Never Ending Nightmare

By Luke Brown

Chapter One Dylan

Over the roar of the R-3350 engines, Dylan could see through his pair of binoculars his best friend, Wyatt in another B-29 waving through a tiny window in the side of the plane. Wyatt then points toward the cockpit of his plane adamantly, Dylan moves slowly and then hovers over the cockpit hesitantly, and realizes without wanting to, that the person flying Wyatt's plane was none other than his fiancées ex-boyfriend.

"Great!" He said, as he stilled the locket swinging from the altimeter toggle.

"What's that?" his buddy Tom said, as he came over to Dylan's side with a big grin on his face. "Is it trouble?"

"No Tom, it's just Henry flying one of the other bombers,"

"Oh yeah? Lemme see," Dylan handed the binoculars to Tom, Tom almost snatched them out of his hands.

"HAHA!!" he laughed turning his face turning slow to look at Dylan, "Ain't that a major load of monkey s***,"

"Yeah, no kidding, I thought he was demoted,"

"Yeah, well I guess he kissed one of the brass's asses and got reinstated," with a sigh Tom handed Dylan his binoculars and walked toward the back of the plane.

"Come on Dylan, don't worry about his dumbass,"

"Alright," with one last look outsidethewindow of the plane, Dylan walked back into the plane. Despite wanting to look at Henry with hatred through the small reticles of his binoculars.

"Check the rigging on that side while you're at it, will ya?" expressed Tom with a nod toward the starboard side of the bomb.

"Hey guys!" shouted the pilot.

"We're coming John!" said Tom as he made his way up toward the cockpit. Dylan finished checking the rigging on the bomb and made his way toward the cockpit as well. He pulled himself into the cockpit as John and Tom were horsing around.

"Guys, no one wants to know about this s*** right now," Dylan said, Tom turned to look at him with a smirk on his face.

"Just because you've never…loved somebody, don' mean we can't talk 'bout it." Tom said.

"How do you know that, and that I just don't want to talk about that when there are more important things to address?" he said back.

"Uh, because I said so," Tom said swinging into his face and then back with the same smirk.

"Tom is a Know-it-all, alright," John said "He knows the rhythm,"

"Aww shut up George," Tom said to the co-pilot as he snorted

"I didn't hear 'im deny it though," George said, as they all started laughing

"Yeah, whatever you dumb f*****s,"

"True though," Dylan laughed.

"When will we arrive to the dropping point?" Tom asked George "Uh "

"About thirty-minutes." said John

"Damn it John, did he ask you or me?"

"Well personally, since you ask, I believe that the person who has actually done all of the calculations, would actually know what the "

"Ahh shut your yap, John, I did the calculations too,"

"Yeah, but I guess just not as good as John did," said Dylan as he and Tom watched the two argue. Tom with a fake stern face said as he was tapping his fingers together.

"I did the calculations too George, I am the master of time, and I was only assessing you to see how you would react to the cockiness of Mr. John over here,"

"Ahh whatever, screw you Tom,"

"HAHA!" Tom laughed as he started walking back to his turret, out of nowhere turbulence started kicking in.

"Goddammit! John can you f****** FLY!!" Tom yelled as he collapsed to the floor of the plane.

"I'm trying man!!" John shouted back, "I have no idea where this storm came from,"

"Storm?!" Dylan said, as he tried desperately to grab his locket from the altimeter, "Where!?"

"Look out the goshdang window Dylan!" George said, as he and John scrambled to get a proper hold on the joysticks.

"My God," said Dylan, "Turn the F*** AROUND!! WE'RE HEADING RIGHT TOWARD A " BOOOOOM!!!

Two of the engines started to catch on fire.

"Oh s***!!" they yelled as the plane started to lose altitude

"Oh f***!" yelled Dylan as he started to almost go weightless, trying to snatch his locket that almost hovered, taunting him, he grabbed a hold of it as John yelled

"GEORGE!! WE GOTTA PULL UP MAN!!!"

"I'M TRYIN' JOHN!!"

"UP, UP UP UP UP UP---" the last thing Dylan saw was his fiancées face in the locket before everything went dark.

Chapter Two

Dylan

"LIZ!!!" Dylan woke up. Gasping for air, drenched in sweat. He slumped back down into his pillows, and remembered She's gone, He moved the sheets off his legs to reveal fading scars, as he got up slowly and bent over, closing his eyes only to see his dead friend's faces. Open, he opened his eyes, looked around the room at the empty liquor bottles on his dresser, he looked over at his nightstand, and saw a familiar locket with an old photo in it, not worth remembering. He grabbed it, slowly brought it to his face, and sobbed. He threw it across the room. Get up Dylan, time to get a move on, bud.

