Whoo here's the next chapter! Hope you guys are enjoying it! A special thanks to foxyricanlady for favoriting the story! :D
Chapter 25
The next six months flew by. The day they shipped out, he ended up flying himself, as well as thirty other air force men down to Fallujah to their new 'home' for the next six months.
When they arrived at the base, they set up their rooms and, for the next five and a half months, they worked with the marines, making and going over battle plans. They practiced regularly; they would set up targets in the field and Ben, along with many other pilots, would practice flying by and shooting down the targets.
His relationship with Allison also strengthened during these six months. The base they were stationed at was very good about keeping computers up and running. Along with writing letters back and forth, he called her for the first time since he had left, fifteen months ago. He didn't warn her about the call; he wanted it to be a surprise and a surprise it was. When she answered the phone and found out it was Ben, she screamed in excitement and immediately started crying. Though he had heard her voice on the video letter it was the first time she had heard his voice in fifteen months.
They talked on the phone for nearly thirty minutes. Despite how badly he wanted to continue talking to her, he forced himself to end the conversation first. The line for the phone was growing and he forced himself to tell her good-bye. He promised to call again soon and he told her how much he loved her.
With the base having internet connection, he also had video chats with her. He went to the local electronics store and bought himself a webcam. Late at night he would sneak out of his room and down to the computer. The first time they had a video chat, she cried like she did when he surprised her with the phone call. When he saw her, he couldn't help but get tears in his eyes.
They ended up talking on the webcam for almost three hours. There was never a dull or quiet moment and they talked and laughed for ours before he forced himself to tell her good-night. Before getting off, he put his hand up to the camera and touched it. He saw her get tears in her eyes before she slowly brought her hand up to the screen and touched it, where his hand was. They stared at each other and, for the tiniest second, it felt like they were together again.
At the end of June, their fifth month at the base in Fallujah and him and Allison's fifteenth month apart, they were finally ready to carry out their mission plans. They would move through the city of Fallujah where the man they were looking for was located. They didn't know where he was exactly, but they had connections in the city and they had provided them with possible locations.
The night before they left to carry out the mission, he wrote a letter to Allison and his father, asking them both to pray for him He gave them to the postman and he promised to deliver them as soon as possible. As he lay in the bed that night, he prayed and thanked God for the day and with the request that he would keep him safe and get him through this.
They headed out bright and early the next morning. They marines would be moving through the city on foot, with Ben and the other pilots lagging behind overhead. It took them a couple of hours to get to Fallujah and, while the marines moved through the city, trying to locate their man, Ben and his fellow pilots circled the city in the air, looking to see if anything looked suspicious. There were three other planes, besides Ben's, with about fifteen air force men in each.
They circled the city for about an hour until the marines radioed them and that they had discovered his location. They had found a group of people that were angry at their guy and told them that he was hiding out in a bunker just outside of the city.
The group of men directed them to the bunker and Ben and the other pilots followed them in the air. They stopped outside of the bunker and the marines thanked the men for their help and the men turned and began their trek back to the city.
The marines radioed them up in the air and described their plan. They were going to go down into the bunker and find their guy. Their job in the sky was to maintain visual contact of the bunker and watch the front and back of the bunker in case he tried to escape.
They circled the bunker for almost forty-five minutes until the marines yelled in the radio that he was trying to escape out of the back. Ben and the other pilots immediately turned their attention to the back and saw a huge group running towards the sand hills. Ben turned the front of the plane towards the group and focused in on them through the target underneath the controls. The men in the plane with him were shouting to shoot him and, when he got the group in his crosshairs, he put his fingers on the triggers and said,
"Get ready, boys." And he fired away.
As soon as he started firing, the other planes joined in and, in a matter of seconds, the entire group of men were laying on the ground. Everyone in his plane erupted into applause and the marines radioed them and the congratulations poured in.
The marines informed them that they would take care of everything. They would head back to the city and inform the police that they had found and killed the man that had tried to take over Tehran. So Ben and his fellow pilots began their flight back to the base. It took them a couple of hours to get back to the base and, when they reached it, they landed the planes in the hangar. When everyone got out, they immediately started patting each other on the back and congratulating each other. The two lieutenants that spoke at the two meetings came up to them and congratulated them, especially Ben and the other three pilots.
A couple of hours later, the marines contacted them and informed them that they had told the police of Fallujah that they had killed the man they were looking for. They had led the police to the bunker where the police took over and took care of the bodies. The marines left Fallujah and went back to their base. They thanked the air force men for helping and working with them to complete this mission and they were looking forward to working with them in the future.
After hearing the message from the marines, Ben and Matt headed back to their room; they were in the same room on this base as we. When they got to their room, they started to pack their things. They would be leaving for their base in Afghanistan in the morning.
A couple of hours later, when Matt had fallen asleep, Ben suck down to the computer. Since it was his last night on this base, it meant it was his last chance to have a video chat with Allison.
