This is the first draft of a story i am working on.. It captures the essence but could be better written. I could have waited sometime to fine tune it but felt compelled to get it out. Let me know your thoughts.
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Soldier wakes up in his bunker, Looks at himself in the cabinet mirror in the bathroom. Opens the cabinet revealing calendar with D Day Marked.
He can't wait to get those f*#K heads. But for now its time to train.
He gets ready and joins his fellow men for the drills.
Brainwwashed with the propaganda, his hatred for the enemy is fuelled and he can't wait to get across the line and kill those bastards.
As day gets close his hatred & anger is intensified.
Tired with the hard regime he crashes in the bed and wakes up feelin ga bit odd. He walksup to the mirror to see a different face looking at him..
Surprised & Shocked!! he is not able to understand but it seems he is now in the bunker of the enemy . Not sure whats happening and afraid that revealing anything might put him in trouble. he decides to go along with the drill.
As the time passes, he sees that the guys here are not any different. The propoganda still shows the enemy is evil and the guys are training as hard as they used to.
What made sense before, is now questionable. his ideology & beliefs get muddier by the minute and he doesnt know whats wrong or right anymore.
Finally D Day arrives and reluctantly he gets dragged to the war. His will to fight no longer there, he has no clue what he will do next.
As they land on the war zone.. Bullets start flying around he doesnt know who to shoot anymore. But his hesitation doesnt last long as a man lunges at him. his survival instinct kicks in and he defends himself. As he stabs the guy, he sees the frightened face of the friend who used to train with him. A friend who in his last conscious moment was confused why there was empathy in the enemy's face over his death.
Scared and confused, the soldier runs into a nearby building to hide, hoping for things to end.
Suddenly he hears footsteps and arms his gun not knowing who could it be.. the footsteps get louder and he hears some one arming a gun and his reflex kicks in as he loads himslef.
As he senses the person getting very close, he jumps out to attack.
But Freezes !!
He couldnt get himself to pull the trigger.
How could he ?
For the man in front of him had a face he has seen in the mirror all his life.
It was his own flesh and blood.
He was stunned & shocked. They both were.
Confused but yet in that moment things couldn't have been more clear to both of them.
They sat down & lit a cigarette to share.
He smiled at himself sitting in front and thought to himself ' What's the point'