Private Stickney is on post-midnight recon when he sees what appears to be a burqa-clad female servicing one of his Iraqi opposite numbers. But what happens next, both on the street and in Stickney's head, shows just how far down war's rabbit hole this soldier has gone.

WARNING: This visceral, brutal story, which first appeared in "From the Trenches: An Anthology of Speculative War Stories" from Carnifex Press, contains disturbing dialogue and situations.