Page 1 of Inglorious
Prologue.
Inglorious
Dead, they’re all dead. I looked around and saw nothing but the bodies of my men, my brothers.
Dead.
They are all dead.
The word screamed in my mind on repeat:Dead, dead, dead.
Someone landed beside me. A brother appeared, blackened from smoke, and blood welling in a million cuts, and he was breathing. Razor was breathing. Hardly daring to believe, I surged upwards and, ignoring the pain in my body, clasped Razor like a lifeline.
One alive.
I looked around with hope. Maybe my eyes were deceiving me.
Someone placed a body beside me.
Chill.
Chill wasn’t moving, but his eyes were open and there was a shocked expression on his face. Like Razor, Chill appeared a mess, but just as I thought he was dead, Chill blinked.
Stunned, I sat there, gripping Razor tightly around the neck, keeping him close and holding Chill’s hand, which gripped mine in return.
Then, like all things fleeting, hope faded when, one after another, my brothers were declared dead. The RCPD covered their bodies with whatever they could find, giving my brothers dignity and privacy.
But I saw. Witnessed everything, and there’d be no scrubbing those images from my memory, ever.
My gaze landed on Psych. We’d grown up together. Psych stared at me, eyes dead, with an arm and a leg missing. Ben covered him up and moved on to the next body. Shocked beyond belief, I kept staring at Psych.
Dead.
Psych, dead.
Bomber, dead.
Trip, dead.
Mouse, dead.
Poison, dead.
Snake, dead.
Satan, dead.
Darkness, Plug, Slim, Cutthroat, Heat, Yeti, Casanova, Chap, and Art. DEAD.
Someone tried to move Chill, and I fought. Fuck my wounds.Nobody is taking Chill from me.He needed me to keep him alive.
“Inglorious, we gotta get Chill to the hospital. Chill’s hurt bad,” Ramirez yelled in my face.
Ramirez looked pale, shocked, and there was an expression on his face I couldn’t describe. He was a cop, not a soldier. None of us were prepared for this. How do we deal with this?
“Chill needs me!” I roared, but it was a pathetic whimper.Why can’t I yell?
Smoke billowed around me, and heat from the burning defences heated my skin, but I couldn’t cry or shout. Strangely, I felt locked in, but I had to hold on to Chill. I’m keeping him alive. If they take Chill away, he’ll die.
