UGR: A Voluntary Kingdom Of Fools (533 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 0.92 on 26 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by ghola (View user info) at 2006-07-13 16:22:40 EDT
"Tomorrow's the day," Frank whispers.
I can barely hear him over the hum of the ceiling fan so I roll over and kick him in the back of the leg. "Wha?" I mumble.
"Tomorrow. 6:00 A.M. Me, you and every other great American."
"Yeah, yeah," I mutter. "Go back to sleep."
I roll back over and pull the covers over my head so that the neon glare from the alarm clock doesn't shine in my face.
I don't know how he talked me into it. Frank's my older brother and I've got a lot of respect for him, but Jesus fucking Christ. We went through boot camp together and we were going into the reserves. That's just one weekend a month and two weeks during the summer and I'm pretty sure I could have handled that. Well, it wasn't good enough for Frank. He always wanted to do more, better, faster, harder, stronger, longer and I always just squeaked by. So when he wanted to enlist full time, I said, "Sure."
"It'll be great," he said.
"Sure."
"Honorable."
"Sure."
Now we're lying in bed, it's our last night in Mom's house before we ship off and I'm terrified. I'm doing anything I can to think of ways out and he's fucking excited.
"Frank?" I say into the darkness.
"Yeah bro?"
"We're going to fucking die."
He doesn't answer. I feel him kick the covers off himself and sit up in bed. He grips my shoulder and jostles me hard.
"You that scared?"
I sit up and pull the covers around my waist. "Yeah man. I mean, do you want to die?"
"We won't die."
I sigh. "The only reason we're going is cause half the motherfucking country has been blown to bits. And you think we won't die? Of course we're going to fucking die. I can't stand the thought of it. We were both fucking morons and there's no reason to go through with it."
Frank's face is hard, rugged and his eyes show little or no emotion. He's long and straight and sinewy. There's not an ounce of fat on him and he was probably meant for this. He was meant to be a hero. Not me. I'm short; barely 5'5 and I've got a bigger beer gut than my old man did. I'll never be a hero. I'll only be dead.
"There's no way out of it. You signed up for it. You sound like a coward." Frank doesn't sound like himself. His voice isn't familiar and I don't recognize the tone. Not brotherly at all.
"I'm a coward cause I don't wanna die? Listen Frank, it's fine for you. You do it. I've got to get out of here. I can't handle it. I can't go through with it."
Frank shakes his head. "What would Momma say?"
"She'd say she's glad I'm alive!" I'm frenzied now and my voice is several octaves higher than it usually is. I've to make him understand. "How fucking honorable is it to die? What's the point of dying?"
"It's what you're dying for, bro. A cause."
"What cause Frank? There's nothing anymore. We've already lost and now they're just weeding us out. We're nothing."
Frank gets out of bed and starts for the door. At first I think he's going to get Momma. What does he think she'll do? He comes back in a few minutes with a pistol. I tense up, but then he tosses it to me.
"Here," he says.
"What the fuck is this for?" I ask him. I didn't even know he had a fucking gun in the house. Mom would have a heart attack.
"The way I see it you can either kill yourself, kill me, or go with me in the morning and maybe get killed by some stranger. Whatever you do, you go all in. None of this pansy-assed shit."
I stare at him for a moment and run my hand across the smooth silver. He can't be serious. Can he?
He nods at me, leans against the bedroom wall and folds his arms across his chest. He's fucking serious.
Well, okay. I'm fucking serious too. I swallow hard, cock the gun and pull the trigger. Honor? Who fucking needs it?
User Reviews
Submitted by carbon (user info) at 2007-07-29 11:21:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2006-07-14 07:46:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
Pick a Tuesday or Wednesday night...and we'll see if we can make it work.
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2006-07-14 02:44:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
:(
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2006-07-14 00:36:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Not your best work, but not your worst.
Submitted by KindaNews (user info) at 2006-07-14 00:01:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I swallow hard, cock the gun and pull the trigger.
