Please Shoot Me - 17

Many eyes crossed with another’s for confirmation, and a few pairs of feet approached Yuyeon and Ryung. With no other orders from the higher-ups, Yuyeon had been stripped of her position as team leader. Besides, she had just announced her own discharge from the military, so there was no reason to give her any more leeway.

Only a few members of the A-Team, who had been counting on Yuyeon as their team leader, were hesitant and confused. That was a good thing, but the higher-ups had seen it coming, and assigned more than half of the blockade to be Team B.

One by one, unfamiliar faces stared down at her, whispering menacingly.

“You heard the radio. Don’t let up, we’re coming with you.”

She felt like a criminal. Yuyeon shoved the men roughly by the shoulders and clawed at their eyes.

“Leave the car. I’ll take care of it.”

An officer grabbed her wrist and roughly twisted it as she tried to get into the driver’s seat. The bone-crushing force of his grip caused a cry of pain to escape her mouth. Suddenly, she heard a car door open and saw a long leg step out. She knew the situation was bad, but Ryung needed to prevent his face from showing.

“Heo Ryung….! It’s okay, just stay inside… Ugh….”

“Just stay put, okay? I’m just being polite.”

The more Yuyeon twisted her arm to get out, the harder the man gripped her wrist. If she wanted to, she could take out one of these men with a moment’s strength, but this wasn’t a problem that would be solved by fighting.

As she groaned, Ryung stepped out of the car, her uniform coat still covering his face. Contrary to her fears, his face was covered, but all eyes were on him. As if he didn’t care about the attention, he turned to face the man who held Yuyeon. No, facing wasn’t the right word since nobody could see Ryung’s face.

“F*ck.”

The man’s brow creased into a frown as Ryung spat out the single word.

“What…?”

“F*ck you, assh*le.”

Everything was sudden, and before the man could express his displeasure with Ryung’s expression, his face was smashed into the windshield of the car. With a snap, the man’s upper body was planted onto the car. Blood splattered across the windshield, and the man was quiet and dead. The loosened grip fell from her wrist.

The air froze cold as the surroundings fell silent at the sudden bloodshed. Some blinked again and again in disbelief at what was happening before them. Yuyeon was also in disbelief. Everyone’s mouths were agape, and only the aggressor was still talking as if that wasn’t enough.

“It took me five years to get that wrist, you delusional m*therfucker, f*ck…”

He seemed enraged at the least important part of this situation. The silence was broken by Yuyeon, who was looking at the car the man had been smashed into.

“Hey, what if you break the car…!”

Yuyeon was not the only one looking at a strange part, and her shout was answered by Ryung as if he had been waiting for it.

“No, why are you giving your wrist to him so easily? Isn’t it Yuyeon who threatened to slice someone’s wrist if they touched you?”

“I wasn’t trying to give up my wrist so easily because of you! Is now the time to whine about that? Can’t you see through your own jealousy?”

“No, I can’t! I can’t just stand by and watch that happen, so I didn’t have a choice!”

They were back into a corner. If they could just get out of there somehow, they could figure out what to do next, but being caught before they reached the gate was the worst.

At that moment, the A-Team members, who were more used to such arguments than others, instinctively approached and stopped them.

“Team leader, I don’t know what’s going on, but let us go with you.”

“Hey, hey, hey. You can’t just kill another team’s officer like this. How are we going to make amends?”

“Stop making a big deal out of this and go beg them for forgiveness before they make you write a bunch of apologies!”

Despite being told that Ryung was going to be discharged, their teammates pulled him aside and tried to calm him down first.

“Why are you wearing this?”

Caught off guard, the robe covering Ryung’s face was pulled off within a flash. His face, hidden by the dark fabric, was finally revealed.

Pale skin and golden eyes.

His sun-like pupils irresistibly sparkled in the sunlight, and the light shone through his pale skin, making his zombie-like purple blood color even more pronounced.

Once again, people were left speechless by the appearance of something that could hardly be called human, no matter how many excuses they came up with. For a moment, even the sound of their breathing was silent, and only the echo of footsteps reverberated. The hands that held Ryung had long since fallen away, and some of them had fallen on their a$s as they stumbled backward.

Even though everything they had tried to cover up had been exposed, Ryung looked refreshed, as if he were glad to be free of his restricted vision and breathing room. He picked up Yuyeon’s robe from the ground and glanced toward the other officers.

Unlike A-Team, who were mesmerized by their colleague’s appearance, several of the quick-thinking B-Team members were already radioing and fiddling with their guns. As soon as they were cleared to fire, bullets would fly. A/Z’s belief that “Kill all zombies, no exceptions” is deeply ingrained in them.

“It’s already ruined.”

Ryung calmly whispered, and in an instant, had Yuyeon in his arms. With her slung over his shoulder before she had a chance to take hold of the situation, Ryung was off running through the crowd at breakneck speed. His footsteps sounded like a stallion running on all fours, and the scenery around him flowed by like a turbulent current. Surprised faces, disoriented muzzles, and stumbling feet flashed by their vision.

Pushing past people, he weaved his way through a wall of cars. The wall of cars, which had been a huge obstacle in the beginning, had now become their shield.

Sure enough, as soon as he broke through the wall of cars, he could hear the shouting and belated gunfire.

BANG!

The sound of stray bullets hitting vehicles and the exterior of the buildings surrounded them. By the time the officers scrambled through the traffic and began to give chase, Ryung had already slipped into a narrow alleyway.

The alleyway was relatively quiet, with a chill in the air from the lack of sunlight, and only the sound of his running sounded. Yuyeon’s long, flowing hair fluttered as Ryung ran. Ryung’s harsh breathing repeatedly pierced her eardrums. Wing, breathing, alleyways, flowing scenery…

‘What is this?’

For a moment, a strange sensation of disorientation overwhelmed Yuyeon’s brain. Her body went limp as if she were dead, and an inexplicable surge of organ-twisting pain choked her. After clutching at her throat and groaning for a while, she finally regained her senses when she saw the light at the end of the dimly lit alley.

“Hey, how far are we going?”

“I don’t know, shouldn’t we try to see what’s going on first?”

Ryung expertly ran through the alleyway, glancing back now and then. Yuyeon patted him on the back to indicate that they were on their tail. When the other officers realized they couldn’t run and catch up to them, they heard a series of car exhausts behind them.

“Uh-oh, I can see the front of the car. Turn into this alley.”

“What about going into the building?”

“Are you crazy? We’re going straight to the iron gates. There’s no way we’re going to waste time here.”

“Ah…!”

“Too much trouble, let me off. I’ll run on my own feet.”

As Yuyeon squirmed, Ryung slapped her a$s, making her jump at the unexpected touch.

“Hey!”

“Hold still, I’m fine.”

As he said that, the edges of his voice were torn apart by his ragged breathing. Even though zombies were said to have superior strength to humans, there was no way they could run this distance at a speed similar to a car and not get tired. It was at this point that Ryung realized he couldn’t make it to the iron gate. Yuyeon heard Ryung cursing and abruptly slowed down. Yuyeon tilted her head as far forward as she could.

Ahead of them in the alleyway, a military vehicle was blocking their path.

‘Damn, when did they pass us? I didn’t think I missed anything.’

The thought of being caught made her body stiffen and her brain go cold. The tinted windows rolled down, revealing the driver. It was James, the yellow-haired, blue-eyed, A-Team vice-captain and the most unlikely ally.

James inappropriately yawned at the urgency of the situation and casually waved.

“Come on, get in.”

Kofi