Red Peace

There was darkness. And then there was light. A red light, flashing regimentally on the young man in the chair before it. He stared at it with confusion. No, faint disbelief. He didn't understand. His internal struggle was interrupted by a heavy hand falling on his shoulder. "That is the command kid." The command...

The red light illuminated the sweat that started to drip down the mans face in regulated intervals. Press the button. That was his one job. The hand on his shoulder tightened its grip impatiently. "Son, the button." The man started to feel how hot he was, the button flaring in his face in that rhythmic march. Hot, sweat. Hot, sweat. Hot... "Kid, I aint gonna ask you again, press. the. button."

The man raised his hand above the table where the button glowed so meaningfully. With each flash he realized that it wasn't the button that was hot, it was him. It was his very sould, burning. This was hell, and he would be sucked straight into it by pushing that simply flashing light. Each flash left a ring in his ears, gorwing louder and louder until he realized he was screaming, shreiking with each flash. The voice of the man behind him seemed suspended in the echoes of his screams and possesed an iridescent quality.

"You don't get to play God every day, now for God's sake press the effin button son!!!" No, he wasn't meant to do this. His hand over the table fell with a resolute thump, like the unfeeling fall of the guiolltine. He pushed off of the table and marched solemnly out of the room, the man in black turning in credulidity. "Son! You don't realize what you are doing, every second you waste another person dies!"

"But when I press that button, they all die at once..."

"Son we aren't in the business of killing, we are in the business of saving lives!"

"A peace keeping organization who keeps peace by wiping out a whole country at the push of a button isn't one I'd like to be a part of, thank you very much."

The man started to walk away, but instead of the sound of footsteps, all that could be heard was the sound of his body slumping to the floor. "What... Are you..."

The man in black used the gun in his right hand to slam the red button, causing it to crack and the flashing to stop.

"Keeping the peace."

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