Demon's Well

by E. R. Mason

  Jiggs opened the bomb bay doors. Jax glanced around to see every other airplane nearby with their doors open as well. As the bombs fell there was the machine gun hammering of shrapnel hitting the airplane beginning at the front and passing by Jax on its way aft.

  “Bombs gone!” yelled Jiggs and as the doors closed, the aircraft settled into the improved slipstream. Once again, as suddenly as it had begun, the violence ceased into a steady drone of aircraft engines.

  Patty suddenly appeared hanging off Jax’s right shoulder. He had bright red blood on his hands.

  “How bad are you hit?” called Jax.

  “I’m not. You are!” was the reply.

  Patty leaned in front of Jax and tore at his left pants leg. There was a steady flow of blood coming from his lower leg.

  “You’re going to have to get down to the table so they can stop that bleeding, Jacks. “I’ll have to fly for you.”

  “Maybe it’s not that bad.”

  “You’ll be passing out from blood loss if you don’t get down there.”

  Leaving the pilot seat was a difficult choice. He kept looking warily at Patty.

  Patty understood. “Jacks, you trust me?”

  A call came over the intercom. It was Scotty. “We got holes all along the side of the aircraft, but everything still seems up and runnin’.”

  Jax pushed himself up and with Patty’s help slid out of the pilot seat. Together they held the control yoke steady. As Patty took his place, Jax found Link pulling him down and over to the med table. There was the sound of cloth tearing. Jax tried to look down at his leg but couldn’t get a position.

  “I don’t feel a damn thing,” said Jax.

  “Shock effect, Captain. When it does start up, it’ll make up for bein’ late, believe me,” replied Link.

  Although Jax had left the pilot seat, his body was still one with the ship. He could feel each of the over-corrections being made by the inexperienced Patty. Still, the substitute pilot was doing well.

  “What about the morphine, Cap? You better take it before the real pain kicks in,” said Link.

  “Keep it ready for me, Link. I want to stay clear headed, you know?”

  “Aye, but you’ll be wanting it before we reach base. I promise you that.”

  “How bad is it down there?”

  “I’ve got you wrapped tight and it’ll hold till we’re on the ground. But you will be getting sewn up immediately thereafter, I’d say. It’ll be a good six-inch decoration before it’s over.”

  “Thanks, Link.”

  “Yeah, Cap. I need to get back to the headset. You gonna be alright?”

  “Tell Patty we’ll switch back when we reach base. Okay?”

  Link patted Jax’s shoulder and went back to his console.

  The sun was not yet rising when the group reached Woolfox. Patty gave no objection to putting Jax back in the pilot seat for landing. Pain had begun to signal Jax that he would soon need medication but there was enough time to put down in proper order with the rest of the group. The earliest turnoff was reserved for Jacks Are Wild, and an ambulance was waiting. Ground crews took the ship back to the service hanger to the very repair spot it had just left.

  Jax awoke to the smell of hospital. Long blond hair was splashed over his face. Before he could move, it slid away revealing Alaina’s smiling face.

  “Awake from our nap, are we?”

  A flush of emotion surged through Jax. “I love you.”

  “Oh my! That’s just one of your legs talking soldier boy, and I don’t think it’s the injured one.”

  “Yeah? So what are you going to do about it?”

  “Oh my, my! Or it may be the drugs talking, I think. But careful what you wish for, Lieutenant. I’d be in bed with you already except the damned medical cart is on the side with the good leg.”

  “How am I?”

  “You are right as rain except for the gash above the left ankle. It’ll be a proud scar, I think. The shape of Cornwall, I would guess.”

  “How long?”

  “Before you can fly the plane or me?”

  “I mean it, Al. I love you.”

  Alaina backed away and stared down affectionately. She smiled and fixed his covers, then leaned back in close. “You’re the only one I’ve ever let it go this far with, and that’s okay with me.”

  “When do I get out of here?”

