Please Shoot Me - 21

As she released her limbs that had been hanging onto him, she slowly lowered herself to the ground. As her feet touched the ground, she could feel her full weight.

Ryung remained frozen in place, his eyes closed. The pain was so intense that he didn’t make a sound, not even a groan.

“Dude… What should I do…? Are you okay?”

If the injury was to his spine, he would be a quadriplegic. Yuyeon restlessly paced in place, unable to touch him lest she add to his pain. Even from above, they could see the embarrassment on their pursuers’ faces from their fall, but they never fired another shot. Perhaps they thought Ryung would die on his own accord.

After a while, he made a small gesture with his closed eyes. It was as if he was making one last request before dying. Yuyeon rushed over and faced him.

“Hah… Sunbae.”

His zombified skin was already pale, making it difficult to judge his condition, but his bloodless skin looked particularly pitiful. Yuyeon reassured him, grabbing his ugly hand that was wandering in the air.

“Uh-huh, I’m here. What can I do for you? Do you want to climb up on me if you can’t walk?”

Instead of answering, he reached out a long arm and wrapped it around Yuyeon’s waist and pulled her into him. The momentary force from his grip buried her face in his chest. As her vision went black, she heard his voice.

“It hurts a lot, so please h-ooh– later.”

His words were unintelligible, but he scooped her up in one swift motion, slung her over his shoulder as before, and took off running with explosive force. At the sudden movement of their target, the men opened fire, followed by several vehicles that had just emerged from the open iron gates.

The sharp echo of gunfire shook her out of her daze. It was the next best thing for their survival to check if Ryung was hurt. Yuyeon, who hung like w*t laundry over his shoulders, jerked her head up to relay the situation.

“Three cars are coming. We have to take the alley, not the main road!”

“I know! I know!”

When Yuyeon kept sticking her head out to look behind her, he urgently added.

“Sunbae, be careful not to get hit in the head!”

“Head?”

Realizing in hindsight that the bullets were only going low, Yuyeon looked up at the sunlit control tower. When her blurred version cleared, she bit her lip and muttered.

“… No, that’s okay.”

The guns were firing. It was the A-team, the veterans, who were doing the shooting. There was no way they couldn’t hit a fleeing zombie in the head. They were deliberately aiming for the legs, or maybe they just didn’t have the heart to shoot them in the first place. Even a traitor could not make their comrades-in-arms who had shared a life-and-death experience with them just a few days prior want to kill.

Yuyeon turned her gaze to the pursuing vehicles. In the front of the car was the man who had been nearly killed by Ryung, who seemed to have quickly recovered from the blow to their head and was skillfully driving. It was nice to have such a strong-willed m*mber of Team B. The appearance of talent was not welcoming right now. As they closed the distance, the man in the passenger seat pulled out a gun and aimed it at Ryung. The venom in his eyes made her heart race.

“Hey! Alley! Alley!”

“I know!”

Ryung abruptly turned from the main road and entered a narrow alleyway. A stray bullet narrowly missed Yuyeon’s hair and hit the corner of a building. Their fast pursuers slammed on their brakes, but Ryung was too far ahead. A sharp screech echoed through the narrow alley. Even though they had outrun the cars, Yuyeon’s heart was still pounding.

‘I’m crazy. I almost died.’

Yuyeon had been close to death all along, but just now, she could feel the bullet flying by pushing the air out of her lungs.

Meanwhile, Ryung was darting in and out of narrow alleyways. As is typical for a once red-light district, various trash cans and portable signs blocked his way. He was pushing and kicking his way through them, but it slowed him down considerably. At the end of his vision, he could see the pursuers entering the alley.

“Hey, they’re out of their cars. Get back on the main road.”

“I know, but… Ah, there’s a lot of stuff going on.”

Ryung stumbled through the alleyway, his feet knocking over signboards, each one filled with life-affirming information like “Pearl’s Chicken Feet” or “Laundromat” hours. When they finally saw the end of the alley, Yuyeon heard Ryung swear.

