Love Struck Delusion
Chapter 277 - The test of pain.
Raptor's POV, Four hours later.
I almost couldn't believe it. Somehow this dog was still dragging me.
"Grrrrrrrrrrrr!"
Once in a while the dog holding my neck would growl. Almost annoyed. Our pack grew as we traveled and with it so did my hope to pass away and forget. Yet I couldn't as this trip was nearing half a day now. Half a day and we've gone so far. Far enough to part of the desert I never once visited. Clay and rocky landscapes were maybe a half mile ahead of us and I'd assume to be teeming with more of these mutts. Maybe it was our final stop. Maybe I was a snack for their young and that's why they went through all this trouble. In the end family mattered more than themselves.
I was gaining back more of my strength with every passing hour, and unknown to the dogs alongside me, I was perfectly alive and recovering myself by the minute. Yet I was unsure what to really do at this point. I still had a broken leg and a broken arm and another gunshot wound to my side and shoulder. Not to mention my missing trigger finger. Even if I had the chance, I wouldn't get the time needed to recover. I could try and fight it, but in the end I won't be able to fight these dogs off in my condition. Not even with these gifts. I'd run out of energy in no time if I had to struggle.
"Bark! Bark!"
Slowly opening my eyes after another ten or so minutes, I saw we were now making our way uphill. With it the terrain changed and the sand mostly left. I was getting dragged up rocks and roughly yanked up higher inclines. It felt like it took hours for us to reach the top. Yet when we did we were greeted by a large cave and a hefty group of more dogs. Some were puppies and the whole snack thing seemed more and more honest by the second as a group began to form around us. Among that group was more growling and barking and without a doubt an argument on who got the best parts of me.
"Grrrrr!"
In about two minutes I was deep in this cave. Among the ground laid bones and dried blood. All from other animals it seemed and a few of their own. And once we reached the very back I saw they were taking me into what appeared to be a dip. Or more of an overhang. It was another large rock yet the edges to it dipped into a large drop. I couldn't see what laid beyond because once on the rock the wolf who had my neck finally let me go.
With a thud I hit the rocks like a sack of hammers and almost immediately the dogs began to sniff and nibble around my body. One even grabbed me by my right hand and yanked. That must have been a bad thing to do because the wolf who dragged me all this way instantly snapped and attacked that very same dog. The group watched from there as the infighting broke loose. Myself on the other hand very carefully tried to reach for my radio which was just under my chest. I felt my hand grab it but instantly I heard static as I hoped for a line to the outside. Seeing that I was alone I rested my arm back down and shut my eyes. Barking and snarling was all I could understand as I asked myself for the second time today if this was it? I didn't die the first time, but maybe this is a chance to make up for it. Marcus only knows. I thought to myself as I waited for it to be over.
It went rampant. So many angry snarls I almost couldn't think. I took a moment to glance over at them when all the sudden I felt the hairs on my back stand up straight.
"Dad?"
My own mind was unsure of what I just heard. My head turned all the way back around to look towards the edge of the small cliff that led down into that shaft of darkness below. For a moment I stared at it without question. The dogs all still barked as I picked up on the same voice again, this time saying in a voice that sounded no more than any further down that hole.
"Daddy?"
My mouth went to say something, but my mind hadn't even come up with the words. I was unsure of whose voice was speaking, because it's been just that long since I last heard any of them speak.
"Dad?"
My mind shifted and all thought began to leave my head as I slowly tried to crawl towards the cliff. I had to see what it was that was calling me. I had to be sure I wasn't crazy. I completely threw the idea of being eaten aside and with only one good arm, I began to drag myself. At the same time I heard the voice again. This time much closer. Enough to where I registered it's owner.
"Dad? Where are you?"
"Abbey?" My voice called back to her and the second I vocalized myself the dog who dragged me here snapped out of his infighting to see me reaching the very edge of the rocks. Almost instantly the same alpha dog charged and jumped onto my back.
"Aghhhh!" I shouted as he clamped down onto the back of my neck with full power.
I felt more of the pack taking actions. Two of which bit down hard on both my legs. Yet as I struggled to keep my head down from the pressure of this animal's fangs around my spine I heard back from my baby girl.
"Dad? Is that you?"
I had to see her. Throwing an elbow back and hitting the dog who was on top of me right in the muzzle, I reached back grabbing his neck with all I had. The wolf released this instant snarl of pain as I pulled him down and to my side. Yet I still didn't have a means to do much more. So almost immediately when I forced him off he snapped loose of my hand and snapped me right in the back of my head. I felt his teeth puncture my skin, but he wasn't committed to that bite. Instead the second he made contact he let go and pushed his attack further up. As a reaction I went to look back at him to be caught right in the middle of his whole mouth snapping onto the very front of my face and locking himself on like a mousetrap. The pain was one I never felt before. I began to scream and struggle, but with each passing second the dog dug in deeper. With nothing left to do other than commit the act, I felt my body burst with pent up adrenaline and kicking off with my good leg I rolled off the cliff with the dog attached to my face and another one of his comrades who was unlucky enough to remain clamped onto my other leg.
