Excerpt from The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

And it's coming from all directions.

Doc's wrapping a tourniquet around Mitchell's arm, but the sand's making things tricky. Mitchell's in agony: I catch a glimpse of white bone piercing through a tattoo spelling HEATHEN. Doc packs the bloody wound cavity with Kerlix, then straps a bandage around it and slides an IV into the other arm. It's a miracle he hasn't been hit yet.

He eyes Folsom. Is he... ?

He's gone, I tell him. Now take Mitchell and get out of here!

He ignores me and crouches over Folsom.

I yell at him: Go, go, GO...

Mitchell gets up on his own and staggers away. The LMG team start retreating as well.

Doc takes Folsom by the shoulders and drags him past me. At the last moment, he turns to me and yells: You better drop back, Lieutenant! We're being overrun.

Mitchell glances back at me, ashen-faced. He looks astonished, as if he can't believe what's happening.

I pick up his discarded M-4, and something slams me in the back of the neck. I feel my breath explode out of me as I catapult with the force of the blow, and then I'm staring up at the sky, everything around me strangely yellow...

...I can't breathe...

...yellow, yellow, hello...

...I can't breathe...

Excerpted from The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya. Copyright © 2012 by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya. Excerpted by permission of Hogarth Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.