Last Man Standing (Forever Free Book 1) by Eric Meyer

Last Man Standing (Forever Free Book 1) by Eric Meyer

Author:Eric Meyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Swordworks Books


Chapter Four

Despite all the chaos he'd encountered since coming down from the cabin, and the skirmishes with Omega, arriving in the town was a shock. In the past three weeks it’d changed from a thriving community to a ghost town. The place had been home to three thousand people. Now it was home to nothing but predators, carrion eating birds, rats, even coyotes had come down out of the hills to feast on the spoils.

On the outskirts of Copperville, he passed a body on the sidewalk, unburied, abandoned. When they drove closer to the town center, they came across more bodies. Some were strewn on the road, most with signs of gunshot wounds. He could hardly believe people had used guns to fight one another in this sleepy community. A child's tricycle lay in the center of the road, and he moved the wheel automatically to steer past. Outside the houses, front yards were littered with the detritus of hurried escape, boxes, suitcases, blankets, bedding, and clothes strewn everywhere. As if people had rummaged to find what suited a sharp exit, abandoning the rest to travel light.

He’d left this place when he went to fight in Iraq, and people gave him and his pals a warm farewell. Back then there were three of them, him and Danny Blanchard, and an older man, Rick Devine. He still remembered feeling so proud as they climbed onto the bus, and it seemed like half the town had turned up to wave them off. The homecoming was different.

He was alone and recovered, at least in body. They told him to relax and take it easy, not to let memories of Iraq haunt him, but he found it impossible. How could you almost turn your back on your pals and celebrate your homecoming? Danny, dead on the blood-soaked sands, and Devine in a military hospital, where they were patching him up after taking two bullets in the same firefight on that final day.

He felt the familiar dark cloud swirling around him and fought against it. He felt himself losing control and stopped the truck. Irvin eyed him curiously.

"Why are we stopping?"

He couldn't explain, didn't want to. His mind was already in lockdown, skin sweating profusely, and inside his head, his brain rerunning it all. He saw the Black Hawk coming in, and he was crouched behind his rifle. He saw the enemy, the Isis fighters pounce, the missile, bullets blazing through the air, and men going down. Good men, decent men. Once again, the enemy was dancing around the funeral pyre of the Black Hawk, and once again, he was inside. He could feel the flames licking at his flesh, and it was burning; the terrible searing pain, and like someone slowly digging a knife through his brain, causing unbelievable agony. It went on forever, and they were dancing, and he shouted at them.

"For Christ’s sake, stop dancing. We’re dying in here."

Johnny Cash was singing Ring of Fire, and he was standing to one side. Just all in trademark black, strumming his guitar, and when Oz shouted at him, he shrugged.



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