Born To Survive

• Lachlan Goss, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2020

Born to Survive
By Lachlan Goss

John slammed the brakes of is F-35A Lightning as he approached the end of the runway and the smell of burnt rubber filled the air. As he trundled into the hangar with rows of planes all used for different purposes he thought about his family back home in Darwin, waiting for him to come home. John then got out of the advanced fighter, he examined the exoskeleton of his F-35A for bullet holes, he saw two, and both were nestled underneath the wings of the plane. After the examination, he walked down the corridor leading to the barracks and a tsunami of exhaustion washed over him, when he was in the air, the adrenaline was pumping through his veins, but when he arrived back at base the adrenaline left him and every knock and bruise would suddenly scream out in pain. That’s just how it was being a soldier so John was getting used to it and it had become part of his daily schedule when he arrived back at the Philippines Air Force base.
When he finally went to bed, he crashed as soon as his head hit the pillow, it had been a hard day fighting the North Koreans. As he was having breakfast, he was told that some North Korean bombers were approaching Rabaul from a north-easterly direction, and he and 3 others were going to intercept the bombers and send them to the bottom of the ocean.
As fast as they could, John and his camaraderies took to the sky. After a while they saw the bombers in the distance, escorted by 15 MI16 fighter jets. Instantly the F35A’s went into formation and hurled themselves into battle, aware it could be their last, they were heavily outnumbered but the soldiers were used to it as the battle went on they seemed to have an advantage but, right at that moment, John’s plane rocketed into the ocean, leaving a trail of thick black smoke trailing behind it…
John managed to get out of the plane before it sunk to the bottom of the ocean, as he rose to the surface he saw Rabaul in the distance, then he swam, using survival backstroke, a stroke he had learnt as a little tike at swimming lessons. As the day wore on his arms and legs felt as though they were jelly and every stroke required all of his mental strength to get him to do another stroke, soon it was night time and he could almost touch the numerous lights of the port, after another hour went he was slowly pushing himself up onto the dock. Soon he had a crowd of people around him, comforting him, telling him everything was going to be alright. Then an ambulance arrived and took him to the nearest hospital, after a few days in hospital he had recovered from his severe case of pneumonia. Then he flew home in a cargo plane carrying supplies to Darwin then he reunited with his family.