| Fan Fiction |
by elmo
Just as Bosco was about to take off, he caught sight of Raymond and Brendan boarding a different aircraft from the rest of the platoon. Those airplanes were mainly used for spying purposes, and were especially vulnerable in air attacks. Turning his attention back to the runway after hearing the command from the control tower, Bosco’s fighter plane took off smoothly and joined the rest of the other fourteen planes. Heading towards their destination, the fleet of fifteen airplanes split up into three different teams, as each team was responsible for a certain area before rejoining back together after that. This air raid was supposed to be a revenge for what the German Airforce had done to London the previous time. As they began dropping bombs at military-strategic locations of airbases and army barracks, they soon diverted their planes towards the civilians’ homes. Tiny fire spots could be seen from high above in the sky.
“Team One, targets cleared. Over.” Bosco announced through the speaker.
“Team One, back to airbase. Over.” Roger instructed.
“Roger.” Bosco answered, as he directed his team back to London.
However, on his way back, he thought that he saw the airplanes, which Raymond and Brendan boarded earlier on, flying towards the city which they just left. “What are they trying to do?” Bosco mumbled to himself. It was dangerous to return to the city now as the air raid earlier on would have warned the German army to be alert and retaliate when the enemy planes were to return for further attacks.
“Bosco calling Nelson. Over.” Bosco said.
“Nelson in control. Over.” Nelson responded.
“You’re now in charge of taking the team back. I need to check out something first. I’ll be responsible for all consequences later on. Over.” Bosco informed.
There was a rather long pause before a positive reply came from Nelson, “Roger.”
With that, Bosco swerved his fighter plane around and flew back to the Hamburg. As he scoured through the sky, he checked his radar system for Raymond’s presence nearby but there was nothing in sight. Just as Bosco wanted to take his plane further down to take a closer look, the warning system sounded out loud, before he found three German airplanes close on his tail, threatening to take him down any minute.
“Holy shit!” Bosco cursed under his breath, as he attempted to take the plane up into the thick clouds, using them as a smokescreen before finding a way to escape their pursuit. German planes were known to be swift and deadly. Increasing the speed a few notches, Bosco maneuvered his plane in and out of the clouds, as these German planes started firing towards him, and a few of their shots successfully hit onto one of his plane’s wings. Knowing that this method was not going to work for long, Bosco had no choice but to take his plane straight down towards the city, hoping the swerves and sudden turns could shake them off, and it did as one German plane could not make for the turn in time, thus it crashed into a building. As Bosco changed direction towards the Northern Atlantic Ocean, from a far distance away, he thought he saw a familiar aircraft being pursued by five other similar German planes like his, and just when he thought there would be another round of firing from the other two pursuers, they suddenly dropped back and changed their navigation towards somewhere else. Bosco took a look at his fuel capacity, and knew that he had to land soon before his fuel ran out. As expected, Bosco was met with Roger, whom was looking extremely furious.
“How could you disobey my instructions, Bosco?!” Roger bellowed in anger in front of other platoon-mates, “You could’ve died!”
“Sir, there’s something more important that I discovered,” Bosco ignored the rage which Roger was in now, as he had something lingering in his mind along his way back, “We still have comrades out there being pursued by the German planes. We need to save them now.”
Roger frowned at Bosco’s words before turning over to look at the platoon, “I don’t see anyone missing here. What are you talking about?”
“No! I saw an A-70 airplane out there! I know that it’s not used for combat purposes, and it definitely can’t…” Bosco argued, as whispers could be heard from other people as well, claiming that they had seen these A-70 airplanes near the vicinity of Hamburg.
“Silence!” Roger yelled to his subordinates, before turning towards Bosco, “Come with me now.”
As Bosco followed Roger to the basement where top-secret meetings were often held there in times of emergencies, he could not help but feel uneasy at the thought of being in this place. He began wondering if Raymond had been here before. They stopped before a glass door, and Roger keyed in the password and had his retina scanned by a machine.
“Come in here.” Roger opened the door for Bosco to enter.
Bosco exclaimed in awe in silence when he saw the numerous, small television screens showing the different parts of London and the military bases around the city, bringing about the latest updates back to the main headquarters. There were also many sophisticated machines which were used to intercept transmissions belonging to the enemies, and experts to stand by twenty-four hours to decipher the complicated codes being used in these signals. In this way, they could possibly know about the enemies’ next move beforehand.
“Captain Miu!” Roger called out, as Bosco followed closely behind him.
