Sarah watched him walk away.
She did not forgive him that day.
Maybe she never would in the simple way stories preferred.
But he no longer occupied the part of her mind where she had been trying to prove him wrong.
He was simply a man who had misused authority and faced consequences.
She had a life to build.
Months later, at her first permanent-duty unit, Sarah found herself supervising a younger soldier during a field exercise. Private Chen made a careless equipment error after twenty hours without sleep.
Sarah felt irritation rise.
For one dangerous instant, Hayes’s voice lived inside her.
Make it hurt so they remember.
She looked at Chen’s exhausted face.
Then at the loose buckle hanging from his gear.
A canteen pouch.
Sarah almost laughed.
“Fix it.”
Chen tightened the buckle.
“Yes, Specialist.”
“Check your partner’s too. Then both of you get water.”
He blinked.
“That’s it?”
“Do you understand the mistake?”
“Yes.”
“Will you repeat it?”
“No.”
“Then yes. That’s it.”
As he walked away, Sarah looked at her hands.
The scars on her palms had faded to nearly nothing.
She remembered ninety-two bodies hitting hot asphalt behind her.
Thud.
Thud.