  “The leg has to be kept elevated for a couple days. Then there’ll be the crutch. About a week or so and you’ll be getting around.”

  “Will somebody else be flying my plane?”

  Alaina made a “Tsk,” sound. “There was a hydraulic leak you didn’t know about what with the engineer flying and all. A tubey thing had to be ordered. It’ll be here about the time you’re up and limping around.”

  “Is the crew okay?”

  “They’ve been taking turns showing up here, but you’ve been out.”

  “Can you get some time off?”

  “Ha, ha! We have a room at the Briars.”

  “I’m the luckiest man alive.”

  Alaina leaned in close once more. “Yeah you are,” she whispered and she kissed him hard on the mouth.

  With persistent pleading and extensive help from his flight crew, Jax was transferred to Alaina’s hotel room, where the room service was more than any man could have dreamed. Two weeks later, he emerged bandaged, refreshed, and back on flight status, just in time to hand tools over to mechanics installing the new hydraulics line on Jack Are Wild. The work finished up late and Jax celebrated by heading for the officer’s lounge.

  With beer in hand, he turned to head for an empty table in the thinly populated lounge. He stopped abruptly upon spying someone sitting in a far corner. It was Pappy, his instructor from Brough. He returned to the pub, asked for a second beer, and then headed that way.

  “Anyone sitting here?”

  Pappy looked up with a tired expression, and smiled. “If that second pint is for me, I guess not.”

  Jax slowly sat and pushed the pint over. “Forgive the embarrassing display of emotion, but it is damn good to see you.”

  “What? No ‘sir’? You got shiny new Lieutenant décor so you’re a big shot now, eh?”

  Jax laughed. Pappy laughed.

  “What are you doin’ here, Pappy?”

  “Recert to mission status. They won’t give it to me though. Too much water under the bridge.”

  “Well, there’s got to be someone to whip misfits like me into shape.”

  Pappy sipped his beer and gave a sideward glance at Jax’s leg. “I hear you brought back a piece of Germany with you, eh?”

  “Didn’t hardly feel a thing.”

  “Yeah, that’s the way it is when the adrenaline is pumping.”

  “This is a sorry way to live, Pappy.”

  “My boy, most people are good souls. They’re just trying to get by from day to day and live in peace. But there’s some people out there who just don’t give a damn. They will kill you just because they don’t like the way you look. If you have something they like, they will take it from you if they can. They are people who want power and money and that’s all they care about. They will enslave your family, occupy your home. Those are the people who make wars, not the poor slobs like you and me who just want live a life. People got to stop blaming mankind for wars. It’s the ones who got no conscience. They’re the war mongers. Just ask those poor bastards in Nazi occupied France. They’ll explain it to you.”

  “Hey, since you brought it up, I was told you spent some time there.”

  A flash of anger seemed to come over Pappy’s face. His stare blurred from the memory. He refocused on Jax, and realizing who he was talking to seemed to calm him. “Well, since you’re another son I’ve sent off to war, I guess you get to know. But let me first say this: If anyone ever tells you the French are cowards, you have my permission to deck them where they stand.”

  Pappy waited for a response. Jax wrinkled his brow in wonder.


