Chapter 3 – First Time for Everything
Wednesday, July 7 0800hrs, Camp Curtis
For the past three days, I met Harkin over by the memorial so that way we could continue my training. We've been going over the actual science of flying an aircraft. He taught me that I had to take in the weather conditions, conservation of energy, and the physical effects flying has on the human body. Yesterday, I had to take a test while I was placed in a pressure chamber to see if I could still function with little oxygen. Then, I had to take a ride in a centrifuge to test how many Gs I could tolerate without a G suit. I found out that I could withstand seven Gs for two minutes before I blacked out. We were supposed to continue with this training after I met Harkin, but instead of meeting him by the memorial, I had to meet with him at building 1 because he needed to talk with the General for some reason. I was sitting by the door outside the General's office as they conversed. The first few minutes, they were talking normally. But now, they were yelling at each other and I could hear them clearly.
"Sir, he's not ready yet. I still need to walk him through the basics. Otherwise he'll die out there," said Harkin.
"It can't wait any longer, Major. ISAF him and the other volunteers by the deadline or else the war will be lost," replied the General.
Other volunteers, there are more of us?
"I understand, but he's only had a few days to familiarize himself with everything. He…"
"I'm not going to argue about this any longer, Harkin! Either you do what I tell you or ISAF pulls the plug on this initiative!"
What are they talking about? There was a moment of silence before I heard them start to talk normally. I couldn't hear what they were saying but I knew they were talking about me. There were too many people walking up and down the hallway for me to subtly eavesdrop on them, unless I decided to crawl through the air ducts after I disabled the security systems. But that was too much work. Anyways, Major Harkin finally came out of the General's office and he didn't look too happy, but he didn't look mad either. It was more of like a look of uncertainty if anything else, but I didn't know why. He didn't say anything as I followed him out of the building and into his car. I wanted to ask him what was wrong but I got the vibe he gave off suggested that it was something that I didn't want to hear. We drove towards the secondary runway where we saw someone working on a T-45 Goshawk on the flight line. The scowl on Harkin's face grew as we got out of the car and headed into one of the hangers. From here, Harkin led me to the locker room and told me to take a seat on one of the benches after he asked me for my shoe size, what size gloves I wear, and what my height was. I waited for about five minutes before Harkin came back and handed me a flight suit, glove, and boots. Am I going flying today? After Harkin gave me my things he left me alone again so that I could get changed.
"Kid, tell your mother that you'll be coming home late tonight," said Harkin from the other side of the room.
I was still unsure if I was going flying but I did what he said and sent a text to my mother telling her that my job training was going to keep me all night and that Major Harkin would be here with me. She responded within seconds and told me that she'd save me a plate for dinner. As long as it's not her meat loaf, then I'm glad. I striped down to my underwear and t-shirt and got dressed into my flight suit and boots. I didn't like the feeling of something covering up my hands so I put the gloves in my pocket and looked at myself in the locker room's mirror. Damn, I look good. Even though I never really cared about my own image, I actually thought I looked like a badass in this flight suit, even with my almost shoulder-length hair. Harkin's been bugging me since the beginning of the year to get it cut but I didn't want to because I just wanted to annoy him.
"You could actually pass for a nugget fresh out of flight school if you cut that mop of your," said Harkin.
I looked at him in the mirror and saw that he was dressed in a flight suit as well. Harkin was kind of egotistical but he wasn't full of himself. Some of his younger female coworkers kept referring to him as a Silver Fox, whatever that meant. For a forty year old guy, Harkin looked like he was in his early thirties. His fierce brown eyes were accented by his graying brown hair and he was still in good shape.
"I like my hair just the way it is," I replied.
"It'd be easier to take care of if you got it gut. That way you wouldn't have to waste all that time in the morning trying to make it look sleek."
"I wear my beanie all the time. It saves me from dealing with it."
Harkin rolled his eyes and motioned for me to follow him again. He led me to a large walk-in closet that had a bunch of white flight helmets and G-suits in them and he told me to pick a set that fit. I walked into the closet and tried on a few flight helmets until I found the perfect one. The thing fit nicely around my head and the visor had just the right amount of tint. The G-suit and parachute harness on the other hand were uncomfortable as all hell. When I stood up, the harness straps that wrapped around my legs rode up and hugged my naughty bits to the point where I couldn't help but talk in a bit of a higher pitched voice. Harkin told me that it took some getting used to and that another one of the volunteers he recently recruited wouldn't have that problem. Either the person he was talking about was a girl or it was a guy who's been castrated. Regardless of which one it was, the person was going to be a hell of a lot more comfortable than I was. Harkin got dressed into his flight gear as I was still getting ready. He still had that look of uncertainty on his face and it still made me worry about him.
"Alright, Kid, the stuff you're wearing right now is going to be your responsibility from now on. You can decorate the helmet anyway you want, but you have to maintain everything else" said Harkin.
I looked over the helmet carefully before I shrugged and followed Major Harkin out the door and onto the flight line. "So, what are we doing today?" I asked nervously.
"Today, I was ordered to take you on your first hop in a jet."
"Why do you make it seem like you're nervous about this?"
"It's a long story, Kid."
"Well, we're going flying for a while. Can't you tell me then?"
"I'd rather not talk about it. Anyways, hop in the front seat."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was ecstatic over the fact that I was actually going to get my hands on an actual jet and that I was going flying with my mentor. I had never seen him fly but some of his coworkers that I've spoken to said that he was the best at what he did. There's always someone better. I was approaching the T-45 when I saw the two guys from earlier working on it come from around the other side. It was Solo and Rico, the jet mechanic I met the other day. They had been working together to try and prepare for our hop while Harkin and I got ready. Solo still didn't seem too happy to see me after what happened last time and I honestly didn't care. He should've been happy that I got his plane back in one piece. Rico, on the other hand, was clearly asking himself what he was doing here. I guess Harkin was able to convince him to join the initiative but Rico still seemed weary of me.
"Is she all ready to go, Staff Sergeant?" asked Harkin.
"Yeah, she's ready," replied Rico. "Now do me a favor, bring this bird back in one piece, alright?"
"No promises," said Harkin as he put on his flight helmet and climbed into the back seat.
