Tomb Raider: The Legacy

Chapter 18: Pain

They say that those who suffer many wounds, or bear a long illness, end up getting used to the pain. That's not true. Pain is always something new, no matter how familiar. Pain does not generate tolerance. One suffers, because there's no other choice. But there's no chance of getting used to it. Pain is pain.

Lying face down on a stretcher, with a tube in one arm and another pumping foreign blood in the other, Lara noticed how they worked inside her wound. Beside her, Anna was holding her hand tightly, even though she had told her it wasn't necessary. Although it was highly irregular, given the circumstances, she'd been allowed to be with her.

Lara had rejected general anaesthesia. With the local it was more than enough; she had told them. The counterpart was noticing how they threw, opened, sewed, rummaged in her flesh and tendons; she even felt the scraping of the surgical instrument against the shoulder blade bone. It was unpleasant, but at least it wasn't pain.

"How does it look?" She muttered, looking sideways at her daughter, the only way she could look at her.

Anna stared in horror at the carnage on her mother's back. "Great." She lied in a hoarse voice.

But both knew that the wound was no longer problematic. It would heal. She would live to tell the tale. Appearances were deceiving, and Lara had been through much worse stuff. Even so, it was an unpleasant vision, for those who weren't used to surgery.

"You shouldn't be here." Lara said. "Wait outside, go see the others."

"I want to be here." Anna replied, laconically, and pressed her fingers tighter.

(...)

Slowly, conscientiously, they got rid of the corpse.

She wanted to help, and Kurtis found no reason to refuse. He needed a good extra pair of arms, and although Barbara's were not the strongest, it was better than carrying all the work alone.

He didn't stop to ask if she was going to have a stomach for that. Actually, they were acting against the clock and there was no time to lose. The longer they let a dead man in their hands, the worse for everyone. However, he didn't have to worry. Some things never change, and she had a stomach for that and for worse.

With the rats removed, they took what was left of the man who had been Adolf Schäffer and dissolved it in an acid tub. All protective measures were taken. They worked with efficiency and dedication, despite which, she could not keep quiet. "You had all this ready... from the beginning?" Of course, she hadn't counted on the obvious; that Kurtis was not a talkative man. He just ignored her. "I find it hard to believe that you have hunted and starved all these rats just for... this." Silence. "Shouldn't we have burned it?"

There he answered. "That would be foolishness. Slower. We would generate smoke, they would see us; charcoal and ashes, which they would end up finding, not to mention the smell of burnt meat, which takes months to part with everything. The acid leaves no trace. And it's faster."

"No doubt you've experience in this." Silence again.

She came to vomit a couple more times, vomit that she had to scrupulously clean, as she did with her first. Kurtis didn't flinch. He did what he had to do without his expression altering in the slightest.

The body dissolved relatively quickly, but the result was an unnamed disgusting mass. They poured it into a metal can, and then, without any pause, made fresh cement by hand in the same tub in which they had poured the acid. Then, they poured the paste inside the can, where it was mixed with its repulsive content. Finally, Kurtis sealed it.

They spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning all the remains, and finally, he wrapped the materials and equipment used, put them in another can and sealed it too. It was getting dark when they collapsed at the entrance of the cave. None had exchanged a word in hours.