After serving in Iraq and Afghanistan during active war, 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐬. Staff Sergeant Nathan Grimes finds himself on the front lines yet again. This time however, was different. He would've never guessed the wors...
Music selection dedicated to chapter: Some Kind of Heaven by Sleeping At Last.
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I'm not saying I had it harder than everyone else— because I didn't. Truth is I had it pretty good. Better than most as far as childhood stories go.
But that doesn't mean I had it easy either. With life comes pain and much like the walkers, pain doesn't discriminate. Eventually, in time, it finds us all.
I've been controlled by my own sickness for so long that I'm just coasting through life. My body goes through the motions day in and day out as I just wait.
I wait for the 'abnormalities in parts of my brain' as my doctor called it, to summon me. I think I liked the term IED or disorder better. I was told I'm like this because of a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
Either way you spin it— I didn't ask for this. Pain might be the cost of living, but how do you explain suffering? Because I haven't figured that out yet.
As someone who feels like I'm living a life that isn't my own, this is why I try to not to judge anyone by their pain or how they choose to live with it.
I do however, force myself to respect if their decision is not to. Free will is of the most importance to me. That's why I joined the army. I might not have control over my own mind or body all the time, but I'd fight so that others do.
I just never thought that respecting someone's choice would mean bringing life's end to a loved one.
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Lori and Jamie's goodbye threatened the promise I made. While Lori looked at peace with her decision, Jamie looked as if she were losing her own mother again. Part of why she wanted her last name changed was to share with us four, the family she chose in this broken world.
Jamie bent down and gave Lori a kiss on the cheek as she tried to control her breathing. Her hyperventilating sobs wrecked into my chest cavity.
