Devil's Island

by Jason Halstead

  Chapter 11

  “Holy shit!” Adrian exclaimed. “You really did that?”

  “Yeah,” Sam couldn’t help but smile as he recounted playing a prank on one of his roommates at basic training. “We were sick and tired of getting into trouble because of him, and the kid stank!” Well, prank was really a soft term for what they did to him.

  “But did your drill sergeant ever find out?” Alex asked from the back seat.

  “That we tied him up in a blanket and scrubbed him down in the showers?” Sam shook his head. “I’m sure they knew something had happened. They had to be just as sick of smelling his ass as we were. You can’t go a month in basic training without taking a shower. Idiot claimed he was allergic to water. Well, after that night, he showered regularly.”

  “I‘ll bet you’ve got lots of interesting stories to tell,” Subie cooed. Sam didn’t miss the way her eyes dropped to his missing leg, though she tried to cover it by sipping her frappuccino. The woman was a knockout and she didn't seem shy about letting people know it. Sam had no problems checking out what her bikini covered, and what it didn’t cover.

  The problem was, he kept comparing her to Tamara. Subie was with Brock, the high school wrestling hero, so he wasn't planning on hitting on her even if he did think both women were hot enough to could get a tan by standing between them. Sam could care less about her, but she'd given him the opportunity to pay Tamara back for the shit she'd pulled. Every time he smiled at Subie, Tamara noticed. She'd shift in her seat at the coffee shop they'd dragged him to or look somewhere else while biting her lip. It was pissing her off. . . With any luck maybe she'd get fed up with him and leave if he showed interest in another woman. That's what everyone else in his life did sooner or later anyhow.

  “Oh yeah, Sam just loves talking about himself,” Tamara said. Sam could tell that she was trying to mimic Subie’s tone.

  He felt the lines around his eyes tense while he fought to keep a smile on his face. He felt bad about what he was doing, but he was just speeding up the inevitable. Why fool himself into thinking a beautiful young thing like her would stick around?

  Still forcing a smile he shrugged and said, “I’ll have to tell you about the time I got my NCO in some hot water with the commander.”

  “You should tell them about how you lost your leg, Sam,” Tamara continued in the same honeyed tones. Her eyes bored into his with an intensity that made him forget about the sudden heat in his cheeks and the contrasting ice in his belly. He flinched and wanted to shake his head but found himself frozen.

  “Ooh, I want to hear about that!” Subie exclaimed right on Tamara’s heals. Sam saw Tamara grimace. Her jab had hit home and she knew it, but she'd done it publicly and now there wasn't an easy way out.

  “Leave the man alone,” Adrian quipped. “I’m sure he doesn’t want to talk about how he got injured. How would you feel, Subie, if you lost your tits? You wouldn’t want to talk about it.”

  “I’d get implants!” she shot back. “Besides, it’s not like he lost his manhood.” She glanced at his crotch. It shouldn’t have bothered him so much, but when she glanced at Tamara and raised an eyebrow, Sam felt insulted.

  “No, he definitely didn’t lose that! I swear I felt him in my throat when he fu—“ Tamara said, but Sam interrupted with the first thing that came to mind.

  “It was a bomb, hidden in a van.” Sam heard the words come out of his mouth, but his mind wouldn’t comprehending them. “We were out on patrol. It was a nasty neighborhood.” As he spoke the filthy streets of Afghanistan appeared before him. He saw his commanding officer in the passenger seat, eyes focused on the road. He heard himself talking again but all he saw was the past, “We’d heard there was a high value target in the area and my CO wanted us to be the ones to nab him.”

  The streets had been mostly empty. That should have been their warning but Sam had tricked himself into thinking they'd gotten lucky. They all had, lulled by the thoughts of getting some R&R after catching a high priority target. The locals always knew when a bomb was around. “One of the vehicles in our convoy began receiving small arms fire and we stopped to support them.” Sam turned his head away from the table to his left. They couldn't see what he saw, the ghostly image of a dented and dirty van sitting in the shade of the mud brick buildings.

  “Then what happened?” Alex asked. Her eyes were wide open.

  Sam turned back to them and blinked a couple times, trying to focus on reality again. His palms were sweaty and his heart thundered in his chest. For a moment, all he could see was smoke. All he could taste was blood, and hear screaming. His left leg felt numb for some reason. Why couldn’t he feel his toes?

  “Sam?” someone said his name, but he barely heard it over the ringing in his ears from the explosion.

  No, damn it! I’m not there anymore. I’m home. None of this is happening.

  “I don’t remember,” Sam lied, dropping his eyes. “I woke up in a hospital a few days later. Like this.”

  “Damn! That must have been intense!” Adrian exclaimed. “Well, I’ve got to say thanks for your service. I don’t think I’d have the guts to do something like that. Seriously! Thanks for our freedoms.” He held his hand out, and Sam just stared at it for a moment, before gripping it in his.

  “I didn’t have the guts to do it either,” Sam said, shaking the other man’s hand. “But I wasn’t really given a choice. Trust me, I wish I hadn’t been there.”

  “Were you a Marine?” Subie asked next. “I’ve heard they see some serious shit!”

  “A Marine?” Sam scoffed, glad that his heart was starting to slow down. For some reason he was starting to feel calm again. “No. I was in the Army. I have a lot of respect for the Corp, but I’m no Jarhead.”

  “What did you do in the Army?” Subie asked.

  “You mean besides getting blown up?” Sam laughed weakly. “I was a combat medic. It was my job to fix the real heroes.” Only he hadn’t been able to help anyone, much less himself. For once, that thought stung less than usual.

  “I’ve got to tell you,” Adrian spoke again. “When I met you last night, I thought you were a dick, but you’re alright. A little old, but alright.” The man had an odd gleam in his eyes, and Sam hoped he hadn’t become the kid’s hero. He wasn’t worthy of being anyone’s hero. The men shipped back home in bags, they were the ones that deserved that title.

  “Hey, there’s a party tonight on the beach. Why don’t you come?” Subie asked, giving a little bounce. That bounce drew his gaze to her bikini clad tits, and he had to look away before he was drawn in.

  Tamara has great tits, too, a rogue thought spoke to him.

  “Sam’s not the type to party,” Tamara spoke for the first time since he started recounting his past. “He’s more of the stay-at-home type.”

  “I’d love to,” Sam said before he could think better of it. If there was loud music and a crowd, he was going to suffer. But if it meant not being home alone with Tamara, and more of an opportunity to show her he wasn’t the man for her, then he would do it.

  Despite his resolve, Tamara’s glare bothered him.