I exchanged a couple of looks with the others before I looked down at my helmet and put it on. This is actually happening. I climbed into the front seat, strapped myself in, and waited for Harkin to give me the go-ahead. I still had to wait for Rico and Solo to clear the area before I could turn on the engines, but I did the preflight and comm checks in the meantime. When I looked to the sky, I saw that there were cumulonimbus clouds forming to the west. The weather report for the day said that it was supposed to rain heavily on Wesson later on in the day. Other than that, I had a clear view of the sky. Hopefully we make it back before the storm rolls in.
"Alright, she's all set to go," said Rico as he and Solo cleared the area.
"Alright Kid, start her up," said Harkin.
Righteous! I was going over everything in my head as I started flipping the correct switches in the specific order. It wasn't until I activated the turbines that my excitement got the better of me. Harkin's uncertain expression turned into a look of fear as I laughed maniacally. Harkin nervously told me to start taxiing onto the runway so that we could prepare for takeoff. I pushed the throttle forward and gently released the brakes. The T-45 started to move forward as I guided it with the rudder pedals. The controls were different than the F-4 that Harkin had me work with for the past two days but overall, they were the same. Other than the difference in the controls, I knew that this plane would handle differently than the Mustang I flew and the plane I'd start with when I joined ISAF. When we arrived at the end of the runway, I rolled the stick around to make sure that the ailerons and stabilizers were working properly. Once everything checked out, I looked in my rearview mirror to see Harkin nod at me, telling me to go ahead. Here we go! I slowly pushed the throttle forward and the T-45 began to move forward. The speedometer then began to climb and within seconds, we were going over 135mph and our speed only continued to grow. We were three-quarters down the runway before I began to pull back on the stick. The plane didn't respond right away but I slowly started to feel nose pitch upward, followed by the plane lifting off the ground.
"I got control of her, Kid. I don't want you crashing this thing before we even have a chance to get started," said Harkin over the radio.
I let go of the controls as we continued to gain altitude and changed our heading for the Reyes Mountains towards the west. The mountains over looked the rest Wesson and all pilots at Camp Curtis were forbidden to fly through them. We could easily avoid flying through them, but the fact that Harkin wasn't gaining any more altitude suggested that we were going to fly right through them. I wanted to try and take over control but I got the feeling that I'd end up killing ourselves if I did.
"We're not seriously going to fly through the mountains, are we, Major?" I asked.
"It's been a while, Kid. I need to get back into my grove," said Harkin.
"And the best way for you to do that is to fly through hazardous terrain?"
"Just trust me, alright? We'll be okay."
It was forbidden to fly through these mountains for a reason. The valleys funneled the wind through the mountains and it caused turbulence for aircraft that tried flying through here. A couple of years back, a civilian tried flying through here to impress his girlfriend and they both crashed two minutes into the flight because the wind forced his plane into the cliff face. I knew Harkin was more experienced but even this was a challenging feat for a pilot of his proficiency. I took a deep breath before Harkin flew the T-45 through the valley. Harkin was grinning as he put on his oxygen mask and I nervously put mine on. The air smelled funny as it flowed through the hose, but I figured that should be the least of my worries. We were about two hundred yards away from the valley when we started to feel our plane bounce around a little and it continued to get worse the closer we got.
"Here we go, Kid," said Harkin as he pushed the throttle forward.
The T-45 seemed to start trembling instead of bouncing. I was gripping my seat for dear life and I closed my eyes tightly as we enter the valley. The landscape was moving by too fast for me to make sense of my surroundings. The turbulence wasn't helping any either. Harkin wasn't having any trouble as he weaved through the mountains. I was shifting around in my harness as Harkin jerked the plane left and right. My anxiety was starting to grow because I didn't have control of the plane. I wanted to take over, but if I did, I'd probably kill us. The cliff faces were close enough to the canopy that I could almost reach out and touch them. When I looked in the rearview mirror, I could see that Harkin was fully concentrated on his flying. I didn't look at him for long because he proceeded to roll over a ridge that he narrowly hit. After he came out of the roll, Harkin started weaving through the mountains again. I was growing more nauseous the further we went and I had to fight the feeling of throwing up. The last thing I wanted was to breath in the smell of my half-digested breakfast if I vomited inside my oxygen mask.
"Major, how much longer?" I asked, but he didn't reply. "Please, Nathan, loosen up!"
I continued to try and get Harkin's attention but he wasn't listening to me. I was fighting a losing battle with physics and bodily functions. Then, as if out of nowhere, I started to hear Harkin laughing. My anxiety was now at an all-time high and I was breathing rapidly and heavily. I started to feel extremely light headed while the sweat from my brow started to trickle down my face. My hands were shaking uncontrollably and my heart felt like it was about to explode. I closed my eyes, hoping that I would wake up to see that this was all just a dream. A few seconds seemed to pass before I heard Harkin yell over the radio.
"She's all yours, Kid!"
What the hell?! I didn't even have time to think about what he said any further and I quickly grabbed the flight stick and throttle lever as I placed both of my feet on the rudder pedals. When I looked ahead, I saw the side of the side of a mountain quickly filling up the HUD and out of sheer desperation, I snapped the stick over to the right while I applied right rudder. I had just narrowly missed the side of the mountain and but now I had another mountain in front of me. Oh shit! I snapped the stick to the left and applied left rudder before I slammed into it, but the valley led to a dead end and I started to panic. My fear was short lived when I realized that we weren't flying through a tunnel and I pulled back on the stick to go over the mountain. I continued to gain altitude until we were two thousand feet above them. We were still headed west, traveling at a speed of 347mph. I let go of the controls, slouched back in my seat, and took a deep breath so that I could try to relax. It had only been an hour and a half since I arrived at Camp Curtis and already I was flying a plane. I know I asked for this but I felt like we were moving too fast with this initiative. There still a bunch of other things a pilot had to go through before he actually got his hands on a plane and Harkin just skipped all of it.
"I thought you were going to pull us out of that valley sooner, Kid," said Harkin and I gave him an annoyed look when I looked at him in my rear view mirror. "How are you feeling so far?"
"I'm so close to throwing up right now," I said as I pulled off my oxygen mask.
