What Tillman saw when he entered the room was long limbs sprawled out across the desert, crumpled and fallen. The rush of blood in his ears was deafening. He did not hear the resounding boom that his toolbox made when it hit the floor. He was kneeling down before he realized that he had moved.

The jacket hit the back of his closet with the force that he flung it away. He scanned the boy for wounds without recognition. His only thoughts were Where is the medic? and This must be a nightmare.