Missing in Action

Chapter Sixteen

Missing in Action

Chapter Sixteen

Cassidy's P.O.V

We're more alike than you think Cassidy.

The words rang in my head. We had always been alike, and she was right.

They'll throw you over the edge just like they have with me. It's an edge that you can't get back over.

It was all coming back in flashes. I could see the disappointment in my mum's eyes when I came home from school that day, I could see Louis bright blue eyes full of tears as he begged me not to go, and I could see my father's coffin as he was lowered into the ground.

Had I already gone over the edge?

"Cassidy?" Henry said.

"Yeah?" I answered weakly.

"It's okay," he said soothingly.

But it wasn't.

Henry was getting closer and closer to Kerry's plane. It he fired anything now, he would die. I knew that he was still holding onto the hope that we wouldn't have to kill her. I was myself.

"Kerry, I'm going to give you one last chance," Henry said.

James was behind me now. I sighed in relief. He was okay.

"I'm not giving up. I'm not surrendering," Kerry said.

"Fair enough," Henry said.

Henry's bomb bay opened and a tracking missile was armed, but Henry was too close.

"Henry, you gotta pull back," I said.

I grounded my teeth together as we dodged past mountains. The valleys were getting thiner and thiner. I could see rocks being moved by how close the wings on Kerry's and Henry's were to the steep sides of the valleys.

"Henry! You need to pull back!" I yelled.

James wasn't saying anything, no one was saying anything. Why wasn't anyone saying anything?

"Henry, you gotta put back!" I said desperately.

But he had stopped listening.

"You got what was coming to you," Henry said.

I registered that trigger clicking, but after that? I couldn't hear anything.

The missile rocketed forward towards Kerry, but she flew sideways to quickly above a mountain for the bomb to catch her. It went straight into the mountain.

Henry swerved to avoid the explosion, but as he turned the corner he flew straight into a rock face.

The front of the plane bent, and then it exploded.

I had to fly up to avoid being hit by the debris. I flew through the smoke from the wreckage.

I felt my lungs burn before I realised that I had stopped breathing. There were tears rolling down my face.

I wanted to scream Henry's name, I wanted to scream at James, I wanted to scream at Captain Johnson and I wanted to scream at the Admiral of the whole goddam Royal Navy all at once, but I couldn't speak.

I faintly remember James calling my name, and I faintly remember Captain Johnson asking both of us to respond, but neither of them were asking me if I was okay.

I couldn't hear anymore, and I never wanted to speak again. They say they teach you how to cope with any situation in the Navy, but whoever "they" are are wrong. They don't teach you how to cope with death.