RAVEN FYRE

Chapter 16 Part 2

Mike handed her the fask. "How's your head - and the rest of your body? Feeling any better?"

Fffuck! I should've asked him first. Not again. My.... I'm gonna put my head in this fire, and just let it take me. "Thanks. I'm still sore, but feeling much better."

How are you doing? Fine, babe. Not really, you didn't bother to check my body. Full? No, I ate all his food. Thirsty from that stupid dry meat? I'm drinking all his water now. "There's still a little daylight left. Where'd you find these fruits?" She sprang to her feet.

"Over that way, but--"

"And which way to the stream again?"

"That way, but it's a long--"

"I'll figure it out."

"Yeah but, I don't know how safe that water is. I boiled the water in this flask. We only have the one, so let's just share it. We'll get more water and food in the morning."

"No. I'm gonna get my own food from now on."

"Whoa, now. You don't owe me anything, Rae. I got that fruit for you."

"No you didn't! You got it for us, and I ate it all, like an idiot."

"Jeevus, Raven. You were out for like 3 days. So you were hungry. No big deal. Let's just cuddle up by this fi--"

"So it was for both of us?"

Massacre shrugged and scratched the side of his head.

"So now you're lying to me?"

"I ... choose to stop talking. Anything else I say, will just piss you off more." Mike buried the meat stick in the mud and went to lay down. "I'm really pooped, so I'm just gonna sleep if that's okay with you. Please join me by the fire when you're feeling better."

I'll build my own fire! I can get my own food - find my own water. Raven walked further into the gloom until it got too dark to see anything.

Guhhh. What am I doing? Fucking twat! Bravo. Just brilliant yah dumb cow. Nobel fucking prize goes to me. You're being crazy again, girl. He knows we can fend for our self. Why did I have to go acting like a lunatic?!

Get it through your thick skull you dumb bitch, he just cares for you - that's all. I know we're not used to it. No one ever gave us anything. All we ever did was fight for it all. Follow orders. Train. Kill this asshole, kill that asshole.... Kill those people. Kill that family.... Kill his family.

He knows all that, and still he forgave you. Still, he loves you. He loves me...? Oh! That's what I had to tell him.

Raven rushed back to the camp but Mike was already fast asleep by the fire. She stepped over two rocks that were laid on top of some wigs and dried leaves to get to the bed. Laying beside him, she listened to him sleep. There was a slight gargle to his breaths. A cold, arctic sweat poured over her entire body. With his powers, he was practically invincible, but without them - was one of his lungs slowly filling with blood?

Terrified, the idea struck her like lightning, she wanted to scream him awake and check his body for damage, internal or otherwise. But the combat suits where bullet proof, thick, hard to get off. She didn't want to wake him. Instead, she prayed that he would be alright until the morning.

As she listened to his slightly labored breathing, and gazed at his torn face, all Raven could see were flashes of moments. That 'awesome' montage he spoke of, but it came in a much darker light. Going off how slow and careful he moved around camp, she imagined him limping through the woods to find all that food, gathering worms, one by one. Struggling through the pain to make the plant-blanket and bounty-sack.