Siren In The Sky // Bradley Bradshaw

Chapter 8

We spend days practicing. Arriving at base at dawn and leaving long after dusk. Manouvering through the terrain, hitting the target, and the steep climb. Switching pairs to see who works together and who doesn't. Every night both Omaha and Bradley sleep over. We have dinner at the base, so in the evening we all slug in to the house and head straight to bed. I've been swallowing down the anxiety of this mission. It's been 2 days and none of us have successfully gotten it done. I find relief in Bradley's arms every night. 

Morning comes quickly and we're back in the air. It's the third run of the day. For the first two I flew with Hangman and then Rooster. "Talk to me Striker," I say on the mic. "We are 12 seconds late on target. We gotta move." Shit. I'm flying with Coyote right now. He's a good pilot, but too slow. "Copy. Try to stay with me," he says. I inwardly scoff. He acts like I'm the one slowing him down.  "There's someone on the radar," Strike announces. "What?" I ask her, looking around me for a plane. "Blue team, you've been spotted." 

"Shit, it's Maverick." Coyote says. "What the hell is he doing here?" I frustratingly ask. He hasn't done this to anyone else. "I'm a bandit on course to intercept. Blue team, what are you going to do?" His voice says on the radio. "He's 20 miles left. Ten o'clock. 700 knots closure." Striker reports. Coyote asks me what I want to do. The single pilot is supposed to be 'team leader'. He should know what to do. "Continue, we're close. Stay on target." 

"He's swinging around to the north. Stand by for pop-up." "Be ready on that laser Strike," I say gripping the stick tighter. "Copy. I'm on it." We're approaching the pop-up zone on our simulation. "Blue team, bandit is still closing." I want to retort back at my dad's aggravating voice but am distracted by Coyote shouting "Popping now." I pull up quickly raising until we invert our planes. "Where is he Striker?" "He's 5 miles out, coming in fast." 

We straighten back out and see the target. "Target in sight. Where's my laser Striker?" Coyote yells. "Dead eye! It's no good! I can't get a lock!" Fuck. "We're out of time. I'm dropping in blind." Coyote attempts to line it up but misses. "Damnit!" "Focus, pull up!" Coyote does as I say as we both quickly pull up. I keep tensing my muscles to stay conscious, black spots dot my vision. My alarm begins blaring. "Damnit, he's got missle lock on us. We're dead." Striker says. "Fuck!" I level out the plane and move away from Coyote. 

"Blue team, that's a fail. Level out Coyote." I curiously watch his plane as it continues it's ascent. "Coyote? Do you copy?" I ask over the comm. No response."Coyote! Level wings!" Maverick demands. His plane now high up seems to drift to the side and begins to plummet to the ground. He must've fainted. "Mav! He's in G-Lock!" I shout. "Shit! I'm going after him." All we can do is sit there an watch as Maverick follows him, missle locking Coyote's plane in hopes his alarm goes off. Luckily, it works. Coyote manages to pull just before he hits the ground.

"Coyote, you okay?" My dad asks, concerned. "Yeah, yeah I'm good," His breathless voice answers. I let out a sigh of relief. "That's enough for today. Head back to base." I raise further into the air until I'm flying next to Mav. He's about to say something when something hits his plane. "Bird strike! Bird Strike!" I try to move out of the way but there's too many coming too fast. My monitor turns red on the left engine and an alarm starts blaring.  

"Siren, left engine is on fire!" Striker hollers. "Climbing! Throttling back. Shutting off fuel to left engine. Extinguishing fire," I report while I push the necessary buttons. Then the right engine turns yellow on the screen. "Right engine is out," she warns. "It's still spinning. Trying to restart." I flip the switch. The same time I say I'm throttling up my dad yells that it's on fire. I heard his warning too late, we begin to veer off to the side. We go inverted as we begin to rapidly decent. "We're on fire! We're on fire!" "Damnit! Extinguishing right engine!" My movements are hectic. More and more of the plane lights up on the monitor as the automated voice alerts us. 

It doesn't seem to help. We begin spiraling towards the ground. "Siren, Striker! Punch out! Punch out!" Maverick yells. I keep trying to level us out so we don't eject spinning, but it's not cooperating. "Warning lights everywhere! Hydraulic failure!" She yells from the back. The stick is dead, my movements doing nothing."I can't control it!" Fear shoots through me, the ground getting closer and closer. "We're going down, Siren! We're going in!" Striker is screaming from the back, feeling the same paralyzing fear that I feel. "Eject! Eject!" I screech. Pulling on the straps below me, Pheonix and I eject. I watch in horror as a few seconds later the plane crashes into the mountain, bursting into flames. 

Bradley's POV

The group and I sit in the room where we always listen to the radio. It's eerily silent. My body became rigid the moment I heard Striker announce left engine failure. Listening as the entire plane went to shit the knot in my stomach grew until I feel so nauseous I might throw up. Omaha sits next to me as we stare at the useless metal box where we can't hear their voices anymore. I barely register the sound of the rescue helicopter leaving. "It'll be okay. They ejected in time." Neil reassures. Goose ejected in time. I don't say it out loud, but I can almost feel the words on the tip of my tongue. 

I just got her back, I can't lose her. I know things like this happen, and people eject successfully all the time. But not always. I won't know if she's safe until I see her, standing in front of me with that perfect smile of hers. I stand and head to the hospital. When I get there, myself and everyone else is pissed off. Striker and Siren are in separate rooms right next to each other but they aren't letting anyone in. "Nurse, you have to let me in to see her! She doesn't have any family here! I'm her boyfriend! Please!" Omaha is arguing with the nurse outside of the rooms. "As I said before, sir, family only is allowed in," she says clearly agitated. "This is bull shit," Hangman states, crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall. 

For once I agree with him. 

Seeing the tension climb in the room I put my hand on Neil's shoulder. "We would just appreciate it if you could tell us anything." I smile sweetly at her. A blush decorates the older woman's face. Looking down at her clipboard and glancing back up she informs us that they are both in stable condition and she'll update us when they're done running the tests. After thanking her I lead a fuming Neil away. An hour passes. We all sit or stand along the walls, trying to get a glimpse inside the door everytime it opens. 

Eventually Maverick struts through the doors. Every single one of us glares at him as he strolls past us to the doors. "Sir, it's family on-" "I'm her dad." She lets him through and he disappears behind Selene's door. "This is absolute shit." I mutter. Everyone murmurs in agreement. Me, Striker, even Hangman has been more of a family to Selene than him.