Please Shoot Me - 8

“No light?”

Yuyeon asked, filled with worry. The light was streaming in through the open doorway, but it was barely enough to see inside. The interior windows, covered with various objects, were blacked out and projected only a hazy glow. Ryung nervously flicked the switch a few more times, then gave up and turned away.

“Well, I guess it’s a power issue, but it doesn’t seem like something we can fix, so I’ll just turn this on for now.”

He flipped on the tactical light on his weapon, illuminating the interior. The stinging light pierced the darkness, partially revealing a shadowy, shapeless interior. It had been used as a warehouse, and miscellaneous items were piled high and cluttered, limiting the view to a library filled with stacked bookshelves. The fear of not knowing what might jump out at any moment paralyzed Yuyeon.

“I can’t see the floor very well, so watch your step.”

Ryung said that as though it was a matter of course and stepped forward while Yuyeon followed behind him. Yuyeon grimaced at the sight of his large backside moving away. He was treating her like a woman right now, not a sergeant in his unit. Part of the reason she distanced herself from him, like drawing a clear line in the sand, was because she feared something like this would happen.

Unwillingness to rely on those you are supposed to protect, affection clouds your judgment, and one day will become a burden. The desire to not be a burden became her fear.

Yuyeon caught up to him, almost running, and they walked side by side.

“I thought you said you would do what I taught you, yet you’re leading the way alone.”

“Because it’s dangerous.”

“And you’re not in danger?”

“Are you worried about me now?”

“Don’t be a d*ck. Look to your left.”

Obediently, he turned the muzzle of his gun to the left, still whispering loud enough for her to hear.

“Hah… I’ll just say it once…”

The scene visible through the thin beam of light resembled the garbage dump outside. Yuyeon almost tripped over bottles of soju on the floor, and there were cigarette butts scattered everywhere. Whatever it was, it was moldy and unrecognizable, and it gave off an unpleasant rotten smell.

“I thought the rotten smell was all around, so this is where it came from.”

Ryung stated, looking at the object of his words.

“Why? Is there rotten food there?”

“No, no. There’s a rotting corpse.”

“What?”

Yuyeon slowly backpedaled, keeping her eyes forward, to reach Ryung, where, as he said, a body lay on the floor.

“There’s no reason to leave a dead body inside. It must have been killed by a zombie, right?”

“That’s not quite right… Something’s wrong.”

“What?”

“The body doesn’t look tampered with. If he died as a human, he would have been mortally wounded before he was infected, but I don’t see any bite marks.”

“Are you saying the cause of death isn’t a zombie?”

“I’m not saying it couldn’t be.”

Yuyeon bent down to examine the corpse for signs of decomposition. It was bloated and fly-infested, looking like it had been dead for three or four days, and wasn’t wearing any clothes. As she examined the body, shining the light in all the right places, she tilted her head and spotted a glowing ring on the corpse’s finger. She had seen a similar design somewhere, so it looked strangely familiar.

“Huh? Aren’t those bite marks?”

While Yuyeon was distracted, Ryung noticed the bite marks on the body’s other arm. Normal people don’t bite people, so it had to be a zombie. Only more questions rose in their minds. Why did this person just die and not become a zombie?

So far, research has shown that the only way to get infected is through a zombie bite, specifically when a specialized solution secreted from the back of the teeth enters the skin.

The zombie virus, as currently described by the medical community, is a neurological disease, similar to rabies. Of course, that didn’t explain why zombies were stronger than humans, why their wounds healed so quickly, or why they didn’t die of natural causes. The infection was still a foreign disease to mankind, an uncharted territory where it was not uncommon to find exceptions.

“After today’s mission, we’ll have to turn this body over to the research team. There’s no point in us pondering here, so get up.”

Yuyeon left the room without a second thought. Despite her command to leave, Ryung stared at the corpse. He couldn’t believe it was the corpse of someone he was familiar with.

“What are you doing?”

