[color=lightblue][b]Eliza Weaver Salem, Massachusetts[/b][/color] Eliza snapped back into consciousness as the woman did her best to revive her. Instinctively Eliza reached for her weapon but she was too weak to raise the revolver up to defend herself. She was having a hard time getting her bearings after everything that happened, and her wounds were still bleeding. It was everything Eliza would do to try and keep herself awake. Her eyelids felt like they weighed a ton, and her head was spinning so fast she felt like she was going to hurl. She began to mumble through the haze in her head, her unlit cigarette falling onto her lap. [center]“I’m…yeah. No, I’m not alright. This is a lot of blood.”[/center] Her wounds showed no sign of healing themselves, and Eliza wasn’t too keen on the idea of going to see a doctor. In her opinion, everything a doctor could do for her, she could do for herself. Except now she was willing to admit that she may need a little help. She was starting to shiver and her skin was cold and clammy. Shock was setting in and with it her death. As much as it hurt to swallow she was fortunate that this woman came poking around and found her. [center]“I’m not going to make it to the clinic. You can’t move me like this, and I’m pretty damn close to passing out again.” She could feel herself slipping away again, she needed to stay awake. She had to walk this kid through this. “I’ll talk you through what you need to do. Alright? Before we start though can you light me that cigarette, and don’t let me fall asleep.”[/center] Lorelei furrowed her brow but did not question Eliza’s judgment. She reached for the cigarette that rested on her thigh and propped it back into the woman’s mouth. She reached for her lighter and gave Eliza a smoke. After the rather odd request had been carried out, Lorelei shook Eliza’s shoulders again to ensure she hadn’t drifted back into sleep. Lorelei reached into her pack and retrieved the small amount of medical supplies she had on her – tourniquets, a roll of bandage material, and a nearly-empty bottle of disinfectant. “I know the drill, but what do you want?” Lorelei peered down at Eliza, studying her face and her labored breathing. She looked highly durable, to say the least. She was not reacting heavily to her gunshot wounds and the woman’s muscle-tone was quite apparent. While waiting for Eliza to articulate her plans, Lorelei re-did her bun, catching the loose strands of hair that had fallen onto her forehead for the task at hand. She rubbed the back of her neck and took a deep breath. It had been some time since she had needed to do anything of the sort to another person. She had been alone for a very long time and it hadn’t been necessary since her youngest years. Eliza took a long draw on the cigarette reducing half of it to smoldering ash before blowing a plume of smoke out of her nostrils. She was still shivering as she smoked her cigarette to calm her nerves. Eliza knew exactly how to treat injuries like the ones she had so that’s not what bothered her. It was the fact that she was placing so much into the hands of someone she doesn’t know. [center]“Okay...”[/center] Eliza let out a low sigh as she started to talk through the cigarette in her mouth. “I’m going to need to lay down first. My calf needs to be over my heart, that’ll slow the bleeding down. Although first we need to get my pants off.” Realizing what she just said might’ve thrown of the women Eliza stayed serious and explained why. “We’re going to have to tourniquet my leg and we can’t have clothing getting in the way of it.” Eliza undid her belt and handed it to the woman. “Use this as a tourniquet. I’ve used it before and it’s the right size. No offense but yours looks too wide, and I don’t know how well you can tie them off.” She shifted her weight to try and lay down but the pain in her abdomen was sharper than she thought it would be. She reeled with pain as the ashes from her cigarette fell onto her and started to burn holes through her clothing. [center]“Shit!” Eliza quickly brushed them off her and finished off her cigarette before snuffing it out on the floor. “You’re going to need to help me lay down.[/center] Lorelei did a double-take upon hearing Eliza’s request, this one every bit as outlandish as the last, but her confused expression settled into a slow nod. “Okay.” She quickly wiped away the falling ashes the best she could. She set Eliza’s belt onto the ground and took a deep breath. She crawled over to Eliza’s side and cradled her arms around her back. She gently assisted her to the ground, using her own arms to cushion the very slow descent into the floor. “So…you want…okay.” I’ve got this. Lorelei did the work herself, unbuttoning Eliza’s jeans and attempting to pull them off, gripping onto the material and tugging. She did everything in her power to avoid being distracted, attempting to keep from lingering too long in the action and getting it over quickly, but she could not escape a slight awkward blush as she worked. It was going to take a good deal of effort to get Eliza back to health. [center]“Help me, you’re going to have to wiggle out of them a little bit…can’t do it all by myself.”[/center] Eliza took her hand off of her abdomen where she was attempting to slow the bleeding from her wound and put both arms at her sides, hands flat on the floor while she pushed back and away from the women. After a minor struggle and more pain Eliza’s pants were off and she clasped her hand back down on her abdomen causing blood to seep in between her fingers and run onto the floor. With her pants removed Eliza was now getting cold enough for her to start shivering. What little body heat she had left escaped into the frigid blood-soaked floorboards of the decrepit building. [center]“Alright….” Eliza started to nod off. It felt so good to just fall asleep.