Next chapter, whoop whoop! Don't want to give too much away. So I won't say anything :)
Chapter 42
His plane was delayed for almost forty-five minutes due to severe weather. He sat down in the section of seats where his plane was going to board, with everyone else that was on the same flight, and watched the weather channel, trying to see where the storm was headed. The winds had gotten to almost fifty miles an hour and lightning had struck at least ten homes. After forty- five minutes of waiting, a woman came over the intercom, announcing that their flight was now ready to board. A few people clapped in excitement and, everyone sitting in that section stood up and headed for the gate, tickets in their hands.
They finally took off at 10:00; an hour after their scheduled take off. The flight was an easy one overall; there was a little bit of turbulence when they took off, but after they had gotten though the storm, it was a smooth and easy ride. When they landed in California, everyone got off of the plane and Ben walked with his fellow passengers to get his luggage. He waited until he saw his bag come through and he picked it up and threw it over his shoulder and went outside.
He finally flagged down a taxi and they drove to the air force base. The driver dropped Ben off and he got his bag and began to walk up to the base when he saw someone running up to him. He felt nervous for a second, but relaxed when he saw that it was Ethan. When he got close, he called out his name and Ben put down his bag and shook his hand before giving him a quick hug,
"Where were you? We expected you almost an hour ago."
"Yeah my plane was delayed for forty- five minutes; there was some bad weather around Wilmington."
"Well, come on, I got one of the guys I know to get us in the same room. Welcome back, roommate." Ben smiled and picked up his bag and walked with Ethan to their barracks.
Edwards was nothing like the air force base he was on in Afghanistan. Instead of being surrounded by sand in the middle of nowhere, Edwards was surrounded by grassy meadows and hills. Off in the distance was a small town that was barely visible. While they were walking to the barracks, a fighter jet flew by above them.
"They've been practicing all day; they think they're going to get attacked at any minute. I heard that they had some threats and they're trying to figure out what to do. I personally think the threats are a prank, but a threat is a threat, right? They have to take it seriously."
They walked down a couple of hallways and finally stopped in front of a door. Ethan took out his key and unlocked the door and they went inside. The room sort of looked the same as their room in Afghanistan; there were two beds, one on the left and right sides of the room. Ben's of course, was empty but on Ethan's were three pictures. There was a picture of him with his dad at the state fair two pictures of him and Sarah. Ben put his bag down on his bed and Ethan said,
"You know, I've only been here for about a week, but I think I could get used to his place. I like it so much better than the hot desert in Afghanistan. Did you see the town off in the distance when we were coming up?" Ben nodded and he continued,
"Me and a couple of guys went down there the other night when we got here. It was, surprisingly, a small town and the people were really friendly and we talked to a bunch of families at a restaurant we went to. It's so much more comfortable and more welcoming. Don't get me wrong, I know we still have a job to do and I'm more serious about my job more than ever but it just feels better here. Do you get what I'm saying?" Ben laughed and nodded,
"Yeah, I get you .So, is that all you've done since you got here?"
"Pretty much. We got here a couple of days ago and we've just been hanging out; I haven't even gotten to go flying yet. When you get situated in here, do you want to head out there and practice? I've been dying to and I know you probably are, too." He nodded,
"Sure, let's go right now; I can unpack and get everything straight when we get back."
They headed out to the hangar, where a bunch of planes were sitting, waiting to be flown. There were a couple of guys standing around but, other than that, the hangar was empty. They walked back to where a couple of F-15's were and Ben climbed right into one, feeling more and more excited. Ethan climbed into the one right next to his and they both started up the engines. They waited for another plane to taxi in and they both taxied out onto the runway. Ben took off first, with Ethan right behind him.
With the sun starting to set, almost everyone had stopped practicing for the day. This was Ben's favorite time of the day; the sky was a beautiful mix of pink, orange and a tiny hint of purple. The sun was just about to set, hanging just over the top of the hills in the distance. It was so beautiful and Ben knew there wasn't a prettier time a day, or a better time to fly.
They ended up flying until they couldn't fly anymore. When the sun had finally set, they were forced to call it quits. They had flown for almost forty- five minutes, over the hills and even over the town that seemed far away. They mainly flew right beside each other and they had their radios on so they could communicate back and forth. They even did a couple of tricks and ended up getting a bunch of practice in.
