“He’s hiding something?” Bret said to his top Ensign.
“Do you think he went back to his old ways?” Tim replied.
“There’s only one way to find out.”
That night, Bret and Tim paid their buddy Ronnie a surprise visit before going into battle. While slowly pulling up to the side of his corner home they noticed a strange car in the driveway and his top floor light on while people were coming in and out so Bret and Tim snuck in only to find their top man drunk and high laying sideways on the couch. The man was lifted. He was so wasted that he thought Bret was his father. Naked women were sniffing white lines off in the corner, the guy had over done it. He was partying to the tenth power.
Tim couldn’t believe what he was witnessing.
“You’re a coward. You would rather celebrate while we go off to war believing in the greater good of the public. Why, Ron? Why are you doing this to yourself?” Bret asked disgusted at his right hand man.
“I don’t want to fight for this dump anymore. God left me when he took my mother. The fire is gone in me, but you two still take pride in the red, white and blue. Now get off of my property and go serve your president, in my house I’m the leader of my castle and if you didn’t come to party then why bother me,” Ronnie said tipping over off of the crazy horse and alcohol.
“You heard him Bret, we go in alone,” Tim said.
Bret felt his heart beating faster and faster. He was so angry at his old friend that he was shaking.
“Come on Bret, it’s not worth it, take it out on the battlefield.” Tim said.
The whole ride to base was quiet. The next day as Bret and Tim approached the helicopter Bret saw Ronnie’s parachute and said nothing.
“It will be okay friend, God is with us. We’re fighting for the good people not the bad,” Tim said to his friend.
Bret was still in shock, he’d known Ronnie his entire life. They’d fought so many battles together but this fight was different. Ronnie was not behind him nor was he next to him as they parachuted in. Taking heavy fire Bret felt like he had nothing to fight for anymore.
“Are you okay?” Tim asked
“I want to go home,” Bret said.
Tim looked around at the carnage, “Bret, this is our home. This is all we know, now get your head out of your ass.”
Feeling the weight of a soldier’s curse he sat on a building ledge with his sniper scope aimed at his target.
“It’s an underage sex camp, I have him in sight,” Bret said.
“Take the shot and then we’re done. We can go home and begin our cleansing from this war,” Tim explained.
Bret took the shot.
“I got him.”
Tim saw the teen girls running from the camp half naked.
Soon after everyone else scattered also.
“Mission accomplished, now let’s go home,” Tim said.
Bret seemed to feel a lot better after taking the shot to end the war. He’d just took out the number one source that started the entire rage.
“Ronnie must know something,” Bret said breaking the silence.
“Well, we just take orders and deliver. We did our job, now we begin our cleansing,” Tim said.
“He’s enjoying his freedom. What ever he knows, it forced him to back out.”
“A soldier can win a thousand battles only to die facing reality Bret. Our job is done, now we leave the battlefield in the past and we begin our cleansing. We won and whatever Ronnie knows he sacrificed his honor and left us to fend for ourselves,” Tim explained.
The next morning Bret woke up listening to the news that the war was over. He then heard a knock at the door. It was Ronnie.
“What do you want?” Bret said.
“I heard what you did for us Bret. I’ve been going to rehab.”
“Good,” Bret replied.
“My dad used to say that only a cleansed soldier wins the battle between good and evil. Thanks for motivating me to get clean. I’ll see you when I get out,” Ronnie explained walking back to his car.
Bret felt a supernatural force in his spirit. He finally felt like a real superhero and even when the truth came out his righteous will reflected a true image of God’s new world order.
The vision was clear, God wanted it all cleaned up, and now the real cleansing began.
The Cleansing