"Here use this," said Harkin and he threw me an air sickness bag.
I couldn't hold it any longer. As soon as I got the bag open, I started blowing chunks. Harkin was laughing as he heard me regurgitating over the radio and I practically filled the entire bag up the omelet I had for breakfast. I quickly pulled out the canteen I had on one of the pouches I had in my flight suit and I washed out my mouth to get rid of the foul aftertaste. When all that was over, I tied up the bag, set it under my seat, and relaxed as I took in the view of everything. Wesson was slowly disappearing as we continued to fly west. For some reason though, the sight of my hometown fading off in the distance felt bittersweet. It didn't feel like when I was going off to another one of Pitbull's reform programs or summer camp. I was deep in the thought of leaving Wesson when I felt the plane slowly start to bank left. I looked at the compass and saw that we were now bearing vector 250. After looking at my map I saw that the only city in that general direction was the city of Macon, which was on the coast of the Bennion Sea. The cities of Strangereal were still under development so most of the cities didn't have interstate highways to connect them to each other. Air travel was the only way to travel between more cities and there was a lot of land here that was still left to be claimed by anyone.
"Where are we going, Sir," I asked.
"What's the only city that's in this general direction?" replied Harkin.
"There's only Macon. Are we going over there?"
"Yeah, I need to talk to an old friend of mine. While I'm busy with that, you can relax on the beach and take in the view. If you know what I mean."
I've heard things about Macon from the media and every guy who wasn't me would love to live in a place like that. It was a popular vacation destination in central Osea but it wasn't as popular as this place called Winchester. Macon was knows mainly for its beaches and night life. Harkin would always tell me that he wanted to retire there. I didn't ask him who he needed to talk to because I figured it was someone who wouldn't matter to me. However, the thing that caught my attention was the fact that he didn't seem nervous about flying anymore. I knew he wasn't nervous about me flying because all I did was take off so why would he be nervous about that? He was nervous about something else and for some reason I had a feeling that it had something to do with the guy Harkin wanted to see. Macon was two hours away and I decided to take a nap while until we got there, hoping that the lingering feeling of nausea would go away.
1137hrs, Macon Osea
The sudden jolt of the wheels coming into contact with the ground jolted me awake. We had landed at the Osean Marine air station at Camp Jarratt and the base commander was nice enough to allow us permission to land. Even though the remnants of the US forces were allied with the Osean Military, there was a lot of tension between them mainly because of the history between the two. Originally, the US forces were seen as type of police force that tried ruling over Osea when they declared their independence from Earth. Anyways, we taxied onto the flight line and parked near one of the hangers close to the security gates. I felt out of place here because F-15s and F-22s were parked on the flight line. We both got a bunch of sideways looks from the other pilots but most of them were geared towards me. A seventeen year old kid who really needed a haircut, wearing a flight suit was something to see.
"I feel so out of place right now, Sir," I whispered.
"Well maybe of you got your damn hair cut then maybe they wouldn't look at you like that," replied Harkin.
"But they still know I'm a kid."
"That doesn't mean anything. When I was your age, I was already at the top of my class in boot camp. You already know that these guys don't measure up to you in anyway."
I shrugged at Harkin's comment because I didn't think that I was better than any of the other men on this base. These guys were trained pilots who've probably seen more things than I have while flying. We continued to walk off the flight line and past the hangers until we got to a parking lot. We were still dressed in our flight gear because we had nowhere to put our things, nor did we have a change of clothes. I was about to ask Harkin why we were in the parking lot when he approached one of the cars and ran his fist into the window of one of the cars and unlocked it.
"Are you nuts?!" I exclaimed.
"Yes I am!" laughed Harkin. "Plus it's not like the guy didn't have insurance."
"You don't even know whose car this is and now you're going to get five-o on our asses!" I protested.
"Hmm, I don't think so. This car belongs to a Major I know and that asshole had this coming for quite some time. Get in," said Harkin.
"Hell no, I'm not going to jail for grand theft auto!"
"Kid, quit being a bitch and get in the fucking car!"
Harkin really hit one of my nerve and out of sheer spite, I got into the car. It was a red 2002 Chevy Cobalt that looked like it had been fitted with a body kit. The rims on it were customized too and I realized that whoever owned this car had dumped a bunch of money into it. The engine sounded like it had some work done to it as well. I honestly thought cars like this were really unnecessary. It wasn't like anyone could race them unless they had like a race track around here. In Wesson, cars like this were common, but there wasn't any use in using them. Anyways, Harkin began to drive all over the city and I still had no idea where we were going. We got some more sideways looks when we had to stop at traffic lights because people saw that we were still wearing our flight gear. Harkin didn't bother taking off his flight helmet so I imagined people thought that was particularly odd. The only thing I could do was to hide behind the aviators that Solo had given me.
"Can we please go find a change of clothes, Sir?" I asked.
"What, you don't want people to know that you're a pilot?" said Harkin
"Isn't my position in the Mobius initiative supposed to be classified?"
Harkin gave me an annoyed look before he made a sudden left turn down a street and came to a sudden stop in front of the first clothing store he saw. Something was really bugging me about Harkin because he was acting way different than usual. I'd never seen him like this before and it perplexed the hell out of me to the point that I wanted to see what he would do next. I took off the flight vest and G suit before I headed inside. Everyone in the store was looking at us funny except for a couple of girls who were around my age. They just couldn't seem to stop ogling me. I wasn't paying attention to them as I got a pair of beige cargo shorts, a white t-shirt, and a pair socks and shoes along with sling bag so that I could carry my flight suit and boots. Good thing I brought my wallet. The money I was spending ever since I quit my job was starting to add up and I doubted that I could keep this up for long.
"Why were you and the other guy wearing those jump suits?" asked the cashier.
I couldn't tell her that what was really going on so I had to come up with a lie. "I just earned my pilot's license and I left home without a change of clothes," I said.
"Oh wow, where did you fly in from?"
"Pike," I said.
"Really, I have a friend who lives down there and her sister is a first officer for an airline company. She's only twenty one and she's already making a career out of flying."
I don't give a shit lady. "I bet she's happy with her life."
