Stranded (Part One)

Part one of the Stranded chronicle series. Balac woke with a scream boiling in his lungs and the world on fire. The heat of it bit into his skin, raw and feral, and the sudden, molten pain turned his vision white. The smell of burning flesh choked the air inside the dropship cabin. Balac had been in the field since the beginning. He had, as Krin was fond of saying, “seen some shit.” Images of Krin’s smiling face being torn apart by a plasma round. He stared at the inch of air that now separated his …