Slouching Toward Bethlehem
A continuation of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.
Disclaimer:
I do not own any recognisable characters that appear in this piece of fiction. Lara Croft, Kurtis Trent and others are property of Eidos and Crystal Dynamics. The only thing I own is some OCs and the plot. This story was written for pleasure only. I am making no profit from this story.
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»Chapter Eighteen: A Taste of Oblivion »
Darkness. It shrouded her vision. Clouded her senses. Threatened to once more pull her under. And yet she fought on.
Slowly, ever so slowly, her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She blinked once. Twice. The light was blinding. Within the abyss there was no pain, no fear, no uncertainty. Yet she knew if she gave in there was no coming back.
Images flashed past in her mind's eye. She'd been standing at the end of dock. Karel was there, and he'd been clutching a pistol. She recalled the loud roar of gunfire, and then intense pain. She saw Kurtis screaming her name, struggling against the soldiers who had seized him. Then a roaring as she'd impacted into the water, followed by an abyss of darkness and silence.
She opened her eyes with a soft gasp. The world around her was out of focus, and it took a while until she recognized her surroundings.
Gleaming white tile. A row of beds. Fluorescent lighting. She was in a hospital.
"Miss. Croft?"
She was startled by the sudden use of her name. She did not recognize that voice.
She turned bleary eyes on the figure she now noticed was sitting at her bedside. It was a nurse.
"Miss. Croft?" she repeated. Lara now realized she had hold of her hand. "Can you hear me?"
"W-what happened?" Lara asked, struggling to grasp her situation, "Where am I?"
"You're in Florence Nightingale Hospital," the nurse replied, "You were shot in the stomach." The nurse paused a second, giving Lara a weak smile before adding: "Can you remember what happened?"
"I-uh," she took a breath, thinking quickly and hoping she was convincing, "I got mugged." She stopped again, injecting distress into her tone, "He tried to take my money, but I fought back. S-so he shot me."
"Is that all you can remember dear?" the nurse asked, "You didn't get a good look at his face?"
Lara shook her head.
"Well, never mind," the nurse told her, although Lara doubted she was totally convinced, "Someone staying in the hotel nearby heard a gunshot. They pulled you out of the water and rushed you here. You were very lucky to pull through."
Lara just nodded, letting this information sink in. Then a thought struck her.
"Was there anyone around when they found me? I-I mean, no-one saw the mugger or anything?"
"No dear," the nurse said, "Nobody reported anyone else at the scene when they found you."
There was silence after this final statement. Lara's eyelids were becoming heavy.
"I'll leave you to get some sleep dear," the nurse said, noticing this and moving away from the bed, towards the door, "If you need anything when you wake up, just push the call button OK? We don't want you walking about trying to find a nurse."
Once she was sure Lara would do no such thing the nurse left the room, closing the door gently behind her.
Left alone now, Lara combated the exhaustion which threatened to overcome her. Soon enough though, it was apparent she was not going to be able to stay awake any longer, and she closed her eyes with a sigh.
She fell asleep with the image of Kurtis still fresh in her mind.
Lara woke up a few hours later. It took less of a struggle to open her eyes this time, and she even had the strength to slowly push herself up into a sitting position. The covers over her slipped down slightly, revealing the hospital garb she was now dressed in. She gingerly lifted her gown to find her torso heavily bandaged.
Letting her gown fall back over her stomach, she looked about the room. The curtains around her bed were open, and this allowed her to see she was in quite a small room, with four beds standing against the opposite wall. A sign next to the door told her she was in Accident and Emergency. She read the clock on the far wall. Six o' clock.
But of what day? she thought.
At that moment the nurse she had spoken with earlier entered the room. When she noticed Lara was awake she rushed over to her bedside, asking her how she felt, fluffing her pillows for her and generally making a huge fuss. Any other day Lara might not have minded this treatment, in fact she would have welcomed it, but there were far more pressing matters to contend with at the moment.
"What day is it?" Lara asked first.
"It's Saturday dear," the nurse replied, busying herself with the trolley holding Lara's meal.
"How long have I been out?"
"Well, I'd say just under 20 hours," the nurse estimated, looking at her wristwatch, "You were rushed in here about 3 this morning."
Lara was silent for a moment, absently watching as the nurse placed a tray of food on the side table.
"My backpack?" she suddenly remembered, looking about her, as if expecting it to be sitting at her bedside, "Was I still wearing my backpack when they brought me in? I had all my money and some valuables in there."
"I'll go and check for you if you want dear," the nurse said, handing Lara over her tray of food, "Eat up. You need to get your strength back."
