David swallowed thickly.“Please…”
The corporal chuckled without smiling.“That’s what they all say.”
David braced for the end.
Then someone hit the corporal from the side, hard enough to send him flying through the air.David blinked and turned to see a tall figure almost as burly as the corporal kick the gun from the corporal’s hand.
The corporal growled and threw himself at the newcomer’s legs, tackling him to the ground.He pushed himself upright and lifted a huge, knobby fist, but before he could deliver the blow, the newcomer bucked his hips, then rolled on top of the corporal.David could only see the man’s silhouette, but it looked familiar somehow.
The stranger backed off of the corporal and got to his feet, hands raised in a boxer’s stance.The corporal got to his feet, brushed dirt from his legs, then growled at the newcomer.He stepped forward, and the stranger threw a lightning sharp combo: jab-cross-hook-uppercut.
The stranger blocked the left hand and dodged the right, but the left hook slammed into his temple, and the right uppercut crashed into his jaw.The corporal’s head snapped back, and the stranger stepped forward and buried a knee into his gut.The corporal doubled over, but when the stranger tried to drop a double hammerfist down on his neck, he grabbed the man around his waist again.
This time, the stranger threw his legs out behind him in a wrestler’s sprawl and pushed down on the corporal’s head, forcing his momentum downward and staying upright.David’s eyes were adjusting to the dark, and he saw that the stranger was Caucasian, in his early forties, and slightly overweight but still powerfully built.
And now David recognized him.“Michael,” he called, his voice a hoarse whisper.
“Kinda busy, David,” Faith’s friend and former partner quipped.
The corporal, frustrated that he couldn’t take Michael to the ground, stepped back and threw a massive overhand left.Michael stepped forward and blocked the blow by placing his forearm on the man’s bicep, then lifted that arm rapidly, driving an upward elbow that shattered the corporal’s nose.
The corporal shrieked and ran backwards, pressing his hand to his nose.Michael, breathing heavily, stepped in between David and the Marine, hands raised once more.The corporal dropped his hand away and glared at Michael, baring his teeth.He reached into a pouch on his vest and drew a knife.
“Don’t do it,” Michael warned.
With a roar, the man charged, thrusting at Michael with the knife.Michael parried the blow, then faded away from a slash that would have disemboweled him.The corporal lifted the knife high and brought it down hard.
Michael brought both hands up to block the thrust, but that left him open to a left hook to his liver.He cried out and fell to a knee, and the corporal threw another left hook that struck him in the jaw.He fell to the ground, and the corporal cried out with joy and jumped down, bringing the knife toward his head.
Michael rolled out of the way, and the knife buried itself in the dirt between Michael and David.The corporal cursed and pulled the knife out of the ground.He looked at David, grinned, then swung the knife viciously at David’s throat.
Hands wrapped around the corporal’s waist, and Michael pulled him backwards off of his feet.The knife swung inches from David’s face.He heard the sing of the blade as it cut the air in front of him.
Michael took another step back and when the corporal tried to stab his arms, he released the man.The knife buried itself in the corporal’s gut instead.He gasped and stared in disbelief at the handle sticking out of his abdomen.
Michael threw a short right hook into the man’s kidney, and he cried out and dropped to his knees.Michael angled off and threw a perfect Muay Thai roundhouse kick that connected solidly with the corporal’s temple.He fell to the ground and lay still.
Michael limped and rubbed his shin.He said something to David, but David didn’t hear it.He was too busy staring at the dead man in front of him.Dead because of him.Dead because he couldn’t let this go.No longer alive, because David had interfered with his mission, and he had come to kill David.
David’s actions had gotten someone killed.In self-defense, yes, or rather a friend defending him, but still…
I shouldn’t have done this.I should have stayed away.Faith was right, and I should have stayed away.
Michael was in front of him now, staring at him and calling his name.David blinked and focused his attention on him.
“Hey?Are you listening?Can you hear me?”
“Sorry,” David croaked.
“Yeah, you should be,” Michael scolded.“And we can have a long conversation about it later.Right now, though, we’re going to get you to a hospital.”
He bent down and lifted David to his feet.David’s head swam, and his feet collapsed underneath him.Michael kept him from falling and picked him up off the ground, grunting with the effort.
“Just so you know,” Michael said, voice straining as he carried David up the hill to his waiting SUV.“I willneverlet you live this down.”
David felt a rush of gratitude and guilt in equal measure.Tears came to his eyes, and though this was not at all an appropriate time to cry, they fell anyway.Michael, thankfully, let them fall without mention.He waved his foot under the SUV’s rear bumper, and the liftgate opened revealing a folded third row and two opulent second-row captain’s chairs.
“Okay,” Michael said, laying David down in the middle of the floor.“Pull yourself up in between the second row.I can push you, but it’ll hurt like a bitch.”
