AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Rogers! Kane!” came Jamison’s choked voice, a fumbling hand catching on my boot as the sound of gunfire started up outside our hidey hole.
No, it was only in my head.
“Ibrahim betrayed us!” Yamin called from further back.
This was all in the past.
“Roger is down!”
“Ash,” came the whisper of an angel, breath brushing across my face.
“O’Keill is down,” I called over the muted ruckus in my ears, trying to focus my head while blinking out the burning smoke from my eyes.
“Ashton, you’re having an episode. It’s just the PTSD. All the stuff you’re remembering is in the past.”
Fuck, Freya needs me!
I tried to concentrate as warmth trickled down the side of my face. My eardrums were definitely busted. Trying to stand, I realized that I had to have some other injury because my leg wasn’t holding weight. There was no pain though, so I dragged myself forward, my rifle in my hand as I fumbled for the com in my thigh pocket. The thing was slick with sticky fluid which had to be blood, mine or someone else’s, I didn't know.
“I’m here, Ash. We were just attacked, and the cops are pulling up. I need you with me! Please Ash, fight it!”
“Man down, man down, man down!” I called into the com. “We need a bird! We got FUBARed and need a lift and back up!”
“Copy, a bird is on the way,” the calm voice said back. “ETA seven minutes. Pickup on the ridge to the southeast ridge.”
The black haze began to clear as I heard Freya talking, but not to me.
“He’s got PTSD from serving in the military. I think the guns set it off. I’m sorry, he—”
“I’m ok,” I grunted, shoving to my feet as my head throbbed, my eyesight remaining wobbly and blurry.
My brain felt like it was two sizes too big for my skull.
Meds. My meds were in my pocket.
I pulled the bottle out of my pocket and fumbled with it until Freya took hold of the container and pulled out a pill for me.
“Are you alright?” she asked as one cop closed in on us and another went to go check out the kids bleeding on the sidewalk.
“You better hope those kids fuckin’ live.” The cop sounded angry as he watched his partner try and stem the blood from both.
“Neither are lethal shots,” I assured him. “But it was self defense. They drew first.”
The cop grumbled and took the guns off the hood and brought them to his car.
“I saw it all, copper,” said an old woman who stuck her head out of a shop door to come to our rescue. “I sawed all of it happen. Those hooligans have been causin’ trouble for weeks and ya’ll ain’t done nothin’ about it! They came over here and started pullin’ apart that car there, and when they came up to the little thieves, one of ‘em started shootin’! This boy ain’t do nothin’ but stop those stray bullets from hurtin’ someone in the neighborhood. Y’all should be gettin’ him an award, not questionin’ him!”
The cop approached the irate woman as three more people inside backed up her story.
With that many witnesses, you’d think the case would be cut and dry, but no, the cops insisted we go back to the station.
“Are you arresting me?” I asked one straight in the face.
He bumbled, but shook his head.
“You have my phone number, you have my statement, and I gave you the address of the hotel I’ll be here until I bury my father. If you’re not arresting me, I’m fucking going home.”
“Fine. Go home.”
