Terranovus

Chapter XX - Are You Ready?

I thought he wasn't serious, but he was.

Almost immediately Hyun received a message from Philon/Flynt telling us the Army knew our location and were coming our way. We had only a few minutes to prepare.

We climbed out of the vehicle and ran across the tarmac to the small fighter jet. It was smooth and sleek and packed with missiles and machine guns. I followed Hyun who pulled out his security swipe from his pocket and swiped it across a hatch on the aircraft's underbelly.

The reader flashed green and the hatch door opened to reveal a small cockpit and another seat positioned a little higher. It had its back to the cockpit and had its own controls.

"That's your seat," said Hyun and I looked up at it apprehensively and gulped. The seat was small, and the controls were massive. There were at least fifty buttons to choose from and I didn't have a clue what they did. "It's easy," explained Hyun and he stepped back to allow me to climb up, "it's like playing a video game. You just choose your weapon and point and shoot." I thought back to the video games I played with the boys back home and knew none of them compared to this.

I climbed up and squeezed into the seat. I twisted my neck and watched Hyun slam the hutch door shut and jump into the pilot's seat. He buckled his seatbelt then started pressing buttons and flicking switches on the control panel in front of him. I felt the engine rumble into life and I hurriedly put my seatbelt on too.

Oh gosh, this was actually happening.

"Looks as though we've got company," Hyun shouted above the engine. I looked out of the window in front of me and saw an array of Army vehicles racing through the airfield entrance. They emerged onto the tarmac and positioned themselves in a semi-circle around us. Soldiers stepped out of the vehicles and aimed large semi-automatic rifles at us. One of the soldiers stepped forward with a large megaphone.

"We have you surrounded. Put your hands up where we can see them."

Hyun thrust the centre stick forward and the fighter jet jolted into movement.

Immediately bullets rained down on us. I screamed and ducked my head. The bullets pounded on the bulletproof steel like hail and I heard Hyun laughing behind me. He was loving this.

He pressed down on the accelerator and the plane moved forward. It quickly built up an impressive speed and a handful of the Army vehicles quickly reversed out of the way as the fighter jet moved towards the airstrip. The bullets rained down on us harder but they didn't even make a dent.

"Terrafighter Tomcat G-12, you do not have permission to fly," crackled a voice through the cockpit's radio. Hyun smirked as he grabbed the radio mouthpiece and spoke into it.

"Army Base Foostie, can you please confirm if it looks as though I care?"

Hyun flung the mouthpiece over his shoulder and grabbed hold of the controls again. We were now positioned at the start of the airstrip.

"Are you ready? Hold on!" he yelled and thrust the controls forward. The fighter jet flew forward down the airstrip and I clenched my teeth together as my organs and bones pressed back into my seat. It built up to a momentum speed and I held onto my seat terrified. My stomach backflipped as we lifted off the ground.

I went to cheer but stopped as movement on the ground caught my attention. A second fighter jet was moving, it was turning towards the airstrip. I spun around to tell Hyun but saw he was stressing over the cockpit controls. It was his first time flying a real aircraft.

I glanced back at the fighter jet and saw it positioning itself on the runway. The soldiers weren't trying to stop it.

Damn it, I thought, once in the air it was probably going to shoot us down. Scratch that, would definitely shoot us down.