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Chapter 19

  Chapter 19

  Jesse fell to the ground, and Shawn was at his side in an instant. He saw the blood gushing from his chest, and he ripped open his shirt. Hung and Dang were approaching fast now. Shawn called out for the medic kit while he put pressure on the knife wound. Hung quickly opened the kit and found the supplies that he needed. Air was being sucked into the gash as Shawn kept pressure on the open wound. Shawn couldn't believe all the blood Jesse had already lost. Meanwhile, Hung opened the gauze patch and dressed the wound.

  “Don’t you fuckin die on me Jesse?”

  “I fucked up, Shawn,” Jesse said in a barely audible whisper as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He was on the edge and was slipping quickly.

  “Hang in there, man, just stay with me,” Shawn yelled.

  Sadly, there was no reply. Jesse had gone to another dimension where there was no pain, sorrow, love, or hate. He had slipped into a void between this world and the next.

  *****

  Hung checked and found a very weak pulse. Jesse’s breathing was very shallow and irregular. His right lung had collapsed, and he was barely holding onto life.

  Hung looked at Shawn with great concern. “Shawn, if we don’t get Jesse to a hospital very soon, he’ll surely die. I can move much faster by myself, and if I don’t run into any more enemy patrols, I think I’ll make it in time to get a chopper back here and possibly save him.”

  Shawn simply nodded his head; he was too upset to speak.

  Hung picked up the dagger and showed it to Shawn. “It looks like an ancient Kung Fu dagger. They always use them in pairs. Jesse would be dead if he had used a long knife.”

  Shawn looked at the unconscious man lying on the ground and then at the dagger. It appeared to be just over two inches long with a symmetrically pointed blade with scarlet silk ribbons tied to rings and on the end of the handle. Shawn wiped the blood from the dagger and secured it by its silk ribbons to his shirt pocket.

  Hung knelt next to Jesse and whispered something in his ear, and then he was gone. After Hung left, Shawn sat with Jesse, and for only the second time in his life, he said a prayer.

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  He looked overhead at the countless stars and said softly, “God, I know that you and I are not on the best of terms, but if you’re listening, please don’t let this good man die.”

  He placed his hand on Jesse’s forehead and whispered, “If there is a God, I hope he heard me, bro.”

  As he looked at his fallen friend and then at the unconscious man a few feet away, his anger started to rise.

  *****

  Shawn got up and went over to the Li. The man didn’t look Vietnamese; he suspected the man was Chinese. His head was shaved, and he had a full round face, a hard square jaw, and a few long hairs emanating from his chin. His nose was broad, and his lips were full. The men appeared to have a very powerful body. Shawn took out his knife and put it to the man’s throat. The sharp blade drew a trickle of blood.

  “Dang, come over here and look at this man.”

  Dang, who had been vigilantly looking for any further threats, limped over and looked at their captive.

  “He’s not Vietnamese. Is he Chinese?” Shawn asked.

  Dang nodded, “Yes, Chinese.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  Dang’s English wasn’t as good as Hung’s, and he asked, “You want me kill him?”

  Shawn just stared at the man for a few moments before he answered.

  “No, we’ll take him back with us so they can interrogate him. But if Jesse dies, I’ll kill him myself.”

  Shawn looked the man over for any concealed weapons and found the matching dagger and nothing else. He turned him face down, pulled his arms together, and tied them. When he was finished with his arms, Shawn then tied his legs together and cut a strip of cloth from the man’s dirty and bloodied pant leg to use as a gag. As he cut the fabric from his pants, he noticed the wound to his knee. Shawn ran the strip of cloth through his mouth and tied it behind his head. He didn’t want the man to give away their position if an enemy patrol happened to fall upon them. When he had finished binding the man, Li’s eyes started to flutter open.

  “You see wound on leg?” Dang asked, pointing to his knee.

  “Yeah, looks like he just got nicked. An inch the other way, and he would have lost his leg.”

  Shawn looked at the prisoner and noticed that he was finally awake.

  Shawn got in his face and asked, “Do you understand English dickhead?”

  Li didn’t respond.

  Shawn tapped the side of his knee and said, “That looks like it hurts like hell.”

  Li just winched in pain and remained silent.

  Well, let’s see if it does.” Shawn slammed his fist into his kneecap.

  Li’s whole body stiffened at the incredible surge of pain that seemed to spread through his entire body. He bit down on the rag that had been shoved through his mouth and cursed the man in Mandarin Chinese through his gag.

  Shawn got right in his face again and looked him in the eyes.

  “What was that? I didn’t understand you? You might want to repeat that again.”

  Then Shawn leaned back and hit him again.

  This time Li grit his teeth and took the pain.

  “I guess he has nothing more to say. That’s a pity because I was just starting to enjoy our conversation.”

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