Eye of the Beholder - Chapter 3
Flashbacks, the beginning of Remembrance
Chapter 3 – Flashbacks, the beginning of Remembrance
Baghdad, Circa 2003
Sam’s Initial Awakening: The War That Changed Everything
Sam had always believed in duty—first to his country, then to the men and women he served alongside. The flag he fought for had been something tangible to him once. But that belief, that sense of righteous purpose, had been chipped away piece by piece, the same way the harsh desert sun wore down the landscape.
It started with 9/11. The shock, the grief, the sudden surge of patriotism—everything that followed felt like a carefully orchestrated response. Sam was just a kid then, barely out of high school, feeling like he could be a part of something that mattered. He had his first true calling, fueled by his anger, and the repetitive news cycle airing the falling towers and the ensuing chaos by the hour.
This calling had always felt noble, necessary. But as the years passed, the haze of idealism began to lift.
His deployment to Baghdad, the harsh landscape of war and chaos, was supposed to be a moment of proving himself. But it wasn’t long before the truth revealed itself.
The sounds of gunfire and explosions were a constant companion, the weight of the world sitting heavy on Sam’s shoulders. His legs never felt the same after the frag grenade went off only feet from where he was deployed. He had been fortunate to survive, but he was not untouched. The wounds were more than physical; they settled deep into his psyche. He saw the war for what it really was: a banker’s war. A rich man’s game.
The soldiers on the ground, the civilians caught in the crossfire—they were just pawns in a much larger game. The ones pulling the strings didn’t care about honor or patriotism. They cared about resources, control, and power. The war wasn’t about freedom—it was about profit. Sam began to see how everything was interconnected: the money funneled into weapons contracts, the politicians shaking hands behind closed doors, the corporate interests that controlled the flow of war.
And then, in the quiet moments, he thought about those who didn’t make it back. The lives lost, the families torn apart. He felt the hollowness of it all. His idealism had been shattered, replaced by a bitter, weary cynicism. It wasn’t until he returned to the U.S. that the full scope of what had happened hit him. He couldn’t go back to that life. He couldn’t pretend anymore.
But the world outside felt even more alien than the battlefield. He came home to a country that had moved on. The same politicians, the same corporate entities, the same manipulation, and the same propaganda. Nothing had changed. Sam had been left to navigate the wasteland of his own existence—haunted by memories of a war that didn’t make sense, and the slow realization that the real fight was much larger than anything he had been told. He truly became a hollow man…
Lisa’s Awakening: The Seed of Rebellion
Lisa’s journey of awakening had begun long before she realized what it was. She was born into a world that demanded answers to questions no one had thought to ask. Her parents, Jim and Jenny, had been part of the counterculture movement of the 1960s—hippies who’d made the pilgrimage to Woodstock, embracing the ideals of peace, love, and freedom. They had marched in the streets for civil rights, rallied for environmental change, and sought an alternative to the status quo. But as much as they had hoped for a revolution, Lisa grew up watching the world stubbornly resist the change they fought for.
She had always known there was more—more than what the world told her, more than what people accepted as “reality.” Her parents’ stories were a beacon, but she also saw how the world kept returning to the same cycles of oppression and control. The government, the corporations, the media—it was all part of a system that fed on division, and that profited from fear.
Her first real awakening, however, came when she was a teenager. The Iraq War was in full swing, and the world seemed to be waking up to the same painful truths Sam had. Lisa was a part of a new generation of activists—online, everywhere, constantly questioning the narrative. It wasn’t just about the war, though. It was everything. The more she learned, the more she realized how deep the corruption ran. Corporate greed. Political manipulation. Environmental destruction.
Lisa had always been rebellious, yes, but her rebellion wasn’t about rejecting authority for the sake of it. It was about seeing the cracks in the system that no one else seemed to notice. Her parents had been right all along—they had just been ahead of their time. But in Lisa’s eyes, the system had grown far worse than they ever imagined.
And so, she started asking more questions. Who controls the world’s resources? Who profits from chaos? Why does the media keep people divided, when the solutions are so clear? Her quest for answers was never just about seeking knowledge—it was about trying to wake others up, too. Like the old sayings her parents used to repeat: “The revolution is in the mind.” If enough people woke up, maybe the world could change, that the whole Hundredth Monkey affect would take hold, and shake people out of their collective stupor!
When Lisa was directed to Sam online, she sensed something in him. A spark. A sense that, like her, he was starting to see through the veil. And that was when everything began to come together. Their paths were meant to intersect. Her intuition had guided her to this moment—she didn’t know exactly what was to come, but she knew it would be monumental. Like reuniting with a long lost friend!