The sun fell like fire across the endless dunes, and the wind carried the bitter taste of sand and metal. Jackson Harlow pressed his back against the armored vehicle, the vibrations of its engine humming through his bones. Somewhere ahead, a gunshot cracked the quiet, sharp and final. He blinked, the glare of the desert stinging his eyes, and for a moment, the world seemed to tilt. Shadows moved at the edge of his vision-ghosts, or memories? He couldn't tell. Jackson had come here full of resolve, believing he could fight for something greater than himself. But war has a way of unraveling you, layer by layer, until the line between courage and terror blurs. Every heartbeat echoed with the ghosts of men and women who didn't make it back. Every sound whispered danger. Every glance could be the last. And when the sun dipped beyond the horizon, the desert didn't get dark-it came alive. With secrets, with memories, with the kind of fear that follows you home. This is the story of Jackson Harlow. Not just of the battles he fought overseas, but of the battles he could never escape, the ones that waited for him in the silence, in the shadows, and in the spaces between reality and memory.Brace yourself. In The Fallen Ones, the war doesn't end when the soldier returns.