“Ah, f*ck…”

Reflexively turning her head, she saw a zombie entering the alley. The headset-wearing zombie was running, his head bobbing from side to side in a rhythmic motion. A zombie in front, the pursuers behind. It was a moment where she wondered if it would be better to be bitten by a zombie or to be shot.

Turning sharply, Ryung kicked the door of a cafe with all his might. The flimsy latch shattered and the door swung open. He quickly entered the cafe and closed the door behind them. He let go of Yuyeon and grabbed his gun with his free hand. If someone opened the door, the battle would immediately begin.

Just then, gunshots rang out from outside, followed by the anguished cries of a zombie. It looked like the trackers and the zombie were facing off. If that was the case, it must be the trackers who open the door to the cafe. 

‘I don’t want to kill them…’

As the footsteps got closer, Yuyeon pointed the gun at the door and took a deep breath. At that moment, her tension peaked as she envisioned the door being opened and someone entering, but the footsteps didn’t stop. They just passed by.

[I lost them in the alley. I think they’re gone out onto the main road again, let’s search that way for now.]

A muffled voice came from beyond the thin, wooden door. At first glance, she could only see the top of his head, so he must not have seen them enter. Her tense body instantly relaxed and she felt she could finally catch her breath. Even Ryung, who had been running at full speed, was now breathing heavily and leaning against the door.

“Hey, are you… okay?”

Yuyeon barely moved her shaky legs and squatted in front of him. All she did was be held by him from the rope to their current position, but she was still pretty tired. The exhaustion was evident on his face, which must have significantly more than her own.

Yuyeon brushed a strand of his sweaty bangs from his face and locked eyes with him, who seemed to enjoy the touch, pulling back her hand and holding it against his face. He then let out a weak smile.

“I’m not okay, so please give me a kiss.”

The cute tone, emphasized by his desire for a kiss, dried any seeds of worry.

“You’re okay.”

Yuyeon withdrew her hand with a confident expression and breathed a sigh of relief. Ryung, on the other hand, wrinkled the bridge of his nose and ran a hand through his hair in annoyance, as if he missed her touch.

“Oh, come on. Don’t you know that in the movies, they always overcome a crisis like this and they passionately kiss each other to celebrate being alive? It’s not like I’m asking for much…”

“I see you’re still alive and kicking. Weren’t you just trying to make me worry about your broken bones earlier or were you playing games?”

Yuyeon recalled the situation earlier, when she was on the verge of tears, and made a face. Ryung narrowed his eyes in frustration.

“I’m not lying, I really did break a bone.”

“How can you run when your bones are broken?”

“It was reattached in the meantime.”

“What?”

It took less than thirty seconds for Ryung to pick her up and start running, so he would have had to recover in that time. Zombies are remarkably resilient compared to humans, but it’s common for them to be sluggish for a while after a broken limb. If what Ryung is saying is true, he’s far more resilient than the average zombie.

“I guess you’re the success of that damned experiment.”

“That’s not a very flattering title.”

“Well, as long as you stay sane, I don’t mind you being a zombie. Physical abilities would be nice too, break a limb and it just mends itself… It’s ideal.”

Yuyeon sat down on her a$s in front of him. When their eyes met at close range, he looked away. It was as if he didn’t want to meet her eyes.

“I don’t want to be one.”

“Why?”

“Because I know how zombies linger in your memories… And they’re not pleasant memories to have.”

Her family history had been passed down from mouth to mouth by those in the unit and used as a basis for explaining her hard-headed and cranky personality. Ryung knew she lost her family to zombies as a child, and he was nervous that he would stir up some bad memories.

His hunch was correct. On any given day that she encountered many zombies, she would have nightmares about the day she lost her family to zombies as a child.

“… I’ll try to get over it.”

Yuyeon grabbed Ryung’s chin and pulled his gaze back to her, and the moment their eyes met, she pressed their lips together. Ryung’s bangs slightly swayed, and his eyes widened.

“Now, it doesn’t hurt anymore, does it?”

Kofi