After the sun had set, they radioed each other and called it quits. Since Ethan was in front of him, he landed first. After he had landed and taxied back into the hangar, Ben followed right behind him. He lined up the nose of the plane with the runway and landed it perfectly. He flew it back to its original position; beside the one Ethan was flying. He cut off the engine and hopped out of the cockpit where Ethan was leaning up against the plane. He hopped down and Ethan said,
"That was fun. I haven't seen that kind of scenery while flying in a long time." Ben nodded,
"Yeah, it was beautiful; I'm used to seeing sand all over the place from the sky."
"Me, too." He said, yawning.
"Well, I'm going to go ahead and go back to the barracks, you ready to go?"
"Yeah, you have to tell me what there is to do around here."
"Haven't you been stationed here before?"
"Yeah, but that's been forever ago; I haven't been here in years."
"Oh, yeah; well, let's head back to the room and I'll tell you what I know, so far, anyway."
They walked back to their room and Ben went and took a quick shower and put on a pair of his workout shorts and a t-shirt. While Ben was unpacking his stuff, Ethan lied down on his bed and told him what he had discovered around the base in the few days he had been here. The base had a huge workout room, with nicer equipment than the one in Afghanistan. There was a game room right near the weight room with a pool and foosball table. It had a small T.V. with a sofa in it, also.
"Plus, I heard that they just got a full rockband set." Ben laughed,
"Really? I'll have to play it soon, then. I haven't gotten to play in a couple of weeks."
"Speaking of, what did you do during your leave?" Ben sighed, debating whether or not to tell him about Lilah. While he was deciding, Ethan laughed and said,
"Oh my god, you met a girl, didn't you?" Ben looked at him,
"What? No-"
"Don't lie to me. Yes you did meet a girl, it's written all over your face. Tell me everything." Ben nodded and sat down on his bed,
"Fine, yeah I did meet a girl but nothing happened."
"Who is she?"
"It's my next door neighbor's daughter, Lilah."
"Was she pretty?"
"Yeah she was pretty but nothing happened." Ethan laughed,
"Why not, man? Come on, tell me everything" Ben smiled and shook his head,
"It was nothing, I met her one day and we all went out on her parent's boat. We went tubing and I showed her how to tube."
"You were on a tube together?"
"Yeah, but she fell off a couple of times and I fell off behind her."
"Aww, let me guess, you promised to fall off when she fell off so she wouldn't be alone in the ocean, right? That's a good one, I used it myself actually."
"No, it was nothing like that. Anyway, after we went tubing, we went and had lunch on the shore," He looked away for a second,
"And she kissed me." Ethan shot up with wide eyes,
"What? I thought you said nothing happened?"
"Nothing did happen. I told her I couldn't do it and that I wasn't ready to have a relationship yet."
"No you didn't. Man, come on, Ben, it's been two years."
"It has nothing to do with Allison." Ethan laughed,
"Don't give me that, Ben. Can you honestly say that Allison's face didn't pop into your mind the moment Lilah kissed you?" Ben looked down for a second and Ethan nodded,
"That's what I thought. You still love her, Ben, everyone can see it." He nodded, knowing what Ethan was saying was true.
"When she kissed me, I didn't feel anything. There weren't any sparks or a connection or anything. Like my first kiss with Allison."
"Well you were in love with Allison when you kissed her, right? You weren't in love with Lilah when you kissed her. Do you think you'll ever get over her?" He shrugged his shoulders and lied down,
"I don't know, I honestly don't think I ever will."
For the next four to five months, they went on only one mission. They went and helped out some of the soldiers that had gotten hurt in one of the towns. It was much like his previous mission, but was less dangerous. He helped fly a group of soldiers back to the on- base nurse station and one of the soldier's injuries were so severe that he had to be airlifted to the hospital about twenty to thirty minutes away from the base.
For the rest of the four months, they had stayed on the base. He had continued working out every morning and had maintained the stubble he had decided to grow. They had also played a lot of rockband, more rockband than one should be allowed to play in the air force. He and Ethan had also begun practicing flying daily.
They had both gotten much better since their arrival four months ago. They had practiced all kinds of tricks and was, arguably, some of the best flyers on the base. They had even begun racing some of the other men on base, much to a lot of the officer's disapproval.
