Part 1 The first sound wasn’t the gunfire. It was the static. A burst of it, sharp and electric, that sliced through the humid jungle air and right into my ear. Then came the voice. “Haze to all callsigns… Contact, contact, contact! Ambush, three directions! We are… taking heavy fire… enemy strength is… fifty, maybe…

PART 1 My name is Sarah Martinez. I’m twenty-eight years old, and I look like I’m about to ask for prom directions. I stepped off the bus at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, clutching a worn duffel bag and squinting into the thin, gold light of early morning. The air was soft, humid, and smelled like damp…

PART 1 “Unlike some people, I picked a real career.” My sister Emily raised her champagne glass. The crowd at her perfect, glittering wedding laughed. I smiled until my cheeks ached. Her words felt like a slap, sharp and clean, aimed directly at me. I was “some people.” I sat at Table 9, the one…

Part 1 The morning sun at Fort Braxton cut long, sharp shadows across the parade field. It was 0600. The air was crisp, smelling of cut grass and diesel. I stood at attention, just one in a sea of 200 soldiers, my fatigues pressed to a razor’s edge. Every crease was a line of discipline,…

Part 1 Alex “Thunder” Williams sat in seat 12F of United Airlines flight 1847, looking exactly like what everyone expected to see: a kid traveling alone. She had messy blonde hair tied in two braids, wore a faded purple T-shirt with a cartoon character on it, and carried a small pink backpack covered in sparkly…

PART 1 My name is Diana Morrison. And at 58 years old, I found myself standing at my 58th birthday party, dreading the moment my daughter-in-law Sophia would arrive. Six months had passed since I finally divorced Robert, my husband of 28 years. I thought the hardest part was behind me. Shows you how naive…