Michael turned to find Bosco in this room as well, and he looked pretty surprised at that. Roger went forward, and whispered some words to Michael, whom only nodded his head during the process. After that, Roger left the room, leaving Bosco alone with Michael.
“Do you know the consequences of disobeying your superior, especially in situations like this?” Michael questioned, as he signaled to Bosco to take a seat opposite him.
“Sir, I don’t think it’s the time now to discuss about this. There’s…” Bosco rebutted.
“Raymond’s different from you in this aspect, Bosco. He never questions, and just does whatever task is being given to him. All I can tell you now is that this mission still remains a top-secret here, and even Raymond doesn’t know the full details. He only knew that he needed to retrieve the necessary information and then returned to the airbase. From the start, I’ve already told him that it was going to be a risky and dangerous mission, which could involve the stake of his life, but he still accepted it.” Michael said.
“I think I saw five or more planes chasing after him.” Bosco murmured with a tinge of fear in his voice.
Michael’s expression then turned really solemn and stern, “Then we better start praying for the best, Bosco.”
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Bosco paced around the airbase for the next few hours. He, like the others, was waiting for them to return. Earlier on, Bosco had suggested that they sent some planes over to check on both of them, and he even volunteered himself, but he was being rejected flatly by Michael immediately.
“We don’t need any more of such sacrifices.” Michael told him.
At that moment, the air was filled with noises of an engine. Looking up in the sky, everyone started cheering when they saw an A-70 airplane descending towards the runway at a rapid speed, but soon, everyone came to realize that the airplane was not going to land smoothly at all. Running for cover, the plane’s tail caught fire as the body hit the ground and subsequently exploded into flames. Bosco grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran forward, as he saw someone crawling out from the pilot’s seat.
“It’s Brendan!” Someone yelled out, “Quick, get the paramedics here! He’s burned badly!”
Bosco rushed to Brendan’s side, and assured him that he was going to be alright, but Brendan’s eyes were kept fixed on Bosco as his blackened hand grabbed onto Bosco’s sleeve tightly. He seemed to be whispering something. Leaning closer towards Brendan, Bosco felt his hands trembling as Brendan’s words sank deeply into his mind.
“Ray…gon…dead his plan…crashed…Ray’s down…” These were Brendan’s last words before the doctors failed to revive him as he suffered from more than seventy-percent of burns all over his body.
Hours later, remains of Raymond’s A-70 airplane were found floating in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean, but no body was found. Even so, it would need a miracle for Raymond to be alive and safe.
[End of Flashback]
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[2 Weeks Later]
Bosco packed up all his belongings in the Airforce dormitory. He had just undergone a disciplinary hearing about disobeying his superior’s instructions, and it was decided unanimously that he would be suspended off all duties until further notice. Until then, he was not allowed to fly anymore. Bosco did not have any reaction to this news, because for the past week, he was busy with gathering about Raymond’s whereabouts, hoping that even if his best friend was to be dead, at least he could still recover his body. Other than that, Myolie was another issue which he was fretting about. She did not seem to show any signs of grief, using the work at the medical camp to occupy most of her time. However, on some nights, Bosco would find Myolie sitting alone in the small church near the camp. He was aware that, like him, she was still unable to come to terms with Raymond’s death yet, but he did not know how to console her further. Bosco had tried talking to her, but she only avoided his questions. He asked Selena to help him on his behalf, but even her good friend was unable to persuade her to open up with them. Soon after, Bosco concluded that they would just leave her to think over alone first, before trying to talk to her again.
“How’s Madam Willow? Is her rheumatism any better?” Bosco asked as he and Myolie walked back to the medical camp after their last house-visiting round for the night.
Apparently, Myolie was so deep in her own thoughts that she did not hear a single word which Bosco said. Bosco decided to remain quiet after hearing no response from Myolie. Silence filled the air, as they continued walking. Bosco dreaded the silence actually, because it would just allow his mind to slowly linger back to Raymond, as the pain of losing his best friend returned once again. He still regretted about not patching up with Raymond. But he could only keep this agony and guilt within himself. He must never let Myolie see this side of him. He needed to be strong for her.
“Bosco, I’m going off to the church for a while.” Myolie told him in a weak voice, before walking off first herself.
Bosco contemplated for a moment, before following Myolie secretly, keeping a safe distance away from her. As he stood outside the church whilst she remained in there, Bosco looked up into the night sky. “Ray…Raymond Lam…Can you hear me? Can you hear me from up there? Please tell me what I should do…How can I help her, so that she won’t be so upset? Can you please tell me why you left? How could you bear to leave us…” Bosco silently wiped away the tears on his face, as he leaned his head against the concrete wall of the church.
