Samurai! by Saburo Sakai

Author:Saburo Sakai [Sakai, Saburo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Military
ISBN: 0743412834
Publisher: I Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

How? How to overcome the frantic urge to go to sleep, not to succumb to it all, to forget everything in the wonderful peace of slumber? It felt so good, so warm, so comfortable.

The fighter jerked suddenly. I was upside down again! Stay awake! I shouted to myself. I became angry at my failure to resist the desire to sleep. I lifted my hand from the stick and struck myself on the cheek as hard as I could. Once, twice, three times, hoping the pain would jar me to full consciousness.

I could not continue this indefinitely. Soon I tasted salt in my mouth. Blood spilled out on my lips and trickled down my chin. My cheek puffed up still more and became seriously bloated. It felt as though a giant rubber ball were expanding within my mouth. There was no alternative; I must continue to strike myself to stay awake. Perhaps food would help overcome the drowsiness. I took my lunchbox and gulped down several mouthfuls of fishcakes. I was as sleepy as ever. I ate some more, chewed it carefully, then swallowed.

In a moment I was violently ill. The plane heeled over out of control, as spasms of nausea wracked my body. Everything came up, spewing over my legs and the instrument panel. I was nearly insane with the stabbing pains from my head. Even this sudden new agony failed to keep me awake. Again and again I struck my cheek with my fist until I no longer had any sensation there. In desperation I banged my hand down on top of my head, but to no avail. I wanted to sleep. Oh, to go to sleep, to forget everything, to know that the slumber would never end! Delightful, warm sleep!

The Zero reeled and lurched. No matter what I did, I could not keep the wings level. I seemed to hold the stick in one position and never realized when my hand dropped to the left or right, sending the plane over in a wild skidding turn.

I was ready to give up. I knew I could not continue on like this. But I swore I would not go out like a coward, merely diving the plane into the ocean for one bright flash of pain, and then nothing. If I must die, at least I could go out as a Samurai. My death would take several of the enemy with me.

A ship. I needed an enemy ship. Out of an overwhelming despondency, I turned the Zero and headed back toward Guadalcanal. Several minutes later my head cleared. No drowsiness. No overwhelming pain. I could not understand it. Why dive to my death now, if I could reach Buka, or even Rabaul? I turned the fighter again and headed north. In a few minutes the desire to sleep engulfed me once more. I became groggy. Everything seemed to swirl around. What was I doing, flying north? An enemy ship! I remembered now; I must find an enemy ship and dive. Crash into it at full speed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.