Chapter Six

Chapter 6

Matthew finished packing his bags and looked around to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything. Alfred had left to go bug Britain a while ago and Kuma was sleeping. The polar bear woke up and blinked groggily looking around.

"Good afternoon, sleepy head." Canada smiled petting the bears head.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"Canada, the one who feeds you." Matthew replied. He picked up his back pack and put it on before grabbing Kuma.

"Where are we going whatever your name was?" Kumajiro asked.

"Back to the air field." Matthew said heading out the door and down the hall to the troop transport area. He looked around for the right truck and climbed in the back. This time the truck was almost full of drunk soldiers. The truck started and drove off. The drunken men started to sing.

"Oh they say that in the army the food is mighty fine." They sang in unison. "A pea rolled off the table and killed a friend of mine!"

"Hey kid, you know this song?" The man across from him slurred. Canada nodded. "Join in!"

"Oh I don't want no more of army life! Gee mom I wanna go back to Ontario, gee mom I wanna go home!" Matthew rolled his eyes, but joined anyways. "They say that in the army the guns are mighty fine. You go to pull the trigger you shoot the guy behind!"

After the first hour of songs three of the men had passed out and the other six had moved on to the peanut song. Matthew pulled out his note book, put on his glasses and started to sketch. The truck bounced along the road which made it harder to draw. He sighed and looked over his notes.

Matthews’s notes were completely useless to him. He ripped the page out of the book and put a star on the top corner to remind him to send them to his generals. They'd get more use out of them that he ever would.

Canada rested his head against the back of the cloth canopy covering the truck. He would have slept, but the drunken singing was keeping him awake. Another hour later the truck rumbled into camp. The ride was much shorter than before. 'Must have taken a short cut or something.' Matthew thought. He grabbed his bag and polar bear before jumping out. The drunken men fell out behind him. The Canadian shook his head and laughed helping one up. The man slurred a thanks and stumbled away to find his new truck.

Matthew walked into the base with a smile. 'It’s good to be back.' He thought. The base commander walked up to him and saluted.

"Williams, your rank has been advanced. You'll be taking over my position." He said.

"Oh, okay." Matthew stuttered. Now he was in charge of the whole base and air operations. He was already out of his comfort zone being in command of six other pilots. Also it would be more dangerous being higher up in the command chain. The other nations could notice what he was doing, but no one notices the Canadian anyways.

"You'll now be scheduling patrols, leading multiple squadrons and monitoring everything that goes on around here and of course flying and shooting down enemies. Also your squadron has been advanced too. They'll be the go to pilots for anything." The commander explained with a smile. He seemed happy. He must have been moved up too.

"Alright, thank you." Matthew stuttered as the man walked off. He sighed and finished making his way to his quarters. He set Kuma down on his cot and started to unpack. It didn't take him long since he didn't take much. He changed back into his normal clothes. "Hungry Kuma-what-ever-the-last-part-was?"

"Of course! I'm starving!" The bear replied. "Food!"

"I'll go see what's left over from supper." Matthew smiled and headed out of his room. The sun was just setting and the last patrol was just landing. They didn't usually fly at night unless the Germans were on the move, but the Germans didn't fly at night either.

The food tent was completely empty of people, but had some leftovers. The usual bowl of fish sat on the counter and beside it was some left over grits and an apple. It was more breakfast than supper, but Canada didn't care. He picked up the food and carried it back to his room.

As soon as he entered the room Kuma jumped down from his bed and clawed at his leg. "Food!" He whined. Matthew smiled and sat the bowl down and sat at his desk to eat. Once he was done, Canada went back to the kitchen to wash his dishes and grab the latest patrol schedule. Matthew looked over the schedule. It seemed alright, but one of the squadrons wasn't flying at all for three days and another was flying twice as much as the others.

The flight to Vimy Ridge was set to leave tomorrow with all squadrons going except one. The air field was only ten minutes by flight away leaving them with an hour and twenty five minutes left to fight and another ten to land. The pilots couldn't make an error or their plane would run out of fuel. Different planes would have a different flight length. Not all the pilots at the base flew a Nieuport 17.

Canada quickly made a new schedule for the next few days with even flights and back up squadrons in case the original one couldn't fly. He went back to the food tent and posted it on the board. It wouldn't take effect until after the Vimy flight giving the pilots plenty of time to see it. Canada grabbed an envelope and put the meetings notes into it with a small note attached and wrote the base number and to Arthur Currie on the front before putting it into the mail slot. He trudged back to his room and flopped onto his bed. Sleep quickly came over him.

AN: I need suggestions for Canada's code name for WWII and the present day! Please leave a suggestion and what it means/why you picked it! Right now I'm thinking 'Tall Poppy,' but I need help!