Sacrifice
He was frightened. He would never admit it, but he was. There was no one to blame but himself, really. This was the army. He new the risks when he signed on.
Some time, long ago, he had been told that the greatest act of personal sacrifice was to give up one's life for another. This was not so. His war-time experiences had taught him that. The greatest act of personal sacrifice was not to give up your life, but to take the life of another. If you were dead, that was it. Bang. It was over. There was no lying awake at night thinking about the children with no father. Thinking about the hopes and dreams that would go unfulfilled. The father you had killed. The hopes and dreams you had destroyed. It was a much harder thing to kill than it was to die. That was what war had taught him.
He was frightened. Frightened of the unknown, like a little boy on his first day of school. Away from familiar people and surroundings. soon the fear would be gone, and only the relief would remain. No more sleepless nights from the guilt. No more picturing the faces of the children he had orphaned. He would sleep.
It is a much easier thing, dying.
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Fiction
 Black Cherries
Sonic Reactor
Central Park
Sacrifice
The Pure Blue Ocean
An Angel Kissed Me
Four Years of My Life
Gloria
Fading Signals
The Yellow Leaves
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