The Sun Still Rises

This is Peter's story. Visit @mayavoltin.23 to read Elijah's.

March 30, 2021. Donald Trump, United States President, declares war on Iran and 7 other countries in the midst of a steadily increasing global outbreak of the deadly coronavirus. Meanwhile, America is falling into another Great Depression as poverty strikes thousands and telecommunications decrease rapidly with the onset of the war.

On July 14, my birthday, my father, an Army general, told me he had sent in my letter of recommendation to join the war. I was drafted in because so many soldiers had already died from both the fighting and the disease.

In Europe, I saw so much. So much death. So much pain. I watched as my best friends and fellow soldiers died right in front of me with nothing I could do about it,

Three years later, I was discharged for a leg injury that left me with a permanent limp. I boarded an evacuation plane with a few hundred others to make my way back to America. I remember seeing the same, blank look in all of their eyes, beaten down by war and darkness.

I felt like this was all there was left in the world. This darkness. But as I sat on the plane, my own eyes haunted by the tragic events of my past, I looked up, as if rendered to do so by an absolute force, pulling my gaze towards something that stood out.

And that's when I saw him...