The Razgriz Aces [Book 2]

Reunited

Dinner consisted of simple steak and garlic mashed potatoes with bacon, but it was delicious nonetheless.  Mrs. Davenport even made an apple pie which half of it was gone after everyone had had a helping.  Jackson started to crash after dinner so Melissa went and gave him a bath before taking him to bed.  After much prodding on my part, I was allowed to help clean up the table and help wash the dishes but Mrs. Davenport wouldn’t let me do anything and insisted unyieldingly that I go upstairs and get some rest.  I gave in because I knew I wouldn’t win the argument and I also was too tired to argue.  Apparently getting stabbed really takes it out of you.  Who knew?

I trudged upstairs and was about to go into my room when I looked across the hall.  There was Chopper’s room.  Making sure no one was going to suddenly pop up out of nowhere, I stepped in quickly to his room and shut the door.  It looked the same as the day I had last been here, which had been sometime in early November.  I looked at all his posters.  Some were of the Aurora Saints, some were of the Del Fuego Cowboys, and some were of the Amarillo Broncos.  He had multiple posters of fighter jets and supercars.  A poster of a supercar I recognized as one that Genette had given to him for one of Chopper’s birthdays.   I looked on his nightstand and in somewhat shock, saw that Chopper had kept an address book, completely filled with names and numbers.  Mine was in the very beginning, starred and highlighted.  A few others, including his parents, Grimm, Nagase, Genette, Cassie, and Melissa were also starred and highlighted. I figured that meant we were important numbers.  He also had Jensen and Jared’s numbers in there (if you don’t remember them, they were the two guys that were talking to me when I was visiting in November.  Jensen was hitting on me… a lot…).

There was a picture of me and Chopper right after everyone had found out he had asked me to marry him.  I was showing the ring to the camera and grinning like a buffoon.  Chopper was kissing my cheek.

“Blaze?” Melissa’s voice floated from the doorway.  I whirled around guiltily.

“I was just, uh, I was, uh,” I stammered.  I couldn’t get a sentence out.  She just smiled at me.

“We left it the way it was.  Nothing has been moved or changed,” she said softly, looking around the room.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude on anything.  I just… I don’t know, I guess it’s a sort of closure.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t an all our truth.  There would never be closure for me, not where Chopper was concerned.

“Feel free to come in here as often as you like,” she told me sincerely.  Melissa walked over to me and looked hesitant. “Blaze, I’ve been wondering.  What really happened to my brother?  Genette didn’t go into much detail because I was already in hysterics from crying but I think I can handle it now.  I want to know.  It’s still too sore of a subject with my parents but not so much for me.  Please, I want to know.”

I sat on the floor and leaned against his bed.  She sat next to me.

“We were doing a flyby over November International Stadium upon request by Vice Principal Appelrouth.  We were armed in case we were attacked but we were so far inland none of us had the slightest inkling that would happen.  It was the first time I didn’t have a plan in case we were attacked.  We went through the flyby with no difficulties.  We executed it with perfection.  Afterwards, we flew around, listening to the speech, and it was just a little after the crowd started singing Journey Home that I got the first hit on my radar.  Nagase, Grimm, and Chopper had it on theirs too.  I panicked immediately.  I ordered us to stay in pairs.  It was me and Chopper as one pair and Nagase and Grimm as another.  Our AWACS had told us that reinforcements were on the way but they never came.  Chopper was getting an enemy plane off Grimm’s tail.  I hadn’t even noticed he had stopped trailing me.  I should’ve known.  I should’ve been able to stop that plane but I wasn’t.  The hit was severe but it didn’t seem like it at first.  At first, his controls were working fine.  Near the end of the mission, his plane started going haywire.  Nagase, Grimm, and I had been begging him to bail out over the stadium but he didn’t want to until most of the people had evacuated.  His decision probably saved lives but it cost his.  My decision to not have a backup plan cost him his life.  Chopper… died quickly.  The crash was fast so I don’t think he suffered,” I explained.  I had spoken fast, wanting to get the whole story out in as little time as possible.