•over time• {Dallas Winston}

The hero

"Switching to guns!!" I yelled as I turned a sharp turn behind the Russian plane.

"Jesus Christ.." I mutter. I roll dive to avoid a missile, it barely missing me. I adjust my breathing as I level my plane back out. Suddenly a large orange and red light from the corner of my eye caught my attention, I turn my head to see one of our planes going down.

"Holy shit- is that Hollywood?" I look in disbelief, my heart sinking into my stomach.

I've always hated that feeling, when my heart drops. It's like a never ending flashback, reminding me of my worst possible time in life. Each time I feel it, it brings me back to that exact moment..

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"Dad?! Dad!! Wake up...!" I repeatedly shake my cold father. He's now a whiter, pale color and it scares me.

The doctor suddenly comes in, grabbing hold of my arm and gently yanking me.

"No let go of me!!" I pull away and try to go back to my lifeless father's body.

"Come on sweetie you need to leave.."

I look up at the stupid doctor, giving me a smile. I thought: "how on earth are you smiling?" I refused to budge, causing the doctor to get three other ones.

They dragged me out of the room and gave me to my mother, who was crying next to my brother. They must've gotten the news before I did. I didn't stay with my mother long though, after the doctors went back into my father's room I ran out of the hospital doors into the night. I counted my steps as I walked home, not wanting to face anyone. It took me around 391 steps to get back home. Which was 391 distractions for me then.

The TV was playing some zombie apocalypse movie, that I thought I wouldn't be interested in. But whatever could take my mind off of this night, I didn't care. I sat down infront of the TV, watching as zombies bit heads off of people. I watched in disgust, but it made me think of my father. All white, and pale, and cold..they weren't alive but they were there. Walking, breathing, blinking.

I've never been a fan of zombie movies, but now I wish they were real so maybe my father could come back as a zombie. Maybe I could say goodbye then..

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"Aphrodite..! Aphrodite!! Naomi Davis get your ass back in the game!" Maverick yelled.

"Shit-! Sorry!" I turned my plane around and up, shooting down a MiG on my way back up.

"Naomi watch-!" Was all I heard from mavericks radio before it cut out to static. I heard another explosion behind me and turned around quickly.

My heart sank again and my dad's dead body invaded my mind. I watched as mavericks plane went down in flames and I felt numb, like I couldn't move.

I heard cheering come from the coms a the three other surviving planes came circling back around.

"Woo!! We did it ya! Meet everyone back on deck!"

How could they be happy? Didn't they just see two of their crew members crash?

My sadness turned to anger as I went back to where maverick crashed and saw him plane in flaming pieces. I was going to try and land my plane in the snow and go see If Maverick was still alive, which was a huge shot in the dark. Once I got close to the ground a missile came at me.

Shit the in-ground missiles!

There was no way I could avoid it now..I was too close to the ground and too low on gas to try and get away...I reached back for the ejection handle and pulled it. Nothing happened.

Damnit!!

I pulled again and, thankfully right before the missile hit I ejected..but then everything went black..

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I woke up on the cold ground, my head throbbing. I waited for the world to stop spinning to sit up. I eventually stood up and tried to comprehend what the hell just happened. I looked around, my plane was in a huge black ash pit about 500 feet away from mavericks. Taking off my helmet, I realized my head was bleeding, or used to be bleeding-now it's just dried blood all down the side of my face.

I turned my head towards the trees and, to my great surprise saw maverick running towards me. Maybe I had brain damage and this was all a figment of my imagination. I squinted my eyes and blinked a couple of times as he got closer. I then realized he's not slowing down, imagination or not..

"Mav-?" I tried to say as I looked at him confused.

I started backing away as he got closer, but my attempt made no difference since this dude literally trampled me, no body slammed me.

I fell to the ground as my breath got knocked out me. Ps, don't trust brain injuries movies, not all of them mean you imagine things..

"What the hell Naomi!! You're supposed to be back on deck by now!!"

"You're real?!"

"Wha-...what the hell do you mean?! Of course I'm real!"

"Never mind- you're alive?!"

He scoffed and got off of me, helping me up.

"I could say the same to you." He said as he looked around, obviously bothered by something.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing..not like we're stuck in the middle of Russian territory with no planes and no help in the freezing cold!"

"Ok..ok geez." I sighed and cleared my throat.

He paused and just stared at me. I looked at him weirdly..

"The reason I'm down here is because I tried to save you..I swear you're an idiot.."

he said to me, holding his helmet in his hand.

"Oh..same."

"Wait what?"

"Well once I saw you crash I went down here to see if you were alive. I tried landing my plane in the open area over there.."

I pointed over to my now black plane.

"But forgot about the in ground missiles.."

I heard him curse under his breath.

"Well I took that missile for you so you didn't have to be in this situation."

"So..who's the hero?" He just looked at me in disbelief and shook his head.

"What? Just sayin.." I threw my hands up In the air.

"We need to figure out a way to get out of here..without getting captured or killed by Russians.." he said walking past me and grabbing my hand to drag me along.

"Yeah no shit.."

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