Page 20 of Devil

“He’s not here, so get on with it.” I knew Iwasbitchy and I couldn’t bring myself to care. I really was getting nervous about what he wanted to say. And then, he took a deep breath and started and the nervousness left, replaced by every emotion possible until there was none left to feel.

“Some you probably heard, but I’m going to start from when I left anyway. Basic Training was easy for the mostpart,and AIT for my MOS came naturally to me. I loved being trained as a medic. I had every intention of coming home on leave then, but as I graduated the situation started heating up in the Middle East and everyone was needed. I was at my duty station for a month before my unit shipped out to the desert. I was geared up and ready to fight for my country. I had the knowledge and the training, but as I look back now, being green doesn’t even touch what I was when we arrived and saw the devastation that already happened there. Anyway, I worked through all of that at about the six-month mark. Not going to go into it, but I witnessed enough death and saw enough of my brothers wounded to harden me. Well, at least I thought that at the time.

“My unit was out on patrol when the ground shook around us. After we hadcheckedin, the call came through to my sergeant that a unit of Marines had been hit around the vicinity where we were patrolling. The majority werewounded,and they had some fatalities too, whichincludedthe medic that was with them. It wasn’t or isn’t uncommon for the different branches of services to help each other. So, after we got thecoordinates,my unit started making our way to the Marines. When we reached them, everyone started pitching in with the wounded doing anything they could until I and the other medic with me could get to each one.”

“Parameters were set up so the area could be watched in case another attack was to happen. I know it soundsstrange,but that was really unlikely to take place because it had been a typical hit and run.”

“What’s that?” I hated to interrupt him because I was afraid he would stop talking and I wanted to hear what he experienced. It gave me a small glance into what he’d been through and even some of what my brother could have endured while there.

“When there isn’t enough of the enemy present to have a full out attack, they make a quick hit to take out as many as possible, then they flee just asfast,so they don’t get caught. The unit we were helping got hit by IEDs, improvised explosive devices, that were launched and the insurgents luckily didn’t stick around to finish the job, which means there was probably not enough of them to fight the remaining soldiers or they simply fired what they had. Sometimes we found nologicalexplanation for their actions. That is when we chalked it up to them wanting to kill any of us. Didn’t matter the number, just so there were some.

“Anyway, I had knelt down beside to check a corporal who was bleeding out. With so many men injured, we evaluated the most critical down to the ones who could wait. While I was checking the corporal, I heard a deep voice say Devil, and I froze for a second, then turned and lookedintothe face of your brother.”

“James,” I saidina whisper. My God, he had been with my brother when he died. “You were there?” I sat up quickly, not giving Lance a chance to hold me in place, and turned and straddled his lap. His head was back against thetree,and his eyes were closed. I placed a hand on each of his cheeks and held his face. When he opened his eyes, the pain was visible. “Tell me, please. Finish telling me.”

“I won’t tell you anything about hisinjuriesother than he was messed up. James died because I let him die.”

I gasped at his words but still held his face between my hands though his eyes were focused over my shoulder. I had no doubt hesawmore than the lake.

“James’s squad had been the first to reach thearea,and out of them, he and one other soldier were alive. I stopped the bleeding on the corporal and moved toJames,but he argued with me to save a soldier in his squad because the guy had two small kids he needed to go home to. Fuck, he even argued while I worked to stabilize him enough to either get airlifted out in one of the two choppers inrouteor at the very least to stay alive long enough to last the ride into the compound so the docs could get to work. I yelled at him when he said he wasn’t going to make it.

“The choppers were five minutes out. They had been dispatched from another base three kilometers south. The deuce and a half along with the other vehicles from the bases close by wouldn’t be there for ten to fifteen minutes.”

It broke my heart into pieces as I listened to Lance. The pain was evident not only in his eyes but his face and voice.

“Lance—” I was going to tell him to stop. He’d been through so much, more than I would ever know about, but he cut me off.

“I need to finish, Bailey. I’ve carried it too long and let it eat at me,” hesaid,and I nodded. “As I worked on him, he just kept saying over and over to let him go.”

“Let me go, Dev.”

“You’re going to be okay, James. I can stop the bleeding.”

“Look at me. I’m messed up, man.”

“You’re going home, James. We’ll get youback,and the docs will fix you up. You, me, and the others have a lot of riding to do together. Black Hawk needs a new Prospect.”

“You and I know I’m never riding again, even if I live. But I’m not, Dev. I’m torn up inside, I can feel it. Let me go. Walk away, help PVT Marks get back home. Tell my family I love them and, Lance, take care of Bailey, man.”

“Come on, you don’t want to go, James. I can hear the choppers. I’ll make sure you get on the first one.”

“Please, Dev, save Marks.”

“I’ll go and check on him, but your ass is on one of those birds. You hear me. We’re brothers, and we always have each other’s back, always.”

“Sure, Dev. Go check on him, okay?”

“Yeah, but not until you promise to hold on. Don’t give up.”

“I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I went to PVT Marks. The other medic had the tourniquets on hislegs,and he was as stable as he was going to get in the field. Someone yelled the first chopper was on the ground. They landed in an open area not far from where we were. I rushed to James so I could get him on that first one like I promised, but I knew before I even reached him that he wasn’t going to make it. He got me to walk away. When I reached him, he...” Lance’s eyes came back to mine, “he had undone a tourniquet I placed on him. With the bloodlosshe had sustained before we had reached him, that two minutes was all he needed. He’d already lostconsciousness,and I reapplied pressure but, I was too late. I asked him ‘why’ even though I knew he couldn’t hear me. As they reached us withthe stretcher, hetook a deep breath and wentintocardiac arrest. Even the epinephrine and CPR couldn’t bring back the beat to his heart.”

“Oh, Lance, you didn’t let him die. He chose that. Why would you even think you were responsible?”

“Because if I had stayed with him, he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do it.”

“Could you have gone with him on that chopper? Could you have stayed by his side every step of the way during his surgery or surgeries? Which by what you said, I would assume he needed more than one. We only got notified that he died from injuries sustained in a firefight. Then his body was shippedhome,and we buried him and mourned his loss. You couldn’t have stayed with him during recovery, therapy, or been with him when he finally got home to help him here. Could you?”

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