KRAK!
Without Markus having even consciously thought the shotgun fired, the familiar punch of the stock rocking through his entire body like a rolling ocean wave of sound and vibration. The pressure of the air and smoke leaving the barrel warped the air in front of his eyes blocking his view for a moment... a moment that he had wished never came to an end.
Markus had simply frozen, not able to react to the carnage that he had created, the empty pit in his stomach grew like the pool of blood below the rapidly fading mans body. He had dropped his axe behind him and simply held the gaping wound in his side.
He wheezed out a few words, none of which Markus could understand, before his leg gave out and he sank into the cold snow. It was not long before Markus saw the raging fire of life in the mans eyes fizzle out into a dull blank stare.
Markus had one of the strangest thoughts force itself into the forefront of his mind at this moment. He remembered back to when he was just a young teen watching movies with his Dedushka how they watched an American war movie called Jarhead.
In the movie the snipers are constantly imagining and waiting for something they call "The fine red mist." His Deda had told him about how even the snipers in his platoon would celebrate it. Markus did not feel in the mood to celebrate, however. He only felt hollow and sick, like there was an empty pit in his core.
Markus was brought out of his blank stupor by a soft cry to his front, the other man falling to his knees trying to shake the man awake, but receiving no response. Markus simply stood, letting the man grieve his fallen comrade.
A moment was taken to contemplate what he had done, he had taken the life of a human being. Before now Markus had only killed animals that had been marked for death anyway, but this man could've had a family, friends, dreams, god sakes, this kid could even be his son! But now, all that is left of any of it simply stains the snow.
When the young man stood up, Markus simply stared, shotgun still trained on the body. He spoke with a voice shaky as a rattlesnakes tail in that language still completely unintelligible to him, but the intent of those words was very clear.
You are going to pay dearly.
He wiped his tears before saying his final goodbye and running away, Markus could only assume that he would be back with friends later. It was time to leave, he couldn't handle the sickly sweet smell of death anymore. Markus took a few steps, trying to ignore the corpses to his best ability, before stopping dead in his tracks.
I'm forgetting something. He thought, the racking of his brain taking mere moments before realizing what it was. Damn it! I got so busy stuck in my own head that I forgot what I came here for in the first place!
Markus turned tail and charged the spot where the woman lay, climbing back up the shallow hill towards the place where she rested, shame welling up in his throat for forgetting such an important detail. Markus reached for his emergency medical kit but froze completely upon sighting the fallen girl, at least, what used to be the fallen girl.
What the fuck am I looking at?
The only thing that Markus could think to say at this moment. He was sure that this was where the woman lay, and this… thing is cut in the same exact spot that she was. Despite the changes it looked oddly similar to the girl.
Jesus Christ, am I hallucinating? He thought, his head now in a buzzing whir of different thoughts. Did I just kill all these people? He checked his belt loops, still 28 shells in and 6 more left in the gun, he only fired once, and despite his masculine ego arguing otherwise he knows he wouldn't be capable of such brutish bloodshed as chopping a persons arm off at the shoulder.
Markus set aside his own mental state for a moment, electing to ignore the surely incorrect information his mind was giving him. Clearly he must be having a stress related mental break. In spite of his own degraded state, he pushed himself to help the woman as best he could.
}-+-{
"It hurts Deda, make it stop, please!" Markus screamed, the pain of the deep cut overwhelming the boys senses, His leg leaking blood in spite of the pressure he was putting on it.
"I know it hurts Markus, but I will not always be around to take care of you. You must know how to take care of yourself if you are going to run around in the woods." Andrei replied, kneeling next to the boy. The pain in his heart from seeing his grandson hurt hidden behind the stoic mask that he had picked up from his drill sergeant back in the war.
"Tell me what you know about treating a cut, Markus." Andrei softly ordered, wanting to know what Markus already knew. The Rocky mountain snow crunched beneath his boots as he shifted towards his grandson.
