The door of the Nissan hut burst open. "Come on Archie, get your flying helmet on!" yelled

Glenn "Wanker" Roeder

"B..b..but ..." stammered fresh-faced recruit Troy Archibald-Henville, looking up in astonishment from his bunk. For the last three weeks he had done nothing but lie on his bunk, dejectedly staring at the ceiling and trying to blow smoke rings. He didn't like smoking, but one of the lads he had met in the Mess early on had told him it was "manly". Where WAS Chris "Lagertop" Martin these days, anyway?

"Don't give me f**king lip sonny!" snarled Wanker. "Get your arse off that bunk and get your f**king kit on. There's a flap on."

"Me, sir? But you said I was the worst pilot you'd ever seen"

"Yup"

"And you said I'd never fly in your squadron"

"Yup"

"And you said I was a baby-faced numpty who needed to learn that a joystick wasn't the thing between my legs, and that you were buggered if you were going to let me make my mistakes at your expense, and you were going to send me away to get some flying hours under my belt."

"Listen, c**t-chops" snarled Wanker. "Do you want to fly or not?"

Archie scrambled for his kit. It was so long since he'd worn it that he couldn't find it at first, but in the end he found his shiny new boots and started lacing them up. "What's the gen, Wingco?" he tentatively asked.

Wanker turned round from the window from which he had been shouting sarcastic abuse at a bunch of passing civilians. "Dejan's bought it", he grunted. "Useless f**king Serbian t**t. Why oh why HQ insist on sending me these ancient crocks with the reflexes of an arthritic tortoise I don't know. Someone younger than him would have seen that Hun tackle coming a mile away. Anyway, he didn't, he's gone for Burton, and that leaves me a man short in the squadron. So get a wiggle on!"

Archie stood up. It felt good to have his kit on. Maybe this was the start of something big ...

Posted By: Old Git, Nov 14, 10:21:45