A Brave New World

Hi, my name is Timothy Reynolds and I’m 19, but most people call me Tim. My best mate’s call me Cribbs though, it’s a name I was always known by on the internet, then when I joined the army I kept it as a nickname. No, before you ask I’m not in the army, I WAS in the army a few years back, but I was a lot younger and more naive back then. I thought it would be fun to slaughter every bastard that stood before me, every asshole that wanted to cause my country pain. I was wrong.

                                                                       *FLASHBACK*

I trained, and trained, and trained. Years it took to finally get out onto the field, I was always told about how horrible war was, but I always took it that the people who spoke such things just needed to man up. Unfortunately I got to see how wrong I was first hand.

It was my second day on the field, the first being a slow morning and evening of scouting an abandoned street in Iraq. It was nothing special, found a couple of IED’s, aka Improvised explosive devices but other than that nothing really worth mentioning. The next day though, was a completely different story. It was a similar task, we had to clear the way for a couple of ACP’s on foot.

And that is where the trouble started. We were taking a route through a couple of building’s to make sure that there were no fucking RPG’s hiding up on the roof or the higher levels of the apartment block. Me and my sergeant thought we heard something in the room to our left so we decided to breach. My friend Charlie or CC as we knew him got the task of rigging the explosives, it took a good minute and a half to complete the breach preparations, but when CC was done I was put in charge of the breach itself.

I moved to the side of the door and initiated the charge. CRACK! The door blew straight off its hinges and it was only about a quarter of a second after the explosion before I found myself aiming down my sights at at-least 6 Taliban insurgents. I hammered down on the trigger of my M4A1 carbine causing a hail of lead to pummel my targets; it was a matter of second before 5 of the 6 terrorists were lying on the ground shredded beyond recognition. I slung my rifle onto my back and withdrew my m1911 and held it to the head of one last cowering piece of shit. Just as I was about to pull the trigger this “person” turned and looked and me, I almost instantly realised he was young, probably early teens. This “boy” had tears running down his face and his expression begged for mercy.

I felt the knees start to buckle and my pistol started to shake as tremendous anxiety pulsated through my system. I knew I couldn’t shoot, not even after all the shit I had seen and done before I joined the army, it just felt so wrong. Just as I started to lower my pistol much to the relief of this boy I heard shouting from behind me, but before I could stop to see what was going on, the boys head literally exploded, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I turned to see CC holding a now blood and gore splattered 870mcs shotgun up against his shoulder.

“WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!” I screamed.

“I just saved your ass kid!” CC boomed back at me.

“He was so young, only a teenager! He wasn’t even armed you fucking idiot!” I lashed out with such anger.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! DONT YOU KNOW WHEN TO BE GRATEFUL?!?!” CC was now screaming.

My sergeant was staring pure hate at me; he was never one for neither patience nor forgiveness. As I expected he approached me wielding his chrome m1911, I feared the worst but stood strong. As he finally got within arm’s reach of me he stopped dead in his tracks and stared into my eyes and said:

“Son, the army just isn’t for you.” And as he did the butt of his sidearm came into contact with my dead knocking me unconscious.

I woke up on a bench a couple blocks from my house not having any idea what happened or how I got here. I decided to walk home; As soon as I arrived I grabbed my phone and called up the base.

“Hey can I talk to my sergeant?” I asked politely.

“Name, rank, and authorization code please.” A calm voice spoke.

“Timothy Reynolds, corporal, 8149.” I said slightly worriedly.

“Okay, just give me a sec there Timothy. Um, I don’t see anything on my records sorry.”

“What do you mean?! I’ve served for 3 years now! This is bullshit!” I yelled.

“I’m sorry sir, have a nice day.” She spoke in her still calm voice as she hung up.

“No, how can this be?” I asked myself in-between sobs. I broke down altogether on my couch shutting my eyes and asking god himself to take me. I mean I had nothing left; I spent years working to get into the army just to get kicked out in an instant, that can’t be legal. I spent the next few days lying in bed sulking like a little girl, I was pathetic, I didn’t have the balls to kill that boy and now I have to pay for my weakness. I still to this day can’t decide whether making that decision makes me a better or worse person, I honestly hated myself and I didn’t know why.

I awoke the next day feeling oddly restless, I decided the best thing was to head straight for the range and get some of the anger out of my system. I didn’t feel hungry, just angry, at whom? I have no idea, I just felt overwhelmingly angry.

I grabbed my wallet, put on my black shirt and pants, the shirt had a sort of multicoloured lightning bolt consisting of blue, yellow, and blue coming out of a white cloud, I thought the design was quirky and unique; I had received it as a gift from Harry on 18th birthday, about a year before he passed on. I clicked my holster into place around my chest and slid my m1911 into it with a spare magazine strapped to the side of the holster. I was never on the wrong side of the law myself, but I sure saw a lot of stuff that was. I didn’t want to take any chances in this brutal world. As soon as I was old enough I got myself a carry permit and the same m1911 I still own, its matte black without any marking except the .45 ACP on the ejection port. I have 2 notches where a knife has been dragged down the side of the slide, indicating the lives of two unfortunate thugs who thought they could rob me.

I found myself picking up my iPod and listening to dubstep, it seems to have a positive effect on me whenever I’m stressed. The dirty bass drops just seem to help me let go of my stress and just relax.

I exited the house and locked my three separate padlocks with my 3 different keys. You never know in this city, Oh yea forgot to mention I live in Detroit? Well, I do. Well actually DID but I’m getting to that.

Anyway, I was walking along the street with my head bouncing up and down listening to some dubstep my old pal Harry sent me before he died a few months back. Some artist called; TheLivingTombstone. It was really catchy and wasn’t long before I found myself singing the song as it repeated over and over.

“I'm not a fan of puppeteers but I've a nagging fear

Someone else is pulling at the strings

Something terrible is going down through the entire town

Wreaking anarchy and all it brings

I can't sit idly, no, I can't move at all

I curse the name, the one behind it all...

Discord, I'm howlin' at the moon

And sleepin' in the middle of a summer afternoon

Discord, whatever did we do

To make you take our world away?

Discord, are we your prey alone,

Or are we just a stepping stone for taking back the throne?

Discord, we won't take it anymore

So take your tyranny away!

I'm fine with changing status quo, but not in letting go

Now the world is being torn apart

A terrible catastrophe played by your symphony,

What a terrifying work of art!

I can't sit idly, no, I can't move at all

I curse the name, the one behind it all...

Discord, I'm howlin' at the moon

And sleepin' in the middle of a summer afternoon

Discord, whatever did we do

To make you take our world away?

Discord, are we your prey alone,

Or are we just a stepping stone for taking back the throne?

Discord, we won't take it anymore

So take your tyranny away!

Discord, I'm howlin' at the moon

And sleepin' in the middle of a summer afternoon

Discord, whatever did we do

To make you take our world away?

Discord, are we your prey alone,

Or are we just a stepping stone for taking back the throne?

Discord, we won't take it anymore

So take your tyranny away!

Wow, that song is really awesome, I thought to myself. I looked up to see the range right in front of me.

“Ha, great timing.” I said aloud.