Markus tried to ignore the pain for a bit to remember what his health teacher had told him, the sharp stabbing pain shooting up his leg made it difficult to remember, even if the class was only a few months ago.
"Agh, Stifle the bleeding, clean the wound, stitch it shut, and bandage over it?" Markus replied, still struggling to keep the valuable red fluid from escaping his body, both hands squeezing his thigh above the cut.
"Very good Markus! But do you know how to stifle the bleeding?" Andrei asked, expecting a negative or even a wrong answer.
"A tourniquet, Deda?" Markus asked, not entirely sure if that was the answer the older man was looking for. The cut above his knee still open and running Markus' nervous system ragged.
Andrei chuckled, "No no Markus, this cut is far too small to bother with the pain of a tourniquet." He said before picking up some snow and speaking again. "Here, the doctors in Chechnya taught me this trick."
Andrei pressed the snow up to Markus' gaping wound, inciting a sharp gasp from Markus while he gritted his teeth. The water from the slowly melting snow mixes with his blood and rolls down the rest of his leg.
"This has two steps in one action, the cold of the snow slows your blood flow, and the melted water cleans your wound in a more numb way than with a rag." Andrei said, the warm feeling of teaching one of his own blood welling up in his chest, he missed spending this kind of time with his own son.
Andrei removed his hands from the boy's leg, the blood flow nearly completely stopped, with an astonished boy looking back up at him.
"Wow Deda, I can barely even feel it! Sick!" Marcus beamed before getting out his suture kit, barely being able to feel the prick of his needle now.
Andrei cracked up a little from the American slang, remembering how his own boy used to use words like 'rad' 'fly' and 'totally tubular'
"Yes my Vnuk... 'sick'" Andrei parroted before helping Markus to his feet and walking towards their home, Andrei would surely be be getting a scolding from his wife for letting the boy get hurt, but he was happy anyway knowing that he had taught his Vnuk something new.
}-+-{
Markus had never tried the snow trick on anything bigger than a good gash, but it would have to work. His small belt mounted first aid pouch held only a suture kit, a few disinfectant packs and a roll of gauze. Pressing the freezing cold ice to the wound the incapacitated creature let out a soft weak sigh, a sure sign that there was at least something left to save.
The process was begun by wiping the now diluted blood away and quickly shaving the thick, matted, hopefully imaginary, fur on the things chest using the razor in his suture kit, if the fur was indeed real, and he left any attached near the wound area it could cause his bandages to detach, or worse, cause an infection that Markus didn't have the tools to deal with.
He rinsed his blade with what little water remained in his canteen, the mixed blood and soft purple fibers gumming up his blades and stopping them from cutting. Pulling the razor down her chest one more time finally gave him a clean surface to work on. He also took note that the injury didn't appear to get past the bone, giving her much better odds.
Markus jammed a pair of fingers into any place on her neck he could think of before he could find a pulse. Having no baseline for whatever this thing is, he just assumed that her heart rate wouldn't be too far off from a humans. He counted 10 beats in 6 seconds. 100 is high even for a person, I need to work faster!
Markus ripped the sutures out of his pouch and threw them upon the creature, working as quickly as he could make his hands move to thread the needle and start closing the wound, counting the stitches as he slowly shut the scrape, nearly running out of thread as he finished his 63rd and final stitch.
Jamming his fingers into her neck again, Markus took another heart rate, 9 beats in 6 seconds… she's coming out of shock! Markus looked to the sky and thanked whoever was up there for granting him the magic touch, before promptly taking his disinfectant wipes to the creature's wounds. The lack of response to the stinging alcohol not bothering him in the slightest. She's earned being out of it for a while.
As he put the finishing touches on the gauze packed ball of tape (medical and duct) that he called a bandage, he sat back on the heels of his boots. The events of the day had thoroughly exhausted him, both mentally and physically, but he wasn't done just yet.
