The urge to run and not get involved kicked in, in an instant. That was, after all, what she had been doing for most of her life, but she decided against it. Running didn't help her much in the past and it would help now.
With that thought in mind, Tanya tugged at the hem of her top, pulling it over her head and off her body. She saw, from the corner of her eyes, his eyes widening and his face inflaming when her supple chest came into view, barely covered by her lacy bra. The sight caused the corners of her lips to quirk up unconsciously.
He seemed to want to complain about her lack of shame to open up herself to a total stranger but she couldn't care. There were times, in her training as a cadet at her previous high school, that she'd have to go in modest undergarments due to the nature of the training. It was uncomfortable, and she had complained at first, but near-death experiences and her death had taught her otherwise.
The thought dimmed her eyes mildly but it left as quickly as it came. Her body movements weren't hindered by the thoughts that clouded her mind as it went on overdrive, and soon, in her hands, were pieces of her clothes, torn in a sizeable manner and transformed into makeshift bandages.
She crawled back subtly to the car, got a first aid kit, and checked within for the contents therein. The crossfire had intensified during the time she had spent gawking and assisting her new injured friend.
With the subtlety and cunning of a snake, Tanya crawled back to her friend successfully only to find him with a body beside him. The man might have tried to harm him, she thought as she made her way back to him, ignoring the dead body and his inquisitive gaze.
She got out the first aid kit from her side and helped him dress his wounds. It seemed that he had only engaged in close-range combat, although she had spotted a few bullet grazes here and there.
There were a total of two deep wounds and several other light cuts and grazes that she was able to cover up with cotton wool and plaster. For some reason, her mom kept a big box of first aid that was equipped and filled to the brim with items for first aid, even painkillers, but it had no bandage. It had everything but a bandage. The fact didn't cross her mind in the past as she hardly got injured to the extent of being in need of first aid.
Soon, she was done bandaging and she handed him a bottle of water that was on her hip along with the painkillers. She was met with a questioning gaze and she was about to give a response to that gaze when a couple of bullets whizzed past them and to the car in front of them.
Tanya ducked reflexively while her mystery patient swallowed the tablet along with the water in the bottle before he sprung up and choked an enemy that sprung out from nowhere.
After that, more men in black seemed to appear from literally nowhere and attack him.
Sometimes, they'd hit a wound, and his eyes would glaze in pain, but he didn't falter. Like a beast, he tore through his enemies without stopping, even though they seemed to be pouring out from nowhere.
When Tanya saw that he was starting to move a lot slower and that his stance seemed to have unnecessary openings, she grabbed the baton she had seen on the floor and joined him to beat up the shady guys who never seemed to stop. Besides, she was looking for an excuse to vent her frustrations on having her first aid work ruined by some useless no-name fools. It was a win-win.
Soon, the police arrived along with her parents and her elder siblings, Nathan and Bertha. A shootout soon ensued, albeit a short one. Tanya and her mysterious patient ducked and took cover behind a nearby pillar and when the gunfire stopped, a lot of them were either dead or in police custody undergoing arrests.
Tanya ran up to her family with a smile as she saw they had seen her mother was about to comment when she saw red on her daughter's clothes. Tanya quickly told her that it wasn't her and asked them to take her mystery patient to the hospital.
The police force had already taken full control of the situation: loading the bodies of the criminals in one van while bundling the ones who were still breathing for interrogation or treatment.
Tanya also saw her lovely stranger off to the ambulance that was accompanied by the police vehicles that arrived at the scene in case of any casualty. Thankfully there were no civilian casualties.
As Tanya followed her stranger off to the ambulance, she caught him giving her a questioning gaze, and she answered with a warm smile. As he was about to be carried into the ambulance, his eyes widened at Tanya's waist side, and he quickly called a nurse's attention to it, but by the time their attention was drawn, Tanya had fallen to the floor, unconscious.
She had been shot.