Page 37 of Perfect Chemistry

“Shit. That seems fast. How long have you been in?”

“Just over five years. Hey, concentrate on the road,” I advised the nosy Norman, playing twenty questions with me.

There was silence in the vehicle for ten minutes. I called in our next check point, and then he started up again.

“You gonna make Gunny?” He continued questioning me.

“Hopefully. Hey, Corporal? Be on the look out for any trash or debris on the road ahead,” I shouted up to the gunner.

“I don’t see any trash but the-”

The world shifted in red and white.

Shit. Shit. “PULL UP A PERIMETER!” I yelled from beside my truck to the Marines running toward me.

“MEDIC! WE NEED A MEDIC!”

“HELP!”

“PLEASE! I’M PINNED. DON’T LEAVE ME HERE!”

Fuck. My ears were ringing. What were they doing? Why weren’t they securing the perimeter? This wasn’t how we did shit.

“SET UP THE DAMN SECURITY PERIMETER!” I screamed again.

They were panicking with their first IED contact rather than doing what needed to be done; how they were trained to respond to such a situation. I watched as my words finally registered, and the panicked scrambling bodies suddenly stopped and took up their proper positioning.

The sound of gunfire started up behind somewhere to my right, but it was muffled because of the incessant ringing in my ears. I looked over to the next vehicle now moving to block the wreckage that my vehicle had become.

“WHERE’S THE RTO? CALL IT IN AND SEND UP THE NINE-LINE!! TELL THEM WE NEED AIR. NOW!” I continued to bark orders at the top of my lungs.

I felt a pair of hands pulling me away from my vehicle, but I tried to fight them off. “Stop, I am not the priority. Get the other two first!” I barked, pointing to my driver and gunner.

“Staff Sergeant, you’re bleeding out. I need to get you stable. Can you feel your legs?” The medic questioned me as I tried to swat him away in order to keep my eyes on what the others were doing. Why did he look pink?

“I’m fine. I need you to save the other two! Please,” I attempted to divert his attention back to the two junior Marines who had been in the vehicle with me.

“The others are taking care of them. You’re the priority right now, do you understand. They might lose a limb, but I’m looking at your insides, Preston. So, shut the fuck up and stop moving so I can save your fucking life!” the medic, Lieutenant Corry, growled at me.

I heard him, but it didn’t register. “They’re going to lose a limb? Shit. I promised them I would look after them!”

“Preston? Preston?” Someone was calling my name.

Wait. My organs are hanging out?

I looked down to see the red mess that was my abdomen. “Oh, shit,” my voice sounded so quiet as everything went black. Tyson, I’m sorry.

“PRESTON! SHIT, I NEED EXTRA HANDS! WE’RE LOSING HER!!”

Chapter 13

Kai’s Point of View

I was slammed with work at the clinic this week. I thought I could swing working full time while attending night classes, but I barely finished my assignments for the physical therapy assistant certification. I had no idea how hard it was going to be juggling the two, but I needed the money if I was going to pay for the doctoral program.

My phone pinged, but I couldn’t stop to check it. I had three more patients today, and then I needed to finish charting before I ran home to eat and change for class.

It took me two hours to finally clear the patient list, clear my charts, and get out of the office. I didn’t have time to change before classes, so I just went straight to class. I was walking back out to my car at eight o’clock when I remembered to check my phone again. There were a ton of missed calls from Jenny and a few texts asking me to call her.

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