Suddenly he became acutely aware of his surroundings. The dead soldiers coming back into his view now that his purple tunnel vision had faded, the bloodshed reminding him to stay strong and focused until he was in a better position for some R&R.
His new friend wasn't staying here, he knew that much, but she had to have been almost 20 feet long, so making any kind of effective sled with what he had on him was out of the question.
Markus didn't like what he would have to do, defiling bodies was never okay. But if he wanted any chance of finding a way to move this thing without getting her even more hurt he would have to drop some of his decorum.
Looting bodies was not in today's plans, but then again, not much else was. He wrinkled his nose at the sound of that word, loot. To him that had an even more negative connotation than what he was doing. He simply had no other choice but to use their now claimless equipment. What was a dead man to do with his coat?
Markus first wrapped his own coat over his new snake-dog friend, despite her having the advantage of fur it was far more imperative to keep her warm rather than him, as a sleeping person (snake? Dragon?) couldn't tell you about hypothermia before they simply froze.
The first body he came across was that of a very small woman, probably no taller than 4'8, she had been killed by a crossbow bolt dead center of mass, her flimsy leather strip armor having done nothing to stop the projectile. One of her hands was still loosely gripping the bolt as if even in death she would get it out, come hell or high water.
Markus took only her coat, and topped his canteen off using hers, he didn't want to leave the woman without offering anything in return, He didn't have enough time or spare energy to dig the woman a shallow grave, so he offered a modified version of the only simple prayer that he knew for this situation. Markus wasn't particularly religious himself, but it was all he could do, and Deda made sure he knew some prayers by heart.
"I commend you, dear stranger, to your almighty God or Gods, and entrust you to your creator."
"may you rest in the arms of the one who formed you from the dust of the earth."
"May they forgive your sins, and set you among those they have chosen."
"may you see your redeemer face to face, and enjoy the vision of your creator, forever."
Markus felt just a tiny bit better, wiping the tear from his eye, he moved on to the next body. This one was the man who had been stapled to the tree by his neck, Markus gagged at the now frozen blood that had once been dribbling down the spears length. He offered the same prayer to the stranger once he had taken his coat and water, and some dried meat that looked... vaguely edible.
This continued until Markus had amassed about 15 coats, a first-aid kits worth of dried meat, and 4 filled canteens, until he looped back to where the thing was, and stopped, now standing directly in front of the man he killed.
Markus stayed silent and moved on, not knowing how to feel about him just yet. He also wanted to keep his mind clear, he still had the very real threat of the mans little buddy popping back out of the woods at any moment.
Kneeling next to the woman (possibly actually a snake thing?) he began to twine the coats together from neck to waist using his suture needle and some cheap rope twine. Eventually Markus had a long flat coat train and a coat tied at the chest and midsection level to secure her to this impromptu cloth sled.
Now all Markus had to do was get her actually on the thing, far easier said than done.
He started by taking the lightest part of the creature, her tail. Maneuvering it to its position he took quick note of the beautiful semi-opaque spiral design in the "fin, so to speak. Either a case of me strung out on my mind or natures beauty in action. I'm not sure which answer I prefer. He thought to himself, before shuffling up towards her lower legs.
He took her by the hips and used a leg to lever her onto the sled, accidentally catching a quick glance of her… down there. Blushing furiously, he quickly looked away and resumed his work, wanting to get this part in particular over quickly.
Markus then moved to her midsection, tying the first retention coats sleeves to her still resting form, and then moving up to her chest.
Now this was the tricky part, he needed to use her arms as anchors for the coat to grab onto, but also not put pressure on a fresh, still partially open wound. He quickly figured out a solution, he loosely tied the retention coats arms under hers, and took two spare sleeves and sutured them to the other sleeves in a way that when he pulled the coat at the front of the sled, it would actually lift the sleeves up her chest. This would keep any pressure away from the deep cut, but still anchor her securely to the coat train.