Lara accepted the tray grudgingly. God, how she hated hospital food. She simply waited for the nurse to leave the room and proceeded to poke at her meal with her plastic fork. She had absolutely no intention of eating this gruel. She was sure the food was what made people at hospital sick in the first place. Perhaps it was all just a huge government conspiracy?
A few minutes passed before the nurse returned. She was carrying Lara's backpack in her arms.
"They dried it off," she explained, placing it on the side table, "I don't think anything was seriously damaged anyways."
Lara pushed her untouched tray of food off her lap and lifted up her backpack. She undid the clasp and tipped the contents onto the bed. Into her lap fell a few medkits, her money and ID cards and the books she had taken from the Prague Archives, along with Werner's notebook.
Everything was in good condition, and yet not everything was still here.
"We had to confiscate your gun I'm afraid," the nurse explained, looking not in the least bit sorry about it, "Hospital policy. I'm sure you understand."
Lara nodded, allowing the nurse to pack everything into her backpack and replace it on the side table. There was no point trying to get back her old weapons. She could easily get some new and better firearms.
"We also collected your motorbike from outside the hotel," the nurse continued, producing Kurtis' set of keys, "Your room and the motorbike were both in the same name. The tyres were blown out, but they replaced them down at the garage."
"Thank you," Lara replied gratefully, accepting the keys with a smile.
"Must've been one hell of a mugging," was the sarcastic reply.
"Yeah," Lara nodded absently, staring down at Kurtis' keys.
"I'll let you eat your meal dear," the nurse said pointedly, pushing the tray back into Lara's lap, "Just call if you want anything."
Lara waited until the nurse had left the room before dumping her tray on the side table and throwing back the bedcovers with a new found energy. Adrenaline, which so many times before had helped her go on in even the most extreme of situations, allowed her to grab her clothes, which lay neatly stacked on a chair by her bedside, and hurriedly pull them on. She had to pause for a few minutes after this task, breathing heavily and clutching her stomach. She made have been a tomb raider, but it still took her a while to recover from life-threatening injuries, no matter what her stubborn mind thought otherwise.
Every second she wasted lying in bed was another second that Karel was tormenting Kurtis. She was not prepared to lose that man so damn soon. She had no time to lose.
She quickly laced up her boots and hitched her backpack over her shoulders. She figured she'd been given a shot of morphine earlier, since she could feel no pain in her injured torso. She shrugged this off, shoving Kurtis' keys into her back pocket and making her way out towards the door. If she could just find a room of medical supplies then all of her problems would be solved, at least for the moment. This was not the first time she had been shot after all.
A noise behind her made her jump. She turned to find a man sitting up in bed, clearly confused as to how and why she had suddenly jumped out of bed and was now leaving Accident and Emergency.
She disguised her continued discomfort from her injury; giving him a sexy smile, raising a finger to her lips and signalling for him to be quiet. Then she slipped silently out of the ward.
TBC...
Sorry for the late update, I've been ill all week and incapable of getting out of bed, let alone coming online to update.I would like to say: I am not a doctor. I have no idea about recovery times to do with bullet wounds. This is Lara Croft we're talking about, and I'm assuming she's gonna heal faster and deal with injuries better then the average patient. After all, how many times has she been shot or bitten by giant dinosaurs and not died :S Also, I know zip about Turkish hospitals either, so if any details are wrong I apologise. I was asking my RS teacher about Turkish hospitals and how long it would take to recover if you were shot in the stomach. Needless to say he thought I was insane. He was right? Who said that! >(
PS: I've added a bit more into this chapter which I realized I forget to put in earlier :S Thanks for your suggestions The Odd Little Turtle, I think I've worked out a solution to the problem. I just had to turn to a different kind of Tomb Raider. Find out what I mean next chapter!
SilverDragon67 - I think everyone wants to give Kurtis a hug right now! ;) Sorry I didn't manage to update on Monday, but I did try because of what you said. :)
Nikola - Thank you! I'm glad I've got the characters right :) Here is the next update...
Arakanga - Your review was perfect :D
PunkStatik - Yey, you like the ending! (hugs) Guess you won't have to wait to find out about Lara anymore...
AngelTrent2 - hehe Someone is into the story I see :D
dtaylor - Happy? I did actually not end this update with an "evil" cliffhanger! lol :D
lara-n-kurtis - hehe Looks like you can't shout at me anymore :) I do love to torture readers and characters alike...
Lady Lara Croft - No, I just meant the whole burning thing. You're leaping to scary conclusions there! Then again... (grins evilly) Thank you, I always try to visualise my stories as movies/tv shows...
Acid-Rush - hehe Yes, I think you might get in a tad more trouble if you massacred the policemen. Personally, I would just pay the fee and be on my way...
The Odd Little Turtle - Thanks :D