In the Mornings We Take the Red

In the mornings we take the red, which brings the calm and concentration we need to fight. The purple is for those in pain, and the black for those in worse pain. The black brings stillness and release. The white we take at night, else we would never sleep.

The white brings forgetfulness.

Then the morning, the red, and we rise from our trenches and charge the enemy. At least, I think we do. The white renders all this vague and unimportant.

Private … Private Greene? Private Brown? The new one. He is refusing to take the red. He says the enemies are really our friends and families, that we have become puppets in some alien war. The poor man has clearly cracked; this is what happens when you do not take the red.

We hold him down and wrench open his jaw. Feed him the red through a tube down his throat. It’s the only way to end the madness. He’ll be right as rain in a few minutes. Just in time for our next assault.