Please Shoot Me - 25

Still wary of their surroundings, Ryung glanced at the creature, which had begun to rub itself against Yuyeon’s legs. Stiff, white dog hair was already sticking to their black uniforms.

“You’re a human, I’m a zombie, but the dog is acting like it’s fine.”

“Don’t you think it’s because the dog’s owner was a human then turned into a zombie?”

Yuyeon snapped back, ready to fight with Ryung.

“What did you do with the owner’s body then? Collect it?”

“I just took some DNA then burned it because if I collected it, the dog would keep hanging around the gate. Now that his owner is gone, I thought he would have gone somewhere else. Is he still wandering around here alone, looking for him?”

“That’s possible since it’s the same route they took every day.”

With that, the conversation about the dog ended and the two continued on as before, except that the dog began to walk alongside them. Every now and then, Ryung would wave his hand at the dog, trying to signal it was time to go.

“What should I do, sunbae? He keeps following us.”

“Leave it alone. He’ll be on his own way soon.”

Yuyeon’s reply was nonchalant as she shot a zombie in the head in the distance. Gunfire rang out between them, now both of them focused on shooting. The loud noise scared the dog away a little, but it still followed them, just out of sight.

Three hours later, they were on a six-lane road. From here on out, the road was still untraveled, with cars parked in all but one lane. The reason for the lanes being open was probably because Seonwoo cleared it to get various supplies from the safe zone. In other words, if they followed this open road, they would reach his lab.

“Don’t just look ahead, look to the side. There could be zombies coming out from behind the cars or in them.”

“In a car? A zombie driving it? Wouldn’t that be a special breed?”

“No. If they were bitten while inside, they probably don’t have the intelligence to open the door, so they would be trapped.”

BOOM!

A zombie head popped out of the half-open window, nearly scaring Yuyeon to death.

“Wow, what a surprise.”

Ryung stumbled backwards, startled by the suddenness of the situation. Even though his voice was loud, the zombie didn’t give him a second glance, only staring at Yuyeon while baring its teeth.

“I see it now. Your position.”

Yuyeon looked at the zombie straight in his red-rimmed eyes, stepped closer, and calmly shoved the muzzle of her gun into his mouth. A quick, concise shot rang out, and the car was quickly littered with fragments of head and blood. The black blood running down the windshield was sticky and gritty. Yuyeon carefully scraped away the teeth and jawbone stuck on her gun muzzle.

“The way they’re not reacting to you, I don’t think they recognize you as food. Maybe they think you’re one of them.”

Ryung frowned, trying to think about the zombie’s reaction. He rubbed the back of his head and sighed, realizing that he had thought he was still somewhat human, but now realizing he was recognized by zombies.

“So you’re saying that all of the zombies that have been running toward us so far have been after you?”

“Yeah.”

“F*ck… There’s more of them.”

His eyes lit up, and Ryung mechanically adjusted the angle of his muzzle. His movements were robotic as he scanned his surroundings. With a single, precise head shot at a zombie approaching from the distance, he killed it in the distance. Then he spotted another inside a car, grinding its teeth against the glass and approached, tapping the glass as he did so.

Tap, tap, tap…!

As the sounds resounded, the zombie inside weakened. Ryung clicked his tongue and lunged forward. The zombie that had been making bizarre cries just a moment ago was now sitting quietly in the car, its eyes only following Yuyeon. It looked like a kid craving a piece of cake.

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t want to waste a bullet, and it was annoying that he was salivating at you, so I scolded him.”

“… Scolded him?”

“I didn’t know it would work, but I just mimicked its crying.”

“That’s pretty good. It’s like you’re taming a dog.”

“…. Is that what you call a compliment?”

Ryung let out a hollow laugh, shaking his head, but was startled by the sound of a dog barking. Turning, he saw a zombie leap out from the back of a car. Ryung took a few steps back and pulled the trigger, blood gushing like a fountain from the zombie’s severed head.

The headless body stumbled a few more steps, as if it had something left to live for, before finally collapsing. A pale hand stretched out in front of it, reaching for Yuyeon’s shoe. Ryung’s heart raced at the near miss.

“Sunbae, are you okay?”

“Uh-huh, I’m fine. Look ahead.”

She calmly replied, trying to hide her flushed face. He did as he was told, keeping his eyes forward but occasionally glancing behind.

“What was that?”

