Page 2 of Abigail
The kitchen wasn’t very big. Half the room was taken up with a large handmade wooden table with a bench on each long side and a single chair at each end. The set up made Robert think of a table in a castle where the knights would gather to eat and plan their next battle. The young boy had a vivid imagination spurred on by the stories his Gran would read to him before bed each night when he was with her. Escaping into those stories helped his mind handle the chaos that was his life.
Having a teenager for a mother can be a tough life, and it would have been worse if his grandmother Lucille hadn’t stepped in and tried to get custody of him. However, in the court’s infinite wisdom, they felt it was important to give Nicole another chance at getting her life together and being a good mother.
Robert knew it wasn’t going to happen even at his young age. Too many times in his young life she had drug him from one shithole to another. Eventually the drugs, drinking, and poor choices would end in either a DUI with Robert in the car or, like tonight, a police raid on a drug house. Then a social worker would come, and Robert would be placed in a temporary foster home until his grandmother could be located, and he would be returned to her. He kept hoping that someday the judge would realize his poor mother would never get her act together and let him live with his grandmother Lucille for good. It hadn’t happened yet, but he’d been in a particularly bad situation this time. Maybe this would be the day the judge would give him to Lucille permanently.
CHAPTERONE
Robert Jay ‘Straw’ Ford arrives at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina to begin his new career. He is a trained medic for the United States Navy. He’s completed special forces training and has received his first team assignment. A Marine’s Special Forces team known as the Marine Raiders. He will be joining the second Battalion, Company 1, Team 1. He has been fortunate enough to be placed on the same team as his childhood friend, Tucker James “Tank” Evans. Tank has been on the team for a couple of years. He has told Straw really good things about the team leader, “Hawk” Jackson.
Hawk is known to be a tough, but fair man, an exceptional leader. Straw is stoked to find that two men he went through special ops training with will also be assigned to this team. Curtis Wallace, a.k.a. Wallace and Kannon ‘Mercury’ Cooper are good men. Straw is looking forward to reconnecting and working with them.
Straw enters the conference room the first morning of his new assignment and immediately sees a familiar face. Wallace is already at the long table that occupies a good portion of the room. He seems relieved to see Straw, too. Wallace immediately crosses the room to shake Straw’s hand.
“Straw, good to see you man,” Wallace declares as the two shake hands. Straw notices an older man at the end of the long table. That must be Hawk. For a man in his early forties, he’s in great physical shape. Straw’s attention is drawn back to the door behind him when he hears voices entering the room.
Straw looks over his right shoulder as a massive man enters the room. Tank is easily over six and a half feet tall. The man is built like his nickname with muscles on top of muscles. His uniform shirt seems to be about to burst at the seams. Straw’s face breaks into a huge grin at the site of his childhood friend. There are other men filing in behind him. Before they have a chance to catch up, Captain Mark Olson enters the room. He quickly calls the room to order. The men all take seats at the long table.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” the captain begins. “We have some new members this morning.” The man introduces Straw, Wallace, and Mercury to the others in the room. He then proceeds to introduce the new guys to the seasoned team members.
“Jordan ‘Hawk’ Jackson is the team leader.” Capt. Olson points to the older man Straw had seen when he entered the conference room. “He is the man with the plan. Your go to man. Next is Warren ‘Deadeye’ Vickers, he’s our sharp shooter and second in lead to Hawk.” A dark-haired man with a sour look on his face gives the room a nod. Straw wonders if the man is always a sour puss. He doesn’t have time to give it more thought as the captain continues.
“Then we have our tech geeks: Christopher ‘Virus’ Manchester and Elijah ‘Hack’ Smith.” Two men look even younger than Straw’s age of twenty-eight. They each give him a nod. Straw thinks to himself neither of those men look like any tech geeks he’s ever seen. Both men are well muscled and look as deadly as anyone else in the room. “They have unique skills to help the team navigate through whatever the situation might need. GPS location, hacking security systems, vetting potential targets and allies,” the captain concludes.
“Next is Tucker ‘Tank’ Evans,” the captain begins again. Straw surveys the room as the man relates Tank’s accolades. Straw has kept up with his childhood friend over the years and is well acquainted with Tank’s unique set of skills. The man is a beast. After all his nickname is Tank, which he received during basic training. Tank had always been a big guy. Even in middle school he was pushing six feet in height and well over two hundred pounds. Tank had been chastised many times over the years for being too aggressive and injuring guys when playing football in middle and high school. He had become accustomed to reigning himself in. He once had been holding back during hand-to-hand combat training and his drill sergeant had given him shit over it. Straw’s mind wanders to the story Tank had told him of how he got his nickname during a training exercise during basic training.
“God dammit, Evans,” the man yelled. “Is that all you got? A big man like you? I said tackle me you fucking pussy!” Wrong thing to say. Tank hated to be called a pussy, so…he plowed into the man with everything he had. The sergeant went down hard and was effectively knocked unconscious for a couple of minutes. Tank confessed to Straw for a brief moment he thought he had actually killed the poor fucker. When the man woke, he asked what hit him a tank? So, the name stuck.