  Pappy continued. “We were flying Spitfires and ran into too many Messerschmitts. As it turned out it was quite an enjoyable encounter until I was forced to dive through some friendly fire.” Pappy sipped his pint. “The worst happened. Engine choked off and caught fire. I had fire in the cabin. Scared the shit out of me. Every now and then some poor lad crash lands his fighter and when they open the cockpit all the skin is burned off his face and the poor bastard’s still alive. So I was getting real fire on the arms and neck. There was no question about getting out. Any longer and it would have burned the chute harness. So I popped the top and rolled out over the side saying thanks all the way down that we sit on our chutes. I don’t remember hitting the ground. It was some farmer’s field. He found me there, buried the chute and dragged me home. They kept me in a root cellar under the floor. Burns on the hands, arms, and neck were a real bell-ringer. They treated me with goose grease and fed me. SS searched there place regularly. The farmer and his wife treated them like kings giving them cakes and food they couldn’t spare. The truth was, they hated them fiercely. The SS had taken their son as slave labour. The word was it was a death sentence. When I was well enough, they buried me in a wagon of manure and took me to this place in Brussels. That’s where I met the bravest person I have ever known. Her name was Nadine Dumon. I don’t know how many flyers she slipped by the Nazis, but it was a big number. She was 19 years old. You believe that? You think she didn’t know what would happen if they caught her? It would have been worse than death. Somehow she managed to get my sorry ass to her connection down in the Pyrenees. And there’s another one for you, mate. Her name was Dedee de Jongh. She was leading flyers through the mountains to get them to into Spain. Those two kids are the only reason I’m sitting here right now. I’ve tried to get word on those two. Planned to go back and give them everything I had just like they gave me. Almost wish I hadn’t checked on them. They were both picked up by the Nazis. Don’t know where they are or if they’re alive now. When this crap is over, I’ll be heading straight there to find them, one way or another. So if anybody ever tells you the French are cowards, put them on the floor Jax and tell them to come see me.”

  “Wow!”

  Pappy took a long drink and sat with a blank stare. Jax held up his drink and reached over. “To Dumon and De Jongh, then.”

  Pappy paused for a moment in the stupor of alcohol. He nodded, tapped his glass, and they drank to heroes missing in action.

  Chapter 24

  Jacks Are Wild was airborne and headed for Wismar. Jax’s leg continued to throb although he had been less than honest about that with the doctors. It was that or let someone else fly his plane. It was another night with too much moon, but it made the surreal carpet of bombers seem beautiful somehow. With this much light, fighters were almost a certainty and the gunners kept rotating their guns in anticipation of that.

  It was a long mission, and despite good intel the group picked up fighters north of Grevesmühlen. Jacks Are Wild ended up in the middle of it, but Mad Dog took out one very lethal threat, and Servo downed an astonishing three fighters. The flack began at Gagelow and continued all the way through and beyond the target. There were so few lights on the ground and such a continuous barrage of antiaircraft the group might not have been able to find the target at all except for the deeper darkness of the inlet.

  Back at base the crew inspected the shrapnel holes in the aircraft, saluted each other for the successful delivery and return in one piece, and headed for the trucks in the morning light. As they went, a courier in a jeep pulled up and waved at Jax. “Call for you in the office. It’s urgent.”

  Jax smiled to himself and climbed in. It could only be one person. Alaina was back from a trip she had taken.

  The phone was on the counter when he arrived. He picked up the receiver and was startled to hear a man’s voice on the other end. “This is Commander Bretford, Neil. I have bad news. The worst really.”

  Bretford’s voice was even more gravelly and broken than usual. There was a slur as though he’d been drinking. “We’ve lost Alaina. There’s no easy way to tell this so let me just give it to you straight. She was hitching a ride back in a med-vac C47. They had a Spitfire escort but halfway to rendezvous the pilot reported an oil leak. The Spitfire stayed with them and tried to make the coast but the engine died. He bailed out into the sea and was picked up. It only took 10 minutes for our fighter to get there, but in that damn 10 minutes a Messerschmitt spotted them. The C47 had the Red Cross emblem on it, but the bastard shot them down anyway. Our guy arrived just in time to see the plane go into the sea. It was burning when it hit the water. He ran down the Messerschmitt and shot him down, but that’s little consolation for us. I’m really sorry Neil. You and I felt the same way about her.”

  Jax grabbed the counter for fear of passing out. He dropped the receiver and staggered out the door. He pushed along the wall to the rear of the building and fell to his knees and threw up what little there was in his stomach. He collapsed on the ground and lay there wishing someone would cover him over with dirt so he could just die. There was no life to live now, no longer a future to care about.

