Marcus stood at the edge of the forest. It was foggy and damp. The trees towered over him imperious in their stature. A cold gust of wind blew past and sent a chill down his spine. He knew what he had to do. He slowly walked into the forest, making sure to be as quiet as possible. When he was about four hundred yards into the forest he started to hear the faint sound of voices. He couldn’t make out what they were saying but they sounded distressed. He made his way forward, this time even more slowly than before. As he got closer he could start to make out what the voices were saying. 

“We’re going to lose this war, and when they find out what we did here they will kill us,” said a man with a nervous high-pitched voice. 

“We’re not losing this war” responded a man with a lower voice. “The United States is defective and balkanized. We on the other hand are superior and united. Our people simply have the spirit and the will to win this war.” Said the man with the lower voice.

“I don’t know about that” responded the man with a nervous voice. 

“You have more fear than love for your fatherland,” replied the other man. “Now let’s get to work. We have thousands of bodies to dispose of.” 

When he heard those words Marcus felt a cold sense of dread come over him. Everything he feared was coming to fruition. Back in the United States, he had heard rumors of extermination camps but he didn’t take them too seriously. He knew of the Northwest Republic’s war crimes but saw no need for them to erect extermination camps at home. He was shocked but he had to move forward and investigate. He got on his hands and knees and began to crawl forward. The terrain was rough and this made army crawling uncomfortable but he barely even noticed. The sense of dread dominated him and he could feel almost nothing else. After crawling a couple of buildings a large building appeared amid the fog. It was white and looked as if it was a warehouse. On the front of the building stood the words "Victory Requires Sacrifices" in black font. He crawled forward and as he got closer to the building he could smell the scent of bleach. The bleach smelled as if it was covering something else up, a smell more rancid than bleach. It was the smell of decay and death, the smell of agony and torture, the smell of inhumanity. 

Suddenly a door opened. A man in a doctor's clothing walked out. He looked distressed and uneasy. He began to wobble back and forth as if he was in a trance. He then stumbled and fell to his knees. The man looked up to the sky and began to wail. "God please forgive me for all that I've done. I can't take it anymore. I can't take it anymore." Then the door opened again and another man walked out. He was dressed in a black military uniform. He walked towards the doctor, grabbed him by the shoulder, and violently jerked him back up to his feet.

 "You can't keep doing this, we have work to do." shouted the man in the military uniform.

 “We can’t keep doing this. We can hide it from people but God knows. He knows, and he’ll punish us for this.” Exclaimed the doctor, shaking nervously. 

“God knows that what we are doing is very necessary” replied the military leader in a calm detached voice. Then both of them walked back into the building. Marcus was shocked by the man’s nonchalant voice. “The deepest evil is total indifference,” he thought to himself. “You can’t let evil fester like this; you must do everything in your power to destroy it,” thought Marcus. He knew exactly what he had to do. Under his vest, there was a suicide belt. In his pocket, there was a button. If he pressed the button he would detonate the bomb destroying both him and the facility. It was a terrible fate but he knew it was necessary. He removed the button from his pocket. He began to walk over to the facility. As he got closer to the facility he could hear screams, screams of anguish, screams of horror, the screams of those who had their humanity stripped away. His vision started to blur. All the details which were once so clear to him faded into the background, all that was clear was his fate. Once he was about a yard away from the facility he took the button out. The button’s coldness sent a shiver down his spine. Marcus looked up into the sky. The sun peeked through the clouds and glistened as it poured out into the forest. It was almost as if fate had chosen this moment for him. He looked back down at the button and whispered a quote to himself. "The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. Whatever you think you can do, or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, power and grace." Marcus whispered to himself. He pushed the button and it was all over.