NO MERCY NOVEMBER · DAY 14 · BROKEN PROMISE

WHERE’S PARKS?

From Austin’s phone. Sent to Mama.

SGT. CALLUM JAMES · 26

Cal knows who’s limping before they ask for a break. He’ll hear you out even if you spent the last mile getting on his nerves. He wanted to bring home every person he left with.

AUSTIN PARKS · 20

Austin played football back home. In his favorite picture from senior year, June’s at the edge of the frame with a novel under her arm. He’ll tell you she came to every game. Then he’ll point at the book.

THE RENDEZVOUS
Five of you went out. When the shooting started, Reyes and Walsh went left. You went right with Cal and Austin.
Reyes got through on the radio. Old pump station. Truck in seventy-two hours.
Under the stairs, Austin asked Cal to get him home.

NO MERCY NOVEMBER
This is my entry for Day 14 — Broken Promise.
The full prompt list is on the poster below. Click to see the other entries.

#NoMercyNovember2026 · Collab by @kanoth


War violence and gunfire · Blood and severe injury · Death by suffocation in the opener · Grief · Survivor’s guilt · Intrusive memories · Hearing the voice of someone who died · Hurt/No Comfort


This one hurt to write. Making the pictures made it worse. I kept looking at Austin’s football picture because June’s standing right there with her book, and I could hear him telling Cal she came to every game. Then I made the one he sent his mama and had to sit with that for a minute.

Do I know anything about the Army? No. Did I have to Google military ranks? Yes. Do I know all about rendezvous points or how a firefight works? Absolutely not.

What I do know? How to make it hurt.  I am not excluded from the pain.