Thursday, November 13, 2003

What does this button do?

"And the enemy doesn't see me coming," he said aloud. Desperate to make his mark against the war-mongering Americans, the soldier slowly drove his T-72 battle tank up the embankment. "Slow," he thought, "If they hear me coming, I'm camel crap." He inched the tank over the rise. 1,000 yards. 500 yards. He stopped and brought the main gun to bear.

"No...my shot's not clear," he thought to himself. Too many times he'd been impatient and lives had been lost. Again, he crept the tank forward, hoping that the Americans did not hear the roar of the diesel engine as it moved the 44.5 metric ton vehicle closer to its prey. "Just a few more yards," he thought, his hands shaking at the controls.

"There..." Once again, he aimed the massive cannon at an opposing Bradley fighting vehicle. His sneak attack was going to work. Finally, he would make his mark in the war. For Allah? Maybe...maybe not. For his own sense of pride? Certainly.
The heavy metal gears that moved the turret creaked as he aimed the main gun at his target. A holy fire in the form of a 125mm shell would soon rain down on the infidels... He prepared to fire...

-click-

"What? What happened?" The monitor in front of him flashed. The image of the bunker abruptly disappeared and was replaced with an obscure image...and a message:

"A game is currently running. Press 'RESUME' to continue." The screen then faded to blue, accompanied by the most bizarre music...then the screen went black.

"Am I dead?"

And in a flash, the soldier was transported to another reality. "Where am I?" he thought. Suddenly, the rush of memories overwhelmed him. "Wait, I'm not an Iraqi. I'm an American."

-confusion-

"And...um...wait..." Slowly, the reality of another life invaded his perception. He remembered a house...a wife...a church...someone named "Johnny_love"... He looked around and realized he was in a room. "It's cold in here," he thought. In front of him was the still black monitor. A PC...not a tank's tactical display.

He looked around the room and heard...a baby toy? Puzzled, he looked down to see this beautiful little girl kneeling next to the PC tower. Immediately, he recognized her as his daughter. And in a rush, the reality of what he has just experienced became clear. For next to him, this beautiful girl was smiling up at her dad...

...with her hand firmly planted on the PC's "power" button.

"D'oh," he thought to himself.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home