❝ trust them. I tell myself. they'll help you.❞
╰┈➤ on march 3, 1969 the united states navy established an elite school for the top one percent of its pilots.
its purpose was to teach the lost art of aerial combat and to ensure that the handful of m...
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i wake with a start covered in sweat, my head smashing against the hard wood above me.
"fuck" i mutter rubbing my head and wiping my brow.
i had been getting night terrors lately, ever since he died 3 months ago. i remember the exact day, it was a sunny february morning, february 18 to be exact, we went out flying in the jets. we got attacked and i watched as his plane got shot down. theodore johnson , call sign bolt. one of my best friends along with his radar intercept officer jasper 'sparrow' smith. though sparrow survived, bolt took the fall. i miss both of them, after bolt's death sparrow gave in his badge and left the navy.
the scene kept playing in my head over and over and over again as i lay there staring at the pitch black, the way the missile landed in the side of the plane, the way they went spiralling down into the water below, the way i thought they both survived when i saw sparrow emerge first until i saw him pull up a cold dead, bloody bolt. i got my first in-the- air kill that day against the plane that shot them down. not that it mattered, usually i would have been buzzing, not this day though. i haven't been the same since.
i hear my best friend and RIO stir above me. cleo 'axis' marlow. i must have woke her up when i hit my head against the wood above me. i haven't told axis about my night terrors and i'm not about too. i don't want to worry her like that otherwise she'll insist that we take a break from flying. she probably knows already though. axis is a tough one she can cope with bolts death but she's also the smartest person i've met and she has this uncanny ability of finding out my secrets.
"siren?" i hear her voice say above me with her thick texas accent. i don't reply as i anxiously pick at my fingernails. i feel movement above me and i watch through what i can make out in the darkness as she climbs down her ladder and slides into bed next to me, wrapping her arms around me.
"quinn" she says using my real name
"yes?" i say quietly
"what's the matter?" she asks "i'm not stupid, you've been waking up every night for the past few months"
"nothing, sometimes i wake up randomly" i reply.
of course i'm obviously lying but i do not want to worry axis
she doesn't reply but she holds me tighter. "we've got a dogfight tomorrow, you up for that?" she asks
i nod reluctantly. "i don't really have a choice" i reply
she laughs at that."no we don't really" she says "you promise you're okay, you worry me sometimes"
"i'm fine axis, stop worrying" i say before changing the subject "how's romeo?"
she launches into a fit of giggles and chatter. chatting for about 20 minutes about her boyfriend romeo jackson, they've been dating for about 7 months and i'm happy for them. i have never met him though,they met at a bar when axis went back to texas for her break.
after a while her chatting dies down and she ends up falling asleep. i still lay awake the images that haunt me flickering in my mind. i look around our barracks, my vision adjusted to the darkness. we had our own barracks axis and i, being the only ladies on base. i mean what do you expect, it's 1986 for god sake and of course a lot of the men underestimate us, they have this weird thing about bragging about how much bloodshed they've seen.
axis and i always laugh too our selves, we're girls we see way more blood than we get credit for.
i drag myself out of my thoughts and force myself to fall asleep, axis and i have a long day tomorrow i'll need the energy.