Straw is brought out of the memory when the captain introduces, Ethan ‘Ace’ Gibson. The man is an excellent tracker and held in high regard on the team. As Straw heard it from Tank, the man was a true hero. He once took a bullet to keep Deadeye from getting shot in the back. While they are all trained and have vowed to have each other’s six, even if it means giving up your life, it becomes all the more real when you are sitting next to a man that is a living example.
The final man to round out the team is Russell ‘Worm’ Chapman. He’s one of the younger men on the team. At only twenty-five years old, he’s proven himself more than capable. Worm is one of those unique individuals who can speak multiple languages, rattle off statistics about any sport without hesitation, have an intense debate over Marvel superheroes and their skill set, or discuss classic literature. Yet, you would never know he was that intelligent just by looking at him. He looked like an average, GI Joe.
Straw comes to feel like each and every one of the men are his brothers over the next few weeks as they train and prepare for their first deployment. Bonds are forged through the endless hours of drills and training sessions, successes and failures. Through it all they build one another up and make lifelong friendships. Over the years on deployments and stateside, the men become more than teammates. They become brothers.
CHAPTERTWO
Abigail Marie Miller is in the most serious trouble she has ever been in and that is saying something. Growing up in a drug house, in and out of foster care, and a few run-ins with juvenile detention, she’s had her fair share of trouble over the years, but this is very different. She has gotten herself in way over her head this time. She’s really fucked up. There is no getting out of this one. Her luck, if you can call it that, has finally ran out.
Packing as quickly as she can, Abi throws clothes in a ratty old suitcase while bouncing the wailing baby on her hip. Ellie is crying incessantly. It’s as if the baby knows what Abi has done and is mourning all that she’s thrown away with her actions. Once Abi has as much as she can carry, she starts for the door. Before leaving, she grabs the house phone dialing 911.
“911 What is your emergency?” the operator answers the phone. Panic floods her. What should she say? Just tell the truth. “Hello? What’s your emergency? Are you there?”
“Um…I killed him. I-I didn’t mean to. He was trying to kill me. I’m really sorry…” Abi drops the phone to the floor, leaving the line open so the dispatcher will have the address. With one last glance at the bloody man lying on the floor, she runs to her car, praying she will get away before the cops shows up.
As quickly as possible, Abi has them in the car. Ellie securely buckled into her safety seat. She drives away from Paris Island, South Carolina as fast as she can, but not so fast as to get stopped by the police. Abi has to get them as far away as possible before the police arrive and find out what she did.
Abi tries to calm herself down as she heads for the interstate. She can’t afford to get stopped for speeding. She hadn’t taken time to change clothes. Her clothes are sticky with blood and vomit. The smell is sickening. If the cops catch her, she is covered in evidence and DNA. She’d have no way to deny what happened. They would take the baby away and send her to prison. Abi knows without a doubt she would never be allowed to see the baby again. Ellie would end up in foster care, much like she had as a child. That is not the life she wants for her baby girl. Her baby deserves better, and Abi is determined to give it to her no matter the cost.
Ellie would be grown by the time Abigail got out of prison,ifshe managed to survive. She hadn’t meant to do the awful thing she’s done, but she’d really had no choice. She was only trying to protect herself and Ellie. She’d thought about waiting for the cops to show up and explain to them it was self-defense, but no one would ever believe her, not with her background and the situation. Fleeing is the best option.
Meanwhile in North Carolina…
Straw is looking forward to a couple days off as he enters the mess hall to grab some lunch one Friday afternoon. Most of the team has gathered to share their meal, shoot the shit, and share weekend plans. The television mounted on the wall near the table the team has chosen to sit at for their meal, suddenly blares with a news alert.
“Breaking news out of the US Marine base in Paris Island, South Carolina,” the reporter begins in dramatic fashion. Straw is about shove a bite of military grade mac’n’cheese into his mouth when a woman’s picture is flashed across the screen. He lowers his fork as shock fills his system.
“Shush!” Straw says to the men around him. They either don’t hear him or ignore him. “Quiet!” he demands loudly. They are suddenly silenced turning to look at their friend. Seeing his pale as a ghost face and him staring at the T.V. screen, they turn their gaze to see what has gotten his attention.
“Police are saying this woman is a person of interest in the attack. We will join our reporter in the field with more details, Lindsey, what are officials saying?” the anchor man asks. The woman’s image on the screen is minimized as a female reporter’s face appears on the left side of the screen. She is nodding her head and reaches to her left ear to adjust her ear piece before she begins to speak. “Right, Henry. We arrived on scene a few minutes ago, details are sketchy, but we have learned that a man was found in an apartment near base. Police are being tight lipped with any details. Witnesses say they saw an ambulance leaving with lights and sirens blaring after loading a bloody body into the back. MPs that are also on scene are refusing to comment on the individual’s condition but confirm there has been an incident with a member of the Navy. They have asked that we share this picture. They say she is a person of interest in whatever occurred here this morning but are refusing further comment. If you see this woman, please call the military police immediately! A press conference has been scheduled for later this afternoon. Lindsey Andrews reporting in East Beaufort, SC. News2.”
