbaric corporate deeds, like establishing
worldwide sweatshops, calling out the fast food magnates for cannibalism, and even accusing
the Sheep of a world-wide slavery conspiracy. He finishes off by barking Heil Pigler. Everyone in
the room grows afraid and gets up from their seats, knocking into each other in the process,
trying to find the exits.
In the middle of the commotion, the horrifying pop of gunshots reverberates throughout
the cavernous conference room. Everyone is stunned for a moment, too shocked to
comprehend what’s happening, then more gun shots ring out in fast secession and everyone
screams and runs around seeking cover, while others press themselves on the ground and
under chairs, crying to themselves and out loud, especially the women. The speaker goes on
again, but this time it’s a different person speaking, barking angry orders to the people in the
room. The accent makes it impossible to understand what’s being said, but to Warren, that
accent brings him Deja Vu. I know that accent. It's a very peculiar accent, and one he’d only
come across once in his life -when he was stationed at a concentration camp during the First
Genocide, put to guard the POWs there.
The Sweimans are here. They have violated the promised terms on their behalf from the
cease-fire treaty signed merely a year ago, and they will once again steamroll their way over
huge swathes of territory on a bloodthirsty rampage to drive the Sheep to extinction, which they
were only a stone’s throw away from achieving during the last Genocide. They’re already taking
over Aries Utilitaria, the capital city of Ariesa and the location of the SII building complex; no
doubt they’ll conquer it soon and level it to the ground with their weapons of mass destruction
that nearly lost Ariesa the last war. Bodies fall all around Warren and gore gets splattered all
over the floor and chairs, accompanied by the sounds of death-gurgles and agonal breathing -
sounds that Warren thought he’d never hear again after his resignation from the Aries Marine
Corps to pursue his dream as a successful investor.
How petty are the thoughts of small men! Believe me, I do not regard the acquisition of a
minister’s portfolio as a thing worth striving for. I do not hold it worthy of a great man to endeavor
to go down in history just by becoming .merely a minister. Once might be in danger of being buried
beside them, however. But my aim from the first was a thousand times larger than that. I wanted to
become the destroyer of the world. I am going to achieve this task, and if I do, the title of Minister
will be an absurdity so far as I’m concerned. And now, the deed is done. I am become death, the
Destroyer of Worlds.