Riikka was in darkness. The world was nothing but darkness and sound was not a thing which existed. There was nothing but silence and darkness -- and a weight pressing on her chest. And it was like that for the longest time as the memories began to disappear from her mind's eye, flesh and bone slowly beginning to mend again. It was a discomfort more than a pain, something that pressed on her lungs and made it hard to breath. And then suddenly it was gone.
Slowly, her senses returned to her. At first it was sight, blinking and inconsistent, with long periods of darkness. Moving away, she could see bodies splayed out, slowly smoldering grass caught in the fires of explosions, and the darkness of the slowly fading night. But all of that was getting further away, if slowly.
And then she faded again.
By the time Riikka came to, the first thing she could see was blood. Blood, dark and red across her sleeve and her coat. She couldn't tell if it was her's or somebody else's, but she hurt. She didn't recognize these trees, or what was happening. Somebody was dragging her, she realized. Somebody was dragging her!
The Finn reacted on instinct, afraid that the enemy might have captured her. She didn't pay attention to who it was that had a hold on her. Rather with a grunt, she swung her legs up, using her weight and flexibility to put her legs on the person's shoulders, and lock her feet behind their head. And in that moment she used her weight to throw her possible assailant over her on to the ground. And before she realized who it was that landed so gracefully on the forest floor, she had her blade drawn, and moved to place it poised for the eyes.
And then she stopped.
"Oh. Perkele."
"Ah! Ah! Flash! Flash! Please don't stab me with that knife!" Came a familiar voice from below. "Ow..."
Below her, with a sharp blade inches away from his eye was the young paratrooper she had sorta meet moments before she'd been knocked unconcious. Clearly, quite distressed now, his hands gripping her claf in panic, his legs kicked a bit, as though trying to tap out of a hold.
Riikka was absolutely silent. With a blade in hand, blood spread down a portion of her face, and more firepower than most GIs would think of carrying on her: she probably would have looked somewhat intimidating to many. If it weren't for the sheer surprise in her eyes. Slowly, the blade was pulled away and sheathed.
"What happened? Are you okay? Where are we?" She started looking around now, rising up away from the GI.
Morgan quickly sat up and rubbed his neck. "Ow, I think I'm the first combat casualty to suffer from whiplash." He said, turning to look at her accusingly. "I only risked life and limb trying to drag you away from a bunch of angry eye ties looking to trample all over you, and enough times to be sure."
He turned back, still rubbing the back of his neck. "Oww."
"Saved me, hm?" Riikka rose to a crouch, "Then we're even. Which way back to the field?"
Morgan turned back to her again so fast he ended up groaning in pain on the ground, holding his neck. "Argh. What did you just say?" he wheezed as he looked up at her.
Something resembling a sympathetic grimace crossed her face, "I said, we are even Private Page. And which way back to the field?"
This time her statement was announced with the sound of her shotgun as she reloaded the spent rounds, quickly working on reloading her weapons.
"We, or rather I, still have a job to do. And I could use your help."
"Yeah, well, give me a moment to actually regain the ability to stand." Morgan replied grumpily as he carefully sat up and pushed himself to his feet, then twisted his neck left then right slowly. "Ah, ah! Damn." he grunted throught he exercise, and then he picked up his rifle.
"If you're still able to walk after losing that much blood, I dragged you from over there." He said, pointed over his rifle behind him.
"All this -?" A glance down at her uniform caused a pause, "Oh. Paska. That is a lot, isn't it? But I don't htink it is all mine."
She gave her best convincing smile, unconvincing as it may have been, "I will be fine." She rose to stand up.
And fell over almost immediately on to the Private in front of her. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing the world to stop spinning for a moment.
"Ah geez." Morgan said, scratching the back of his head.