[/center] Lorelei inspected the damage – the bullet had traveled straight through her leg, mere inches above her knee, leaving a grisly wound behind. She noticed that Eliza had been somewhat spared her decency by her pair of underwear, but her attention returned to the wound. Eliza began to drift back into sleep. Lorelei shook Eliza’s shoulders again and huffed. “Don’t you drift off on me. This will be no good if you’re asleep.” She grimaced. “Not that this is *good* to begin with.” She reached for a piece of cloth from her pouch. “This will not feel so good, but I need you to lift your leg.” She entered a kneeling position. “Balance it over my shoulder and I will apply pressure to the wound.” She gently grabbed a hold of one of Eliza’s calves and began to lift it. “You will have to do some of the rest, I am afraid.” Eliza left out an agonizing scream as she lifted her leg onto Lorelei’s shoulder. She was fighting the urge to blackout again, this time from the pain. “Oh… fuck, I need another smoke!” Eliza kept her hand firm on her abdomen hoping that the bleeding would stop soon. She had balled up the lower part of her shirt and was using it as an impromptu dressing on the wound, although now it had been soaked through with blood. At this point Eliza was starting to pass out again, she had spilled too much of her blood. For the first time in a long time she was afraid, afraid that she was going to die. She reached out to grab Lorelei’s arm with her blood-soaked hand, but she had lost the strength she needed to hold onto it. [center]“I’m sorry that you have to deal with this…but please...I don’t want to die alone.” Eliza’s eyes started to well up with tears before they ran down the sides of her face.[/center] Lorelei did not oblige upon Eliza’s wish to have another huff of her cigarette. She methodically pressed the piece of cloth against the bullet wound and took another deep breath. Upon Eliza reaching for her hand, smearing blood across Lorelei’s forearm in the process, Lorelei gripped the slipping hand and held onto it. “Hey. Hey,” she said in a mellow voice. “You’re going to be fine. I’ve got you.” She smiled and her eyes attempted to meet Eliza’s, although she was probably in a far too great deal of pain to look up at her. [center]“You won’t die on my watch.”[/center] Why it hadn’t occurred to Lorelei to scream for help, she had no idea. But she hadn’t the slightest clue what this woman had gotten herself into…if anyone was after her, or if she had been attacked by someone in town. She knew what it meant to need to be subtle. She kept the crisis between the two of them. Eliza’s tear-filled eyes met Lorelei’s, they just stared at her searching for strength that Eliza was quickly losing. Her hand faintly gripped Lorelei’s, she didn’t want to let go but she could feel herself losing control of her hands. She couldn’t apply the pressure she needed to on her abdomen anymore so more blood was rushing from the wound. With what last bit of strength Eliza had she tried reaching for the dog-tags she had dropped when she crawled inside the building, but they were just out of her grasp. She let out a pathetic sigh as she closed her eyes, and lost consciousness again. Her hand slipped from Lorelei’s grasp and fell to the floor, causing a slight splash when it disturbed the crimson pool of blood around her. “No, no, no. You’re going to be fine. Stay with me.” Lorelei kept firm pressure against the leg-wound and grimaced. She had no clue where this compassion for this nameless woman had erupted from, but she looked so strong, yet so completely helpless in unison. It reminded her of herself, perhaps, in the days when power beyond her control took her health and her happiness away from her. There was something about her that evoked a protective urge that she wasn’t quite aware she still possessed. Lorelei shook Eliza again, to no avail; she received, at least initially, no response. She kept the woman’s leg balanced over her shoulder but reached forward, lifting the blood-soaked fabric-line of her shirt and revealing her belly, the other bullet wound clearly residing in the corner. She grabbed another piece of cloth from her pouch and applied pressure. This was all she could do, now. Press against both wounds, and hope to god that they would clot…that she wouldn't bleed out. Eliza was adamant against sending for a doctor, even in the face of death. It was this, or nothing. She frowned and took deep breaths. “Please. Stay with me.” Lorelei, yet again, received no response. In turn, the wounds had clotted -- the blood flow stopped, but not before Eliza had lost a decent deal of blood. A pool of it resided under her. Lorelei gently set Eliza back down and moved her slightly over, away from the pool of blood that had accumulated onto the floor. She had gotten plenty of it on herself -- on her arms and on her jeans from where she sat. She wrapped a fresh piece of cloth around Eliza's leg-wound and sat next to her, watching her from the side. Eliza's figure sank to the side, her head falling onto Lorelei's shoulder. This entire outing had been strange and complex -- Lorelei had shared what could be death (or a near-brush-with-it) with someone she barely knew. But being as close to the end as Eliza was, Lorelei seemed to have gotten a magnifying glass on this woman's being without having even shared so much as a conversation with her. She sat there and held a rag against Eliza's head and moving the woman's stray strands of hair out of her face. There was nothing left she could do except wait and hope she hadn't failed this new friend of hers. It was her first day. She was no medic, but she did not want to fail her. Many tense, quiet moments had passed until Eliza regained consciousness. She awoke to find her head slumped onto Lorelei’s shoulder, her warm body drew Eliza closer to her. She was freezing and felt too weak to stand, and as shameful as it made her feel she positioned her arm across Lorelei’s waist and attempted to pull herself closer to her. Eliza was too weak, with every movement making her feel as if she was about to lose consciousness again. So as much as she wanted to pull herself closer to Lorelei for warmth she couldn't. Even to speak seemed impossible, to her it seemed like she couldn't form the right words in her head. So, she left her arm draped across Lorelei's lap, it was lifeless and cold like the rest of Eliza's body all her strength had been sapped from her and scattered across the now soiled ground. All Eliza could do was continue to lay her head on the woman's shoulder. Its warmth was pleasant, but not enough to revitalize Eliza. She started to shiver again, and without any control over her body her teeth began to chatter. It was these signs as well as Eliza's faint, shallow breaths that let Lorelei know that the woman she fought so hard to save was still here with her, for now.