Lana had a new respect for doctors. Or, to be specific, she had a new respect for a certain type of doctor. Not someone who specialized in a certain body part, but the kind who went to third-world countries. She tried to recall the movie she saw, back before the power plant incident that took all the electricity of Perdido Beach. Doctors without Borders. She thought. Oh yeah, Angelina Jolie is in it.
She had found the DVD in her Clifftop suite, either left there by the people who had previously resided there, or forgotten by the shoddy maids. Doctors without Borders was, by far, her favourite movie of all time. It was about people—doctors, obviously—who went to war stricken countries to heal people. No pay check demanded. They did it solely out of the kindness out of their own heart. They didn't care about race, gender, religion, or what side of the war the patient was on. They just healed. After the movie shoot, Lana had heard that Angelina Jolie donated one million dollars to the cause.
That's what had brought her back to Perdido Beach after the battle of the cliff. She had left, just walked out into the desert, not even caring if those rugged coyotes got her. The movie had brought her back. Swayed her mind into doing the better thing.
That's the first thing I'm gonna do when I get out of this hellhole. I'll go to that dead hermit's shack and get all the gold still there, and then I'll go rob everybody of their 'Bertos. All of the gold will go to that fund. Lana thought, whilst healing a vicious, puss-filled wound of a six year old. A whip mark. Of course, that's after I kill that son of a bitch, Drake.
Lana couldn't help stop the violent thoughts come into her mind. After all, she'd played a major part in bringing Drake back. The darkness, the Gaiaphage, had used her powers to bring that freak back, and he had injured a lot of people. She didn't want to think about it. She didn't want to talk about it. All she wanted to do was heal, just try to repent for what she'd done.
It wasn't enough for her. She couldn't heal everybody. Well, she could, but it couldn't happen all in the same moment. She had read about this before, after she had watched the movie. She'd gone, despite the little kids nagging her about their bruised knees and cut palms, to the library for a book. It said that doctors basically looked, and pointed at the people they would heal. Not for anything biased, of course. They did the selection process based on their own ability. If the doctor couldn't heal them, they'd simply send the patient away. They had to ignore the pleading, last chance requests of loved ones. In Lana's case, it was a matter of time.
Sam had told her specifically. You can either heal a single person near death, and watch as others die waiting for you to finish. He had said. Or do others quickly, and watch as one person dies. It was a hard ultimatum that he gave her, but a necessary one nonetheless.
But Lana couldn't do that. She couldn't turn the heart broken siblings away. She couldn't say no to people screaming in pain about a bullet wound or a third degree burn. She'd always been known as a rash alcoholic, but deep inside, she didn't want to see people die. She knew that a brave doctor would've turned their back on somebody who would only die on them and take up their time.
Lana had to let go.
