gordian objective

gordian objective is the second chronicle in the saga, Madman Chronicles: The Warrior. Wulf is taken to the labyrinth against his will to have a one on one conversation with Hood, a friend and fellow soldier who had gone MIA and was presumed killed in action. And the dead are many. They fill vehicles and buildings in every stage of decomposition. They’re steam-shoveled into piles, dumped into manmade canals then set on fire.There is no escaping the prison of war. The house is on fire and children inside. Elders and warriors, fathers and mothers, caretakers are burdened with difficult life decisions at every turn of the wheel. Helpless in the face of a war machine that devours their young, soldiering; imprisoning and criminalizing those who refuse to serve when the only way out is money and they have none, the choice is to surrender them to the machine or strip them bare and drive them into the guns of those who set the house aflame to bring them to ground. They’re waiting just outside, brothers and sisters, others’ children, trained, locked, cocked and ready to drop the hammer on established targets, dissenters, children of rebels, heretics, those who refuse to take part in the braggadocio and glory of ＂We’re number one!＂. The elders dig a hole, climb in and take the children, mothers, and the infirm with them. Warriors arm themselves as best they can, paint their skin, mount their dragons. Rats in a corner, a corner of their time and choosing, these warriors circle the hole, the digging of the hole, prepare to fight and die to protect those inside, one way in and no way out. We hid in brown shirts until infiltrated.A society that condones the death of children to convenience and war is lost.

tom (wordwulf) sterner wrestles with creativity: graphic art, music, photography, & WORD. A native Coloradoan, he lives in Denver. Tom’s artwork, music, photography, & written word have been published in magazines & on the internet by various folk, including Howling Dog Press/Omega, Carpe Articulum Literary Review, Skyline Literary Review, The Storyteller, & Flashquake. He is winner of the Marija Cerjak Award for Avant-Garde/Experimental Writing & was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2006 & 2008.