“A young zombie. I couldn’t see it because it was smaller than the car…”

Yuyeon looked over at the dog sniffing the fallen zombie. Had it seen the zombie and barked? The timing was perfect, as if it was warning her of danger. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

The white ball of fur trotted on, this time past Ryung and well ahead of them. It seemed to be going somewhere else now. There was a fork in the road. The dog ahead of them furiously barked at the bend in the round. Just as I sensed something ominous, several zombies appeared from that direction. Smelling human in the air, they began to charge toward them.

Ryung’s bullets pierced their heads, but that was only the beginning. The zombies at the crossroads reacted to the gunfire, propping up here and there and running.

The hollow sound of a trigger being pulled mingled with Ryung’s curses. His bullets, which had killed many zombies on the move, were now gone.

“I need to change magazines.”

“I’ll cover.”

While Ryung changed magazines, Yuyeon fired at the zombies running in front of them. Hitting a moving target wasn’t as easy as she thought. Her arm fatigue from holding the gun made her arm more erratic than usual. It wasn’t perfect, but the bullets hit the zombies in the head, her years of experience in fighting for survival showing through.

It was then.

She heard a sudden zombie cry from behind her that she hadn’t noticed because she was too focused on the road ahead. Reacting with superhuman speed, Ryung swung his gun like a baseball bat and smashed it into the zombie’s head. The force was so strong that Yuyeon heard the skull crack. With a thud, a chunk of flesh fell to the asphalt, followed by Ryung’s raspy voice.

“Sunbae, switch.”

“Huh? Huh…”

Ryung took over again when the front line came into clear view. He simply cut down the zombie head count as if it were a game. It was such a flawless shot that Yuyeon wondered if there had ever been such a difference between her and him. She was barely holding on for her life, while he was practically doing the job of two or more.

It wasn’t until zombies were in front of them died that the dog’s barking, which had been drowned out by gunfire, ceased. The dog trotted up and down the alleyway, then trotted back. The fur around its paws was stained red with blood from walking among the bodies. Ryung patted the dog’s head for the first time.

“Sunbae, you think he’s like a zombie alert?”

Yuyeon nodded her head in agreement. It could be that the dog was just wary of moving things, but since almost 99% of the creatures outside the safe zone were zombies, it was safe to call it a warning.

“He alerted me to the little zombie earlier, too.”

“Really, you little sh*t. Come here.”

He stroked the dog’s head. His touch drew back the skin of his face, making the dog’s whites show, and his tail wagged like the touch was a good thing.

“He followed us all the way here, by the way.”

“Don’t you think he thinks you’re his owner since you took care of him once?”

“What? Don’t you think you’re taking animals too lightly?”

“They say dogs recognize people who like them.”

“…”

The dog, having had enough of Ryung’s petting, rubbed its head against Yuyeon, waiting for her touch this time.

“I guess I’m not the only one who recognizes your sweetness.”

Yuyeon didn’t want to create a creature that she cared for more than this. If she didn’t want to be sad when they parted, she had to stop giving him affection. Her fear of loss was the emotion she was most wary of, but against her better judgment, her hand touched the dog’s head. The stiff, white fur felt good, and the warmth of life tickled her heart.

“I don’t have any food, so there’s nothing to be gained by following me.”

The dog continued to lick her hand with its dry tongue. It was so dry and rough that there was barely any saliva. Yuyeon pulled a water bottle from her waistband and called out to Ryung.

“Put your hands together like this.”

“Don’t give him too much since we don’t have a lot.”

“He’s been barking so much, his throat must be sore. If he hasn’t had water since I last gave him some, he’s dehydrated. Besides, I owe him my life.”

As Yuyeon rattled off her reasons, he smiled and casually cupped his hands together in a curved shape to serve as a water bowl. The dog stuck out its long tongue to drink directly from the water, too scared to drink from the makeshift bowl. The tongue made a slurping sound as it went in and out, splashing water droplets everywhere.

“Hey, choose carefully. Do you realize how precious this water is and you’re throwing away half of it?”

“He must be really thirsty.”

“We’ve been walking a lot today.”

“I didn’t think he would follow us this far.”

“Shall we go now?”

The thirsty dog stuck his nose into the black asphalt and trotted away, leaving Ryung and Yuyeon a little sad to see him go over the sunset-drenched landscape. Yuyeon shook off the feelings and scanned their surroundings.

“It’s getting dark, so let’s find a place to stay for the night. Somewhere like an empty store like earlier.”

“Sure. There are so many cars parked here, plus it’s impossible to see at night.”

They started looking at the shops along the side of the road.

“Huh? He’s coming back again.”

“What is that?”

This time, the dog, who they thought was gone for good, came back with something as big as him.

It was a human arm.

Kofi