"Yeah, was that your father?"
"No, he's my instructor and I…"
I couldn't even finish my sentence before I heard the screech of car tires and I turned my head to see Harkin peel out of the parking lot and drive off without me. Are you fucking serious?! I didn't even bother running after him because I knew I wouldn't catch him. The cashier looked at me like she wanted to say something but I quickly paid for my things, put my flight suit and boots in the bag, and left the building. I was in a strange place and I didn't have the slightest idea of where I should go next. Ok, think. Where Harkin go in a place like this? I realized that my attempts to find Harkin would be hopeless because he loved places like this and because he was a ladies man. My first thought was to head to the beach and see if he was down there. I didn't have any other options so that's where I headed for first. The weather was clear here, like when tropical getaways are usually advertised as. The temperature was in the high seventies and a nice breeze was constantly blowing. The people around here were all dressed in bathing suits and headed to the beach as well. I hated being in crowds because I made it that much harder to pay attention to my surroundings, but I was still able to stay alert to my surroundings. I always kept my eyes and ears open because I was always paranoid that someone was always out to get me. I had Project Pitbull to thank for that. My eyes were frantically scanning the crowd for Harkin but I couldn't see anyone other than the same people over and over. I pressed on toward the beach and I arrived there just as my watch chimed at noon. I was at the bar of one of the surf shacks, looking out towards the beach. Everyone was in their bathing suit, soaking in the sun. I got a few suggestive looks from some of the girls that passed by but I wasn't fully paying attention to them because I was looking for Harkin. Three hours passed and I thought I would've found him by now. I was getting frustrated and I ran my fingers through my hair as I leaned over bar. Harkin had to be here. This was his thing!
"What are you doing here?" asked a very familiar voice.
God, why me? I know I said I was looking forward to seeing her again, but I didn't mean this soon I looked to my right to see the person I least expected to see here. She was wearing a white bikini with a matching sarong around her waist and sandals with ankle straps. I knew this wasn't a coincidence because she just seemed to be everywhere I was. "Wondering where the hell my mentor is and why you're here," I said.
"You too, eh?" said Miranda. "How did you get here?"
"How else could I get here?" I said.
"Is that your flight suit in the bag?"
The fact that she asked that I had a flight suit in my bag revealed that she got here the exact same way I did. It also raised the question as to what she and her mentor were doing here. Was she also part of the Mobius initiative or did her mentor decide to fly her here? "Flight suit," I asked. "It's a change of clothes I have to wear for a formal gathering later on," I said.
"Hmm, I bet you'd look even better if…"
"Don't even say it. I've heard it from everyone else I know so spare me," I said
"You know, I bet if you stood up more, that stick up your ass might actually find its way out of you," said Miranda.
"If you don't like it, then go away," I said sarcastically.
"You're not getting rid of me that easily."
"But that implies that I can still get rid of you, so should I keep trying?"
"Why do you work so hard to keep others away?"
"Why do you want to know?" I asked.
"You're the first person I've met who takes everything too seriously. I mean, you keep to yourself because it seems like you think that you're vulnerable if you show your soft side. I saw that moment you and your sister had the other night and there's nothing wrong with that. Things like that are what makes us human and after you showed that bit of emotion, I knew for sure that there's a bit of humanity deep down inside of you," said Miranda.
"I am human. I just choose not to show it to everyone."
"Why not," she asked.
"My shrink says it's the Hedgehog's dilemma when it's actually something entirely different," I said.
"Well, what is it?"
"My own reasons," I said trying to dodge the question.
"Okay, aren't you going to tell me?"
"I hardly know you. Why would I tell you anything meaningful about myself?"
"Because, I know you like me," teased Miranda.
"What makes you so sure?"
"You haven't tried running away yet."
"I was getting there. You can't rush me," I said as I slung my bag across my back and put on my sunglasses before I turned to leave. "By the way, you really need to work on tying up your bikini top properly."
I could hear Miranda shriek as I walked away and I heard her call me an asshole because I guess she thought I undid her knot. I was giggling to myself because I caught a glimpse of them and the view was nice. I'm such an asshole, but I don't care. My little moment of deviousness didn't last long before I heard a glass bottle hurtling towards me and I side stepped to avoid it.
"Where are you going?" shouted Miranda.
"I'm going to find my mentor," I hollered back.
"Well wait for me. I'll help," said Miranda.
She cannot be serious! I continued to walk away while Miranda tried to retie her bikini so that I could lose her. She was trying hard to get close to me and I got the feeling that she had a reason other than wanting to help me. She was able to get a little bit out of me but it was obvious that she wanted more. I started to run in the hopes that I would lose Miranda but she was hot on my trail.
"Hey, will you wait up?!"
Alright, let's see how badly you want to know me. I was in a full on sprint as I headed into town in an attempt to lose Miranda. The surrounding buildings were short enough for me to scale up the side of the walls and they were spaced enough apart that I could jump from rooftop to rooftop. I looked behind me to see Miranda gaining on me. It was surprising to see that she was able to run in those shoes of hers. Let's see just how good she really is. I headed into the first alleyway I saw and quickly took in my surroundings. There was a seven foot tall fence dead ahead with a metal dumpster right in front of it. I ran towards the dumpster and ran along the wall it was set against and was able to get on top of the dumpster with ease. Once I was on top of it, I kept running to maintain my speed and vaulted over the fence. I rolled as soon as I hit the ground to soften my landing and I looked back to see Miranda still coming towards me with no signs of stopping. Instead of replicating what I did, she jumped towards the dumpster and vaulted on top of it so that she was able to swan dive over the fence. You've got to be kidding me! I continued to run down the alleyway to see more obstacles I could use to lose Miranda. There was a truck that was backed up onto a loading dock with an awning overhead that wasn't that much higher than the building's roof. I jump onto the front of the truck and continued to run up it until I was on top of the building. From there, I continued to run along the roof tops and I could hear Miranda right behind me. To my left, there was a drop that led to a building that was being renovated across the street. I turned towards it and ran for it. There was an open window that was a down one story and with enough speed, I knew I could make the jump. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me and jumped as far as I could. I kept my body straight as I dove for the window and when my hands came in contact with the window sill, I brought my legs between my arms and entered through the window. I didn't bother slowing down because I figured Miranda was still behind me. I had landed on a scaffold that was twenty feet off the ground with another scaffold under the one I was on that ran perpendicular to the one above it.
