32: The Path Forward.

                                    

                                          
32: The Path Forward.
"How much longer do you think he'll be unconscious?" A soft feminine voice reached his ears, her tone clearly expressing boredom. The language was one he didn't understand but vaguely recognized as the one Americans used.
There was a hum, as if someone were thinking about the answer for a moment before speaking.
"Why don't you tell me? Go ahead, take a look and tell me what you see." This time it was a man's voice, familiar but only slightly, and once again in that incomprehensible language to him.
"Alright, let's see. His breathing is getting a little faster and deeper, and at the same time, his muscles are starting to tense up, leaving behind the state of relaxation that unconsciousness grants to sleeping bodies, and well, that twitching under his eyes suggests that maybe he can even hear me... I think he's waking up."
Irritated by the sounds and tired of listening blindly, Erik tried to open his eyes, only to wince. Not because there was a blinding light, but because the simple effort of lifting his eyelids felt like trying to lift something very heavy without success.
"Hey, easy now, take it slow." This time, the words that reached his ears were spoken in a language he could understand.
"W-where...?" Erik tried to sit up, but his effort was cut short when a sharp pain shot through his body, forcing him to stop. It was as if every part of him had decided that any kind of movement was forbidden at that moment.
"First, have some water." He felt the rim of a glass touch his lips, and without hesitation, he began to drink until he nearly choked. His dry throat burned, but the sweet taste of the water made up for any discomfort.
"T-thanks" with the last sip, he felt how his waning consciousness fully woke up, and although it was difficult, he finally opened his eyes. his blurry vision slowly clearing until he could see in detail the person in front of him.
"You're... that man, the... the one with the shield." Erik grabbed his head, a grimace forming on his face as memories of the most recent events flooded back to him in an instant, making him remember everything that had happened.
"My Mother, she!-" he couldn't finish the words as he felt his throat close up, preventing him from saying them.
His body threatened to start trembling, but before it could, a firm hand rested on his shoulder in a reassuring way.
"We recovered her body, many of the others have already been buried, but I thought you'd like to be there for her, so we kept her safeguarded."
At another time, Erik would have wondered how they could have recognized her, but right now he didn't care. His body, which had previously felt like it weighed a thousand tons, began to move, ignoring any lingering pain, until he was fully standing.
"Take me to her."
.
.
.
While Raven stayed behind, John and Erik arrived at the private room that had been used as a temporary funeral home for all the bodies that had been recovered after the battle, though right now only one corpse remained in the place.
Finding and identifying it wasn't difficult. Although John had never seen the woman before, the sense of smell he now possessed was strong enough to differentiate her scent from the other bodies and know who she was and to whom she was related. Thanks to that, he was able to give her differential treatment, which he believed would be appropriate.
Erik looked at the cold, lifeless body that rested on a bed as if she were in a deep sleep. His hand slowly traveled to her face, now clean and free of dirt, gently caressing her cheek with the tips of his fingers, tracing her features.