He did a very quick pull a short distance, just to see if his ingenuity with the upper straps had worked, and it had worked flawlessly, the coats arms well clear of her injury.
With his time in this area finished, he turned to offer his final goodbyes to those in the battlefield and quickly left. He brushed away his tracks for about 50 yards just to be safe from the potentiality of anyone looking for them.
Along the way, Markus kept careful watch for anyone, or anything, that might pose a threat, ready to draw his shotgun at a moments notice for anything that would dare get in the way, all Markus wanted was to find a safe spot where he wouldn't be harassed by the local wildlife, and the local people that probably wanted him dead right now.
The stressful events of the day had put his mental state on a hair trigger, ready to snap at the slightest excuse for a fight. But before his own temper could be set off by any poor wandering predator, he spotted the perfect spot to lay low. Just barely spotted in fact, which gave him confidence that it could be hidden near perfectly with little trouble.
The place he had seen was a small open cave inset into a steep hill, just tall enough to not strike his head on the ceiling rock. Its entrance was flanked on both sides by trees, with just a tiny sliver of open space in the center where he had spotted it from. All Markus would have to do to block any possible angle was cut a few trees and lay a few bushes in front of the entrance. It would still have plenty of outdoors space for a fire and anything else they would need for the perfect temporary living space.
Markus raced up to the cave, only slowing down when there was a major bump that his charge would need to go over. He was simply too excited to finally have a place to rest.
Approaching then entrance, Markus stopped before he could get too far ahead of himself. This could be someone else's home. He thought, quieting down and laying the sled to the side of the cave entrance.
He had a decision to make, Hope to find a different spot to rest before the sun went down, or potentially fight and kill whatever may occupy this cave. Markus took a quick glance at the sky, the sun was already preparing to set. Markus went with the only option that he seemed to be able to take these days, and took his shotgun off his back, flipping the safety off.
Markus slowly and carefully tiptoed into the caves entrance, the darkness quickly enveloping him, the bright flash of his belt light enveloping the cave as he switched it on, plodding even further in.
An agonizing fear enveloped Markus' entire body, threatening to burst. He hated confined spaces like this, the crushing feeling of no escape threatening to make him exit the cave at an absolute dead sprint. He came upon the end of the straightaway and spotted a just barely man sized opening to the left.
Fuck. This was the only word he could think, not wanting to have to turn into a corner he couldn't see. But he had to do it. If he didn't, this cave would be as good as sleeping in a wolf's den.
Markus psyched himself up for a quick lunge away from the side of the wall with the hole, wanting to put as much distance between himself and the unknown as possible.
Fuck this.
}-+-{
Markus made a lunge for it, and… saw absolutely nothing. It was literally just a hole in the wall. Markus couldn't help but bend down, rest his shotgun on his knees and let out a hearty relieved chuckle, glad that the danger was all in his head.
Seeing that the cave was empty, Markus quickly made a second sweep on his way back out to the sled and its occupant, making sure that he hadn't missed any possible small creatures hiding in the cracks or among the rocks.
Dragging her in, he laid her near the back of the cave, and he sat slightly towards the entrance from where she lay.
Now that the day was over, he watched the sunset, and thought about his situation. Markus had killed a person. Before this, the worst thing he had ever done to someone else was give them a black eye for stealing a toy of his. Not only this, but he was caring for a creature that he didn't even know existed. He dropped the belief that she could possibly be a hallucination, everything over the entire day had been too real for him to delude himself into thinking that this dragon thing was any less real than the human life that he had snuffed out.
Markus laid on his side, and started to cry. He had never done something this bad before, and he didn't want to, but the actions of another had given him no choice, and altered the path of his life forever.
It wasn't long before Markus had run out of tears to let out, he had simply cried himself dry. He took a long draw from his personal canteen and shut his now sore eyes for a long night of what he expected to be exceptionally poor sleep.