Dark Wings

Chapter 4

    I finally set my book down and stood up stretching my back as I looked around. I looked over at the clock on the wall and see that it is almost eight pm. I walk over and start to examine my cell door seeing it was bad craftsmanship. I smiled and grabbed the clothes pin that had been left in my flight suit and used it to pick the lock on the door. The door slid open and I looked back and forth in the hallway to make sure there weren't any guards around and I slid the door closed.

I made my way down the hall and out of the barracks sticking to the shadows as I silently move across the compound. I make my way into the mess hall and finding it deserted, I move into the kitchen. I grab a few cans of fruit and some MREs from the shelf and then I hear the sound of footsteps. I silently curse and look around for somewhere to hide, the last thing I needed was to get caught stealing food. As I move to hide between the fridge and the wall my foot hits something and I slip, spilling my looted goods everywhere.

The kitchen door busts open and Olivia is looking down at me and looks like she is about to crack up laughing. I look up at her with a guilty look on my face as I try to scramble to my feet and start picking up my looted goods. Silently Olivia helps me pick it up as we hurry out of the kitchen and back to the barracks. As we get back to the barracks, she follows me into my room and I lay out my food on the bed. Olivia looks me up and down with a regarding gaze.

I look up and meet her storm grey eyes, "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" She paused a second and smiled, "You're just not what I expected." I cock my head to the side in confusion, "What do you mean?" She chuckled, "Well you are supposedly the worst of all of us here, you killed your entire squadron and here you are stealing food from the kitchen and looking guilty when I caught you." I smiled and looked down at the floor, "Well some of us are just full of surprises," I offer her a chili mac MRE as I settle down with a Beef stew MRE. She takes it gratefully and we eat in relative silence and I look up at the clock. "Well backseat driver, ready for your first ride?" she nodded and stood up, "I'll meet you out on the tarmac." I nod and watch as she walks to the door, she pauses in the doorway and looks over her shoulder, "Glad to see that I picked the right size for your flight suit." And with that she disappeared around the corner and I was left with nothing but my thoughts.

Once she is gone, I stand up stretching my back and walk over to the desk where my helmet is sitting. I admire the artwork on my helmet, staring at the northern lights, I pick it up and tuck it under my arm before walking out towards the tarmac. I see an F-14D Tomcat lined up next to an SU-30SM. I look at it curiously finding it odd that there were two double seaters on the tarmac. As I walk towards the fighters, I see Olivia and Brittany coming out of the barracks with another female I hadn't met earlier. I sit on a crate as I watch them walk over to me, I finally stand and walk over the last few steps to meet them.

"Well Ladies, it looks like we are the midnight patrol." I look over at the blonde with green eyes that I hadn't met yet and extend my hand, "I'm Caden, Callsign is Mute." She clasps my hand with a surprisingly firm grip, "I'm Julia, callsign is Winter. I'm Brittany's backseat driver." I nod as the two fighters make sense now. "Well, shall we?" they nod and we make our way to the different fighters. I climb the ladder into the cockpit of my Tomcat and get settled in strapping myself in as I start the preflight checks.

I strap my helmet on and the heads-up display in my helmet winks into existence as I lower my visor. I smile settling into the familiar routine of checking my systems, "Huntress how are we looking back there?" I call back over through the radio in my helmet. "Systems are green across the board Mute. We are ready to go." I nod my head, "Canopy down." I call as she flicks the switch lowering the canopy. As the canopy seals the roar of the engines is muffled, I tune my radio to the ground controller, "Sparrow-six, Taxi to runway three-six right via Alpha one." I read back "Taxi to runway three-six via Alpha one, Sparrow-six." I begin to taxi my aircraft down towards the runway taking the lead position in front of Sparrow-2. I get on the runway and request my takeoff clearance, "Sparrow-six, Clear for takeoff Runway Three-Six." I read back my instructions, "Clear for takeoff Runway Three-Six, Sparrow-six." I push my throttle to full and the afterburners kick on as we dart down the runway.