"I know, I know," he rubbed his face, got up and walked over to his dresser with all the empty bottles atopit and swept them into a trash bag. He threw on his clothes he had hanging up, his veteran hat, adjusting himself in the mirror above his dresser, looking through bloodshot eyes. Then he went to the kitchen to get some breakfast.

" President Johnson has ordered the Air Force, and Navy forward, in operation Rolling Thunder to bomb strategic points against the Viet Cong, as he hopes to resolve the conflict in Vietnam," Turn this B.S off Dylan. This is pissing me off. Dylan cut the TV and walked over to the front door, grabbing his coat and keys off their respectable hooks. Gotta keep 'em on their own, or they're liable to have fun with each other.

"Okay Tom," Dylan muttered as he walked out his door.

"Mornin' to ya, Mr. Madison!" Someone called.

"Mornin' Charlie!!" Dylan replied with a short wave as he locked his three deadbolts.

"Need anything, Mr. Madison?!"

"No, Charlie" he shook his head walking down the sidewalk toward his truck

"Ya sure, Mr. Madison?! I'd be happy to hel "

"No! Charlie," Dylan said as he unlocked his truck, "I don't need anything at all, if I do, I'll be more than happy to let you help," he said with a sarcastic smile.

"Alrighty then Mr. Madison, you have a great day then," Charlie beamed. waving back at him. HA! Hippies. Gotta love 'em, right Dill?

"Yep Tom, definitely," he said as he got into his truck, turning the ignition to hear his Ford pickup's 136 cubic-inch in-line six-cylinder with a 2.6-inch bore and 3.2-inch stroke with a compression ratio that's 6.6-to-1 developing sixty horsepower and ninety-four foot-pounds of torque. you don't need to bother me with the details, now do ya? "No, Tom, I don't,"

He walks into the psychiatrist’s office and waits until it is his turn to go in.

“Mr. Madison?” the receptionist called.

“Coming,” Dylan walked into the doctor’s office, and leveled a look at Kurt as he sat down.

“How are we doing today, Dylan?”

“The usual, Kurt,”

“Same nightmares?”

Dylan sighs. “Yeah,”

“Okay, any ringing of the ears lately?”

“Sometimes, if I focus enough, I can make it quiet down…but it never goes away,”

“Okay, have we had any stressful situations lately, anything that would cause the nightmares…. or?” He prompted.

“No, Kurt, just the usual routine.”

“Okay, have you talked to the kids at all?”

“No,”

“Okay, any reason why?”

“Just haven’t had the chance to. Been busy as I said. Working on the Truck,”

“Okay, that’s good, getting something to focus on is good. Have you watched the news lately?”

“I did this morning, just a bunch of bull, you know,”

“I hear ya, have you talked to Elizabeth? Or ”

“No don’t want to,”

“Okay, have you given any thought as to why?”

“No, and I don’t want to,”

“Alright. Have you talked to your folks recently?”

“Yeah, I did a few days ago. They talked about wanting me to go up Thursday, get out to the farm for a little while.”

“Okay, and have you given any thought?”

“Yeah, I decided it was a good idea,”

“Okay, let's schedule your next visit, shall we? Say, December nineteenth?”

“Yeah, my dad was talking about getting me out to shoot, so… ”

“Good, get to have a little fun while you’re there.”

“Yep,”

“I just do not believe in the whole… spending money, type thing. I mean people tell me it’s about celebrating the birth of Christ, but if you look at Christmas through a historical standpoint. Christmas is a Pagan religious holiday. I’m not Pagan. “visit, shall we? Say, December nineteenth?”

“That’s a little too close to Christmas, don’t you think?”

“Oh, of course. I do celebrate the birth of Christ, but I don’t need to buy people a bunch of things they are not going to use in a few years to do so.”

“Really? Why?”

“I just don’t believe in the whole… spending money, type thing. I mean people tell me it’s about celebrating the birth of Christ, but if you look at Christmas through a historical standpoint. Christmas is a Pagan religious holiday. I’m not Pagan.”

“Alright, I see your point. Do you at least go to church?”

“You too Dylan,” They shake hands and Dylan walks out of the office and out to his truck. He pulls out of his spot and starts out onto the road. As he accelerates, a flash of a car rams into the passenger side of the truck, wrenching Dylan to the side before he is knocked out.