I slide on my side so that when I went off the edge of the scaffold, I was able to grab the edge and lower myself down. From here, there was another window above a higher scaffold that was about six feet away from it. I ran down the scaffold that I was on and jumped for the scaffolds outer beam and used the momentum from my run to swing up and over so that I landed on top of the scaffold and then I proceeded to jump through the window. However, when I jumped out the window, there was only an open park down below and I quickly grabbed the edge of the window before it was too late. I was lucky that there was a drain pipe on the side of the building and I used that to scale down the side of the building. I could hear Miranda inside of the building that I had just exited. Running through the park would make it easier for her to spot me so I avoided that place all together. My only other option was to run through a bazar that had stands lining the whole way. The place was crowded so I figured that I could lose her in there, but then I remembered that she was part of Project Pitbull too. She would find me with no problem. I wasn't running as I made my way down the bazar and the crowd. I inconspicuously snatched a hair tie from one of the first women I saw and tied up my hair. It was long enough for me to pull back into a small ponytail and I figured I'd be harder to spot in the crowd if I changed my appearance. Everyone in the bazar was shopping in their bathing suits and I actually felt out of place. I took of my shirt and a bunch of girls actually took notice. Yeah ladies, I know I got the physic that you'd drool over but I'm an asshole. I started to become insecure of the two scars I had on my back and I really wanted to put my shirt back on but I just pressed on. As much as I wanted to get away from Miranda, that wasn't my main goal. I still had to find Harkin, where ever he was. The fact that he ditched me really started to piss me off the more I thought about it.
"Oh my God, those shoes are so cute!" I looked to my right and I saw Miranda standing in front of one of the merchant stands, holding a pair of brown high heel shoes. Where the hell did she come from? "What do you think, Antonio?"
"They'd look nice with that purse I saw a few stands back," I said.
"You really think so?"
"Pssh, no, I could care less about how they look."
"Well I bet you'd think they'd look cute on me, huh?"
"I don't really care how you look," I said.
"Because you think I look cute either way?" asked Miranda.
"No, because I don't care about how anyone looks," I said as I put my shirt back on and I turned to run away again.
Miranda just stood there completely dumbfounded at what I told her and it took her a second to shake off her shock before she started to chase me down the bazar. People were still crowding the place and this made it hard for me to actually sprint. My only way out was to climb on top of one of the stands and run along the buildings again so that's what I did. I was running along the roof tops again and I eventually jumped down after came upon banner that was hanging over the main boulevard. I could've easily run along the banner's cable but I needed to try and hide from Miranda at the same time. The street was pretty busy with slow moving traffic and I had to vault and slide over a bunch of vehicles as they waited for the traffic light to turn green. I was just glad than none of them blew their horns at me because they would alert Miranda to where I was at. However she didn't need them because when I looked back, she was running across the banner's cable. She's good. I'll give her that much. I continued to run down the street, jumping over rails and scaling walls that were in my way. Miranda was having no problem keeping up with me. I was smiling at the fact that she was able keep up with me so easily and I was planning on pushing her to her limit. I went down an alleyway I saw towards my right and saw that it was a dead end with a small square courtyard. There were no doorways or windows for me to exploit and there weren't any objects that I could climb on. I continued to run towards the courtyard and headed towards one of the corners. I then proceeded to jump and wall run towards the adjacent wall so that I could launch myself off the wall and onto the roof. Once I grabbed the edge of the wall, I pulled myself up and saw Miranda headed right for me.
As she was scaling the wall the same way I did, I headed towards the east and noticed that a mall was up ahead. This should be good. I jumped down from the roof and rolled to break the fall. From there I ran for the nearest entrance and I had to swan dive over a group of people so that I didn't hit them on accident. Needless to say, they were kind of impressed. The mall I entered was a two story shopping center. In the center of the mall was a huge fountain surrounded by a bunch of jewelry stores. This circle of jewelry stores made me think that the people of this city were more superficial than anything else. They were still walking around the place in their bathing suits and I couldn't wrap my head around that. The place was almost as crowded as the bazar but, people were moving a lot faster. I could blend in with a group of people a lot easier and I wanted to test how good Miranda actually was. She was easier to spot than I thought because I could see her trying to see over people as she tried looking for me. I was casually walking next to a large group of people that were headed in her direction. Along the way, I also started to wonder if she expected me to do this. In Pitbull, we were always taught to stay a few steps ahead of our opponent at all times. It was right then that I understood why our mentors were afraid of letting us have social interactions of any kind; it was a recipe for disaster. I couldn't let this chase carry on any longer because someone could end up getting hurt. When the group of people had finally reached Miranda, he was standing on a bench, scanning the crowd for me. I stood behind her and extended my arm out so that I was touching her lower back. I held my hand out like I was holding a gun and as soon as she felt me touching her, she froze.
"You got to work on your special awareness," I said and Miranda turned.
"Where did you come from?" she asked as she jumped down from the bench.
"That's for me to know and for you to never find out. Anyways, I'm going off to find my mentor so I figured I'd leave you somewhere nice before I ditched you."
"You don't want me to come with you?"
"No, I need to find him before he decides to do something to hurt himself," I said.
"What do you mean?" asked Miranda.
"He hasn't been himself since we left Wesson this morning. He stole a car when we first got here and I got the feeling that that's only the beginning."
"Is he normally like this?"
"No, why," I asked.
"One second," said Miranda and she pulled out her phone from her belt she was wearing under her sarong and proceeded to make a call. "Hey it's me. No, I just needed to ask you something about the guy you said you had to meet. What's his name? So that way I know who to castrate if he ends up breaking up with you. Fine then just tell me his first name. Okay, so where are you? I have a friend who needs a ride home and he's stranded here. I'm not screwing with you; he's another member of Pitbull and…."
Miranda wasn't able to finish her sentence before she took the phone away from her ear. I could hear the person on the other end yelling at her but I wasn't able to understand any of it. Miranda tried desperately to calm the person down but she soon gave up and ended the call. She then turned towards me and motioned me to follow her.
