The Fokker was stuck to his tail like it was attached with a piece of string. Every turn was mirrored. The F.E was looking more like a colander than a plane. How is this still flying Shane thought. Down and down they went the Fokker firing a few rounds every few seconds as he got a good shot on the F.E. They went down still further until a couple of bullets did the trick. One went straight through Steve Lewis’ head the other into Shane Gray’s chest. The world slowly growing darker Shane thought this is it I am going down like many planes before me. That was the last thing he thought of before the plane went nose first into the ground at high speed spreading itself across the landscape like a fresh fall of snow killing Shane instantly.
With that Shane woke with a start. That dream again, I’ve been having it every night since that agent mission nearly went badly wrong he thought.
After going back to sleep he slept perfectly, so perfectly that when his batman tried to wake him up he didn’t respond. Fearing something bad he immediately ran off and fetched the M.O. After a brief interval of five minutes the batman, with the M.O in tow, returned to the room of the motionless figure of Shane Gray.
The M.O quickly got to work and after looking over him for a few minutes demanded a glass of water.
A short time later a young private ran in and tripped over the M.O’s bag spilling the contents of the glass all over himself. ‘What in hell is your problem you useless imbecile?’ roared the now furious M.O.
Wishing he was anywhere but here the private ran out faster than a greyhound chasing a rabbit.
A minute later the private ran in again and delicately side stepped around the M.O’s bag.
‘Here you are sir’ is all he could manage.
‘Thank you very much private, luckily you’re only a private so I can’t take any stripes off you’ he said angrily.
The private ran out of the room with his face as red as a tomato.
Luckily the private went straight to his quarters because all around the camp everyone was laughing their heads off about what had happened.
‘Funniest thing I’ve seen since I came here in ’16’ one mechanic said to another one.
‘That was nearly as funny as when the Jerry landed here by accident’ a mechanic replied.
Without wasting any more time the disgruntled M.O took a sip from the glass of water then poured the remaining contents over Shane’s face.
Shane’s eyes opened instantly. He sat upright, looked around the room and burst into tears.
‘I’m going to die today’ announced Shane in a sad tone.
‘That is just complete and utter rubbish’ replied Steve.
‘I’m sorry Steve but I just know I will die today, there’s no doubt about it’.
‘One more word like that and I’ll hit you’ Steve replied angrily.
‘But…’ Shane’s sentence trailed away as Steve knocked him out with a beautiful punch to the temple.
‘He’ll be alright in a few minutes’, was all he said before walking out of the room.
‘He needs leave and he needs it now’ roared Steve to the C.O, Major Charles.
‘I understand Lieutenant but I can’t give him leave until he completes one last patrol; it’s a new rule that’s being trialled, it sucks I know but a rules a rule’ he replied calmly.
‘Okay sir, one last mission and that’s it, the man’s a wreck and I don’t feel very comfortable flying with him at the moment.
‘Okay Lieutenant, thanks for the input and good luck with this afternoon’s patrol’.
For the first time since that morning’s incident Shane and Steve saw each other. They were walking out to the plane and Steve took Shane to the side.
‘I hope you have got over the you’re going to die thing now’? Steve asked Shane.
‘I have kind of, I still have a feeling that I’m going to die but I can control it. I will admit, however, that I am extremely scared, more scared than I thought was possible’.
‘You’re a good person Shane so it’d be a pity if anything happened to you’.
‘I’ll do my best to see that nothing does happen to me but no guarantee okay’?
‘Okay Shane let’s get this thing over and done with so that we can relax and you can have some leave’.
Half an hour brought them travelling at fifteen thousand feet travelling parallel and 12 miles inside the German front lines. The archie was fierce but they were yet to see any enemy aircraft. Everything was going good until a nearby archie burst caused the engine to make a weird noise.
The engine grew higher and higher in pitch until it finally just went quiet. After being used to the noise of the engine for so long the lack of noise was unnerving.
Shane looked around and saw a big field to the north and decided that it was better to land safely there than to land badly at just behind the Jerry front lines. Putting the plane’s nose down for speed he made his way towards the field.
After circling a few times to make sure that the field was a field and not anything else he landed the plane. Unfortunately to prevent spies being dropped and picked up here the field had been trapped.
To be trapped a field has a wire strung from one side to the other to cause any planes landing there to flip and put them out of action.
As the plane reached the wire it flipped over onto its nose and flung Steve out. Before checking on Steve, Shane had to do what any pilot that lands behind enemy lines does. He got out his very pistol and fired a shot directly at the plane’s fuel tank to cause it to go up in flames and to prevent it and any maps to fall into enemy hands.
After doing that, Shane ran over to Steve’s unmoving body on the ground and felt for a pulse. Luckily there was one and he was still breathing. He was still bent over him when a kick to his back knocked him over. Turning around he heard a German officer scream to his men in a language he didn’t recognise. He then said in a slightly softer and heavily accented tone of English, ‘I see you’ve had bad luck’.
‘Very observant of you Fritz’ was Shane’s reply.
‘Well your war is over until we finally overcome those enemy schweinhunds’.
The officer turned around and gave his men an order that Shane didn’t understand.
The men tied Shane up and did the same to Steve. Just then a truck pulled alongside and they were both thrown roughly inside.
After 5 minutes of travelling in silence Steve finally came to.
‘Well at least you didn’t die’ he said sarcastically.
That was all he said because the guard decided to silence with a tap on his head with the butt of his rifle.
The truck drove onwards towards the prisoner of war camp that would be used to detain Steve and Shane and many other captured Allies.