“Okay, just put me in for January fourth, will ya?”

“Yeah, that sounds good to me, I’m free for that day.”

“Alrighty then, you have a good day Kurt,”

“You too Dylan,” They shake hands and Dylan walks out of the office and out to his truck. He pulls out of his spot and starts out onto the road. As he accelerates, a flash of a car roars into the passenger side of the truck, wrenching Dylan to the side before he is knocked out. Chapter

Three

“Dylan!! Wake up dang it, we got to get out of here!!” Tom yelled as he slapped him across the left side of his face,Dylan gets up, and moves toward a broken turret on theside of the plane to lean on,

“How did the bomb not go off!?” He said to Tom as he made his way out into a jungle, “Where are we?” He asked,

“We crashed Dill,” Tom said, as he hopped out of the plane.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” He responded, as he looked around seeing the sun shining through the tree canopy.

“We crashed on the God forsaken island dude,” Tom said, as he walked around the plane getting supplies.

“What Island? What plane?” Dylan said, “You’re dead, Tom,”

“HA! You really bumped your head, didn’t you?” He said, “You’ve been mumbling like crazy in your sleep man, talking about Christmas, and about Liz like she dumped you or something,”

“What are you talking about? This is just another nightmare,”

“HA! I wish bud, I really do, but we have bigger fish to fry than nightmares bud,” Tom said walking closer to Dylan, “Dill, we are stuck on a damn Island that is out to get us. We are screwed!! And you’re here talking like this is a DREAM!! Wake the hell up, gather some supplies from the wreck, and get back to me will ya? John! What's going on?!”

“Wyatt’s gathering some of the straps! He thinks we will be able to use them!”

“Alright!” Tom yelled back. “Go get some supplies Dylan,” he said, Dylan started walking toward the wreck but stopped,

“Wyatt’s here too?” he said. He is really messed up, isn’t he? Tom thought to himself as he started salvaging various parts from the plane. All this nonsense about nightmares, I tell ya, this man is gonna go crazy.

“Where is my locket?!” Dylan yelled, “John have you seen it?! That is what must be the trigger to this!” He demanded John,

“You on something Dill?” He responded to Dylan, as he walked toward him,

“It’s in your hand, for Pete’s sake,” he told him, nodding toward his clenched hand.

“Oh, thank God! Thank you, John!” Dylan said, as he opened the locket to look inside it. Nothing happened, as Dylan started panicking, Tom walked toward him,

“Have we got a problem here Dill?” he said a little sarcastically, this guy is gonna need some serious help when we get back to the states. Tom turned around as he heard a loud engine only to for a car hit him.

Chapter Four Tom

“No!!” Tom said, as he fell beside his bed,

“Babe, are you alright?” Grace said, as she moved shot up from her sleep, “What’s wrong?” she said as she moved toward his side of the bed and looked over it.

“Nothing hon, just stupid dreams,” Tom said as he got up from the floor, “Come here,” Grace said, as she sat on the edge of the bed in front of him and patted the bed next to her. Tom sat and waited for Grace to ask.

“What was the dream about?” she said, looking at him.

“When me and the boys got stuck on that Island,” he said, watching her hand as she rested it on top of his.

“Was there anything weird about this dream in particular? Come on, I know that look Tom, it means you are thinking about something. What is it?”

“I think Dylan is in trouble,” he said, looking up into her eyes, “I can’t explain it, but when he was knocked out this time, instead of him waking up and doing what he did back then, he remained knocked out, and was talking about crazy things. Such as Christmas, which just passed, as well as Elizabeth, and you know what happened between them Which, neither one of these things he did in my past dreams. Then on top of that, I died from a car. That came out of nowhere.” He said, almost running out of breath.

“Well,” Grace said, “That is, disturbing to say the least.”

“What do you think I should do about it?” he said, “Do you think I should visit him?”

“Hon you dowhat you need to do,I’m already booked taking care of thekids, and plus, if you really feel the need to see him, then do it. Your gut feelings have always been right. More or less,” she said with a smile, nudging him with her elbow,

“I’ll pay a visit to the old friend then,” he said nudging her back with his elbow, “I’ll be back before five, okay?” he said as he got up to get dressed.

“A kiss as payment for your personal shrink?”

“Ah, almost forgot,” he said with a chuckle as he leaned down to give Grace a kiss, “I love you sweetheart,” he said to her,

“I love you too,” she said smiling.