Scarred Beginnings — Jackie Williams

David's chance for love. He had trained for it, been counselled about it, seen comrades affected by it, but even as he signed up he dismissed it. Nothing was going to happen to him or any of his friends, nothing what so ever. All his sister's worrying was ridiculous. Nearly ten years into his service and he'd barely grazed a knuckle. His equipment was the best, his teams had his back, there was scarcely any danger at all. And then it happened. His whole team caught up in it. Nothing could change those nightmarish few seconds that so completely altered the rest of their lives. That it could have been a child that did it to them was almost as shocking as the event itself. He would never forget the look on the boy's face as long as he lived. If he thought that surviving the incident was going to be a trial, enduring the aftermath was proving to be a different sort of challenge entirely. (Book 2 in the Scarred Series. To be read after Running Scarred. (Short story, 43,500 words)