"Joe, honey, wake up." My wife coos as if I am a small baby crying. She looks at me and kisses me.
My daughter rests down her phone, "Dad," she utters, clearly stating how she did not use that word in a while.
The doctor stands still, as if I came to, to early. "Joe," he says cheerfully, "I'm glad you're awake, so many things happened while you where asleep."
I look around the room, it was designed like a hospital but I knew it was not the place, it had a different smell, one of old clothes and food. My wife taps her fingers together, something she always did when nervous.
"Where am I?" I ask sternly. Everyone stiffens.
The doctor looks at me in sorrow, "On your last mission the enemy captured you. They drugged you and left you out on the streets. A small platoon went to the Eastern Desert to rescue you and you where barely breathing, mumbling something about a man named Bob Charlie. You were here ever since last week."
"I can go back in the field now right? I am better and more knowledgeable about the situation." I said.
"Joe, we researched more about this Bob Charlie, his full name is Robert Charles a dream technician that started the publicity for war, to dream freely."
"I know, he used me as a test subject to see the reaction people have on his death dream, a dream that lowers your brain activity then kills you while your sleeping. It's not painful, but it prevents you from doing much. I survived the green serum but it caused me to go into a coma. For some reason the dream had me right there in the action, grabbing Intel, befriending Bob, reporting back to HQ, it had everything." I respond.
"But, you never answered where I am, I guess for security reasons but that means you are thinking about letting me back onto the field."
The doctor pats my shoulder, "We told everyone that you died, the entire world thinks you don't exist except a few select people and your family."
I look at my wife and daughter, they smile. "In my dream, you two kept me trying to continue, to find an end to the war."
My wife goes to tears, I did not want to tell them that she wasn't there and my daughter died, to see them again was to emotional and fragile.
An alarm goes off and the doctor curses. "Joe, lets rush through the test to see if you are alright, shall we? Because we need to go now."
I stand up and my daughter helps me waddle to the door and head down a dark corridor. The doctor briefs us on the building's exit plans. "We are underground a few stories, so we need to make a left then up the stairs. Don't lag behind because a large group of people are going the opposite way to the attacking exit, we need to follow the other civilians."
A soldier dressed in his camouflage uniform speaks lowly to the doctor, and then we turn right. I trip over myself and fall. The doctor with a look of disgust on his face.
There was an explosion and dirt piling on the floor. Standing on top of it was none other than Bob Charlie. "You know, I said 'wake up' a suggestion, not as a command." He turns to my wife, "I thought you where dead."
Everyone is flabbergasted except me; I reach out for Bob's hand. "We have a war to end," I say in the mist of chaos.
Bob smiles, "I agree."