Chapter 15 - The Soldier's Salute
The morning sun finally broke through the heavy rain clouds, casting long golden beams across the asphalt of Route 9.
Paramedics swarmed the highway, wrapping silver foil blankets around Tommy Cole and setting up an IV line for his hypothermia. Marcus sat on the rear bumper of an ambulance, his chains finally cut away by bolt cutters. A field doctor was tending to the cuts on his forehead, but Marcus wasn't looking at his wounds. He was holding Liam pressed tightly against his chest, his face buried in the boy’s messy, drying hair.
Liam’s small arms were wrapped around his father’s neck, refusing to let go even for a second. His miniature uniform was ruined, covered in grease, mud, and river silt, but the tiny reversed American flag patch remained pinned securely over his heart.
""You brought the picture,"" Marcus whispered, his voice breaking as tears streamed down his battered face. ""You saved me, Liam. You brought me home.""
""Officer Miller told me to keep his badge safe,"" Liam murmured into his father’s shoulder, holding out the scratched silver star. ""He said... he said you were the bravest soldier.""
Marcus took the cold piece of metal into his palm, closing his fingers around it with solemn reverence. He looked toward the mountains in the distance, where the Blackwood Ridge smoke had finally cleared under the morning light. Miller had held the line. He had given his life so that this child wouldn't grow up an orphan to an injustice.
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Trooper Martinez walked over, carrying an oversized wool jacket, and gently draped it over Liam’s small shoulders. The trooper looked down at Marcus, then snapped a crisp, slow, and immaculate hand salute to the little four-year-old boy sitting on the bumper.
Liam sat up straight, pulled his tiny hand from his father’s neck, and returned the salute with perfect form, his hazel eyes clear and bright in the new dawn."