"So what was that all about?" I asked.
"What was your mentor's first name?"
"Nathan."
Miranda looked at her phone and I followed her outside of the mall. "Do you think you can keep up with me?" she asked.
"Yeah, why…"
Miranda didn't give me enough time to answer before she took off again and I ran after her we were headed northwest, back towards the beach. It was strange trying to follow her because I had never actually done parkour like this. It was like a game of high stakes tag with all the running, jumping, and climbing we did throughout the town. We were running along the rooftops again and I could see people looking up at us from below. I could hear them commenting about us saying that we were going to get the cops called on us while others were making joke about how desperate I seemed to get Miranda's number. My favorite comment was about how ninja we looked. We were running along a rather long building that I guessed was a strip mall. I was having fun and I actually felt myself smiling for the first time in a long time. I continued chasing after Miranda as she dropped down from the roof of the building and ran into an area that was being used for what I assume was a staging area for a parade. People were dressed in assorted costumes while others were preparing vehicles for something. Miranda was side stepping left and right to avoid everything while I was ducking, diving, and sliding under obstacles. One guy almost had a heart attack when I dove over the front of his vintage car after I slid under some guys who were carrying some pipes. Once I cleared the area, Miranda ran down another alleyway and dropped down a large flight of stairs that went straight ahead. I took a more stylish approach by grabbing a garbage can lid and used it to grind down the stair rail.
"Show off!" shouted Miranda.
"It was the perfect opportunity to do that and I wasn't going to waste it," I shouted back.
Miranda rolled her eyes and continued to run down the alleyway. We eventually came across a four way intersection where an SUV was slowly pulled in front of us and stopped when the driver saw us. We didn't stop and proceeded to run towards the SUV. When we got close enough, we both jumped and started to run along the wall so that we could jump over the vehicle. After we landed, I watched as Miranda started to run along the wall again and she proceeded to launch herself off the wall and start scaling the opposite wall until her momentum was gone, but that didn't stop her from going up. She was jumping between the walls at a rather quick pace and I was actually impressed she was able to do that. I followed her example until I reach the roof of the building she was on and we ran further north until we reached the end of the roof top. We jumped down from the rooftop again so that we were running on the sidewalk of a busy street. Miranda paused for a moment to look at her phone before she started to run again. What was she looking at? I followed her down the street as she turned to run into a three story parking garage. We weren't sprinting anymore and we were now jogging up the ramps. When we reached the second story, Miranda turned the corner and just as I was about to follow her, I heard her start to struggle. I quickly turned the corner only to be met with a woman trying to swipe a knife at me. She was a tall, slender, Latina woman in her mid-thirties. She had long straight black hair and brown eyes to match. Her cheek bones were rather large and her nose had the little bulb at the end. Harkin would be drooling over this woman if he was here. I ducked to avoid the knife and leaned back when she tried to knee me in the head. I countered by trying to swipe her off her feet but she jumped back out of reach. The lady tried to charge towards me but Miranda quickly intervened to stop us from killing each other.
"Kallen, wait! He's not going to do anything!" shouted Miranda as she tried to hold back the lady.
"He's another subject from Pitbull. He can't be near you!"
"Why the hell not, he wasn't going to kill me," exclaimed Miranda. "At least I hope not."
"You'd already be dead if I wanted to kill you," I said.
"HEY!" shouted someone from the other side of the parking garage. I looked back to see Major Harkin come into view. He wasn't wearing his flight suit anymore and he was dressed in swimming trunks and a white t-shirt. "Keep the hell away from him, Ortiz."
"You should keep that little shit on a leash. You know they aren't supposed to be together like this," said the lady.
"Then you shouldn't have left your apprentice alone. I had my reason to do so but you didn't."
"You came to find me, Harkin. I couldn't let her know about you."
"Well she does now. Let's go, Kid," yelled Harkin and I ran over to him.
Miranda looked a little disappointed as she watched me walk away and I honestly didn't know what to feel. Harkin was cussing under his breath at something but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I followed Harkin to his car and we both got in. He seemed different than for when we arrived in Macon. We began to drive back towards the base in silence. I wanted to ask why he ditched me earlier and why he stole this car. More importantly, I wanted to know how he found me and who that lady was. They obviously knew each other and I gathered that she was the reason why Harkin brought me here. We eventually made it back to Camp Jarratt and Harkin parked the car he stole back into the spot he originally found it. He even duct taped a tarp over the broken window and he continued to cuss under his breath about something. I didn't know what to assume he was mumbling about. We headed back to the locker rooms and got changed into our flight gear. From there, we got back into the T-45 and began to prepare for takeoff. I quickly did the pre-flight checks and looked over my map to get an idea of what our flight path was going to look like. After doing a bunch of trigonometry in my head, I concluded that Wesson was around eight hundred miles from our current location if I took vector 070 northeast. I also had to factor in the weather conditions. If I had a head wind, it would take us longer to get there than if we had a tail wind.
"Alright, Kid, start her up and take us home," said Harkin in an annoyed tone.
Something's up with him. I started up the plane, taxied onto the runway, and requested clearance for takeoff from the control tower. Once I was clear, I throttled up and sped down the runway. As I was gaining altitude, I thought about how easy everything I just did was. It felt like it was already second nature and that I've done this all before, even though it was only the second time I did it. Maybe I do belong in the sky. Forty minutes into the flight, Harkin still hadn't said anything to me regarding Miranda's mentor or what his deal was earlier. In fact, he didn't say anything at all. He let me choose the heading we took home and the speed at which we were going. I wasn't really doing much as I flew the plane because flying in a straight line wasn't that hard. However, my paranoia got to me when I thought about this. I slowly looked over my left shoulder and saw that I was clear. Then I looked over my right shoulder. What the hell? I saw a T-38 flying on my right wing in the five o' clock position.
"Major, do you see that?" I asked over the radio.
"See what?" he said in an annoyed tone.
"Take a look at our five o' clock."
I could see Harkin turn in his seat in my mirror and his reaction was similar to mine. "Where did they come from?" he asked.
