WORLD OF PAIN


I was seventeen, seventeen when they took me. It wasn't just me though. It was my best friend Tommy, my school friend Danny, my next door neighbor Will. They grabbed us and trained us to be men.

I left my mama teary-eyed in that small house of my hometown in Memphis...
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(Flashback)


"COME ON! I WANT TO SEE YOU SWEAT! YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF GIRLS! I BET YOU'D LIKE TO GO BACK TO YOUR MAMA!"

"SIR YES SIR!

"WE ARE IN A WAR! THOSE BASTARDS WANT TO MESS WITH US..KNOCK ON OUR DOOR! BUT THEY ARE NOT PREPARED FOR OUR KNOCK BACK!"

"SIR YES SIR

"MOST OF YOU HAVE NEVER HELD A GUN. UNFORTUNATELY, YOU HAVE BEEN RECRUITED AS BOYS..BUT WE WILL TURN YOU INTO MEN! OUT THERE IN THE FIELD YOU ARE EACH RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR LIFE AS WELL AS THE LIVES OF YOUR COMRADES! WE ARE A SINGLE IMPENETRABLE FORCE AND AS SUCH YOU WILL BEGIN TO THINK, ACT, FEEL, AND BREATHE AS A SINGLE UNIT! THAT IS THE ONLY WAY TO SURVIVE!"

At first I did not understand the concept of brute force; the constant yelling, the commands, and the concept of death, which I tried to keep out of my mind. But I was in the middle of a war with my comrades and as I looked around I understood that we were all in this together. My neighbor, schoolmate, and best friend. We had all been drafted into a system that as bigger than all of us. Over the next couple of months I began to understand what my Lieutenant was trying to instill upon us, and I began to respect him more and more.


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