He had still continued to write letters and make phone calls to his father. Nothing much had changed since he had left; his father still went to work at 7:30 in the morning and had continued to hang out regularly with Chris and Madison. More than once did his dad tell him that Lilah had asked him about him and how he was doing. He figured he could have, at least, written to her once and told her that he was fine, but he ended up not. He didn't want to give her the wrong idea and he decided to let his father just give her messages from him. Just recently, his father had told him that Lilah had met a guy and said that she was in love with him. Ben was sort of surprised, but told his father to tell her congratulations for him.
He woke up one morning and continued the routine that he had kept up for years and went down to the weight room and worked out for about an hour and a half. Ethan decided not to come with him and decided to sleep in for a little bit. He worked out and a half and went back to the barracks and took a cold shower. While he was walking back to his room, he stopped and talked to Dylan, one of his friends that had been transferred from Afghanistan. He had only talked to him a couple of times in the five months he had been here. They talked for a couple of minutes and decided that they would hang out later on; either play a couple of games at the game room or go have a beer down at the bar.
After he finished talking with Dylan, he waked back to his room. He unlocked the door, expecting to find Ethan inside, but the room was empty. He went over to his drawer, right beside the window and heard a lot of planes flying outside. The curtains were closed to keep out the sun and the heat. He opened his drawer and put on an Air Force t-shirt and changed into his jeans. He was just about to sit down on his bed when he heard yelling and gunshots. As soon as he stood up, the door to his room busted open. He looked and saw Ethan standing in the doorway, with a petrified look in his face,
"Ethan, what's-"
"Come on, we have to go."
"What's happening?"
"We don't have any time!" He yelled, getting his uniform on. He threw Ben's at him and Ben put it on, not knowing what was going on. They both had them on in seconds and Ben asked, once again,
"Ethan, what is going on?"
Ethan went over to the window and opened the curtains and stepped aside to let Ben see what was happening. What Ben saw shocked him. Buildings on the base were on fire and there were planes shooting and flying over the base. A couple of the planes that were shooting made contact with one of the buildings and the building exploded, setting it ablaze. He was almost in shock when Ethan grabbed his arm and yelled,
"Ben, come on, we have to go!"
They ran out of the room and down the hallway. There was a huge amount of men, with the same scared and confused looks on their faces, all heading in the same direction. They got out of the barracks and came out into the open, into chaos. The sound of the planes and the shootings and the screams of all the men and women were deafening. He looked around and there were people with burn marks on the faces and the nurses were running around in confusion, trying to help the people that were injured. Ben was still shocked from the attack and Dylan came running up to them,
"Come on, we have to get in a plane; they're tearing the base apart!"
Ben and Ethan ran to the hangar, trying to avoid the shots of the planes and buildings exploding around them. They pushed through the crowds of injured people and finally got to the hangar. There was a massive amount of men, all trying to get into a plane. The hangar was almost empty of planes and the few that were left were being taken out by men that were ready to defend the base. Somehow, Ben and Ethan made it to two F-16's that weren't being fought over. Ethan made it to a plane first and got into it and started the engine. When Ben got to the other planes, another man pushed him out of the way and climbed into the plane. Ethan yelled to him and Ben said,
"Go ahead; I'll wait for another on!"
Ethan nodded and Ben moved out of the way as Ethan and the other guy took off. He looked around again and saw a man lying on the ground a couple of feet away from him. He could hardly hear anything, but, as he was looking at him, Ben could hear him yelling for help. Ben ran over to him and knelt down beside him. As soon as he knelt down, the man grabbed his arm and pleaded for Ben to help him.
"Calm down, what's wrong with you?" The man pulled his Air Force jacket to the side and Ben saw a bullet hole in his side. There was blood everywhere and Ben said,
"Okay, just hold on for me, I'm going to go find some help."
There were more shots fired and Ben instinctively covered his head. A couple of seconds later, he heard more shots, this time very close, and the men and women in the hangar all screamed. A couple of seconds later, a section of the roof caved in beside him. He immediately threw himself to the side to get out of the way and the man yelled to Ben, begging him not to leave him there. Ben crawled back over to him and said,
"Don't worry, I'm not going to leave you; we're going to get out of here."
Before he knew it, he heard a faint sound of more gunshots and he felt a massive surge of pain in his side and his arm. The man beside him screamed and, before Ben could do anything, he heard the roof collapsing and then he saw black.
Oh no! Ben got shot! :O Heidi, what in the world. Despite the fact he got shot, I think you guys will really really really like the next chapter! Gonna be up soon for you! :D
