James Herbert - ‘48

I watched Stern and tried to guess what was going on behind that mask; he remained inscrutable though, despite hitting the juice and chain-smoking along with the rest of us. Funny thing is, he never got soused, nor maudlin, no matter how much he drank. But then, neither did I that evening.

DIVING, DIVING, DIVING…

The two Fw 190s had chased me to thirty-eight thousand feet, and the air was thin up there. I’d had no choice, there was only one way to get away from them, because they were like angry hornets on my tail, relentless, dogged, and out for revenge. They’d watched me shoot down one of their buddies at twelve thousand feet, and that’d made them pretty sore, because their buddy, in his superior plane, should’ve finished me. I’d been in his sights, sure enough, but had flipped over just before he’d fired and gotten behind him, winging him with my own guns. I’d followed him down, giving him another burst, and the Fw 190 had gone into a spiral, an entrail of white smoke marking his descent. He didn’t bail out and I’d hoped he was already dead.

His two friends came steaming in, angry – hell, they were insulted – because I was on my own, one against three, and they’d thought they’d have some fun with me.

They’d assumed they had me when I levelled out. A Spitfire might have gotten away from the Focke-Wulfs, but my Hurricane, with its eight Browning machine guns in its wings, was a clumsier animal and I knew I’d have to take desperate measures. There was only one way to outfly the Germans, but they’d have to follow me. I headed upwards, into the blue, taking the Hurricane to the limits. And the Focke-Wulfs came after me.

Thirty-eight thousand, cockpit rattling around me, and I levelled, took her into a dive. Thirty-seven thousand feet, thirty-six, -five, and my belly’s pressing against my spine. Picking up speed, though, control column vibrating in my hand. Can’t hear them, but I feel the bullets tearing into my left wing. Diving faster. No more gunfire – the Krauts are beginning to have problems controlling their aircraft as all three of us pick up speed.

Thirty thousand feet and my speed’s up to four hundred miles an hour, considerably more than the Hurricane’s limit. Diving, faster, faster, everything shaking around me, engine’s screaming, my goggles are fogging up, sweat’s beginning to blind me.

Twenty-five thousand.

Twenty.

I manage to twist my head, look behind me. Can only see one pursuer, and he’s pulling out of the dive, giving up the chase. Where’s his pal? Can’t see the other Focke-Wulf. Have to assume it’s still on my tail.

Nineteen, then eighteen.

Too fast. Christ, much too fast. I tear off the goggles. Can’t believe it when I look at the instrument panel. Everything’s quivering, but still I can see the speedo’s needle. Not possible. I’m approaching six hundred miles per hour. Nobody’s gonna believe this. If I ever live to tell the tale.

And now it happens, the thing I’d dreaded. They call it compressibility. It’s when everything gets dampened, nothing works as it should. The plane is out of control, the stick’s all over the place.

Jesus H, I’m down to twelve thousand.

I grip the control column, try to pull the Hurricane out of its dive, but it won’t listen, it won’t obey. Pulling harder, both hands clamped around the stick. The plane won’t haul up. Oh dear Lord…

Eight thousand feet.

Seven.

Six.

That’s it. I’m done. I’m locked into that seat by pressure, no way can I get out of the cockpit. Not giving up though. Too much to live for. I pull harder.

Five.

I begin to pray.

But forget the prayer and start to scream.

Everything becomes white, like the centre of an explosion…

And I woke up. Thank God, I woke up. And as I sat there, bolt upright in the bed, body wringing wet, limbs trembling, I realized it wasn’t the imminent dream-death that had awakened me. The light knocking on the door came again.

Moonlight flooded the room so that the walls, the furniture, the rumpled bedsheet, were bathed ghostly white. I stayed where I was, still in shock, my mind completing the dream that was, in fact, a memory: Coming out of the dive at the last moment, skimming over the treetops, the Fw 190 which had remained in pursuit not so lucky; it’d hit those same trees and exploded into one huge fireball. The German pilot’s screaming face, imagined by me as I sat there in the moonlight, resembled Wilhelm Stern’s. Fortunately for me on that day almost seven years ago, the rest of my squadron hadn’t been far away, and the wing commander himself had hurtled towards me along with two other Hurricanes and chased off the surviving Focke-Wulf, giving me hell over the radio for wandering away from the main battle as he did so. It wasn’t the first time I’d had that dream, but it was no worse than any of the others that disturbed my sleep almost every night, drunk or sober.

The rapping on the door came again, still light, but more urgent this time, as though the person outside were becoming impatient. Or desperate. The doorhandle turned, but with no effect – I always kept the door locked at night

Tossing back the sheet, I snatched my chinos from the foot of the bed and pulled them on. Before going to the door, I picked up the.45 from the bedside cabinet and cocked it. Index finger outside the trigger guard, barrel pointed at the ceiling, I padded barefoot over to the bedroom door.

As if sensing me on the other side, a muffled female voice called softly: ‘Hoke, please let me in.’

Quickly turning the key, I opened the door a few inches. I could see only a shadow outside in the hall.

‘Please,’ she repeated, and I could tell she was close to tears.

I stood aside, pulling the door open a little wider, and Muriel slipped through the gap. The moment the door was shut tight again and I’d turned to face her, she was in my arms, her slender body shivering despite the night’s warmth.

I resisted at first, remained stiff, unyielding, gun hand still raised towards the ceiling, the palm of my other hand wavering inches from her back. Then I smelt her sweet perfume and I remembered what a woman’s embrace was like. My hand closed against her back, pulling her towards me, and I lowered the gun to my side. I breathed in the aroma of her freshly washed hair, then the scent she’d used on her skin, on her neck, her breasts. I even enjoyed the faint taint of wine still on her lips. A pressure inside me was released, the tightness in my chest loosened. I held on to her for a moment, maybe a few moments, and closed my eyes. My mind reeled in her presence.

It had been so long, so very long…

But the numbness within returned, the rejection of true feelings that was my only defence against the terrible thing that had happened to the world and to me overrode those stirring emotions: I stepped away from her. In the silvery light from the window, I saw the glistening of tears on her cheeks and I saw the confusion in her eyes.

‘Hold me,’ she asked in a hushed voice.

I couldn’t I didn’t want to. I knew if I took her back into my arms I’d lose something that had kept me together these past three years, the detachment I’d come to wear like a suit of armour. I did not want to become vulnerable again.

Her bare shoulders were trembling still and the moonlight shimmered off the silk slip she wore. She watched, her tears catching that same light so that crystals seemed to shine from their trails, then slowly lowered her head.

‘I’m so afraid,’ she said.

And I gave in, so easily, so goddamn willingly.

Her weeping dampened my naked chest and I felt tiny spasms jerk her whole body with each sob she uttered.

‘Take it easy,’ I said to her quietly, at a loss for any other words of comfort. ‘We’re safe here.’