Move that line one sentence over so that's how it ends.
Otherwise I liked it.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-07-13 22:03:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
what about a week night? we can make it up pretty much any mon-wed night.
what say you?
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2006-07-13 21:35:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
Book your date now...time is running out.
Don't turn into another Jeannnnee.
Submitted by moneyshotforyou (user info) at 2006-07-13 21:11:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Honor. What do you know about honor?
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2006-07-13 20:46:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-07-13 18:57:09 (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2006-07-13 18:18:23 (#)
Ranking: 1
I dug the story hon, but it didn't really fit in with the genre. Sorry.
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nothing is more horrifying than america + military.
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The woman has a point.
And I just read Kaos's entry.
Um.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-07-13 18:57:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2006-07-13 18:18:23 (#)
Ranking: 1
I dug the story hon, but it didn't really fit in with the genre. Sorry.
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nothing is more horrifying than america + military.
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-07-13 18:49:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I disagree with dr weazel, I love a good open ending. The open ending earned the +1, in my case. Personally, I'd have shot the brother in the foot and escaped.
Submitted by dr_weazel (user info) at 2006-07-13 18:43:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
So did he shoot his brother... or himself?
I can only +1 this if I cant figure that out.
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2006-07-13 18:18:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I dug the story hon, but it didn't really fit in with the genre. Sorry.
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-07-13 18:11:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2006-07-13 18:06:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
The summer IS almost over...I'm in Savannah at LEAST one day a week...every friggin' week, Monday thru Friday...
Or, I COULD come over on a Friday or Saturday night...not a problem...25 minutes to River street from my house.
You just have to let me know when you kids might visit SAV...I'll work my schedule around meeting up.
I'll buy.
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2006-07-13 17:53:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You're a motherfucking rockstar, wifey.
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2006-07-13 17:18:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Yeah... kind of lacks any sort of point. My internet connection is being rubbish. I blame my housemates.
Submitted by DudeThatsBOSH (user info) at 2006-07-13 16:55:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
it woulda been awesome if he shot his bro, but his bro turned out to be a robot who was testing him. Then the robot brother shot the other kid with one of those suction cup dart guns, and the kid died because of it.. because he was also a robot whose only weakness was suction cup darts.
Submitted by gravitas (user info) at 2006-07-13 16:52:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-07-13 16:50:42 (#)
Ranking: 2
hope it was a double homicide/suicide. mother doesnt deserve to live.
what was the genre anyway?
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ghola, you need to sign out when you use my computer. im not that observant. you still get 2 though.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-07-13 16:51:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-07-13 16:50:42 (#)
Ranking: 2
hope it was a double homicide/suicide. mother doesnt deserve to live.
what was the genre anyway?
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who are you?
this isn't me.
musta left myself signed in on gravitas's computer. sigh.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-07-13 16:51:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2006-07-13 16:40:34 (#)
Ranking: -1
Hey babe, I'm not saying that I wouldn't tongue your kitty...I was just sayin' that this read like a work in progress.
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that's fair. i suppose i thought it'd be interesting to leave the ending sort of blank. so you wouldn't know if he shot himself or his brother. o well.
also, when are me and catalyst gonna visit you. the summer is almost over.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-07-13 16:50:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
hope it was a double homicide/suicide. mother doesnt deserve to live.
what was the genre anyway?
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2006-07-13 16:40:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
Hey babe, I'm not saying that I wouldn't tongue your kitty...I was just sayin' that this read like a work in progress.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-07-13 16:32:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
i spent not a lot of time on this (actually, it was 15 minutes, but i kinda wanna lie and say SEVEN) cause i didn't want to forfiet.
IT IS WONDERFUL I DONT CARE WHAT YOU SAY. WHAT? IT'S TIME TO BE DRUNK AGAIN NOW? OK.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-07-13 16:30:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
This is one of those Choose Your Own Adventure things, right?
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2006-07-13 16:24:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
Did you leave out the ending?
Oh, and the middle?
What the hell was this?