A Perfect World: Part 2

         Gripping his rifle tightly, Max Collins peered over the edge of the deep trench.
         “No one in sight. Good”, he muttered quietly to himself. Sounds of gunfire and explosions continued to echo across the gray, barren landscape.
         “I have to make it to the hangar”. Shouldering his rifle, he laid back down on his stomach and continued to crawl down the trench. He was covered in dirt and dust from his black hair to his boots. Max’s ruby red eyes stood out against the gray that seemed to envelop everything around him.
Taking care not to be seen by any passing enemy troops, he slowly made his way down, cautiously looking up every few minutes before continuing on. Although his arms and legs were tired and sore, he never stopped to take a break. His breath came out in pants, causing him to swallow dust and cough.
         Ten or so minutes later, he came across a fallen soldier. Max checked for a pulse, but couldn’t find one. Sighing he took the pistol and ammo off the body.
         “Sorry pal, but I might need this”. He closed the lifeless eyes, he placed the bible in his pocket on the body. Then, climbing over him, Max continued on his mission. Along the way, he saw more bodies lying around, a lot more. It looked like a massacre had gone on here.
         “Gosh, looks like an entire troop was killed. The captain’s right, if I don’t go get help, we’re all done for”.
         Taking a few extra minutes, he salvaged what artillery he could carry.
         Time passed by, the terrifying sounds of battle never ceasing, and Max thought he would never reach his destination, but at last, he did.
         “Finally!” Max exclaimed gratefully, “my elbows are getting raw crawling like this”. Once again making sure the coast was clear, he jumped out of the trench and ran towards the hangar. Nearing the large silver building, he realized that there was a problem. The high, barbed wire fence was locked and he did not have a key.
         Turning on his radio, he called in to his captain.
         “Captain Thomas? Are you there, sir?” A moment later, a disgruntled reply came through, faint against the background noise of yelling men and gunfire.
         “What do you need, private? You get to the hangar?”
         “Yes sir, but there’s a problem. The gate’s locked and I don’t have a key”
         “Did the sergeant not give you one?”
         “No, he didn’t, sir. I probably ran out of there too fast”, Max stated.
         A few moments passed and the captain finally replied, “You’re going to have to scale the fence. Be careful, though. That fall could kill you. And hurry, we don’t know how much longer we can hold them off. We’re counting on you.”
         Switching the radio off, Max surveyed the wire fence. He was going to have to climb about forty feet, climb carefully over the barb wire, and climb back down.
         “Terrific.” Setting everything but his pistol down, he started to climb up the towering fence.
         Like a monkey’s uncle, he quickly climbed until he reached the spiraling barb wire at the top. It took several minutes, but he eventually got to the other side, his brown uniform mercilessly ripped and shredded. Taking less time to go down then up, he reached the entrance quickly.
         “Great. Door’s locked. This is never simple, is it?” Taking out his pistol, he shot the deadbolt a few times until the door swung open.
         “Problem solved”, he said, chuckling to himself. Turning the lights on, he took a look around. Inside were two planes, one equipped with the usual rockets and guns, the other a simple biplane. Max chose the blue biplane since it would most likely prove faster than the other. Opening the large overhead door, he could have slapped himself silly. The gate used to let the planes through was wide open.
         “I climbed that stupid gate for nothing. Geez.” Walking back to the plane, he continued to mutter angrily to himself. Starting up the engine, Max noticed a crate of grenades in the floor board. Shrugging, he taxied out of the hangar and was soon soaring through the air. So far, his mission was going fine.
“First, make it to the hangar undetected: check. Second, find a plane and fly it out of the hangar: check. Then, fly east to get backup: uncheck.”
         He didn’t know what he was looking for, but Captain Thomas said he would know when he saw it. That part of the plan seemed very vague.
         Flying over many troops fighting each other around bunkers and trenches, Max continued to fly east until he came upon a large enemy camp. It was packed with enemy soldiers, milling about like ants in their ant bed.
         “Looks like their main base. Oh crap…”
         A gray enemy plane flew up out of the camp behind him and opened fire. Desperately, he maneuvered around the enemy to prevent being shot down like a duck during duck season. Looking back, Max saw his enemy was still behind him and gaining fast.
         “How am I supposed to go get backup without getting killed?” he asked himself frantically. Bullets continued to whiz by head as he ducked down. He shot his pistol at the pilot in hopes of killing him, but to no avail. After a few minutes of fire, he ran out of ammo and angrily threw the useless piece of metal out of the plane.
         Suddenly, he remembered the crate of grenades in the floor.
         “HA!” He opened the crate and took out a grenade. Throwing them behind him, he hoped to either hit the plane or shake the enemy off him. Unfortunately, the pilot dodged them and never lost his position behind Max.
         As they were chasing each other, they neared the camp again. Then, Max was hit by an idea with the force of a train. He might be able to defeat his enemy and help the rest of the losing troops. Quickly thinking it over, he figured it was worth a try.
         Flying around as though he was trying to shake him off, but not enough to lose his enemy, he flew towards the enemy base. Checking behind him, his rival’s aircraft was still behind him.
         “Perfect. Here we GO!” Max pulled on the controls forcefully until he was somersaulting over the plane. Just as he was directly above, he dropped a couple of grenades into the pilot’s cockpit and took off as far as he could.
         Unable to get the explosives out of his plane, the enemy pilot jumped out, leaving the plane to crash into the camp. It was going to land in the middle of it. Soldiers were running away as fast as they could, but the falling aircraft fell faster. It landed in a small fire, igniting the fuel and blowing up, destroying most of the camp, it supplies, and soldiers.
         A few minutes later, he heard over the radio, his captain cheering, “The enemy’s retreating! We’re winning!” Sounds of excited yells were heard in the background this time. He had saved the day!
         Landing softly on a hilltop, Max jumped out. Taking a last look around, he changed everything until he was gazing out into grassy fields and a cerulean blue sky. Lying down in the cushy green grass, he thought back over his thrilling adventure.
         Sighing contently, he thought, How am I going to top this? His Perfect World was complete and he could do whatever he wanted inside it. Yet, a mysterious, deep down feeling crept over him, telling him something was missing.
         What could it be?