As soon as he saw her, he got the biggest smile on his face. He missed her more than he thought humanly possible. She would continuously pop in his head randomly and he dreamed of what it would be like when he finally took her in his arms again. That reality was now only two months away. He was so excited and they talked endlessly on their video chat for almost two and a half hours. He repeated what he did the first time they had the video chat and put his hand up to the webcam. She smiled and raised her hand and put it to his. They stared at each other for a while and he wished, more than anything, that he could jump through the computer screen and hold her in his arms. He smiled,
"I love you so much, Allison." She smiled,
"I love you, too, Ben."
The next two months were quiet. They stayed on base and, though they heard rumors going around that someone down in Iraq was planning to 'get revenge' on them for killing the man they killed, nothing had happened so far. So, for two months, everything was quiet. Everyone fell into an easy routine, and Ben's was, in fact, an easy one. He woke up at 8:30 every morning and jogged around the base for an hour. He had also begun flying lately.
They had some new recruits join and Ben was chose to be a 'big buddy' for one of the new recruits. He was assigned to show him around the base; where the barracks, the mess hall, the hangar and other places were. For the first couple of days, Ben basically told him everything he needed to know about being in the Air Force. There were different branches of the Air Force, of course, but they were based on basically the same principles; you needed to know how to fly a plane and the basic controls of a plane. You also needed to know how to be there when your fellow air force man needed you.
"When you're up there in the air, anything can go wrong. You need to know how to be there if anyone needs you, including yourself. If something happens to you or your plane, you need to know how to be calm and handle the situation as best you can." He was telling Tyler, the recruit, as they were walking through the hangar.
"Yes sir, Mr. Carter."
"Do you want to do me a favor, Tyler?"
"Yes sir, Mr. Carter." They stopped walking and Ben put his arm around his shoulder,
"Please stop calling me Mr. Carter. Call me Ben." He smiled,
"Okay." Ben smiled as well and patted his shoulder,
"Now you ready to fly one of these planes?"
He took Tyler out flying in one of the planes he would be using his branch. He was in the A.F.F.- Aerial Fire Fighting- branch. He would be responsible for fighting wild fires when they were considered 'out of control.'
While Ben flew the plane, Tyler was in the cockpit, admiring the scenery. It was the first time he had ever been in a plane and Ben let him take it all in before he started showing him the controls. They flew for almost an hour and a half. When it began to get dark, they decided to call it quits. As they landed, he showed Tyler the landing gear and showed him how to line the nose of the plane up with the runway and how to time the landing perfectly.
They landed the plane and he taxied it into the hangar. Before getting out, he showed him some more controls and then, finally, they went back to their barracks. It was 8:30. They talked well into the night and into the morning hours. As well as wanting to know about his time in the Air Force, Tyler also asked about his personal life. Ben told him that he was an only child and had come from generations of airforcemen. He told him about his mom and Jeff both dying near the same exact time and, to this, he was speechless.
"Wow, I can't believe that. That must have been so hard for you."
"Yeah, it was pretty tough. Me and my dad both took it hard, he became secluded for a while, but I think he's getting better." He nodded and then asked,
"So, are you married?"
"Nope, not married; but I have a girlfriend."
"What's her name?" He smiled and got off of the bed and took the picture of him and her at the aquarium off of his drawer and handed it to him,
"Her name's Allison." Tyler took it and looked at it, before smiling,
"She's pretty. How long have you been with her?"
"Eighteen months."
"How long has it been since you've seen her?" He smiled, knowing when he answered, he would have to tell him the whole story,
"Seventeen months." Tyler looked away from the picture and up at him, a confused look on his face. He took a deep breath and sat back down on the bed, preparing to tell him the best thing that had ever happened to him.
He told him how he had met Allison when Jeff had invited him to have lunch with them. He told him about Jeff's accident, coming back for a couple of days, and then going back for both his mom and Jeff's funerals. He recalled how he saw Allison coming towards him in the cemetery and how he fell in love with her in the short time they had together. When he was done telling the story, Tyler had a smile on his face and Ben couldn't help but smile, too.
"Wow, that's amazing." Ben laughed,
"Yeah, I know."
"You still talk to her, don't you?" He nodded and got up again and reached under his bed. He pulled out a cardboard box and opened it up. He pulled out all of his letters from Allison and handed them to him. His eyes were wide as he took them and asked,
"How many are there?"
"103."
"103?" Ben smiled and nodded,
"Yeah, I haven't seen her in seventeen months."
"That's crazy. What have you been here so long? My officer told me I only had nine months."
"That's how long you're supposed to be here; I only came back for a couple of days before I went on another leave."
"Man, that is a long time. How do you do it?" He smiled and shook his head,
"I don't know. I love her with all of my heart and I couldn't imagine not having her in my life. We're doing the best we can to keep in touch; we write letters of course and we talk on the phone occasionally. Before you came we were stationed on another base that had computers and I bought a webcam and we had a couple of video chats. We don't have much time left to go; I go home August 5th."
"That's only a couple of weeks away."
"Two weeks and a day."
