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Good soldiers follow orders.
I see war. Death. Flames everywhere as explosions go off around me, but I'm surprisingly unscathed. Flying jets whizz past me through the air to attack enemy bombers. I'm standing there hesitantly, the hands holding my semi-automatic blaster shaking from the adrenaline rush. I've been here many times before. The outcome is the same every time.
Good soldiers follow orders.
Order 13. Fight to the death. No surrender.
It's like my body is on autopilot and I'm watching from behind a screen. I charge into the raging battle, shooting at enemies, my aim surprisingly good compared to during basic training. Grenades rain down upon the battlefield, dying screams of humans and aliens alike filling my ears. My body shows no signs of discomfort but in my mind, I'm trying to cover my ears to block out the sound.
An enemy bomber travels over my head, dropping its bombs in the process. I've been here too many times. I know what's going to happen. I close my eyes.
The sounds of explosions are almost deafening. The bombs drop down right next to me, exploding upon contact. The force pushes me backwards as the heat of flames engulf me. The sounds fade, my eyes still closed.
It's ending.
My eyes flutter open as I find myself in the comfort of my bed. I let out a soft groan as I get up. Apps appear in front of my eyes as I scroll through them, looking for the app that tracks my sleep. I open it and the screen projects in front of me, showing my sleep quality, restlessness and periods of REM and deep sleep. The statistics displayed are the usual. Restless throughout the whole night and sleep quality was absolutely terrible. I've been having these nightmares lately. It's not something I can control. The control chips in our heads are supposed to prevent that. We get to select our dreams before we sleep. Yet mine are different. I select dreams of Star Wars. All I get are nightmares of a battle which I've never seen before. It's not Star Wars. The technology is similar, but there's no Earth in that universe. My nightmares are of war on Earth.
My chip must be malfunctioning. That's not good. It's implanted into every human's brain so if it malfunctions, it would probably interfere with our primary brain functions, hence killing us. But I'm not dead yet.
I head into the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. The image of my parents peacefully sleeping in their bedroom projects in front of me. I managed to gain access to the security camera in their bedroom, so I can see when they wake up.
I prepare my breakfast and eat it in silence, monitoring my parents in their bedroom through the projection. After finishing my breakfast and making sure my parents are still asleep, I head out of the door and run next door to find my neighbour, Mayday. Just when I reach his house, Mayday's already outside, waiting for me. I give him a nod and he nods back.
We head out into the forest near our house. I switch off the projecting function on my chip so that I won't be distracted by any notifications I receive on the walk.
As we walk into the forest, light shines through the canopy of leaves, creating patches of light here and there. I jump from one patch to another, laughing as Mayday follows behind me.
Suddenly, I hear a whistling sound cutting through the air and then a loud boom. My head jerks in the direction of the sound. I turn the projecting function on my chip back on and in my head, I order the chip to show me where the sound came from.
Similar sounds follow the first one as the image of an unfamiliar aircraft dropping bombs down on another nearby housing area projects in front of me. Mayday catches up with me. "What is it?"
"Bombs," I reply simply.
Another boom echoes through the forest, but much louder this time. The bombs must be getting closer. There's a sickening feeling in my stomach as the volume of the sounds just keeps increasing.
I take off running into the forest, away from the direction of the bombing sounds. Mayday quickly follows. My legs feel like they're flying under me as my adrenaline pushes me to keep running. My heart feels like it's going to explode as I dash back to me and Mayday's housing area.
When we reach back, I'm panting heavily as I sprint to my house, where my parents are already waiting for me to come back, looking very worried. The moment they see me they quickly force me inside the house without a word.
The bombing sounds continue for a few more minutes until silence. That's when the order comes in.
Execute order 13.
Every human is to immediately head to the weapons point in each of their housing estates and gather at a military base. An unidentified species has attacked multiple housing areas and are currently sending ground soldiers to kill any survivors. Fight to the death. No surrender.
My parents seem to have gotten the order too as their heads perk up, just like mine.
Good soldiers follow orders.
I feel like I'm going to vomit. I can almost imagine the battlefield. I've seen it many times before in my nightmares.
I feel like I'm watching through a screen now as my body picks itself up from the floor and walks out of the door, my parents following alongside me, and every other human in my housing area, except Mayday and his parents. I try to force myself to stop walking, stop walking towards certain death.
As my body walks itself to the weapons point at our housing estates, I can see Mayday running up to me and asking me what's going on. I try to shout, "Help me!" but nothing comes out of my mouth as my body stares blankly ahead, still walking.
Mayday shakes my shoulders. I can feel it. As much as I want to respond to him, to run away with him, my body simply won't allow it.
Mayday's parents come up to me as well, and drag me away. My body struggles desperately with considerable strength that I didn't even know I had, but was probably activated by the chip. My limbs thrash around wildly as I try to escape Mayday's parents' grip. They drag me to their house, and lead me into a basement, where a few people are already there, I assume they're friends of Mayday and his parents.
Then, I feel Mayday's parents strapping me to a table connected to a machine. My body is still struggling against the restraints as I feel the prick of a needle against my neck, and everything goes black.
When I wake up, I'm not watching myself through a screen anymore. My vision is blurry as I move my hand to see if I'm in control of my own body now. My hand moves ever so slightly as my vision starts to clear up.
I let out a soft groan as I sit up on the table, my restraints were taken off at some point, apparently. I try to project the screen of what's going on outside in front of me, but I can't. They've taken my chip out.
Mayday runs over and throws his arms around me, and I hug back ever so slightly. "You're back!" he laughs as he lets go of me. "We thought you weren't going to make it, you weren't waking up..."
I silently nod, scanning the room. It's dimly lit by a singular lamp, and there are around seven people in there. My parents included. Mayday and his parents must've saved them too.
Suddenly, I hear the sounds of bombings above me. The lamp in the room flickers and shakes.
"Let's go. We can't save any more. They're all at the military base, they'll be armed," Mayday's mother says. All of us quickly run up from the basement. Mayday's house is in ruins. But that's the least of our worries right now. Bombs are being dropped a few kilometers from us, I can feel the force of the explosion hitting me.
We quickly run into the forest to take shelter. They won't attack the forest. There's no humans here to kill, at least up till now. We keep running, deep into the forest until the sounds of bombings are faint and barely audible.
When we stop, I slump against a tree, breathing heavily.
"What now?" I manage to ask in between gasps for air.
Everyone looks at each other, as if they want to ask the same question.
Mayday's father speaks up.
"We hide, I guess. At least until the war is over. We won't be attacked here. We're safe."
I hear the faint sound of bombings again.
Safe? I hope so.