Gabriel's Redemption (29 page)

“My rifle was empty, I had lost my sidearm earlier,” he continued, trying to control his breathing. “But I couldn’t let this, this terrorist desecrate their bodies, could I?” He took a long, deep breath. “I rushed him, slammed into him, knocked him down, out I think. I got up, and grabbed one of my squadmate’s…bodies. I dragged it to the door, and…” his voice trailed off. “That’s it, that’s all I remember.”

“When my people found you,” the man said, “you were almost seventy yards away, up a small slope. It appears there was a massive explosion in the school, which threw you that far, clear across the jungle. It’s just…incredible that you could have even survived.”

“Incredible,” he repeated in a low tone. “Sure. Lucky, right?” he asked, waving his left stump. “They left me. They got one out, and left me.”

He sat bolt upright. “Someone survived,” he said, staring at the goateed man. “They grabbed someone out of the building. It…it was the body I pulled out. Someone else survived!”

“Do you remember who it was?” the man asked.

Katoa closed his eye, searching his memory, trying to mentally zoom in on the stretcher. “It’s…fuzzy,” he said, scrunching his face up.

“Try, Tomas,” the man replied. “It may help your recovery process if you know someone else made it.”

He concentrated on the last vision from the hilltop, the pulsejets’ blue exhaust rings blasting the blackened grass, the flames licking through the windows of the school, the troopers carrying the stretcher. The man on the stretcher, no helmet, head facing him. The face became clear.

“Gabriel,” he spat, his mind clouding over to black. “The one who led us into the ambush. That sonofabitch survived. And left me here.”

The man leaned back, releasing Katoa’s hand. “Okay. Gabriel. Let’s work with that. That will be the start of your recovery, it will give you something to focus on while we rehabilitate your body.” He walked over to the door, and Katoa saw him wave to someone outside the room.

“Right now, we’re going to start rehabilitating your mind. There are some people I’d like you to meet, and I think we’re all going to be great friends. I know we can help you, and I believe you can help us as well.”

Katoa eased back into the cool comfort of the sheets, the images of fire and blackness already feeling less painful.
Gabriel,
he thought.
Gabriel
.
 

Gabriel’s Return, and the thrilling finale, Gabriel’s Revenge, now available for Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Borders Kobo, Sony Reader, Apple iBooks, and paperback!

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Reviews and comments are worth their weight in gold for authors, and I would love to hear your comments. Thank you, and I hope you are looking forward to Book 2, Gabriel’s Return!

-Steve