The Independents Read Online Free PDF Page A

everywhere from all direction s . I could feel the rounds passing over my chest. Dirt and grass spraying and stinging like a swarm of be es when it hit skin. S moke so thick you could barely see, much less breathe. A nd so many men screaming - oh god , Terri - the screams. My brain should have been completely overloaded, yet somehow, I knew someone had shot at me from behind. ”
    He shuddered and then had to stand again, his body far too tense to remain seated. “I half crawled and half ran back to try and protect Mr. Mossback and Carlos. On the way, some big Arab dude and I cracked heads and both of us went down, rolling around on the ground.”
    Bishop bent down , retrieved his fighting knife , and held it close to his chest - like a preacher would hold a B ible . He didn’t take it out of the scabbard, but seemed to just want it close to him. Terri watched as every sine w, cord and vein bulged in the arm holding the knife . She got a cold chill when she tried to imagine anyone facing Bishop and that blade .
    Terri suddenly remembered her determined pursuit of the perfect Christmas gift for B ishop when the two were still dating. His knife seemed to be one of his favorite things as he was always oiling, sharpe ning , or messing with it. Without his knowing, she dug it out of his gear and took it to a custom knife maker, whose website was inundated by page after page of 5-star customer reviews, raving about his skill and attention to detail . She had commissioned a blade of similar size for a tidy sum. The knife maker had been polite, but completely unimpressed with Bishop’s choice. “It’s just an off-the-shelf infantry model . Don’t get me wrong, your husband has a good knife here, but it’s nothing special.” When the job was complete , she had been super impressed with the work of art the man created . She couldn’t wait for Christmas morning. Whe n Bishop opened the gift, he smiled and was very grateful, but his reaction was not what she had expected. He never carried the new knife. Now I know why.
    Slowly, his grip on the sheath relaxed , and he started talking again . His voice was completely em otionless .
    “By the time I had taken big man out of the fight, it was all over. To this day, I don’t know why they stopped. They had completely overrun us , and we were all but out of ammo. Maybe they had just had enough , I don’t know . All of a s udden, nobody was shooting at us anymore. Elvis was wounded badly and bleeding out. He had taken two rounds to his right leg , and one had hit an artery. Reaper was gone - just disappeared. Carlos was missing as well , and Mr. Mossback was buried under a pile of equipment cases and gear , but unhurt.”
    Terri waited for a minute for him to continue, but he didn’t. This is a critical time for him , she thought, he needs to get this out . “Bishop, where was Reaper?”  
    “At the time, I didn’t know. Big Arab dude managed to hit me in the head with his rifle butt , and the fog hadn’t cleared yet. I remember running to Reaper’s position and being amazed at the bodies that littered the ground . I remember that because I was checking to see if any of the dead were Reaper. The bodies were kind of piled up. I figured he either had changed position and would show up in a bit or had decided to give chase for a while. Not mu ch made sense right about then.”
    Terri gave him a questioning look , but Bishop didn’t seem to notice . When he started speaking again, the pain in his voice was obvious.
    “I ran back to take care of Elvis. He was bleeding badly and fumbling around , trying to wrap a tourniquet on his leg. We somehow managed to get it on as well as some pressure bandages . Right in the middle of all this…this…mayhem , we found out where Reaper was .
    Bishop looked up at Terri. She had never seen him look so helpless. She tried to think of something to say, but he started talking again . “ They had him , and he was still alive. I’ll never