Ok, this is chapter 12, attack part 2, so...let's go...
Chapter XII-The Plan
The car rolled onto the runway, Rafe was out of the car before it had even stopped, and I was not far behind, only stopping to help Leanna, grabbing her by the wrist and leading her towards the office, where we met the confused pilots, Red, Anthony, Joe, and others, running in circles, or so it seemed
I payed no mind to them, running inside and grabbing the phone, calling the airfield for Earl, I'm not sure what was said, only that I told him to get the planes ready, we were under attack, and hung up, then saw Rafe, wide eyed, walking towards me from the window
"Take cover" he said, the calm in his voice made me shudder
And I couldn't move
"I said TAKE COVER!" he yelled this time, all calm escaping from his voice, pushing me down behind the desk, almost on top of Leanna
Just then, a large blast blew the wall in, I was scared to death, but I wouldn't show any of this fear from our close call to Rafe or especially Leanna
Rafe waited, not one of those absent, pointless waits, but he was definitely waiting for something, a few moments later, he got up and gestured for me to do the same, I grabbed Leanna by the wrist and we made our way quickly to the car
"Where are we going?" Rafe asked
"To the little airfield about 10 miles from here" I informed him, the glint in his eye told me he knew what he was doing
He quickened his pace, "Let's GO, LOAD UP!" Rafe yelled to the other pilots over the roar, looking up at the planes approaching
"They're about to bust this hanger wide open!" I yelled
"LET'S MOVE!" Rafe yelled and the other four pilots piled into the small car and we were off
Bullets flew through the air all around the car, the Zeros were on our tail, and we were going as fast as we could, with the bullet holes all through the car it was a miracle that none of us had been hit
There was suddenly no more time as we were suddenly just...there, and we had bounded out of
the car and I was already talking to Earl, Rafe behind me
"What do you have?" I asked, he knew what I was talking about
"Six, she's broke, she's shit, she needs fuel, she needs ammo, and the other two are good" he said
quickly gesturing to them when suddenly a bomb dropped and there was no more hanger to the
left of me, only a ball of orange
From the look on Earl's face, I knew those were the two 'good' ones.
"Let's go lay out some cover fire" Rafe suggested from behind, I nodded and motioned to the men
to get behind the bunkers, they all complied, and we made sure that Leanna was squished down
close, right next to mine and Rafe's knees
"Alright, pilots, don't get on the stick until you get to the end, fly low, remember, we can't out fly
the Zeros, we'll just have to outsmart them, everyone else, I need ammo in that tower, Red, you
come with me, ok, let's move!" Rafe said quickly
Anthony, Gooz, and Joe were the first to pop out from behind the bunker, they ran across the
runway, dodging bullets as they ran, Rafe allowed them to get about five seconds ahead of us and
then he grabbed Leanna's wrist, looking her in the eye
"You're gonna be fine" he said, almost like she'd asked him or said anything
But she hadn't.
Rafe shot me a glance and then we, along with Red, jumped up and ran, I wasn't sure if I'd ever
run that fast in my life, and I was blankly aware that my thighs and calves were hurting, but I
didn't care, Leanna needed to be safe, that's all that mattered, not Rafe, not myself, but Leanna.
Leanna and her baby.
And so I ran. Ran for my life, Leanna's wrist in my hand, running for the hanger. That's where I
needed to be, that was my focus.
Obviously my focus needed to be more on Leanna, because she stumbled and fell, I looked back, panicked, what was wrong? Had she been shot?