"I don't know. I just spotted them," I said and I looked at our current position. I got the feeling Harkin was going to do something that I was kind of hoping he'd do. "Who are they?"
"How the hell should I know? Lose them," said Harkin.
I couldn't help but think that Harkin did in fact know them. Otherwise he wouldn't have told me to lose them. Alright, here it goes. I cut the throttle back, snapped the stick back, and applied full right rudder. The T-45 responded by barrel rolling over the T-38 and I fell into position off their right wing. My visor was down so they couldn't see my face and so was theirs. I could tell that the pilot and copilot were looking at us as I peeled away from them. When I looked back, I was actually surprised to see them following us. I found this rather odd because I had no idea where they came from or if they were going back to Wesson with us. I banked the plane lazily to the left and right to get a feel for how my plane handled and I quickly went over the specification of both of our planes in my head. My plane wasn't as fast as the T-38 but it was more maneuverable and had a lower stalling speed because of the shape of its wings. After I went through everything in my head, I throttled up and began to fly at full speed with the other set of pilots tight on my tail. I led them through a series of tight turns in an attempt to shake my pursuer. The G forces felt good pressing down on me but I couldn't hold them for long before I started to feel exhausted. I had no idea that all this maneuvering could be so demanding. I was holding a right bank and the T-38 was still holding position behind me as I tried to catch my breath.
"You better move, Kid. If this were a real fight, you'd be dead already," said Harkin.
"Don't worry about it," I replied and I braced myself for my next maneuver. While I was still banking right, I applied the left rudder, causing me to yaw upward. I then snapped the stick to the right and the T-45 performed a rolling scissor so that I ended up behind the T-38. "Ha-ha, my turn."
The T-38 pilot wasted no time in trying to shake me off of his tail and it actually had no problem staying glued to his tail. He led me to higher altitude while pulling a bunch of hard left and right turns. By the way he was flying; he was just as inexperienced as I was. He wasn't using his speed advantage to try and get away and at the rate he was climbing, he wasn't trying to use his planes higher service ceiling to out maneuver me. I must've chased the other pilot for three minutes before he went into a full speed dive towards the ground. Whether the other pilot knew it or not, he was going to out run me. I stayed behind him for as long as I could before he slowly started to put some distance between us. After he gained a half a mile over me, I broke off my chase from him and changed my heading to head back to Wesson. When I looked back, the T-38 was headed for me again to try and get on my tail. He was coming in too fast so I decided to test him. I was going just over three hundred miles an hour while the other guy was coming at me at full speed. He was on top of me within a matter of seconds and as soon as he was close enough, I pulled a high G-barrel roll over him and got on his tail. The guy didn't slow down and I guessed that he figured out that he could out run me because he kept going. Let's see just how smart this guy is. I nosed up and applied full throttle so that I could gain as much altitude as I could before the T-38 could come back towards me. I was at ten thousand feet when the other pilot began to head for us. From here, I could easily avoid him because I had an altitude advantage over him. He came up as fast as he could and tried to get on my tail by shooting past me and pulling into a wide right turn while maintaining his speed. I turned into him and began to climb towards his plane while he dove on me. We were closing at an alarming rate and neither one of us showed signs of loosening up.
"Kid, what are you doing?" asked Harkin kind of nervously.
"Testing this guy's nerves," I said.
"Loosen up," said Harkin.
"Why?"
"Because, he's not going to let up," warned Harkin.
"Do you mean the student or the instructor?" I asked.
I could see the contemplation in Harkin's eyes as thought about my question. It made me realize that he knew who the pilot of that plane was and that he had some idea of who the student was. Is that the Roselyn Sanchez looking lady we ran into earlier? Is that Miranda in there?! No, it can't be…could it? I was nervous about whether or not I should keep going because from what I was able to figure out from Miranda, she was a persistent girl. Then again, so was I. She would've known that we were both stubborn. Regardless of who was flying that plane, I kept pushing forward. I was smiling as the distance between us closed very rapidly and I let go of the flight stick. Harkin was screaming at me to break off but I thought it was kind of stupid because he could've easily taken control of the plane for me and maneuvered out of the way, but he didn't. I could clearly see the other pilots freaking out in the cockpit of the other plane when we were close enough. The pilot in the back seat brought their hands up to their face and the pilot in the front broke to their left while I kept going. They didn't turn back around to follow me as I headed back to Wesson. Instead, they headed for Harwood, which was like a hundred and ninety miles south of Wesson. I figured that they couldn't be that lady and Miranda if they were headed that way.
"So who were those two?" I asked.
"A couple of old friends of mine that I knew from seven years ago," said Harkin. "One of them is going to be working closely with you for the remainder of the war."
"What's his name?"
"You'll find out tomorrow. For now, just concentrate on getting us back to Wesson alive," said Harkin and he cut off his mic.
He was still acting weird and I was getting really annoyed by him. That wasn't really the only thing that annoyed me. I kept thinking about Miranda and what she was doing in Macon with her mentor. I still couldn't shake the feeling that Miranda and her mentor were the pilots in that T-38 and that they were going to land an hour behind us to keep us separated. Other than that, I felt great now that I actually flew a jet for the first time ever. I thought this day couldn't any better, but sadly, I was right.
1809hrs, Wesson Osea
We were twenty miles away from Camp Curtiss's airfield and I could see storm clouds billowing in the distance. I knew the weather report warned about heavy rain but I didn't think it would be this bad. The clouds were so thick that I couldn't see the sun and the entire city's lights lit up like it was nine o'clock at night. The lightning wasn't the least bit comforting either and I felt like Hans Solo when he was being pulled into the Death Star as I headed for the storm. Alright, here we go. I took a deep breath and prepared myself to land in this storm. This was going to test my skills and I figured God wanted to see how badly I wanted to go to war. I was going to land this plane and I was going to find my place in the sky.
"Major?" I hailed over the radio, but he didn't respond. "Major," I said again, but he still didn't respond. I looked in my rearview mirror to see Harkin leaning his head against the canopy with his visor down. I snapped the stick over and Harkin hit his head on the opposite side of the canopy. He jolted awake and started fumbling at the controls. "Oh good, you're awake." I heard Harkin turn his radio back on.
"You're an asshole," said Harkin.
