The wounded man refused the medic’s hand. Beside him, a frightened young soldier said they should leave him where they found him.
Sergeant Leah Morgan kept her palm open. Dust hung inside the damaged room, turning the late afternoon light into something almost solid between her and the stranger on the floor.
He wore the uniform of the opposing force. Minutes earlier, men dressed like him had been firing toward Leah’s unit, and Private Colin West was still shaking from the noise.
“He’d leave us,” Colin said. Leah didn’t pretend to know whether that was true.
She had already sent their own injured teammate toward help. Now she had come back through the room and found this man conscious, trying to move without letting her see how much it cost him.
He watched her bag, then her face. When she spoke, he looked away as though accepting kindness from her would require betraying somebody who wasn’t there.
Colin stood by the doorway. His closest friend had been hurt that morning, and fear had hardened into an anger that needed a person to stand in front of it.
Leah understood more than she wanted to. Earlier, while washing dirt from her hands, she had caught herself wishing every face beyond the wall would become simple enough to hate.
The wounded man’s jacket had fallen open. A small paper bird protruded from an inside pocket, crushed along one wing.
Leah didn’t touch it. She recognized the uneven folds because her niece made the same shape, becoming furious whenever the wings refused to match.
The man noticed her looking. He pushed the bird deeper into his pocket, protecting it with an urgency he hadn’t shown for himself.
“We need to move,” Colin said. A call from outside confirmed that transport was being arranged for those who could be brought out.
Leah asked for help. Colin stared at her, hearing the request as a choice between his injured friend and a stranger who might have helped cause the injury.
“You don’t get to make this easy,” he said. The honesty of it stopped her from answering with a lesson.
“It isn’t easy,” she replied. She kept her voice low enough that he didn’t have to defend himself against being corrected in front of others.
The man on the floor said something neither understood. He repeated it, then pointed toward a narrow passage behind the room.
Colin stepped closer to Leah. For a moment, all three watched the passage, waiting for it to become a threat or a request.
From beyond it came a small cough. Leah looked back at the stranger, whose fear had changed shape completely.
