Come Back To Us - 35. Chapter 35

That was it. The day he had been expecting so much for the past week. The day he was going on his first mission.

He was getting dressed before the only mirror they had. All alone. Of course, he had to put on the blue navy standard uniform. He was putting on his tie, something he had never liked to do, but which he knew how to do on his own now.

Then there was the jacket that went with the uniform. And then over it, he put the brown leather jacket he had seen so many pilots wear; then afterwards, he put on the standard life jacket over it. Then the brown boots and he was ready to go to the depot where his plane was waiting for him.

He took one last lingering look at himself in the mirror before he left.

On his way outside, he ran into someone he hadn’t expected to see anymore.

“Kristian…” it sounded almost desperate as it left his mouth.

The man greeted him with a small smile.

“I’m glad I’ve come back just in time to see you before you leave for your very first mission.”

The feeling was mutual.

He mirrored him with his own smile. He didn’t have much time, so he couldn’t ask him about his own mission and how it went. But as long as he was standing here before him unharmed, it meant it could only go well.

“Are you scared?”

He couldn’t deny he was feeling a bit nervous with the unknown. Being told stories was different from living the thing yourself.

“Even if I was, would it make a difference?”

They exchanged a long lasting look. The man was probably going to try to reassure him with some pep talk while they both knew the risks of going on a mission, him much more than himself.

“Our determination and brains are our most powerful weapons to win this war.”

Well, that’s not what Arthur had told him.

“Are you sure that the enemy’s weapons are not much deadlier? They have caused so many deaths so far."

He looked unable to find a good answer to that.

“Well, we do have weapons too; and they are as deadly as theirs, we just need to have the brains to make a good use of them,” he shrugged as he said that and Karl smiled.

He guessed he wasn’t worried about him then, and it was best that way. They remained staring at each other in silence for a long while.

“Well, I should get going. I wouldn’t like to be late on such an important day.”

“Yes, of course. Now is indeed not the right time for a proper reunion.”

“Will you be there when I come back?”

“If something unplanned doesn’t get in the way in the meantime, I should.”

Karl nodded.

“Okay.”

It was a bit awkward for him… He guessed he had never been that good at bidding farewells.

“See you soon then.”

“Yeah.”

After one last lingering look, he walked away without glancing back and joined the three other pilots who were waiting for him along with Arthur and Edgar.

He acknowledged their presence with a single look only and checked nothing was missing among what he needed as the required equipment.

Once he was done with that, he came face to face with Arthur. The look they exchanged was still the same.

“This is it.”

“Yeah.”

This was plain, as should be.

“All you have to remember is the following instruction : If things go wrong, do not panic. This is the last thing that will help you stay alive.”

He nodded. He glanced at Edgar who was standing next to him.

“Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

Arthur looked away from him.

“Well, gentlemen, this is time for you to take your leave.”

The three other men nodded as they didn’t waste time getting onto their planes. Arthur had chosen to pair him with three English pilots who were all older than him. He thought he would have gone with some of his countrymen, but he guessed Arthur had a good reason to do that.

The mission was quite simple. Flying over the Atlantic Ocean to make sure English or American boats were not attacked by German submarines. If so, then there was only one order to remember: “Shoot them down.”

He put on his helmet and goggles as he was now sitting in his plane. A nice Hurricane.

“We will get in touch with you soon enough,” Arthur said loud enough so it would get his attention.

“Okay.”

Soon enough, the four planes were out in the sky.

Everything was pretty calm for at least two or three hours. He’d rather not fly too far way from the coast because if something happened to them, he didn’t know what they would do in the middle of the ocean.

At one point he realised they weren’t alone in the sky anymore…

“There are four planes coming towards us.”

He could tell for sure that they weren’t RAF airplanes. And they were definitely not there on friendly terms… What a bad coincidence…

“Four on four. You can shoot down all of them. Stay focused.”

“Okay.”

He had never shot a plane for real, so it felt weird to think that he was about to do it.

Everything happened fast, but it’s not as if they had time to be slow. That battle in the air was intense. He had both to be careful not to get shot down and not to shoot down one of his comrades’ planes. Thank whatever God that there weren’t people beneath.

He saw how one of their planes shot down one of the enemy’s planes. How it went down.

“One of us shot down one of their planes.”

“Good. Keep going like that.”

One of the German planes almost touched his, but he was reactive enough just in time to avoid the bullets. His heart was beating a bit too fast, but he had to do it. His thumb was hovering over the button to start firing. He couldn’t hesitate now. There was way too much at stake to do so.