"Aghhhhh! Wrroooo!"
Between my screams and their howls I was unsure just what was coming. It made it all the worse because I couldn't brace myself. I just felt it when I felt the lower left side of my back drill the corner of what had to be a sharp edged rock. I heard my uniform rip and I felt the rock carve clean through both it and a good chunk of my back. Even worse was the dog who was on my face landed with just as much force from my impact. His teeth ripped out from my skin and almost when I was able to open my eyes I had fallen further and witnessed another set of rocks coming. I braced for what I could but in the end the impact itself was one for the books. Mainly because my head physically bounced off it with enough force to nearly knock me out. My vision taken from me and then my perception of time and feeling. I couldn't tell you what else happened on the way to the bottom. When I came to my sense all I could see was darkness. Barely inches in front of me.
"Ahhhhh….ahhhhhh…...uhhhhhhh…...ugk!"
My voice was crippled. I was a mix of lost and utterly spent. All that energy I thought I had saved till now seemed to have disappeared. My fingers tried to move first. I just needed to feel something work and when I got them working I felt fur. Blood covered my eyes making it that much harder to see what it was I was touching. I could feel a gash that was right above both my eyes and my back burning in pain from the rip going clean through my hip. I knew I couldn't work my legs and when it came to my arms I still only had the one. The other….I couldn't feel my fingers. I think my arm finally broke completely off its hinge. I had no feeling of it up past my elbow. Please for the love of god just let me understand what I did to deserve this. And let me know why the powers I thought I once had all the sudden seemed stripped from my arsenal.
"Aghhhh….Marcus?" I was begging for his aid right about now. I had nothing else on my mind but seeing that damned fox. Where was he when I needed him most? I'm supposed to be his relief? Then why isn't he here saving my life which for once I felt would leave me regardless of choice.
"Dad?" I felt my body release this cold vibration when all the sudden I heard my daughter's voice call out to me from what sounded like only feet away. I tried to lift up my head to see her, but all I could see was darkness as she asked me.
"Is that you?"
I had no idea what was real anymore. When I tried to look again this time it seemed as if the pit I was in grew just a little lighter. Before me she stood. This little hedgehog. A little girl. My girl. So small she barely had legs of her own. She was only a baby when I lost her. When I….? All of a sudden I stopped myself to cry. I could feel the tears rolling down my face as she had her two green eyes staring at me. Her face unsure of what was going on in front of her. Who was this poor excuse for a man laying right in front of her? Did she even live long enough to love me as her father? The questions kept coming as she said to me in such an innocent voice.
"Your hurt daddy."
My mouth was shaking as I asked her in an evenly defenseless tone back.
"Why are you here? Abbey….? Abbey, why are you here? Can you hear me?"
"Where did you go dad?" She asked me next as I was shot right in my heart for how to feel. Lost on if she could hear my answers back or if this was just some sort of sick memory I was reliving. Reaching out to her with my only good hand I replied.
"I'm right here baby. I didn't go anywhere."
"Why did you hurt me dad? What did I do wrong?"
"I…..I…...Abbey? I…..?" Cutting me off, my daughter asked.
"Where's mom?"
I couldn't do this. Throwing my head back into the rocks, I begged myself.
"This isn't real. Just…..just stop thinking. Just stop Raptor. Stop you fucking asshole!"
"Dad?" I tried my best not to look back up at her, but when I did I saw she was no more than a few inches out from me. Her face almost touched mine. So real I could feel her breathing. Warm air hitting me right in the face as she urged me.
"Don't cry."
"Abbey….?" Lifting back up my hand I widened my eyes when I felt her small body. My hand curled around her back and as if this was a dream she dashed down to wrap her arms around my head. I could feel her heart beating as she whispered.
"I missed you."
"I missed you too." I could barely contain my emotions. She was real and she was holding me. Telling me she missed me. I spent every moment of my life after doing what I did thinking she hated me. Thinking she never wanted to see me again.
As she held me, I questioned what to even do now. What was I going to say to her now? I had never thought about it. Never questioned the idea.
"Abbey?" I mumbled into her chest as she calmly replied back after hearing her name.
"Yeah dad?"
"I….I…..? I love….?!" It was a split second. She just disappeared from my arms and it came as such a surprise; I wasn't ready to catch myself from slamming my head back down onto the rocks. Yet when it happened I instantly widened my eyes and began to panic and looked around to shout out.
"Abbey!? Abbey!?"
I was so focused on seeing her, I was confused when the body of the wolf who attacked my face appeared right in front of my eyes; whimpering in pain as I tried to recover from the past experience.
"Abbey?" I asked one more time. However all I heard was the dog whimpering and crying in pain as he had broken his back from the fall. The dog itself could be seen shaking and jittering as each passing second had to be filled with nothing but pain.
