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Liz paused, her hands on the dash, and turned to give me a strained smile. “You’re a good man, Sergeant Harrison.”
For a moment, I couldn’t speak, those words hitting me so hard it felt as though the air had been stolen from my lungs.
No one had ever said anything like that to me before. Not my mother, who left town when I was a kid and never looked back. Not my father, who would have rather fed me his fist than offer me a kind word.
No one. And in that moment, with Liz looking at me like I was a fuckin’ hero, I was reminded of the only other time someone had looked at me like that: the time a little girl in a princess dress made me feel like a goddamn king.
Shaking off the memory, I simply nodded my thanks, then helped Liz out of the truck. Ted was right behind her, his bigger body making it slow going, but eventually we were all free and I stood beside them, searching for cover as we moved away from the burning vehicle.
Taking point, I put Liz directly behind me, then Ted, his camera still going, and finally Corporal Adams. There was still about eighty yards to the end of the road, but there was a whole fuckload of danger between us and any hope of freedom. Hugging close to the building, I crouched low and gestured for the others to follow, moving from one doorway to the next as I looked for some sort of safety.
We were about halfway to the end when the first shot rang out. Pushing Liz to the ground, I spun, trying to put my body between her and the shooter, but not really having any idea where the shot had come from.
“You got eyes on them, Adams?”
“Negative,” he shouted, the fear in his voice evident. “I can’t see a thing.”
A second shot came, this time hitting the stone wall above my head and letting me know our attacker was back the way we had come. Liz screamed as the third shot was fired, and I threw my body over hers. “I got you, ma’am. Just stay low.” We were crouched in a narrow, recessed doorway, the whole thing only about eight inches deep. Not nearly enough cover for four adults.
“Adams,” I shouted, creeping my body toward him, keeping as much cover on Liz and Ted as I could. “You get that door open. I’ll provide cover.” Standing, I angled my body behind the narrow wall, then raised my gun and pulled the trigger, firing off three quick rounds.
All three of my shots hit the now abandoned Humvee, and I could hear more shouting coming from behind it. Looked like our angry mob had caught up with us. Another shot was aimed our way as the first head popped up over the body of the truck. They were climbing over it, trying their best to get to us.
“Let’s go, Adams!” I could hear him behind me, likely throwing his entire body into the wooden door, but it didn’t sound like it was gonna budge.
There were now three men on top of the Humvee, but only one of them had a weapon. He raised it, one-handed, like it was the wild west or some shit, and began to fire repeatedly in our direction. Another round hit the wall, just a few inches from my face, and I ducked back, sucking in a breath to try and make my body as narrow as possible.
But the shooting didn’t stop. I raised my weapon again, firing back at them, and for a moment, I thought I had got him. I looked around the little wall again, and saw that there were now five men on the truck, and three rifles aimed in our direction.
“For fuck’s sake,” I groaned, pressing back again to try to stay out of sight. “Any time now, Adams!”
“I’m fuckin’ tryin’!” he shouted back, followed by the sound of his side arm being fired twice. Turing to look, I could see Liz, back to the wall and hands over her ears, Ted still trying to film everything as it happened. “Got it,” Adams called, kicking the door open to the screams of the family inside.
“Go, go, go!” I urged, just as all three of the rifles began to fire at us, the sound bouncing off the walls of the narrow alleyway and sounding like there were a hundred men out there, not just five. I stepped out again, wanting to provide cover as Adams tried to hustle the two civilians inside the building, and it was at that moment that a lick of fire lit up my thigh, the pain so quick and bright it almost didn’t register at first. Staring at my leg, I could see the blood starting to well through my pants. The bullet had grazed me, I could tell right away, but with my heart pumping like it was, the blood came fast and steady.
“Alright,” I spat, now more than a little pissed off. “That’s enough of this shit.” I felt Adams’ hand land on my shoulder, guiding me backwards as pulled out my only grenade. Taking the pin between my teeth, I pulled it out and let it fly, hoping that all those years throwing a football were finally gonna pay off.
And they did. As we watched, the grenade landed in the cluster of men on top of our abandoned truck, exploding in a quick blast of fire and knocking every one of them off the truck and into the dirt.
I didn’t stick around to see if any got up.
“Oh, fuck yeah!” I shouted, stumbling back into the darkened entryway of the house and slamming the door. Smiling wide, I turned to Adams. “You see that, man?” I could hear the helicopters approaching, our evac approaching. “We did it! Holy shit, we did it.”
But Adams was not sharing my enthusiasm. Dropping my smile, I frowned at him. “What, man?”
“Hedge,” was all he said, but he turned, his gaze dropping to the shadowed wall beside the door. There I found Ted, huddled on the floor with Liz’s head in his lap. Her eyes open wide, staring sightlessly at the ceiling and a gaping hole in the side of her neck.
“She—she was there,” Ted said slowly, his hand running slowly over Liz’s short, blonde hair. “Right behind you. She wanted to see. She always wanted to be able to see. She—” he paused, taking a breath, and I dropped to my knees before him, staring at the bright, vibrant woman who had been alive and in my care only moments ago. “She was pressed against the wall, and I didn’t even see it. I didn’t know she’d even been hit until Adams dragged her inside.”
Ted stopped talking, his shoulders shaking with quiet sobs.
It was my fault; I knew it was. Liz had been crouched behind me. The shot that had nicked my thigh had carried on and ended her life.
And as the sound of approaching friendlies built around us, Adams calling out to them with our location, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the innocent woman who I had been unable to protect.
I had only one job to do that day.
And I had failed.