“Well, this guy’s hairstyle looks familiar. There was a guy who used to flip his hair like this… I recognize him.”

He stared at it for a long time, even though it was just a regular head of hair, nothing unique before he stood up. When he spotted the teeth marks on the body, he scanned the area, more nervous than before, but found nothing but trash and no zombies.

“He doesn’t seem to be moving. If he was, he’d make a sound.”

“Right.”

“The report said they came into the building, right?”

“Yeah, but the door was open, so they might have gotten out already.”

“Oh, you mean the ones we got on the way in?”

“Yes, the ones you caught.”

“Well, mission accomplished, then.”

Ryung sighed, lowering his weapon. Despite his playful demeanor, it meant he was unavoidably tense during the mission. Not surprising if one has ever seen a colleague get bit before their eyes.

“Looks like there’s another door over there.”

Yuyeon shone a light on a silver door knob on the innermost wall and nodded. Somehow it seemed narrower than on the outside, so there must be another room. Ryung’s shoulders sagged from the loss of the anticipation of going home and having a new task at hand. Noticing his visible mood swings, Yuyeon soothed him.

“Well, judging by the dust on the doorknob, it looks like it’s been closed for a long time, but it shouldn’t take long. I’ll go check it out.”

“I’ll go, you stay here.”

“Forget it, you’re the only one who has shot anything since we’ve been here.”

“I do it because I want to.”

“Since when are you so sincere…”

She fixed her gun and headed for the door, Ryung following closely behind.

“Because it’s the only thing I can do for the person I like.”

“Is this a trick?”

“There’s only two things I can count on: guns and looks. Since you don’t seem to be interested in my smug face, I’m using what’s left.”

His trademark smug face glowed in the dark. He seemed to be very aware of his good looks. In fact, he’d been told he was handsome and admired all the time, so much so that it was strange now to know. She shook her head and waved her hand in rejection at the man who chose to boast of his strength over his beauty. It was a blunt rejection. When Ryung normally would have paused and pouted, he chose to strode doggedly after her.

“Can’t you just relax? You don’t have to work as hard with me. It would be great if I could make you happy just by being with me, but I don’t want you to think that I’m with you out of necessity.”

“What?”

Yuyeon glanced at him, and he took a deep breath as if he’d been waiting for it and lowered his voice.

“It’s just that I feel like in this job, we don’t know when we’re going to die, so I think we should be happy at the moment. Carpe diem, that’s my motto.”

“Do I really need to know your motto right now, in the middle of a mission?”

“I’m just telling you in case it’s something you’ll say to me later. In case of a serious rejection, and because I’ve always wanted to tell you, I’ll love you until the day I die. No matter what your answer is, you’re the reason why my life became precious, why my free life became fun. It’s all because of you.”

“…”

“The more I love you, the happier I am, but it hurts because I can see that you’re a lonely person, and I can feel that you’re not dreaming of the future, and that makes me… sad. The reason I’m happy is because I love you, and I think you’d be happy if you loved someone.”

“…”

“It doesn’t have to be me, so please open your heart to someone. I want you to be happy as soon as possible and dream about the future, because I believe that people who have a strong will to live will live, and I want you to live longer than me.”

Even though he was just saying he liked her, Yuyeon’s heart uncomfortably throbbed. She felt like he exposed a weakness in her, and it scared her.

“Thank you, I appreciate it…”

Yuyeon pushed him away, grabbed the dusty door knob, and muttered.

“Losing someone close to me… I can’t bring myself to go through it again. I-”

‘So, stop coming closer.’

She impatiently turned the doorknob, an evasive gesture to get away from this uncomfortable atmosphere and focus on something else. At the sound of her voice, he fixed his gun for now. Not his head or his heart, but the reflexive response of a body that had survived this long.

She cautiously opened the steel door. They were met with a pair of fluorescent eyes.

‘What the hell…’

Before they had a chance to recognize it, it leaped out at high speed and attacked them.

Kofi