Henry felt the injection.

When he woke up, he was looking-up, at a dark ceiling.

It was an ordinary small room, like a motel, but different. There were lights outside.

He parted the blinds, and a military truck drove by. It was a Half-track.

The searchlights followed a figure-eight pattern on the military block. Razor wire fences rose 20 feet in all directions.

He wasn’t in prison—this was the military. He couldn’t remember when he signed up. He couldn’t remember anything.

Why do young people sign up for the military? Henry thought. They need to force all high school seniors to watch Full Metal Jacket. Hell, that would probably encourage them. Anybody beneath the age of 20 is stupid. 28-year-old-men take advantage of this, when dating women who think they’re sophisticated at 18. The military does the same thing, by encouraging men to think with their balls, instead of their undeveloped brains. Propaganda massages their organ with its messages of invincibility, making them sing, until their missile is ready to launch.

Henry’s brain was scrambled, mixed-up into a taco, placed in a salad, and eaten by weightwatchers, but that didn’t prevent him from thinking unhealthy thoughts. 

“They don’t intend me to stay here on the weekend,” Henry said. “There’s nothing to do but play scrabble.”

He went to the medicine cabinet. There were his pills.

His orders were on the kitchen counter. Take your medicine and report at 0600 hours, Monday. Read the Marine Corps Manual.

It was a WINK. There was no way they were actually serious.

Henry was used to walking around naked.

The most painful part, was not wearing any shoes. It was like being an adult baby, that nobody wants to nurture.

He had to grab the breasts for himself, if he really wanted them.

He had to suckle what was his. Nobody was going to take care of him or love him. How could they? He was the invisible man. The world belonged to him, but it didn’t know that yet.

He walked towards the gate.

Guards are so predictable, Henry thought.

One hand was smoking a cigarette, while the other hand was jammed-up his ass. There was nothing else to do.

Henry didn’t blame him.

He walked by the machine guns and the security camera.

“Wait! What was that?”

“What are you talking about, Sarge?”

“That shadow on the ground.”

The Private looked at the shadow, moving away from them under the searchlight.

“It doesn’t belong to us. Who does it belong to?” The Private asked.

Henry laughed.

“Did you hear that!?”

“Open fire!” Sarge said.

“But what do I shoot at!?”

“Shoot at that shadow, stupid!”

Henry ran into the darkness and vanished.

“I must be losing my mind. How long have we been standing here?”

“18 hours.”

“Why did I join the army?”

“To be all you can be.”

“If that’s true, I’m depressed. Damn, I wish I was invisible. You know what I’d do about right now?”

“What?”

“I’d go to a pool party, get drunk, and find me some bitches.”

“Keep your mind on your work, son.”

The work was standing still, and not saying anything.

Henry had already stolen a car.

He was driving through suburbia.

In the event of a war on American soil, the men in uniform would be defending middle-aged wives from potential rapists.

Henry spied their 18-year-old daughters in bathing suits, jumping into an enormous pool.

It had been so long, since he got wet.

He deserved a pool.

Afterall, he gave one to his girlfriend, but she wasn’t his girlfriend, was she…

Who was he? He was the invisible man.

People couldn’t see him.

It was like he had been erased.

He didn’t know who he was. All he knew, is that he wanted those women.

To be continued…