All of a sudden, the familiar loud warning sirens could be heard throughout the entire city. This time, Bosco knew that an air raid by the German planes was imminent. People were already flocking out of their homes and hurried towards the bomb shelters. As the German planes whizzed by high above their heads, the civilians were calmer and more orderly in their evacuation. Wasting no time, Bosco entered into the church and found Myolie still sitting in the front row of benches, oblivious to whatever was happening out there.
“Myolie, we need to go now. We’ll come back later, alright?” Bosco spoke, as he held onto her hand, intending to take her away.
But Myolie refused to budge from her position, and pushed Bosco’s hand away.
“The planes are coming to bomb us now. We really have to go.” Bosco once again tried to grab onto her hand, but this time, she took her hand away before he could touch it.
Bosco was at a loss at what to do. Should he knock her out and take her away? But it did not seem like a good idea, especially when Myolie would regain consciousness later on. Before he could make a decision, a deafening blast was heard as a portion of the church was being hit by the bomb, as the ceiling and walls came crashing down at them. Bosco tried to shield Myolie from the falling debris, but the impact threw him off his feet, a few meters away from her. Crawling out from beneath, Bosco could not find Myolie anywhere in sight. But he could distinctly hear the engines of the airplanes above them. They were going to blast this place again.
“Myolie! Myolie, where are you?” Bosco struggled through the huge piles of debris, looking under to see if Myolie was there.
Myolie was being hit unconscious by a falling piece of brick, but gradually, she stirred awake although she found herself being trapped underneath a broken part of the wall. She seemed to hear someone yelling out her name, and the voice was getting closer towards her.
“Raymond…Is that you, Raymond? Have you come to save me?” Myolie had foolishly imagined that Raymond had returned to rescue her just like before. Just like he promised her.
However, when she saw that the person was not him but Bosco instead, she felt the harsh reality came crashing back onto her again. She curled up and cried out in sorrow, knowing fully that Raymond would never return again.
“Please come out from there,” Bosco pleaded as he stretched his hand towards her, “We can get out of this place together.”
Myolie shook her head and told Bosco tearfully, “Just go without me. Bosco, just leave without me, will you? I want to see Raymond again, so please go without me.”
“No, I’m not leaving without you,” Bosco insisted firmly, “I know what you’re trying to do, Myolie. You wish to die, am I right? How could you be like this? How could you be so cruel to me? I’ve already lost my best friend, and now, all I want to do is to protect the woman he loved from any harm. I know that you’re upset, because I am too, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t treasure my life. There’re still many things in this world that you should continue living on for. Myolie, take my hand and come out right now.”
“Just leave please…” She continued sobbing, burying her face in her hands.
“Alright, I won’t stop you from dying,” Bosco gave up, as he prepared to crawl into the hole to join Myolie, “I’ll never leave you alone. We shall die together, and then we’ll reunite with Raymond together. No matter what happens, you won’t be alone by yourself.”
Myolie looked up when she heard Bosco’s words. He was dead serious about joining her in the hole.
“Don’t do that, Bosco,” She stopped him from coming in and relented after she felt touched by his persistence, “I’ll come out now.”
Once she was out of the hole, Bosco grabbed onto her hand, and gazed tearfully into her eyes, “Thank you for not giving up on yourself.”
Together, they quickly made their way towards the nearest bomb shelter as the church was soon blasted to the grounds, having nothing left at all.
_______________________________
The ordeal was over for now. Bosco sat down on the huge rock, and admired the sunset in the sky. After last night’s bomb attack, Bosco had finally come to terms with Raymond’s departure. Life was to go on, and Raymond would now only be part of his memories.
“Can I join you?” Myolie had found Bosco sitting alone on the huge rock after completing her duties at the medical camp.
Bosco smiled and nodded his head. Shifting aside, Myolie jumped up and sat down beside him. Her emotion seemed to have calmed down much more, and was better than the past few weeks.
“Raymond…Is he really not coming back anymore?” Myolie asked.
“He’s not coming back, Myolie, but memories of him will forever live on in our hearts.” Bosco answered.
Myolie laid her head on Bosco’s shoulder as tears started to well up in her eyes. This will be the final time, she told herself. Bosco felt himself tearing up as well as he bit onto his trembling lower lip.
That evening was their final farewell to the man whom both of them loved so dearly.