John put his hands in his pockets as he crossed the dark, quiet street. The breeze that blew through his hair and whipped his face was refreshing as he thought about the revolution. John was an army veteran that suffered from PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
John couldn't stop thinking about his army tours and the horrors he had seen there. John had been an idealistic young man who wanted to get out and explore the world. So, he had joined the army, only to come out a changed man.
John couldn't sleep. He was hit with flashbacks: the river of blood soaking the battlefield, the blown-up bits of his friends, the dreaded gunfire, and the grief after. John heard a sound in the quiet night and pulled out his gun, hands shaking.
His psychiatrist told him he shouldn't carry a weapon on him all the time, but he couldn't help it. When he was in Afghanistan, he had had to be vigilant all the time: head on a swivel and ears perked. He couldn't shake that habit, even in this protected, safe city.
He put his gun away, but suddenly the cement beneath his feet turned to dirt and gravel, and the quiet night was full of sounds.
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Afghanistan, 1 year earlier
John yelled into his radio from his temporary operating base. "Where is group Alpha Charlie?"
His friend, Corporal White responded, "I don't see them, sir. They're probably held up. They'll come through for us. Corporal Hobson will make sure of it."
John smiled. Corporal Hobson was his best friend since high school. He was the most tenacious and good man John knew. John snapped out of his reverie and looked at the MTS program. MTS stood for Midvale Tracking Systems.
It was a new technology that tracked the army's troops using blue. The army's troops could also put the enemy troops on the map using red. It was damn useful, to say the least. However, technology isn't perfect, and right now John couldn't see Alpha Charlie on the program.
Just then, the officer under John patched Corporal White through: "We have a large amount of enemy troops coming. It's weird. The troops seem to be emulating our military tactics." The enemy troops appeared in red on the MTS program.
John smiled. The enemy might be able to emulate their tactics, but they didn't have Apache gunships that did utter destruction. The enemy was going to be decimated. John told the pilot, "Destroy the enemy troops."
Even from the safety of his temporary command center, John could hear the screams of the enemy. That was when Corporal White yelled through the radio, "Those troops were Alpha Charlie!"
