Raven Flight

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Life and Death

For quite awhile I faded in and out of the black, but I never fully awoke. Around me voices and faces swirled behind my eyelids, my head throbbing and my body aching to no end. Suddenly, after it seemed like an eternity had passed in a single moment, I could hear a voice calling out to me, but I couldn't quite grasp it. I tried to tell the voice to speak up, but I realized that I had no control over my own voice either. This infuriated me for some reason and I fought against the film that was settling over me, but it seemed that though the more I pushed, the more I heard, the more I felt the pain as well. I receded for a moment, resting and settling, but took up to fighting against it once more; consciousness was worth even the harshest pain. A groan escaped my lips as a fresh wave hit me, but now my hearing had returned to me.

“Raven? Raven!” The call sounded vaguely like Thomas, and I suspected that was most likely who it was. My mouth refused to say his name properly but I managed to slur out something that sounded at least something like his name, and in my mind I cursed my heavy tongue. Wincing slightly at the pain that continued to batter my worn out body. I forced my sluggish lids to open, squinting against the bright white glow that was emanating from the ceiling. Through my eyelashes, I could make out Thomas's bulky silhouette against the lights, and slowly, his face came into focus.

Making my mouth cooperate more than before I choked out a shaky “Thomas?” once again. I studied his face, my eyes quickly getting used to the harshly bright light, and the expression on his face flashed quickly from concern to fear, to relief, and back to concern. Why was Thomas acting like this? I thought to myself, my brows lowering in confusion.

Thomas quickly picked up on what I was thinking and pulled the conflicting emotions off of his face, becoming a friendly, but somewhat cautious person.

“Hey Raven, how are you feeling?” He looked at my face with a measured look that studied my eyes carefully for any sign of discomfort or weakness. I raised my eyebrows at him a little and struggled to sit up a bit, but with his help, I managed.

“Fine, so far, thanks. A bit pained, but nothing I can't put up with.” I tried to look strong, but I could tell that the weakness of my voice was giving me away. I could read in his eyes for a second what I thought was regret, but he quickly masked it with a shaky laugh, and I could tell that his whole demeanor was treading on some pretty thin ice.

“Yeah,” he said with a pause, and I couldn't help but feel like he was a guilty child and I was the parent. I almost felt like he would say “...about that...” right afterwards, but I let him finish his sentence. “You see, they tried to administer some anesthetic for that, but it kept wearing off almost as soon as they gave it to you. However, we were able to patch you up and replace all the blood you lost while you were out cold.” His shaky laugh returned as he glanced at the bags of fluid hanging beside my bed, and if I didn't hurt so much I probably would have rolled my eyes at him. I was about to explain why the drugs didn't work on me, but it would have to wait until later, because all at once, everything came back to me.

I gasped, and returned my eyes to his, locking him in a questioning gaze and daring him to look away first. “The mission!” I burst out, “I completed it, right? Did everyone else make it out fine?” If that was how hard mine had been I was worried for anyone who might have not made it. Now I was the worried one, hoping that none of the other poor rookies had been given a fate even worse than mine.

I could see Thomas's thoughts bouncing around in his head, and I almost yelled at him to say something as the expressions on his face became too confusing to read. Luckily, I didn't have to; a second later he decided to speak.