"So I've been told. Anyways, do you want to ask the tower for clearance or something?"
"Curtis tower, this is Major Nathan Harkin of the 118th Tactical Fighter Wing returning from Macon. We're coming in for a rough landing from the southeast," said Harkin.
"We read you, Major. We cannot clear you to land right now. The wind is blowing crosswinds at both runways."
"That wasn't a request. We're dangerously low on fuel and we can't make it to any other base. We're coming in. Have EMS and fire control on standby."
"Are you serious, Major?" I asked.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," he replied and he took over the controls.
Shit. I tried to prepare myself before we headed into the storm. The wind was knocking us around a lot and I knew Harkin was struggling to keep control of the plane. The T-45 was bucking left and right. The wings were dipping down when Harkin didn't want them to and he couldn't maintain a steady altitude. I was getting tossed around in my seat and the nausea I felt earlier was starting to return. My heart was racing again and I could feel an adrenaline rush coming on. Harkin was grunting as he tried to keep the plane level and just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, a bolt of lightning struck our right wing and sent the plan into a spiral towards the ground. We were at five thousand feet when we began to fall and I could see Harkin had the shit startled out of him when I looked back at him. He was holding his head in his hands and I wasn't in any better condition. Come on, shake it off and take control of the plane. My ears were still ringing as I gripped the stick and pulled back on it while I applied the rudder to stop the spiral. Pulling back on the stick was like trying to win a game of tug of war against a guy who was twice as strong as I was. I'm not going to die here! The adrenaline rush I felt started to take over my body and I could feel the stick moving in the direction I wanted it to. We were still spiraling towards the ground pretty fast and I tried screaming to help motivate myself to pull harder. I couldn't hear myself yelling because I still couldn't hear anything from when the lightning struck the plane. I didn't know how high we were when I was finally able to pull out of the spiral but I somehow managed to recover. When I looked up to check the altimeter, it was pointed at zero, but so was the speedometer. I looked at the HUD and saw that it wasn't displaying anything. Some of the electronics and other instruments were fried and now we had to try and judge everything with our eye and instincts. I could see the lights of the runway of Camp Curtis and I tried to guide the plane over there as carefully as I could. Harkin was still holding his head in his hands and I figured that he was in no shape to continue flying. My nausea grew worse the closer we got to the runway. Each passing second was more agonizing than the last.
"Major, are you still with me?" I asked, but he didn't reply. I tried calling his name a couple more times before I gave up. I was on my own but I wasn't scared. However, I was nervous as all hell. The thought that I wouldn't walk away from this one was kind of exhilarating but I didn't let it stop me. I closed my eyes and took a couple deep breaths before I started to focus on landing the plane. I had no idea what I was doing but I had to go off of what I usually did while I was playing Ace Warfare. The first thing I did was apply more power to the engine so that I could gain some altitude. We were about two miles away before I lowered the landing gear and cut back on the throttle. When I put the throttle at thirty percent, I heard a loud boom and when I looked back in the mirror, I could vaguely see a black smoke trail coming from the right intake. Son of a bitch! We were losing airspeed pretty fast and I didn't think that I could keep the plane up in the air for much longer. My reflexes allowed me to keep the plane steady for the most part but it would be useless if I didn't have any airspeed. I need lift! I lowered the flaps and the plane began to buck even more. I tried my best to keep it under control but it was still too much. We were coming in for a rough landing. The runway was coming up slowly and I could see the emergency vehicles' lights on the other end of it. Come on just a little more, baby. You can make it! Rico is going to give you a complete overhaul when you save our lives. Just as I was about to drop the nose and hit the ground, a large gust of wind force the tail of the T-45 to swing left and the left wing to dip down. I quickly snapped the stick to the right and applied full left rudder to counter the wind's control but it wasn't soon enough. The left wheel touched down first while the nose was still pointed up and to the right, causing the plane to swing to the left. I tried to apply the right rudder to ease the stress on the right wheel as it touched down, but the force of the nose wheel made me feel like it was going to collapse. I was pulling back on the stick and applied the brakes, hoping that I wouldn't die. The total amount of time it took for me to come to a complete stop seemed like an hour passed by when it actually took ten seconds. When we finally stopped, I took in everything that was going on outside. It seemed like buckets of water were continuously being poured over our canopy and I could hear the wind howling as well. The emergency vehicles were rushing towards our position to make sure that we were alright. My whole body was shaking and I couldn't get it to stop.
"Kid," said Harkin over the radio. "Any pilot will tell you. Any landing that you walk away from is a good landing."
1921hrs Mom's House
"There you are, where've you been?" asked my mother as I walked through the front door.
"Job training took longer than usual because of the weather," I said.
"Are you feeling okay?" asked Amanda.
"Yeah, why," I asked
"You look kind of pale, like you just had a near death experience or something."
You have no idea. "Yeah, some guy almost T-boned Harkin's car on Western Boulevard when we were coming off base."
"Oh, well I saved you some meat loaf in the oven in case you're hungry," said my mother.
Dammit. "That's okay, I'm not hungry," I said and I walked down the hallway towards the bathroom. I reflected on everything about the landing and everything just seemed to come flooding back as I brushed my teeth to get the taste of vomit out of my mouth. It wasn't until we got out of the cockpit that I actually contemplated everything in a way that I had never done before. I was actually that close to dying and the more I thought about it, the more I started to think that it was fear. The last time I actually remembered that I was afraid was when I was eight, but I couldn't remember what it felt like. My body was still shaking as I thought about everything and my nausea began to come back stronger than ever. I knew I told Harkin that I wanted this but now, I had a small bit of doubt in my head. There's no going back. Other than that, I started to think about all the other stuff that happened today. I thought more about how Miranda ended up in Macon and how both of our mentors acted towards each other. They knew each other and Harkin went looking for Ortiz, but why didn't she want Miranda to know about him? Why did he ditch me to go find Ortiz? My train of thought was interrupted when I heard a knock on the bathroom door. I finished brushing my teeth and opened the door to see my little sister standing in the door way, holding an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat).
"I know how much you don't like mom's meat loaf so I got you this," she said.
I couldn't help but smile and give her a hug.
