He suddenly wished for Molly to be here with her enhanced senses. She’d be able to guide him along the safest route. He just had to hope she was safe and not overrun with chores at the hospital.
“Captain,” one of his men called to him when a little boy ran out from the small village.
The child was covered head to toe in dirt and what looked like blood. Hayden couldn’t instantly go to help him. They needed to ensure he wasn’t being used as a distraction to allow an ambush.
“Stop where you are and put your hands in the air,” Hayden ordered the young boy and pointed his gun at him.
The boy froze, his eyes going wide as he began to scream out. Hayden had learned enough of the local language to know the boy was calling for help from his father.
“We’ll follow behind him. Keep your eyes open for any other movement. Guns at the ready. Don’t shoot until you are certain it’s the enemy. These people are civilians until proven otherwise,” Hayden ordered
“Yes, sir,” the men answered in unison, and they made their way deeper into the village, following the boy.
These types of missions were always dangerous but needed to be done. After all, it was one of the primary reasons he was here—to help the people.
“This way,” the boy urged with desperation.
Eventually, they came upon a small hut made out of sticks and mud. Hayden made his way inside to find a man collapsed on a makeshift bed. By the pool of blood around him, he’d obviously been shot. A woman stood crying over him. Hayden knew it didn’t look good.
There was a medic on Hayden’s team, and the doctor stepped forward and started looking at the critically injured man. Hayden started to question the woman, in her native language, about what happened.
“How long has he been like this?” Hayden asked.
“A few hours,” the woman replied through her sobs. “He’s my husband. Please can you help him? The men, they came and took anyone who was able to fight. He refused, so they shot him in the stomach. Why are they doing this? We’re peaceful. We don’t want this. Please can you save him?”
Hayden relayed everything to the doctor. “How’s he looking?”
“I can stem the bleeding easily, but he’s lost a lot of blood. He needs a transfusion. I don’t want to attempt anything else without that, and moving him to do the transfusion at the hospital will kill him.”
“I’m type O negative, use me,” Hayden ordered.
“Captain.” The doctor went to protest but then shut his mouth again. They both knew it was the only way to save the man.
Hayden pulled up his sleeve and motioned for the doctor to continue. Everyone fell quiet as blood was transferred from him to the man who would certainly die without the lifesaving treatment. All the time, the other men kept a lookout, making sure they weren’t about to be ambushed.
The more blood that rushed from his body, the lighter headed Hayden felt. He shut his eyes, knowing that his second-in-command would take over for the time being.
“All done,” the doctor announced, and Hayden shuffled aside so the doctor could continue to work on the injured man.
“How’s he doing?” Hayden questioned.
“If we can get him out of here and to safety, you’ve probably saved his life, Captain.”
“Good.”
“How are you feeling?” the doctor asked.
“I’m good.” Hayden pushed himself to his feet. His head spun a little, but he took his time, resting his hand against the mud coated wall of the ramshackle building they were in to steady himself. “Is he ready to move yet? I’ll request a helicopter, but we’re going to have to carry him some distance to the clearing. There’s no way it can land here.”
“That’s what I thought. I’ve prepared him for the move. We need to get him straight to surgery.”
“Good, I’ll get the rest of the men together.”
The little boy they’d originally followed into the village came up to Hayden. He wrapped his small frame around Hayden’s legs.
“Thank you for helping my daddy,” the boy said.
“He’s a brave man, just as you were to come and get us,” Hayden replied. Both of them spoke in the local dialect.
“It’ll hurt,” the boy then informed Hayden. “But only for a second. You’re destined for greater things.”
“What?” Hayden shook his head, not really understanding what he was being told.
“That’s what he said to me.” The boy looked down at the ground before looking back up with tears in his eyes.
The hairs on the back of Hayden’s neck stood on end. His heart beat quickened.
No…it couldn’t be.
“It’s a trap.” He grabbed his gun and ran out of the building to where the rest of his soldiers were still looking around.
A single gun shot rang out, and everyone fell to the ground except Hayden. He stayed standing, but the air in his lungs had gone. Everything started moving in slow motion as his men ran toward him. He looked down at his chest and saw the hole there. He felt no pain, but he knew he’d been shot. Blood started to flow from the wound as his legs finally gave way, and he collapsed to the ground. He gasped for breath, but no air would come to him.
A few of his men dragged him back into the hut. The doctor immediately started to stem the flow of blood, but his face told Hayden everything he needed to know. He couldn’t survive this. Hayden reached up and grabbed the dog tags he wore. He pulled them from his neck with superhuman strength, given he was dying, and handed them to the doctor.
“Give them to Molly,” he gasped, blood spurting out of his mouth. “Tell her I love her.”
“No!” the doctor refused to take them.
He continued to work hard to save Hayden’s life, but it wasn’t going to work. Hayden knew it already. The darkness was forming at the edges of his vision. He didn’t have long left.
“I love you, Molly,” he whispered into the air.
He didn’t want to leave her alone. He didn’t want to die, but as his breathing became more labored, a man in a dark coat appeared next to the young boy. The man’s sudden presence told Hayden this wasn’t any ordinary death.
“You’re destined for greater things,” the boy mouthed as Hayden took his final breath in the human world.
Everything went dark.
His human body died.
And the first breath of his new life came with a gasp.
Hayden sat up and looked around. He was in what appeared to be an enormous cave. The boy and the man in the dark coat were still there, and they smiled at him welcomingly.
“Are you all right?” the boy spoke to him in English.
“Yes.” Hayden looked down at his chest, the bullet hole gone. The blood was wiped clean. He was no longer dressed in dirty combat clothes. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. “What’s happening?”
“I’m sorry you had to be taken from the human world that way. It always hurts at first, but it’s the only way we can be reborn,” the man in the dark coat responded.
“Be reborn? What do you mean? Where are we?” Hayden tried to stand, but his legs felt a bit wobbly. The man stepped forward and helped him up.
“I had the same questions when I first arrived here too. My name is Caleb. You are in our birthplace in California. In the Death Valley desert.”