The Audition

"Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the OTHER poor dumb bastard die for HIS country!" I screamed into the mirror. Feeling those words roll off of my tongue filled me with passion.

I took a step away from the mirror and took a moment to analyze my facial expression.

"Today is the day Walty, today is it," I said to myself while smacking myself across the face. Still staring at the mirror, I put my finger directly on the glass.

"Today is the day you blow their fucking minds. You can do this, you've lived through it, and you can be it!"

I smacked myself across the face again and chugged down the glass of water next to me.

"Okay..." I breathed. "It's showtime."

I turned toward the camera I had set up on a tripod and pressed the record button. I walked backward until I felt the coolness of the wall tickle the nape of my neck.

"Hello, my name is Walter Nuñez, and I am 37-years-old. Before I begin my audition, I'd like to tell you my story."

I took another deep breath and started to speak again.

"I enlisted in the Marines at the age of seventeen and was able to join at such an early age because both my mother and father signed off on allowing the U.S. military to recruit me. I served for a total of 16 years."

Come on Walty, I reassured myself. You're doing great, you're almost there.

"My most prominent memory... would have to be the day that I heard I would be deployed to Iraq back in 2009. I remember crying to myself that night. I remember just curling up in a little ball and just hugging myself the entire night before I was sent off with my other brothers on a plane to a country that looked like a Mad Max movie scene. I remember being the only person able to reassure myself that everything would be okay and that I was in the universe's hands."

Breath in, breath out. That simple.

"We landed in the middle of the desert. It was so damn hot outside, like as soon as I stepped off the plane I just wanted to take all of my clothes and gear off. I couldn't, of course. So there I was, well all of us actually, walking through scorching hot sand in 130 degrees while fully-equipped with a limited supply of water.

"The first hour went by quickly, it was a piece of cake actually. I think that I reached for my water only twice. Then the second hour went by, and then the third. By the fifth hour my water had completely run out, and what made matters worse is that we weren't supposed to be in the desert for that long. Wherever the hell the tanks that were supposed to meet us halfway to pick us up were I don't know, but what I do know is that we were on our own for a good minute.

"We didn't know where to go, or in which direction or how far away our base was from where the matchpoint was. All of those things, they're top secret. So... we just had one option: wait. Wait in the scorching heat, with the sun blaring down directly on our heads. Wait, and they'll come get us soon. But when you're waiting in the heat for too long, your mind starts playing tricks on you..."

I felt my breathing start to get harder, but I wanted to keep going. It was time that I finally finish.

"It turns out they had completely forgotten about us, and that was why no one went to pick us up that day... so by the time nightfall came we said screw it. We put all of our gear back on, split up into small groups, and started walking in opposite directions. I know it sounds stupid, but it was our last resort.

"So we split up, and my group and I make it to this river. We decide to cross it because hear noise coming from the other side..."

I started to choke up, but I didn't want to stop.

"My group didn't find the rest of our unit, but we found a small village of people that had been completely wiped out by whichever terrorist group paid them a visit. I just remember seeing all of it... for the first time it was right in front of my face and there was no hiding it. There were bodies lying all around us, and the smell mixed with heat... I can still feel it all around me..."

I felt tears start to fall on my face.

"I took that day as an omen that things would only get worse... and I swore up and down that I wouldn't be able to make it through all two years because I could just barely handle the first day...

"But I did, and now I'm here. War is such a casualty... and after I got back things got beyond worse, for me at least. But I start every day just with thinking about how I'm alive. I think about the words my lieutenant told me while I was out there, and how sick and twisted he was to say that during actual wartime... Literally just stared at me one day and yelled out, 'Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the OTHER poor dumb bastard die for HIS country'"

Breath in, breath out.

"Scene. Thank you so much for your time! My name is Robert Scotts and I hope you consider me for this role."