A Pact with the Devil

Chapter 4

Raven walked for about half an hour, before she had to take her first break. She sat down on a tree stump and lifted her shirt to inspect the stitches on her stomach. They were still in place, but the area around the wounds was starting to get red and irritated.

When pulling down her shirt again, she accidentally touched the irritated skin and hissed in pain. She cursed under her breath and slowly stood up again, looking around for a river.

She could hear flowing water in the distance and began to follow the noise. But almost immediately she noticed that she had to climb down a steep hill to get to the river. Looking around the area, she sighed and grabbed a nearby branch to hold onto.

The hill was muddy and covered in wet leaves, which made it hard for Raven to get down. She had made it halfway down, when the branch she had been holding onto broke and she slid down the rest of the hill.

A few moments later she hit the riverbank and felt an immediate sharp pain in her leg and back. She spotted a boulder behind her and tried to sit up to drag herself to it. But the moment she tried to sit up, her right arm gave out under her, and she collapsed back onto the mud.

After a few moments – or minutes, Raven didn't even know anymore – she tried to sit up again, but her arm gave out again. She sighed and tried to grab a few leaves to try and soften the ground under her head.

While doing so, she accidentally moved her leg in a weird way, which caused her to cry out in pain. She looked around herself as best as she could at the moment, but couldn't see any blood, which calmed her a little bit.

Another wrong move of her leg made pain shoot through her and this time she passed out from the pain.



It was dark by the time Raven woke up again. The first thing she noticed was, that the river was higher than before. When she had landed there it was a few meters away from her, but now it almost reached her.

She also noticed, that the pain in her arm was, at least temporarily, gone and mostly replaced by numbness. She gritted her teeth and sat up again, inspecting her wounds as much as she could.

The wound on her stomach had reopened and was bleeding steadily, but not nearly as heavily, as it had when she first got injured. Her leg looked like it was bending in a weird angle and she was almost 100% sure, that it was broken.

Knowing that just by sitting there she wouldn't be any help for Makarov, she crawled over to the boulder and slowly hoisted herself up. A few meters down the stream, she spotted a branch, that looked steady, and thick, enough to support her weight, so she slowly limped over there and grabbed it.

After a few seconds of steadying herself, she checked if she still had the weapons that Ilja had gave her and if the phone was still working. Luckily for her it didn't get damaged during her fall, so she put it back in her pocket and slowly started walking again.



After a few hours of walking, it was slowly starting to get dark, Raven found a small, although damaged, boat. But before she could sit in the boat, she heard someone shout from behind her. She slowly, trying not fall over, turned around and came face to face with a patrol of five soldiers, at least those she could see. She immediately recognized the leader of the patrol, as one of the few Lieutenants that often helped her.

"Raven?", the Lieutenant asked, "Price told us, that you died."

Raven scoffed, but shook her head and answered
"Almost did. Don't know what happened, after I got shot, but I woke up in a hospital. When the nurses were gone, I left and stole a car. It broke a few days ago though and I have been walking ever since, hoping to find the base again."
She had thought about what she would say when she would see them again, and she hoped, that the Lieutenant would believe her.

Thankfully he seemed to believe it
"Your leg looks bad and your shirt is soaked in blood. We need to get you out of here."

Raven nodded and watched as the Lieutenant grabbed his radio
"Echo One, this is Sierra Four. We got a 10-37 CODE 3. We found Raven. She needs MedEvac. Over."
"Sierra Four, copy. We'll send someone to your location. Over."
"Negative, we are too deep in the forest. We'll take her to the main street. I'll contact you again, when we're there. Over and Out."
"Copy. Over and Out."

The Lieutenant put the radio back and motioned for two Sergeants to help her. They grabbed her arms and put them over their shoulders, and she groaned in pain, as the fabric rubbed over the open wound. The Lieutenant heard her pained groan and asked

"Can I take a look at that wound? Your shirt is soaked."

She nodded and the Lieutenant carefully lifted her shirt, only high enough to only take a good look at the wound. He cursed under his breath and looked up to her
"How are you still alive? I see that you had stitches. Emphasis on the 'had'. We are currently standing in a puddle of your blood, I can somewhat see the path that you took until here and while I don't know how long you've been bleeding, I know that you're probably about to bleed out, so we should probably get going. I don't have a tourniquet on me, so I'm gonna put my belt around you, so we can try and stop the bleeding. Come on."


She nodded and he put the belt around her as tight as possible, even using some rope that another Sergeant had in his pockets, to hold it in place. It felt like an overly tight corset around her, but she knew that it was necessary, if she didn't want to completely bleed out.

Slowly they made their way up into the forest, the Sergeants mostly carrying Raven, as she started slipping in and out of consciousness. After a few minutes, Raven could already see the road, her stomach turned and before she could warn anyone, she vomited all over the back of the Lieutenant. They stopped and the Sergeants led Raven to a boulder, where she could sit for a moment and gather herself.

She wanted to apologize, but when she opened her mouth, she began dry heaving. One of the Sergeants knelt beside her and started rubbing her back, which calmed her a little bit. Through the fog, that had settled in her brain, she could hear the Lieutenant radio back to base
"Echo One, this is Sierra Four. We are half a klick from the road, but MedEvac needs to hurry. She just vomited blood. And not exactly a small amount. I managed to stop the bleeding on her stomach for now, but she already lost a lot of blood. Over"
"Sierra Four, copy. MedEvac is five minutes out. Over and Out"
"Roger. Over"

She concentrated on the Lieutenants voice, which calmed her down a little bit and soon enough, she stopped dry heaving long enough to take a deep breath. The Sergeant who was still kneeling by her side, handed her his water, from which she took some small sips, testing if her stomach would be able to hold it down.

She then grabbed his shoulder and hoisted herself up, standing on wobbly feet. After a few seconds the dizziness subsided a little bit and she let go of the Sergeants shoulder.

The Lieutenant and the other two Sergeants kept a close look on her, until she gave them a thumbs up. The Sergeants grabbed her arms again and they continued their way to the street. The more they walked towards the street, the more dizzy she became again, but she tried to push through it, holding onto Makarov's promise, which gave her the energy to keep going.

Soon enough she heard vehicles approaching and after they passed a big boulder, they were also able to see the vehicles. Medics were already waiting for them, walking towards them, as soon as they spotted Raven.

The Sergeants only let go of her, when she was safely on the stretcher.

One of the Medics carefully pushed her shirt up and quickly swapped the Lieutenants belt for a proper tourniquet, while another Medic began searching for a vein, so that they could start an IV.

Suddenly, before the Medics were able to push fluids through the IV, she began dry heaving again. Just in time, one of them gave her a small bucket, and she, once again, vomited blood.

"Do you know how long, you've been walking?", one of the Medics asked her and Raven shook her head.
"Okay. We're gonna push some fluids, you are overly dehydrated. I'm gonna give you some painkillers now, you will probably fall asleep in the next few minutes. Don't worry though, we're gonna take care of you."

Raven nodded, already feeling the effect of the painkillers, her vision growing black around the edges, before she lost consciousness.