Extrinsic

People were trying to be quiet about it.

No one wanted anyone else getting carried away.

Some just scoffed and assumed it was rumors.

How could we be losing on Earth? The mother ship was destroyed half a century ago, leaving nothing but stragglers left to distinguish. We can’t be losing, there’s no way.

But they weren’t really rumors.

I understood the awful truth of it all.

More and more dog tags came in through the mail, needing to be sent to the family of lost loved ones.

As more days past, the sinking in my stomach only grew.

After a while things became quiet, because people began to realize we really were struggling on the front lines.

I didn’t really want to think about what would come next.

I didn’t want to think about what this could all mean.

I didn’t have a choice.

One day things were eerily silent everywhere I went.

I ignored it but when I came home to the pod after work, I found my dad sitting at the kitchen table. His face looked defeated.

I slipped off my shoes and placed my bag on the table.

He held the letter in front of him out to me.

I saw that all too familiar military logo.

My eyes carefully read the words on the page.

I felt my stomach drop.

Things had gotten so bad on Earth that they began to do a draft. . . and my number was picked.