Shrapnel's Kiss by Amy Rachiele

Author:Amy Rachiele
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, military, war, army, afghanistan, love and war, firefight, army camp, shrapnel, terrorists attack

Chapter 5

August 26, 2014

Junie:

I’m freezing! My body is shivering uncontrollably. My eyes open and I see utility lights above my head attached to a white ceiling. A constant thrumming beep comes from nearby my ear. I look around, confused, taking in my surroundings. I move my arms to cross them over my chest because I’m cold and I notice the wires and tubes buried in the skin of my hand. I am wearing a white cotton gown and my legs are covered with a clean, starched white sheet. I’m in a hospital. How did I get here?

A man enters my line of sight. “You’re awake!” he proclaims as he checks the machines surrounding me. “Good, you are almost finished with this bag. Just one more of antibiotics, and we can unplug you.”

“Where am I?” I whisper.

He leans down close to me and raises the blanket up to my shoulders when he notices my shivering. “Army hospital in Kandahar.” He’s really close. I can see flecks of gold in his green eyes and his hair is a perfect dark blond cut close to his scalp. He’s dressed like Tyler and his team but his patches and doohickeys are different. His name tapes read Baxter on one side and U.S. Army on the other. “Do you want another blanket?” I nod and he pats my arm. “I’ll be right back.” He leaves and I want to yell at him to come back because I’m afraid and alone. The isolation that wraps around my heart is back. It was gone, but now it is back.

I dart my eyes around as panic builds in my chest. What happened? The familiar loneliness builds and builds as I try to recall the last things I remember. My eyes shut tight against the memories. The emotions of fear, vulnerability, and despair sit at the surface—a war inside me. Heat crawls in and won’t leave, keeping me on the edge of combusting. The onslaught of images rages in me with the faces of our captors, horribly disfigured with holes in their skulls, replayed over and over.

Death was so close that I could taste it, bitter and sweet. My father was there, smiling at me, but so was Tyler. Tyler was relentless in keeping me here. His voice echoed in the recesses of my mind. “Hold on,” he said. “Don’t let it win, Junie.” “You’re strong!” “Your parents want you to fight it!”

I’m not so sure. My father... he wanted me. He wanted me to do something, and I don’t know what it was. I wanted to get up off the ground by the garden and hold his hand. I wanted to follow him, but I couldn’t do it. It’s what I wanted but unable to just do it because the loneliness was gone. It wasn’t there anymore. Both Tyler and my father trying to get me to do what they wanted me to do and it made me tired, a fatigue I couldn’t fight. There was love, a ton of it, but it got tangled together with terror, compassion, and intimacy.

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