  After a while he managed to push up onto to his knees. He buried his dirty face in his hands to weep, but something inside clicked off. There was no longer a flow to the tear ducts. There would be no weeping for Alaina. Nothing mattered now except for airplanes and trips to visit the home of the demon who had done this. That was all there was left.

  The mission target was the Ruhr Industrial Region. As Jax guided his ship over the dark water something was missing. That peacefulness he had come to expect was not there. Only the impatient, single-mindedness of reaching the German coast occupied him. There was a vengeance with it. He found himself searching ahead in the darkness to find the lights of Germany, and when the lights on the ground began to flicker in, a feeling of sick joy followed.

  The flak was heavy this time, well before the target area. The aircraft left of Jax had an engine catch fire and was forced to turn back. Jacks Are Wild was being splattered with holes. Both outboard engines were running rough, but it was of no concern to Jax. Added power would keep them up with the group. The shaking and vibration in the aircraft was not yet a deal breaker. Jacks eyes lit up as the bomb bays doors of aircraft ahead opened. He called down to Jiggs and spoke in a demanding tone. “Jiggs, do you see it?”

  “I’ve got it, Captain. Just a little further.”

  “You have the aircraft!”

  Suddenly there was a strange emptiness over the com. Jigs voice came back over the headset. “What’s going on Link?”

  Patty scrambled down to see what was happening. The antiaircraft was at its heaviest. Patty’s voice came over the headset. “Jacks, the bay doors are damaged. They won’t open.”

  “Damn it! Kick them open if you have to,” replied Jax.

  “Wait, I see it. It’s a torn cable!”

  “We’ll be too late, Captain. We’re passing the target area right now!” said Jiggs.

  “I’ve got it, Jacks. Bay doors are opening!” declared Patty.

  “Jiggs, can you get it?” asked Jax.

  “We’re too late, Captain. We’re well past the drop zone.”

  “Jacks Are Wild to group leader. Request permission to return to target.”

  Jax radio request was heard by the entire crew. A cold heavy silence fell over the intercom.

  Patty pulled himself up into the cockpit area. “Jacks, what the hell are you doing? Those guns are all tuned in. If we go back we’ll be the only target in the sky. It’ll be suicide!”

  Jax glanced at Patty with a wild-eyed stare.

  Patty continued. “We’re already shot up pretty good. We got an oil leak in the number 2. We’ll probably be getting back on three. You got a crew to think about here, Jacks.”

  Jax wide-eyed stare slowly subsided. The radio squelched to life. The group leader’s voice sounded slightly incredulous. “Group leader to Jacks. You are not approved for return t
o target. I repeat, you are not approved for return to target. You will remain in formation and drop your load in the ocean. Do you understand?”

  Link’s voice cut in. “How’d he know we didn’t make the drop?”

  Scotty answered. “Why else would anybody want to go back to the target?”

  “Well, if they were completely loony they might,” answered Link.

  “Cut the chatter you guys,” ordered Patty.

  Jax keyed his mike. “Understand remain in formation and drop them in the sea. Jacks out.”

  Patty slapped Jax on the shoulder as the airplane continued to buck from damage. “When we get back, you and I are gonna tie on one, Lieutenant.”

  A twenty-four hour pass enabled an extended visit to the pub. It afforded Jax another two days sick leave from the resulting hangover. But Jax recovered in time for Vegesack, a mission that turned out to be a milk run with little flak and no fighters. For the first time, Jacks Are Wild did not need repairs. Walking away from the aircraft, the crew pushed and shoved each other and made jokes about how well-endowed they were. There were bold comments about the rumors that Berlin was next. As they walked, a jeep pulled up and the driver flagged Jax to hurry over. Jax climbed in with a sick feeling in his stomach. The last time he had been summoned this way was to inform him of Alaina’s death. He braced himself and sat quietly through the ride to the office.

  It was indeed a telephone call. The attendant pointed him to the receiver off the hook on the counter. Jax picked it up and nearly fainted at the sound of a woman’s voice.

  “Jax, it’s me. Pack up your stuff and meet me at the front gate.”