Page 86 of Fade (Fighting Fate)

“Lance Corporal Gardner!”

Sergeant Cooper’s voice held an authority to it I’d never heard before, but there was no answering call that I could hear.

Picking off two more fighters, I jumped a ditch and scrambled closer to the slab. Taking aim, I fired off a few more shots. “Johns!” I yelled over my shoulder. “How you doing, man?”

I heard him grunt. “Fucking awesome, dude.”

Searching the enemy’s fighting points, I kept a watch of anything that looked remotely like a grenade.

Rushing the last ten feet to crouch behind the slab, I let out a long, slow breath. “Good, then get up and get your fucking ass over here!” Popping up, I fired off a random shot, taking a quick look at our position. “Sarge!”

I heard him fire off a few shots. “Get Johns out of here. I’ll cover you. I need to find Gardner.”

“Fuck you,” Johns grunted, staggering to his feet. “Get your sorry ass over to Stephenson first, or I’m not going anywhere.”

Sergeant Cooper let loose with a string of profanities, but they were obscured by the round of rapid fire he unleashed across the street. Following suit, I took out a fighter who just appeared around the corner, hoping Johns would hurry the fuck up and get his ass behind me now.

“That wasn’t a goddamned request, Corporal. Get the fuck out of here!”

The sound of Johns’s growling curse behind me told me he’d finally made it. I didn’t feel good about leaving Sarge behind, but I didn’t want to get a new asshole torn for disobeying orders, either. Squatting, I turned to confirm what he wanted me to do, but stopped when I heard a cough behind him.

Sarge turned at the sound. “Motherfucking shit.”

Confusion slowed my brain for a moment. It wasn’t until he started crawling over the rubble and lifted an arm that I realized it was attached to a groaning Gardner. I tried to work out how the fuck he could’ve been lying there, with only a thin layer of dust to conceal him, without us seeing him. Catching sight of the blood smeared across his forehead, I quickly guessed he must’ve been knocked out.

“Fuck . . . ” Johns muttered, awkwardly scrambling onto his knees. “I’m over this shit. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Bullets spattered close to where Gardner was lying, quickly reminding me I should be providing cover. Moving slightly to the side to make room for Johns, we perched ourselves either side of the slab and tried to give Sarge as much cover as we could.

Hearing a roar from both Nelson and McAdams, we all gave it everything we had, while Sarge got Gardner to his feet and started dragging him across the open gap.

About a third of the way there, Gardner collapsed. Ready to throw all caution to the fucking dogs, I prepared to sling my rifle over my shoulder and run the gauntlet to go help, but then Sarge hoisted him up over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift and ran. The guy fucking ran!

“Must be our turn,” Johns grunted beside me.

Time was pressing. More enemy fighters were coming. Ammo was running low. I had to agree.

Giving Johns a hard look, I nodded to his legs. “You good?”

“I’d run even if my fucking leg was broken,” he said with a sneer.

“Then let’s fucking do it.”

As soon as Sarge reached the others, we took one last, deep breath, and ran.

I could hear Nelson and Sarge firing ahead of us, trying their best to give us some cover, but I could also hear the enemy.

Johns labored beside me as we ran, his mouth set tight, grunting each time he stepped onto his right leg, making me think his leg really was fucking broken. Together, we jumped the ditch and scrambled up over the broken piles of concrete. We were so close. Less than half the distance to go.

Darting around the back of a burned-out car, we hurried to climb over a crumbling wall. Knowing Johns was struggling, I gave him a foothold, hoisting him upwards until he was almost over the top. “Jump! I’ve got this!” It wasn’t that high. I wouldn’t have any trouble climbing it myself, but then I heard Nelson shout the last thing I wanted to hear in that moment.

“Incoming grenade! Take cover!”

I didn’t think. I just acted. With a hard shove, I sent Johns over the wall and threw my body the opposite way.

This time, everything did seem like it slowed down, yet at the same time, everything moved so fast, my brain had no chance of keeping up. The only thing I could think was that there was absolutely nothing in this world that could’ve prepared me for what came next. No training guide. No marine recount. Not even my own.

All I knew was that I was hit with a force so heavy, and a sound so loud, that it felt like my body was being ripped apart.

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