The Embattled Road (Lost and Found Series) Read Free Page B

the actual injury sometimes. They’d taken skin from his thigh to graft to his back. The pieces seemed to be attaching fine but he still took meds to combat rejection and infection.
    Chad looked across the room at Gunnery Sergeant Palmer, who was flipping channels on the TV. “Hey, Gunny.”
    “Fuck you.”
    Chad winked at Duncan. “Yeah, nice to see you too, buddy.”
    “I’m not your buddy, Lowell.”
    Chad made a comical face at Duncan. “The Gunny and I were in the same airplane for a while, weren’t we? Then we shared a rehab room for a while.”
    Duncan looked at Palmer. He’d refused to talk to anybody unless it was to berate them. This was the first time he’d heard the man talk to anyone without having a ‘fuck you’ attached. And though he was flipping channels on the TV, Duncan thought he seemed to be paying more attention than he normally did.
    “But don’t worry,” Chad continued. “His bark is worse than his bite.”
    Palmer snorted but didn’t remove his eyes from the screen. “Come within reach of this bed you little shit and I’ll show you how bad I can bite.”
    Chad laughed and wiggled his chair with his right hand. “Sorry, Gunny, I can only make left turns right now. Maybe another day I’ll let you take a chunk out of my hide.”
    “Plan on it,” he murmured.
    Duncan was in shock. The downright belligerent Gunnery Sergeant had berated and insulted all who stepped through the hospital room door, including Duncan himself, but he apparently had a soft spot for Lowell. The sharp kid was easy going and a bit of a cut-up. He’d been the perfect balance of tough and fun to work with the new pukes when they came in. Apparently the same approach worked well with Palmer.
    They sat and talked for the better part of an hour before the orderly returned for Lowell. “Grub’s coming, sir.”
    Chad nodded and made his goodbyes. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
    Duncan wasn’t going to hold him to the promise, but when he rolled into the room the next day he was very glad to see him.
    They settled into a pattern of hanging out together unless one of them had rehab. Sometimes they scheduled their rehab at the same time, so they still hung out and encouraged each other.
    Palmer unthawed enough to talk to him, but he seemed reluctant to mention his wounds. Duncan couldn’t blame him, even though it was the great purple elephant in the room. He’d overheard enough conversation between the doctors to know that the other man’s injuries were not recoverable. Yes, he might feel things occasionally, but he’d never walk again.  Guilt that his own feeling was returning but Palmer’s wasn’t nagged at him, and he debated whether or not to request to be moved to another room, just so the other Marine didn’t have to watch.
    But he put it off the more connected they became. Palmer even gave him congratulations on the feeling moving up his legs. Duncan wished he could share his good fortune with the other man. They hadn’t been in the same unit, but he’d come to be partial to his grumpy ass.
     
     
    Gunfire erupted right next to Chad’s head and it took everything he had not to clap his hands over his ringing ears. Instead, he tightened his fists on the stock of the M16 and tried to sight down the barrel. They were running low on ammunition. Every bullet had to count. “Short and controlled, men. Don’t waste your ammo!” Half a dozen ‘yes, Sergeants’ bounced back to him.
    He squeezed off two rounds and the return fire coming from across the street stopped. His ears had gone beyond ringing to numb and his head ached from the percussion of the gunfire in the confined space, but he grinned. They were pushing the bastards back.
    He glanced at his watch. Only an hour since they’d rolled into this damn little village. They’d only engaged the enemy less than ten minutes ago. Ten minutes in Iraq’s Diyala Province was longer than ten minutes anywhere else on the Earth though, and he knew he