What was I to do now that Abbey was gone? The world above could be heard just barely to my ears. Barking from the rest of the pack. All calling out to us. I could look and see them all crowding around the edge of the cliff, but I'm sure they couldn't see us. It was pitch dark. Looking back to the wolf, I caught my breath and slowly reached back for Shadow's M1911 which was in my holster. I felt my hand curl the grip and with it I pulled it forward and took aim at the injured dog. I can't just let him suffer the way he is.
With my hand holding about as steady as it could, I panicked when I heard a growl and felt a pair of claws dig into my back. It had to be the other dog who came down, but I had no way of knowing he was even still alive after all this.
Digging his jaws into the back of my neck, I reached back with the gun and began to pull the trigger as much as it took to connect a headshot. I had to have fired off three rounds, but when I felt the dog collapse on top of me I knew I had killed it. It's jaws still stuck to me as I cried out in pain.
"Agghhhhhhhh!"
What followed was more tears and for once in my life I actually was crying from the condition I was in. I've never been in so much pain that I felt like I had to cry to the heavens, but this was that time and I had no one left to help me. I barely managed to shake the jaws of the dead wolf out of me. I felt his body roll off my left side and land next to me, and once he had I felt my hand lose its grip over the gun. From there it hit the rocks a few inches below and I felt my whole body lose all its energy after forcing out some more tears. I was so weak at that moment. I just wanted to rest. To drift back to sleep.
"Ahhhh…..hhhhhhh….ahhhhh…?"
I left behind all my remaining hope and did just that. But for some reason this was different. I felt my eyes drift off and when they reached the end they had reopened to me. The area around me gained light. A small almost grayish tone to it and what used to be rocks below me was now nothing shorter than a single colored white floor. The blood dripping off my face quickly covered it in red drips and with it I looked down to watch as more and more dropped by the second. Yet the pain was gone. I still couldn't move, but at the least I wasn't in pain. Once I had realized this I tried to look back up. My eyes were quick to stop moving when I saw a pair of feet standing right between them. I felt my thoughts pause as I almost instantly recognized them. I couldn't move up any further as I was asked in an almost disappointed tone.
"You really know how to impress a girl Raptor. You know that?"
My eyes looked up to see a familiar wolf staring back down at me with two crossed arms and a small smile on her face. I couldn't find my tongue as she then wondered while dropping her arms down to her sides.
"Are you gonna just not say anything?"
"Alicia?" I mumbled as she chuckled and replied.
"Nice to see you too. What the hell happened to you?"
Every word I wanted to say wouldn't or couldn't form in my mouth. I could only lay here and stare at my wife with a look that could be only described as braindead. She waited for it however. Looking me over as I couldn't comprehend this moment.
Zeta's POV.
It's been over four hours of walking. Molly was leading us in a direction that was almost unknown to any of us and the further out we got the more the desert turned into a mountianish valley of rock and sand. Yet the trail we were following up till now was just a simple set of paws and long single drag marks. However I could see blood that has been left behind the further we went. I was pushing myself to move just as fast as Molly was but it still wasn't fast enough to tame my fear we were already too late. God knows what shape he is in if he's lived this long, trapped in the jaws of a feral who had no intent other than to eat him.
My sister was hanging back and walking with the truck. I had no intention of staying that far away, yet after a few moments she shouted at me.
"Zeta!"
I ignored her as best as I could. Molly was panting and I think I understood very well that we needed to stop and rest for a minute. So without saying a word back to her I stopped in my tracks ordering out to Molly.
"Molly heel!"
The dog stopped her legs from moving and looked back at me as I glared and raised a hand up towards my sister who quickly tossed me a water bottle she got from the boys in the truck. Together they stopped and Pepper came to my side to say to me.
"Diz found something before we left Afghanistan. I don't know if you want to see it, but….?"
Her voice cut off as I cupped my hands so Molly could try and get a drink. The little girl went right at it as I asked Pepper.
"Is it important? Is it going to help us find him?"
"It's not going to help anything, but it's important yeah."
"What?" I asked her then as she uncurled one of her hands to expose to me a finger. A legitimate finger and it belongs to no one other than Raptor. I knew it the second I saw it and almost immediately did I look away to hear her say.
"I'm sorry. This doesn't mean he's dead though. Saff thinks Raptor might have gotten it shot off in the middle of his final moments with Archer. The wound shows it."
I couldn't and wouldn't speak to her about this. I just kept focusing on Molly as she drank up. Once the bottle was empty I asked her.
"Do you want more?"
Molly just turned back to the trail and with it Pepper and I refocused our efforts on keeping up. Pepper stayed with me for a few moments before I ordered her quietly.
"Leave me alone."
"Okay." She replied as she stepped back, giving me the room I needed.
I was losing more and more hope by the second. More and more shit kept coming and it wasn't even close to being finished yet. What more could I ask for? I just want it to stop and I want to see if I lost more than just my mind by the end of this trip.
mT Shadow.