"I know you're excited." Ben smiled,
"You have no idea. I didn't know it was possible to miss another person as much as I miss Allison. She's the best thing that ever happened to me and I love her more than she'll ever know. I'm counting down the days and hours until I see her again. Luckily, my plane leaves early that morning so I'll get there in the afternoon. She has class when I get home so she can't pick me up from the airport, but I'm going to surprise her at the college when her class ends."
"Well I hope everything works out for you both."
"Thank you." Tyler nodded and looked at his watch,
"Wow, it's 3:15 already? I better get going. I need some sleep; you're taking me flying again tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah if you want to; maybe I'll even let you fly it yourself." Tyler grinned,
"Really?"
"Sure." He smiled again,
"Awesome."
Ben spent the next two weeks helping Tyler get used to the base and helping him with his flying. Like he promised, he took him out flying the day after they had the talk in his room. Tyler was a little nervous at first, but he quickly learned how to maneuver and control the plane. Ben helped him and gave him advice and, after flying for almost two hours, they landed and spent the rest of the day in Ben's room.
They talked for a couple of hours and he told Tyler ore about Allison and Tyler also told him about his girlfriend. They had met in high school, sophomore year, and had been together ever since. He was nineteen and she was seventeen. He missed her a lot and tried to talk to her as much as he could.
"Maybe I should start writing letters to her." Ben smiled and nodded,
"You should; there's nothing better than getting a letter and reading it, knowing the girl you love sat and wrote it just for you."
He received two more letters from Allison and she was 'excited as she had ever been.' The last letter he got from her before he came back was one of the best letters he had gotten in eighteen months.
Dear Ben,
We've made it! There's only two more days until I see you again. I've waited for this moment for eighteen months. This will probably be the last letter I write until you get back. I'm sad that I won't be able to pick you up from the airport and I doubt that I'm going to be able to concentrate in class the next couple of days. My parents and friends have told me how much better my mood has been and I know it's because I'll be seeing you in forty-eight hours. I still can't believe it and I'll be the happiest girl in the world when I see you coming towards me. I'll probably start crying but you know they won't be tears of sadness; they'll be tears of joy, eighteen months in the making. I love you so much Ben and I can't wait until these final two days are up so I can see you again and fell the warmth of your arms around me. I love you with all of my heart.
Love, Allison
He woke up at 5:30 on his last day in Afghanistan. His plane was scheduled to leave at 7:30 and his taxi was coming to pick him up at 6:30. When he woke up, he took a quick thirty minute job around the base and then took a quick shower. He went to his room where Matt was laying on his bed. When Ben came in, he sat up with the biggest smile on his face and Ben couldn't help but smile and ask,
"What are you smiling at?"
"You're going to see your girl today, right?"
"Yeah." Matt laughed and put his arm around his shoulder,
"You have to be sure to tell me the details when you get back, okay?" Ben smiled,
"Okay."
As Matt sat back down on his bed, Ben got his duffel bag out and started packing his stuff.
"So have you heard the news?" Ben turned around,
"What news?"
"I heard that they're going to select random guys to stay in for another four years." He raised his eyebrow,
"What?"
"Yeah, they're saying that they're not getting enough people joining and they need more recruits than they're getting."
"What? That's crazy; they just got new recruits two months ago." Matt shrugged his shoulders,
"I don't know that's just what I've been hearing. I don't know if it's true or not. But wouldn't that be crazy if they did it? It would be like a draft. They wouldn't call it that, of course, but that's what it would be."
"I don't know, but that's crazy. How could they not be getting enough recruits?" He shrugged his shoulders,
"I don't know, but let's change the subject. So you're going to see your girl today." Ben smiled as he finished packing his stuff,
"Yep."
"When's the taxi coming to pick you up?"
"6:30."
"It's almost time, then." Ben smiled as they both stood up. Matt stuck out his hand,
"It's been a pleasure being your roommate, Mr. Carter. Have fun without me; say hello to your girlfriend, too, for me." Ben laughed and nodded,
"Okay, I will." He gave him a quick hug before Ben picked up his bag and headed outside where taxi would be picking him up. When he got outside, Tyler was waiting for him. He smiled as Ben approached him and Ben smiled and sat his bag down.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
"I don't know, I had to come see you off, right?" Ben smiled again and nodded and Tyler added,
"Well, I hope you have fun and enjoy your time off."
"Thank you, you try to have fun here without me, as well. Write a couple of letters to me and let me know how you're doing." Tyler nodded as the taxi pulled up. Ben ruffled Tyler's hair with his hand,
"All right, well I have to go; be good here without me, okay?" He smiled,
"Okay." Ben gave him a hug and ruffled his hair one more time before grabbing his bag and putting it in the trunk of the taxi.
"Bye, Tyler."
"Bye, Ben. Tell your girlfriend I said hello."
"Okay, I will."
Ben smiled as he got in the taxi and, as they drove to the airport, he couldn't be more excited.
:D Hope you guys liked! So the next chapter will be Ben and Allison's reunion! So exciting! Please stay tuned! Oh and review! :)
