Five Seconds to Live

Thomas Bentley had survived a living hell as a prisoner in the Middle East. He was a broken man when he arrived back on US soil only to enter a hell of another kind a year later. The ones who had given meaning to his life, his wife and two children were the victims of a preventable accident between two eighteen wheelers. Even though Thomas wasn't in the car at the time, he had become the fourth victim of that horrific accident. He once again wished that his fellow soldiers who had come to his rescue had left him in that hellhole in the Middle East to die. He had already accepted his fate and knew that it would only be a matter of a day or so and his misery would have ended. In the spring a year later, Thomas Bentley made the news once again. He had stopped his Jeep Renegade on a bridge over a river flowing out of the Rocky Mountains. He had left the engine running with the lights on and got out. While the angry drivers were blowing their horns and yelling at him to get back in the car, Bentley went to the rail, climbed over it, and turned toward the growing line of cars. He shocked the angry onlookers as he stepped off of the bridge and fell out of sight. At that very moment, Thomas Bentley passed from existence and T. C. Hunter came to be. TC&L Logistics would pay for what they had done to his family.