He was used to traveling around the world, moving here or there, being stationed in different countries, villages, big cities. After a while, it all looked the same. The people, the places, the missions. They blended after so many years of being in the military doing special missions. All he needed to know was where to point his rifle.

This was different. The location was like nowhere he’d ever been. The people weren’t even people anymore. The enemy wasn’t easily or clearly recognized anymore as the enemy. Lines were being crossed every day. The military was being used, but it didn’t feel right. He didn’t want to kill Americans. He joined up to keep Americans safe, not kill them.

People didn’t even look like people. Nobody trusted anybody else. Even just regular people weren’t trustworthy anymore. Society was quickly collapsing, and all he could think was that it was better when he’d been in the middle of a violent, bloody firefight in the middle of the night in total chaos with nothing but the companionship of gunfire and the smell of battle.