“Fire! What are you waiting for?”

There was no more doubt possible.

He had to aim pretty well if he didn’t want to waste his ammunitions. It wasn’t easy since he still had to watch his own plane and the enemy’s planes were moving as well… His collimator was adjusted on one of the planes; he just had to stay focused and give it a try…now!

He missed it. He had to try again…

He followed his prey, adjusted his collimator and fired. He didn’t shoot down the one he had intended to in the first place, but he managed to damage another one, but whether it was that one or another, that didn’t make a difference. The enemy was the enemy. He just had to use some more bullets to finish it.

He saw how it went down like the first one that was shot down, but he also saw how one of their planes was shot down… It didn’t take long for it to crash into the water… he gulped nervously making a small sound.

He didn’t like that.

“Hey. How is it going now?”

He was thankful Arthur’s voice was there to keep him grounded.

“I shot down another one but one of us was shot down at the same time.”

“We have the advantage over them, so make the best of it. Don’t let your guard down.”

“Okay.”

He had to stay focused. But his determination and focus were put through the mill.

Another one of their planes was shot down…Shouldn’t he be starting to panic a little bit now?

“Another of us has just been shut down.”

There was no response on the other side of the line, and that was even less reassuring…

“You can still shoot down one of theirs. Don’t lose focus if you don’t want to be the next one to be shot.”

The answer came a few moments later, and he recognised the voice. It was Edgar’s.

“Okay.”

He kept making circles in the air with the utterest carefulness. Up and down. Up and down. And so on. The wind wasn’t much on their side.

“What do we do for the others that are shot down?”

“There is nothing you can do for them. Keep focusing on your mission and the enemy if you do not want to end up like them.”

His breath caught in his throat.

They were ready to let them die alone in the ocean… Only their plane had been shot down, not them…

“Carl!”

“Yeah. I got it. No need to shout on me.”

“At me.”

He held back a sigh. Prepositions…

He aimed for another plane. He couldn’t miss it. He fired once he was sure he wouldn’t. Something in him must have helped. He aimed and fired once again. The plane gradually lost height. He fired again once it was in the water, making sure he wouldn’t miss the pilot through the glass.

“I shot down another one of theirs.”

“Good. I hope they are not shooting down one of us meanwhile.”

He scanned the area to make sure of it.

“No. We’re still two.”

“Two on two. You can still shoot down the two of them left. Stay-”

“Focused. Yeah, I know.”

He tried several times to shoot down the last one that was remaining but missed it. The last enemy pilot seemed to be as determined to shoot them down as he was. His shoulders tensed. He had a bad feeling all of a sudden.

Something which he hadn’t planned happened. Another German plane arrived.

“Another enemy aircraft is coming.”

He licked his dry and chapped lips. He hoped more enemy planes weren’t planning on coming.

“You are still two on two, so that should be good.”

He hoped Arthur was right. Even though he tried to shoot again, he missed. Yet, he was as focused as he could be. They were skilled. Maybe a little bit too skilled….

And a while afterwards, the thing he feared the most happened. They shot down the other plane with the last English pilot inside. He was having trouble breathing as he watched the plane go down. He could be panicking now.

And they were supposed to be more experienced than him… He had no chance to win against them.

“We’ve just lost the last English aircraft. I’m alone against them now…”

Once again, there was no answer on the other side of the line… What could he do now? They could both easily shoot his plane down…

All he could do for the time being was to keep flying while avoiding their bullets. He needed directions before doing anything else. But they didn’t come, and his heart was beating dangerously fast.

“Hey! What do I do now?!”

It still wasn’t coming.

“Hey! I’m talking to you! Answer!”

His nerves couldn’t take it anymore.

“Retreat. Go back to the station, and only try not to get shot down on your way back. We are sending backup to neutralise those two enemy aircrafts.”

His throat was awfully dry. He had trouble swallowing.

“Okay, but they’d better hurry up.”

“Hey. We cannot break the sound barrier. So deal with it, and stay focused.”

Stay focused. Stay focused. It was easier said than done… especially when it wasn’t his life that was put on the line…

He flew back in the English lands direction, making constant zigzag so his plane wouldn’t get shot down. But he still had that bad feeling digging deep down in his gut.

“I can’t leave them behind…”

“Of course, you can’t. They are aircrafts from the Luftwaffe. What do you think?”

“I know! But how can you think I won’t get shot down like that?”

“Just try your best!” He heard Edgar say.

