Mustangs
Snippet from upcoming sequel to 'The Furred Reich'
Just a little, tiny piece of my sequel to The Furred Reich, which I have tentatively named 'Lightning and the Sun.'
Those who read through The Furred Reich might recognize this little tidbit in greater context. If you haven't picked up The Furred Reich yet, you definitely should! It is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E9MUSME
It's going to be quite some time before Lightning And The Sun gets published. I just started writing this.
If you are interested, watch me here on Fur Affinity.
Four hundred... 300... 200... 100 meters.
The distance closed in split seconds and the checkered tail of that Mustang looked as big as a barn. Erich rushed down on the rearmost American at a perfect thirty-degree angle and pressed the gun buttons. A blast of fire shook Karaya One as the Mustang blew up.
Erich's attention switched to the second Mustang, whose pilot seemed paralyzed by the action. The Mustang took a blazing volly from Karaya One and began burning, but now the rest were onto Erich.
"Bubu, Bubi behind you! Break! Break!" Junger's voice rasped in Erich's earphones.
He stroked the stick forward and dove hard. His eyes bulged in their sockets, and his helmeted head bounced on the canopy. In heavy leftward spirals and at full power, the Blond Knight went plummeting down, with Mustangs hot on his tail.
"Get out of here Junger! I'll make it alone!"
That would give his wingman a chance. The horde of angry Mustangs strung out behind him were fixated on vengeance. Looking in his mirror, Erich saw eight of them.
"Alright Erich, keep your head now and fly. Fly like you've never flown before."
The P-51s split int four-ship elements on either side of Erich. They were as fast as he was.
"Hard turns, Erich. Really hard turns or you'll have bullets in your whiskey stomach."
Karaya One banked hard left and the game began. Hard right - blast of gunfire from two Mustangs... Hard left - a storm of tracer from the other side... Hard right - more gunfire.
"You're lucky Erich. They're not great shooters. They fire too soon, too far out. If they knew what you know you'd be dead."
Hard right... Hard left. And in the brain-glazing turns, Erich fired his own guns when the Mustangs came close. The sound of his own guns made Erich feel better.
The Blonde Knight and eight Americans went rattling across the Romanian sky. Still those 50-calibers rang out. Erich could feel the sweat running down his body underneath the uniform.
His mind shut out the hammering of American guns and the groaning of Karaya One. Thoughts of his boyhood flashed in his mind's eye.
"Good thing you liked gymnastics, Erich. Your coordination is saving you now."
All through the blood-draining turns Erich pulled closer to base, gaining slightly on the Mustangs with each turn. The Americans fired wildly.
"Keep going Erich, keep going. The flak near the base will take care of these leeches."
Karaya One swung around again.
"Damn!" The fuel warning light glared red. He was too far from base to land even if he wanted to.
"Make a fast bailout Erich - what?"
The red light flashed white. Its luminescence grew and grew until Erich's vision went blank. Only the steady hum of Karaya One could be heard, no longer groaning and no longer stressed.
Erich felt for his hand, then reached for his stick. It was there. He blinked as his vision returned.
"Hallo?"
Erich scrambled to check his mirror. No Mustangs on his tail. Just a clear sky and rays of sunshine bouncing off an endless expanse of desert sands below. The Blond Knight couldn't believe his eyes. It was just Erich and his plane, and this certainly wasn't Romania.
He flipped on his radio. "Hallo? Junker? Hrabek? Come in please. Bimmel?"
Nothing.
He checked his altimeter. It read 8,000 feet. The only sign of life below him was a lonely trade road. It looked like a tiny string in the sand. Erich pushed down on the stick, speeding up and dropping to a lower altitude.
"North Africa, maybe?"
Erich canted his head at the landscape. He decided to follow the trade road until fuel ran out. A long line of little boxes inched up the road. Karaya One dove lower still and buzzed them so he could get a closer look. At this speed it was hard to tell their reaction. He passed an azure pool with green squares and buildings huddled desperately around it.
"Looks like they haven't seen many fighter planes." Erich smiled to himself as he noticed several dots running in through the sand following him.