John's company has been out doing training exercises all day. It's unusually warm for September and all he wants to do now is have a pint and relax. Normally, the commissary is a loud place full of raucous soldiers, but today, it's eerily quiet and everyone is glued to the television. Stuck at the rear of the crowd, John cranes his neck to get a better view. His friend Jacob lets John in front of him, allowing the shorter man to see a scene of unimaginable carnage.
On the television, black smoke pours out of one of the World Trade Centre towers. A passenger jet comes in from the right side of the screen and crashes into the other tower. A huge fireball erupts. John realizes he's just watched the murder of several hundred people.
The BBC anchor cuts in and says, "This was the scene a few hours ago in Manhattan, when terrorists thought to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda attacked the World Trade Centre. Casualties are estimated to be in the thousands…"
(America is going to go to war over this. And under Article V of NATO, we will too.)
John's greatest fear is going into a war where nobody knows who the enemy is.
A/N: Article V of NATO states that an armed attack against one member nation is to be considered an armed attack against all member nations. The 9/11 attacks are the first – and so far, only – time in NATO's history that Article V has been invoked.