by Walt Alexander

After a tragic accident, a young man's life is changed, and his faith tested — through his

conversion and his Army career, and by a world full of challenges

Tony, an ordinary American teenager, skilled at football, has excellent future prospects. Then

tragedy strikes. A car accident kills Tony's two best friends — only Tony escapes alive.

Afterward, Tony's schoolwork and attitude take a turn for the worse. His mother invites the

Pastor of their church over to talk to him — and on that night, despite his grief and

disillusionment, Tony accepts Jesus into his heart.

Tony is inspired to join the Army and become a Ranger — his late friend's ambition. After

graduation, Tony leaves behind his girlfriend and sets off for Basic Training at Fort Benning.

Drill Sergeant Rorbach is a real taskmaster, but Tony and his new buddy Bishop manage to bear

up under the strain. Then it's off to Ranger school, and before he knows it, Tony is boots on the

ground in the Middle East.

An initial baptism by fire tests Tony's mettle, and he comes through. But a mission in Kenya

goes a bit sideways. Somali terrorists have taken over a hospital and school. Tony's squad

achieves their objective and marks the terrorist HQ for an airstrike — but too late Tony sees that

children have been placed there as human shields. They perish in the explosions. Despite the

mission's relative "success", Tony is wracked by guilt and tortured dreams. This leads to the end

of his relationship with his high school girlfriend, and an uncertain future.

Despite showing signs of PTSD, after 9/11 Tony elects to serve out his ten-year hitch. He's

assigned to a base in Germany, in a support role. Tony forms friendships with associates and

with civilian contractors like Jons, with whom he plays chess and debates theological matters.

Then... extremism strikes when an Arab man enters the base and triggers an explosion.

All Tony is aware of is that Death — a skeletal figure in a tattered cloth — appears in his office

to beckon him onward. Resistant, Tony grabs his aide Sam, and the two escape into the town.

There they are subject to a series of strange encounters involving clashes of faith and culture, and

the wages of radicalism. When it finally becomes clear Tony cannot escape Death — he does escape it. Because as a

Christian, his destination is elsewhere. He rebukes Death in Jesus's name, and joins his late high

school friends in the light. As an epilogue, Jons, who survived the explosion, fancies he sees

Tony's soul rising above the destruction, to freedom at last...