Last True Hero Read Online Free PDF

been at that restaurant a few times a week for the past three weeks. Do you still work there?”
    Her dimples deepen in her cheeks as she smiles, and my heart flutters.
    Yeah. Like a bitch, my heart flutters.
    “I do. Were you looking for me?”
    “Maybe.” I shrug.
    “Well, if you were, keep looking. You might just get what you came for. I finished my senior year of college last week. Back home in Lone Sands…until.”
    “Until?”
    She walks back toward the door.
    “Just until,” she tosses over her shoulder on her way out.
    And then, she’s gone.
    I hope to hell she’s telling me the truth about going back to work at See Food. Because I’m about to buy stock in the place.
      
    My body is cold and clammy, a thin sheen of sweat covering every inch of me as I wrestle ferociously with my bedsheets. When my wild thrashing finally wakes me out of the shitty excuse for sleep, I discover I’ve been shouting. Drake is standing over me, his voice cool and placid as he instructs me to calm down. He tells me that I’m home, I’m not there , and I’m safe.
    I’m safe. I’m safe…
    My hair sticks to the back of my slick neck. I’ve been here so long it’s grown longer than the army standard. I slap at it as I hustle in the darkness.
    The subtropical African climate fucks with my head, my body. I’m a Ranger, so I’ve been trained to fight in all climates, but I’ve been here too long. My hamstring convulses in a heat cramp, and I clutch it as I go down.
    Crawling, flies buzz around my face in the long savanna grass, and I’m thankful for the camouflage, even if I have no way of knowing what else hides in these grasses.
    My head snaps up, whips around. My night vision goggles are long gone, just like my battalion. My breath catches, and my stomach heaves as I think of them. God , help me. Their voices are getting closer, my escape has been broadcast across the radios, and if they find me, they’ll kill me. I gotta move.
    Army crawl is how I travel the mile between the jungle camp where I’ve been kept and the village nearby. I don’t want to bring the hell I’ve been experiencing to the innocent people in the village, but I have to get out of here.
    The blood cakes my elbows as the sun rises behind me, a brilliant burst of color and light that I can’t believe exists in a place like this. At one point, I thought I’d never see the sunrise again. Tears cover the cheeks I’m sure are the same color as the mud covering my ripped fatigues, and I can see the first hut of the village not far in front of me.
    I made it. I’m safe…I’m safe…
    And then I lose consciousness.
    I start back to complete consciousness and focus on Drake’s huge form standing beside me.
    Gasping for air, I raise both hands to my head. My hair is sticking to the back of my neck just like it did back then, but as I take in my surroundings I can see that I’m not there. I’m not in that jungle anymore. That was months ago, although sometimes it seems like it couldn’t have really happened in this lifetime.
    “Shit,” I mutter. “I did it again?”
    Drake nods. “You talk to anyone about this PTSD?”
    I nod. “Yeah. Did some therapy after I got back. Didn’t stop the dreams. Fucking jungle creeps in at night, only at night.”
    Nodding again, Drake thumps me on the back. “I’m here, man. If you want to talk about it…I’m here. I still feel all kinds of guilt that I got out before…before it happened. I should have been with you.”
    I shake my head, looking him full on in the eyes. “No, you shouldn’t. You might have died like the rest of them. You’re here for me now. Now get the hell outta here. I’m gonna try to get a little more sleep.”
    One side of his mouth turns up, nowhere near his normal grin, and nods again. “See you in the morning.”
    I lay in the dark, just staring up at my ceiling, trying as hard as I can to claw my way back from the memories. I pull a pillow into my chest, clutching it as