"Beautiful?" I said, but without waiting for a response, I simply lifted her into my arms and continued running
We got there, and we were alive, and I stood around, almost in a panic, looking for Rafe who was bringing up the rear, then set Leanna to her feet
"Beautiful, you ok?" I asked, raising her chin and examining her face
"I'm fine, Danny" she said, moving my hand
"Good, Rafe, let's go" I said, looking to Rafe
"Let's" he said, throwing a glance at Leanna
"Be careful, Beautiful" Rafe yelled, pointing at her in a very 'you do as I say' way, Joe's plane was
starting up
Rafe and I climbed into our cockpits, the planes were side by side, and I was still looking at
Leanna, who looked confused
"Where's my plane?" she yelled
"What plane?" I asked back
"*My* plane, I'm flying too" she said
Rafe heard this too, because when I looked over at him, he was still looking at Leanna
"Beautiful, you can't fly, you're pregnant!" I screamed over the roar of the propeller
"Red! Beautiful *can't* fly, take her with you, she's not going to like it, just do it" I heard Rafe
yell
Red nodded
"I'm going with you!" she yelled, pushing Red off as he reached for her wrist
"No you're not, go with Red, y'all get out of here, go on, get!" I said in a very final tone
"Dammit Danny, I CAN FLY! You're going to be all the help you can get!" she said
"It's to dangerous! GO WITH RED NOW!" I yelled back at her, she seemed to sink in on herself and she looked hurt, but if that's what it took, so be it
It wasn't a matter of whether Leanna could fly or not, Leanna could fly with the best of them, and in the good times at Pearl, I had taught her to fly these planes, I knew Leanna could fly, but this was *real*, not just chicken in the cropdusters, and she was pregnant, her life wasn't just hers, it was being shared by someone else, my niece or nephew, and I wasn't about to risk it
There was so much commotion that no one looked up until we realized that Earl was yelling into
the radio, my gaze focused on the runway first and I saw a ball of fire that I knew had once been
Joe's plane
I took a deep breath and looked down at Leanna, no words needed to be spoken, she backed
behind Red and gave me a reassuring smile, then looked to Rafe, that's when I realized that Rafe
had been trying to get my attention, I obviously had a horrified and far-out look in my eye
"Danny, I need you, I'm nothing without a wing man" he yelled
I gulped, nodding and looking down at the belly of my sister, praying that she would be ok, taking
a deep breath, and with a glance at Rafe, we took off
Rafe yelling instructions to me the whole time, but the only thing on my mind was Leanna, I could
fly, I knew it, but Leanna, would she be ok?
I would have kept thinking along these lines had it not been for the bullets that began flying by my
plane at that moment
"God!" I screamed before I realized it
"We've just gotta out fly them, you'll be fine" Rafe reassured me
It seemed to take an eternity, the whole flying thing, as we picked them off one by one, separating
them, shooting them down, flying them by the tower while the others shot them down, it seemed
everything was going according to plan until out of nowhere six Zeros flew in, raining bullets on
us, I tried to dodge them, but I was running out of both fuel and ammo, and fatigue was beginning
to take its toll on my skills
"How about if we show these Jap suckers how to play chicken?" Rafe suddenly said, I looked up
and made out his plane coming around the corner,
"I'm with ya Rafe"
"Ok, don't break til I say"
I took a deep breath and tried to focus, I needed my mind to be clear and focused for this to
work,
"Not yet"
Our planes were getting closer,
"Get ready"
Only a couple hundred yards away and closing
"Wait for it, wait for it"
5 yards
"LEFT, Danny, NOW!"
With all my strength I pulled the stick to the side and our planes passed belly-to-belly, there was
nothing like that kind of a rush, I didn't turn around to see, but I could hear the planes crashing
into each other behind me,
"That was great!", Rafe's voice sounded triumphant, he must not have realized that there were still
two left, I looked down, I could only last about five more minutes on fuel, and my ammo was out
"Rafe, I'm out of fuel and ammo" I said, trying not to sound as dim as I knew I did, I knew that
Rafe was looking down at the gauges in surprise at this point
"Me either, and there's two left, what do we do?" he asked, I hated it when he asked me
questions, HE was the war hero and all
"I don't know, we could try to fly them by the tower" I suggested
"Not enough fuel, if we try to land, they'll be all over us"
I heaved a sigh, after shooting down at least four Japanese Zeros, it was going to end, I kept
searching for words to say, a plan, words of advice, anything, but nothing would come, the bullets
were whizzing by my head now and I wasn't exactly sure how they kept missing me, I was
preparing myself for the end, Rafe and I flying side by side
Then, suddenly, I heard a loud crash and a wave of light flooded everything, and then it was gone,
maybe I had died, that was my first thought, that I had been shot and I was dead, it took me a
moment to realize that the both Zeros were now smoldering piles of orange flames on the ground,
only them did I turn to see who or what my savior was, before I could even glance back, a voice
came over the radio
"Looked like you two needed some help"
A/N: Think I could have made it a little bit longer? Haha, um, yeah, ::shrug:: I enjoy reviews, they make me post chapters faster, and, yeah, everyone wants to know what happens, right?
Preview for Chapter 13: the aftermath and the horror that comes with it
