No Wire

It was when I was asking myself if I should cut the red wire or the blue wire when I realized that I didn't want to cut either.

I knelt in front of the doomsday device, wire clippers in hand, when the third option just donned on me. My hands froze as the time continued to count down --

2:43

2:42

2:41

- and I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe the third was for the best.

I was given the mantle of Patriot Prime when I was a teenager. Give, of course, being the word the government used. For me, it was never given. It was branded onto me like a cow. Unlike the other cattle, I had survived the injections and the tests.

I winced at the memory. Too many memories that were waved away by generals and higher ups in the name a patriotism. I kept my crouch, eyeing the device in front of me as I just tried to focus again. I tried to think back to my training, back to my forced life, on how to diffuse this situation.

2:20

2:19

... And yet, I couldn't help but think about the doomsday device's reaction to the Earth's atmosphere. It would darken the skies and fill everyone's lungs full of ash with each desperate breath. Everyone would die. Everyone would fall. The generals. The politicians --

The children. The innocent.

I closed my eyes, trying to push the thoughts from my head. People needed me. I was a hero. And yet, here I was. The wire cutters shook in my hands, that shiver travelling up my arm before I dropped the tool to the ground. 

Nerves of Steel my ass.

The clock doesn't falter. It doesn't delay. It just continues with its duty. It's obligation. It doesn't question whats it purpose or why it was chosen. It doesn't remember the friends it lost in the name of science. It doesn't hesitate between numbers over the thought of being a slave to a duty.

1:45

1:44

I clenched my fist and spun around, pacing around the area as I tried to calm my nerves. I hear my CO screaming orders into my ear piece but I quickly pluck the damn thing off and toss it over my shoulder. 

It would be so easy. To end it all. To end all the pain and misery that this world has brought me.I could snuff it out in one foul swoop and avoid the life-time duty that my powers bestow on me. I could finally close my eyes and fall asleep, never to be woken up by alarm bells telling me that someone is doing something with a giant robot or mantis or whatever the hell the villains think of this week.

So I knelt down in front of the device and stare down at the bundle of wires.

20

19

18

So I'm back to my original question. Red wire? Blue wire?

15

14

Or do I finally just it all go away with a flash.

10

9

8

I pick up the wire cutters, squeezing them in my hand as I stare down at the wires.

6

5

I need to decide.

3

2

I decide.

1

EDIT: This needs to be present tense instead of past tense.