This Unfazed Man

Despite the pain in her head, there was nothing else she could feel but fear at that moment. As she heard his footsteps closing in on her, she flattened her palm towards the ground and clutched a bunch of dust in her fist.

Sebastian sat down to bring her back to her room when she threw all the dust towards him and made a run for it, while he grunted in pain as he rubbed his eyes.

She roughly ran a meter away from him, only to collapse again as her head rang yet again. She tried to get back up but fell on the ground again, realizing that she sprained her ankle.

"Shoot her!" Sebastian said as he frantically rubbed his eyes.

David, who appeared to be standing at the entrance of the lab, ran closer and loaded his gun, pointing it at Nancy. She closed her eyes tightly and covered her ears with her hands when she heard the gunshot. She didn't feel anything. Did he miss? She opened her eyes slightly to see a familiar back.

"S-Samuel?" Her eyes teared up as she saw him cover her.

He took his coat off and turned around to put it on her despite getting shot in the abdomen.

"You're… b-bleeding!" Nancy panicked, her tears rolling down her cheeks as she saw the gunshot wound on his abdomen.

"It is alright." He tried to reassure her as he looked back at his enemies from the corner of his eye, watching them arguing with each other.

It seemed as if Sebastian wasn't too happy with Samuel getting shot instead of Nancy. Samuel thought of it as his chance and picked Nancy up from the ground slowly to make a run toward the forest.

"They're running away!" Sebastian shouted at David in the middle of the argument.

David quickly ran after them, but he was too late as they already disappeared. In the middle of the forest, behind a big tree, Samuel put Nancy down and sat beside her to catch his breath. Nancy grabbed his sleeve. Her eyes teared up again as she saw blood splattering out of his abdomen wound after running miles.

"It is alright. We lost them." He said before looking at the sides of her forehead, bleeding slightly.

He brushed her hair aside to see the marks the tubes had left.

His eyes widened at the sight, and his breaths became involuntarily uneasy.

He shook his head after watching her wipe her tears away. He took heavy and deep breaths, trying to calm down.

"You're bleeding!" She exclaimed as she noticed he had completely forgotten about the wound. She pouted before bursting into tears. "It's my fault."

Samuel, who had forgotten about the wound on his abdomen, looked down and sighed. He turned around to tend to his wound.

Despite being scared, Nancy glanced a little by raising herself a bit. She noticed him trying to take out the bullet with his hands. She gasped as her eyes widened.

"What are you doing?!" She shouted as she tried to pull his hand back, continuing to cry.

"It is fine." He said as he looked calm as if he had been plucking out bullets his entire life. "I can do this on my own. Do not worry. Do not move."

He pulled back and continued tending to his wound. He managed to take the bullet out, filled with blood. He then took his tie off, wrapping it around his wound. He didn't even grunt a single time, as if he felt nothing.

"Did it not hurt?" Nancy asked as she was shocked. A simple necktie wasn't going to stop his critical bleeding.

"It did," Samuel replied swiftly. Even though the blood was still spurting out, he showed 0 expressions of pain.

Even though the whole situation had Nancy trembling, she still couldn't stop thinking. Considering the amount of blood he had lost while running miles away, he shouldn't be able to stand any longer.

However, he seemed just fine.

Nancy's head was flooded with thoughts, but the dizziness dwelled upon her.

She quickly stood up after her head was bombarded with unwanted thoughts.

"Nancy! Do not move, I said." Samuel stood up to support her.

Nancy's vision dulled and she fainted. Even while fainting, she could only think of why Samuel knew about the tubes and the way he ignored the wound and reacted to the tube marks.

She wanted to believe that he was just rational and smart, but even with the chip, she could never have imagined the devices and tubes Sebastian used.

They were completely out of this world. From the tubes to his lab set-up. Everything was strange.

Why did Samuel know, then?

Nancy woke up to see herself on a bed, and Samuel beside her on a sofa with his face covered with a Russian newspaper. She leaned a bit towards the sofa, which was placed right beside the bed.

It looked like some motel room. But more importantly, she realized her ankle was still sprained. It was treated, though.

She stretched her arm towards the newspaper and slightly lifted it upwards to see him raise an eyebrow. She quickly slammed the newspaper back on his face and fell back to bed.

"I wasn't doing anything!" She exclaimed, thinking that he would've gotten the wrong idea.

Samuel nodded as he put the newspaper aside.

"I said I wasn't doing anything." She said once again to make him believe.

He nodded yet again.

"Looks like you are feeling alright now," Samuel said.

Samuel stood up from the couch but sat back down. It looked like he was in pain, but his unfazed expression annoyed Nancy.

He tried to reach for the first-aid box on the shelf to their right because Nancy stepped out of the bed to grab it in his stead.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Let me do it," Nancy ordered as she looked at the blood-drenched Samuel's unfazed reaction to his abdomen wound.

Samuel narrowed his eyes, showing a reaction only to her words.

"You must not. I am able to treat myself." Samuel clarified, moving away from her as she kept closing the distance with him, seated on the couch in the motel room.

Nancy was irked, slapping his hand off of the wound. It was the first time she saw a gunshot wound. And the first time she saw someone unfazed by it.

"You had been bleeding all this time?!" Nancy asked, looking at blood spurting out.

"It has only been 15 minutes. And I can very well care for myself and you. You need not tend to my wounds." Samuel explained calmly.

"You got the wound because of me. I'll treat it." Nancy insisted, narrowing her eyes in annoyance.

"If I get hurt, it is just because of my mere incompetence. I am your bodyguard. You have no reason to look after me while I claim all the reasons to look after you."

His words were soft like petals, grazing her ears lightly. Though, Nancy wasn't the type to fall for words.

"Shut up!"