Steve went to a PTSD meeting to find Sam counseling other veterans.
A female war veteran said, "The thing is I think it's getting worse. A cop pulled me over last week, he thought I was drunk. I swerved to miss a plastic bag. I thought it was an IED."
"Some stuff you leave there, other stuff you bring back," Sam told the group. "It's our job to figure out how to carry it. Is it gonna be in a big suitcase or in a little man-purse? It's up to you."
After the meeting, Steve waited for Sam as he finished saying goodbye to the veterans.
"I'll see you next week," the female veteran said.
"Yeah," Sam answered.
"Yeah."
Sam walked over to Steve and said, "Look who it is. The running man."
"Caught the last few minutes," Steve replied. "It's pretty intense."
"Yeah, brother, we all got the same problems. Guilt, regret."
"You lose someone?"
"My wingman, Riley. Flying a night mission. Standard PJ rescue op, nothing we hadn't done a thousand times before, till RPG knock Riley's dumb ass out of the sky. Nothing I could do. It's like I was up there just to watch."
"I'm sorry."
"After that, I had a really hard time finding a reason for being over there, you know?"
"But you're happy now, back in the real world?"
"Hey, the number of people giving me orders is down to about zero. So, hell, yeah. You thinking about getting out?"
"No. I don't know. To be be honest, I don't know what I would do with myself if I did."
"Ultimate fighting?" Steve laughed. "It's just a great idea off the top of my head. But seriously, you could do whatever you want to do. What makes you happy?"
"I don't know."
---
As Fury and Dakota drove through the city he instructed his car computer to make a call.
"Activating communications encryption protocol," Fury's car said.
"Open secure line zero-four-zero-five," Fury ordered.
"Confirmed."
"This is Hill," Hill said.
"Agent Pierce and I need you here in D.C. Deep shadow conditions," Fury told her.
"Give me four hours."
"You have three, over." Fury stopped at a red traffic light.
He looked over to the next car and saw the two police officers in the car look at him with suspicion. "Want to see my lease?" The policemen quickly sounded their police horn once before they started to drive off. As Fury went to drive off, another police car smashed into his car. His car was then surrounded by several other police cars crashing into him; inside his car Fury and Dakota were injured.
Dakota winced and let out a pained groan.
"Fractures detected," Fury's car said. "Recommend anesthetic injections." As Fury was giving himself the injection, shortly followed by Dakota giving herself one, a SWAT team truck pulled up. "D.C. Metro Police dispatch shows no units in this area." Fury was surrounded by the police and SWAT team. He quickly realized they were all disguised mercenaries.
He said to his car computer, "Get me and Pierce out of here!" The mercenaries suddenly started shooting at Fury's car.
"Propulsion systems offline."
YOU ARE READING
Brave Words, Braver Deeds
ActionLiesl had successfully escaped captivity, but lived with the fear that she'd be captured again. A little over a year later, she comes face-to-face with the barrel of a gun; and the one she'd take a bullet for stands behind the trigger. She has a c...
