I tried to explain. “He’s not feral! He’s waiting! He’s waiting for a command from a man who isn’t coming back.” But they just saw a 110-pound weapon they couldn’t control. They were terrified of him. And yeah, when Shadow growled now, it vibrated through the floor. It was terrifying. But they didn’t understand that it wasn’t aggression; it was a perimeter defense. He was guarding the ghost of his best friend, and because nobody spoke his language anymore, they were going to lethal inject him.
The day Shadow was scheduled to die, the air on base felt wrong—too bright outside, too sterile inside, like the…