Avalanche

| the break |

Hangman is on my tail, and now we're playing cat and mouse.

I lead Hangman lower into the desert, thinking I could flip over and surprise him. But he knows my tricks, we've been training for months together.

And I wasn't going to pull out my favorite move. I'd save that for our final exam as a way to ensure my first place spot.

Phoenix called out, "Avalanche! We need help!"

I turned, and Hangmam followed, but his teammates weren't as lucky as him. It was too late for Payback and Fanboy when they didn't react fast enough to my quick turn of events. I pulled my trigger and they were out.

Phoenix and Omega celebrated, and I cheered.

This was going to be a piece of cake.

Our eyes searched for Hangman, but he had his in the short time we had been celebrating.

"Keep your eyes peeled," I instructed my teammates.

"Anything on radar?" Phoenix asked Omega.

"Negative." He answered.

I started coasting, Hangman was biding his time. I wondered who he would go after first, me or Phoenix's plane. My question was answered when Hangman descended from the clouds above us, aiming for Phoenix.

I heard loud beeping over my radio and I cursed.

Phoenix and Omega were out.

It was now Avalanche vs. Hangman.

"5 minutes until the end of the session," Mission Control commanded.

We would have to request a flyby and land at that point, so I tried baiting him away from base, but didn't take it.

I kept circling around, but time was running out.

The sun began to set, and the sky was streaming with blues, reds, oranges, and purples and it was a beautiful sight, but I didn't have time to stop and stare.

Hangman has the advantage, he's higher in the air, and guarding the base.

I try to climb up and up and up, but he sees what I'm doing. He rushes over in his plane, and he's chasing me.

I don't know how much longer I can take dodging and spinning away from him like this, not without a good glance behind me.

I look back over my shoulder for half a second, and his missile target locked on me.

I was down.

And I was stupid.

You never look behind yourself during a dogfight, Zoe. It always gets yourself into trouble.

I ripped off my oxygen mask in anger.

That was the first time Hangman's ever beat me one on one.

And it'll be the only time, so Jake had better savor it up while he can.

And boy he did.

"How's second place feel, Kazansky?" Jake asked, almost immediately after I landed my F-18.

I looked at him with cold eyes, and reply cooly, "I'm just keeping the seat warm for you, Bagman."

"I don't know about that, with that cold heart if yours." He jokes.

"You're so original Jake, you almost thawed this frozen heart of mine." I say sarcastically, placing my hand over my heart. "You know if you covered your wingman at the end, you both would have made it and you would've gotten more points?

"You're just jealous." Hangman said, not taking my advice seriously.

"You always leave your wingman, and it's going to come back to get you one day. Criticism doesn't always equal jealousy. It's about time you learned that." I told him.

Hangman looks at me in frustration, he doesn't have anything to say back to that, or else he'll prove my point.

Instead, we both walked by each other in silence, never pushing space between us, but still never getting closer.

I welcome the air conditioning the moment we enter the building, and make our way to the classroom.

The eyes of the entire classroom are on me and Hangman as we walk down the aisles to our respective seats.

Commander Metcalf says, "Good job on the team dogfighting everyone. We'll analyze everybody's run tomorrow morning. But for tonight, I've posted everyone's current ranking the class. You are dismissed."

As soon as those words leave his mouth, the sharp squeak of chair scraping the floors envelope the room, as everyone is looking at what place they've taken.

I pushed my way to the front, just to see where I was at.

I smirked, I was still in first place.

And I was in lead by a hair.

"Now who's the better pilot?" I tease Hangman.

He states, almost gritting his teeth, "I'm right behind you."

"Yeah, kissing my jet stream," I pause and add on, "I'm the better pilot, admit it."

Hangman looks to the ceiling as if it's more interesting then me, and then his blue eyes lower to mine. "I could do that, but I'd be wrong ay graduation."

"We'll see," I say ominously.

He fights back with, "Yeah. You will."

We end up hard glaring at each other, and no one wanted to get in our crossfire.

"I'll see you tonight." Hangman states firmly, almost taunting me into not coming... to what is the question.

It's all a competition for him.

But I don't lose so easily.

"What's tonight?"

❅