The race against time lasted for a while, but as he had thought, he couldn’t win it in the end. They caught up with him and as they were on each side of him, they shot, and he managed to fly lower just in time. But that wasn’t enough. They managed to shoot his plane down after three more attempts.

“For søren..” Damn it

His plane started going down and he couldn’t do anything about it.

Next thing he knew, his plane collided with the water. And from what he had been told, it was like crashing on the ground. So he was lucky to be still alive after that…

He wasn’t anywhere near the coast, and there was no one around who could help him, no boat…It was just him and the ocean, and the two pilots above. Well, now that he couldn’t do anything anymore, they were probably going to leave him alone. At least, he hoped so…

“Carl?”

What was he supposed to do now? Die?

“Carl? What is happening?”

He felt like he couldn’t breathe anymore. His vision was becoming blurry but his eyes were dry.

“Carl!”

Think. Think. Do something! His mind was shouting at him.

He tried to take deep breaths as he wiped his sweaty hands on his trousers. His body as on fire.

It definitely wasn’t the right time to have an anxiety attack. He needed to get out of there. So he got a grip on himself. But his heart skipped a beat as he couldn’t open the only way out that existed on his plane.

He kept on taking deep breaths. He had to find a solution, and quickly. He removed both his goggles and helmet, his lifejacket and the leather jacket that was making him stifle. But he put the lifejacket back on afterwards.

He tried his hardest to open the glass part, without even stopping for one second, but to no avail… He was stuck…

He could only try again, again and over again. But the plane was slowly sinking into the water….

He tried to think, but he couldn’t come up with a miracle solution that would solve everything. He couldn’t go back to the station in the blink of an eye.

“Carl! Where are you?”

He had been forgetting about that… Well, quite simply…he didn’t know where he was anymore. Did it matter anyway?

“Carl! Answer!”

His jaw clenched. Without even a single thought about it, he kicked the radio to make it shut up. The water was going up…

He didn’t know what to do anymore, but then he remembered the words he had pronounced a while earlier. He had made a promise. And he intended to keep it.

All of a sudden, he started hitting the glass with his fist, then added the other one. He hit with all the strength he had left in him. He managed to break the glass after a few moments. It shattered in a million pieces but he didn’t care, even if they landed on him. He could finally go out.

Only to end up into the water…
He watched his plane drown into the ocean but was distracted by the noise he could hear above…

He froze as he looked up at the sky. The two German planes were still hovering over him…as if to make sure he was going to die… This was bad… They started firing as they kept going down. This was even worse…

He instinctively went underwater and started swimming so he could get as far away from them as he could. He couldn’t see clearly and didn’t even know where he was going, but he wouldn’t let himself die without even trying anything and everything until he played his last move.

He had to zigzag again to avoid the bullets, which made it even more difficult to move in the water beside the clothes he was wearing.

His survival instinct was keeping him going. The expectation of seeing all those familiar faces again. The faster the better.

He suddenly winced in pain as he felt something sharp go through his skin. Damn. The bubbles were going to betray him… He had to change his direction.

He started suffocating once again. More bubbles were created as he kept swimming. He thought that if he stayed long enough underwater they would leave him alone, thinking he would end up drowning, but apparently not… And he couldn’t stay infinitely underwater. He wasn’t a fish…

His head was hurting. His body was letting him down. So this was really the end this time? He wouldn’t die from the bombings but underwater…Everything slowly became dark as his body went numb, his movements gradually slowing down until he couldn’t feel anything anymore…

George…

***

“Sir, there’s something at the bottom of the ocean!”

“It’s someone’s body.”

“They must be dead anyway. There’s nothing to do about it.”

“Even if he’s dead, we can’t leave him there, we must bring back his body to his family.”

“Not if he’s an enemy.”

“And how can you be sure he’s an enemy?”

…

“Dad, let’s come back to the surface. I’ll dive to get him.”

“Are you insane? We are not doing that.”

“Dad! It could’ve been me! Please!”

…

“Dad!”

“Fine! I can’t say I like your behavior and the tone you are using with me, yet I can only admire and respect your bravery. But if you can’t bring it up, don’t insist.”

“Don’t you worry. I’ll be fine. Trust your son.”

Hello my dear readers!! It's been a little while.. so I hope you've all been doing well and that you had a lovely summer I came back from holiday last Saturday and it was kinda hard to get back to work....
Here you go with the next chapter, but, oh God, I know I made it really tough for a first mission... :5 Besides, I'm definitely not an expert about flying a plane and RAF missions during WW2 although I tried to make some research about it, so I apologise if it's quite inaccurate...
Have a lovely day/evening/night and take care ❤️