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War, that uniquely hominid habit of wholesale homicide, wherein men kill men, boys kill boys (women and girls both privy and party to the virile slaughter), underwent a miraculous denouement—a blood bath, in most instances. Battlefields reeked of butcher blocks the wide world round. Wherever there was combat, combatants died in droves, morality run a foul of mortality as it compromised flesh and sinew. Yet ‘how’ these soldiers and civilian-accessories ended their lives took unprecedented twists.
Cases in Point munitions eradicated assemblers at the source of their assembly dexterity detonated blown to Kingdom Come in a crimson hail of displaced digits • anti-personnel mines gutted the guts of Manufacturers whose heretofore guiltless consciences —"people kill people, not armaments"— left them buried crew-cuts first in anonymous plots of sand • what went around came around in tight concentric circles violence visited upon the violent-by-proxy as well as upon the violent-by-volition a poetic pruning depopulating the planet of people predisposed to chronic pugnacity entire family-tree branches lopped off at the trunk ("Owl-Eyes" not so much a cure as an assault on belligerent forms of blight) • projectiles from every aggressor executed sharp U-turns a Boomerang Effect in effect that proved somewhat tardy in clobbering collective conscience into attentiveness (it took months for the Mind of Man to wizen up recognize doing harm was an un-survivable avocation) • "good guys" "bad guys" alike blew out their brains with dim determination (the Dis-ease even-handed) anyone bent on hurting anyone else without exception hurt himself instead (or herself instead) a simple concept in theory which put into practice veered toward complex Humanity at a loss under such an unbending rule of thumb until resigned to the proposition that Humanity had no choice which happened gradually due in part to the epidemic’s somewhat staggered commencement (sneezed from latitude to longitude the contagion’s spread took time) and in part to the Will resisting the idea that its freedom had been curtailed (as impunity hastened Judgment Day souls were doled comeuppance without procrastination) • Rampant resistance resulted in rampant retaliation (tit for tat rather tidily proving self-contained) malefactors authored their own epitaphs death dealers rolled up their sleeves to dig their own graves and Peace for the first time in centuries —in millennia— was poised to prevail • "I keep tellin’ ya; ya launch that thing we’re dog meat. Open yer eyes and ears. Not a shot’s been fired by them at us, or us at them, since Tuesday. This is Thursday. Two whole days and not one casualty; ’cept from what? Friendly fire; that’s what." "You’re nuts. Them guys got wasted ’cause they’re careless, or just plain stupid." "Pullin’ pins to watch grenades go off in yer hands is worse than stupid." "Okay, shell-shocked, prob’ly." "What about them; the opposition; what’s their story? Same damn thing; you seen the flashes, heard the boom, boom, booms." "That’s our guys." "Uh, uh; theirs. The booms and flashes all go one, two. Can’t you count? They don’t leave site. The shit they’re shellin’ out is stayin’ at home; just like ours is; neither side ’s doin’ nothin’ but snuffin’ out their Goddamn selves." "You’re REALLY nuts; you know that, Asshole? I’m a soldier. They’re the enemy. I get paid to wipe them out before they wipe out me; that’s basics." "Okay, Mr. Basics, where are we, in reference to where they are? You’ve just punched in our coordinates." "See! You got me screwin’ up! Just shut your Goddamn trap and let me do my job, why don’t you!" "Okay, do it. We’re at 17/12. They’re at 8/37." "Copy; 8/37." "Then how come you just…" "Son-of-a-bitch, back off! It must be broke! I entered 8/37." "17/12; I watched." "Fuck you; it’s busted!" "Touch that button, we’re both…" Dog meat puppy chow food for thought or for the ubiquitous crows.
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