Chapter 5
“Hey! You useless bastards! Can’t even hit one target? Get your asses out here now!” the man who had been posing as a priest shrieked, his composure finally snapping. He pulled a gun from his hip, aimed it at Yongcheol, and backed away as men who had been lying in wait rushed out, every one of them armed.
Thankfully, Yongcheol is a fool, but he’s no weakling. Gripping the crowbar slung across his back, he shoved the children safely behind him and charged.
“Raaaah! Die!”
Have you ever seen a madman charge into a hail of bullets armed with nothing but a bent piece of steel? I have. And now, this band of raiders was about to have the same experience.
Crack! The sound was proof of just how brutal a weapon a crowbar could be.
“Uh, ugh… You… crazy… How is a fat bastard so fa—”
“The name’s D.I. I’ve never lost the final leg of a relay in my life.”
Yongcheol slammed the crowbar into the man’s head again. Blood streamed from his shattered forehead as Yongcheol lifted his chin triumphantly. Just then, a shot rang out, and his body staggered. The bullet grazed him.
“Aaargh! That hurts!”
Another shot. Blood spurted from Yongcheol’s arm. Even in agony, he managed to roll to cover, but that was all he could do. As long as they knew where he was, he was an open target.
“Ugh, that dumbass.”
Leaning against the statue of Mary, I steadied my breath and brought my eye to the scope.
Eight of them.
A small number for a group of raiders. There had to be more of them somewhere else. With my spare magazines back in the car, I had to conserve every bullet.
“Hey! Where’s the woman? Drag her out!” the fake priest yelled.
“Uh, she went behind the statue of Mary.”
“So what? You want me to go get her? Move it, you son of a bitch!”
The man posing as a priest—no, the fake priest—seemed to be their leader, constantly shouting orders. He already knew I had a gun, so for all his bluster, his men moved with caution. That worked in my favor. Hidden in the statue’s shadow, I held my breath and waited, my ears straining to catch the sound of their footsteps. One step, two steps… Now.
Bang!
“Aaaargh!”
“Shoot! Just kill her!”
The sudden gunshot shattered the silence. A spray of bullets chewed at the stone where I’d been. I dodged by a hair’s breadth, ducking behind the wall with only the barrel of my rifle exposed. Bang! Bang! Thwack! My shots found their marks unerringly, slamming into their bodies and throwing them backward. Besides the fake priest, three remained.
“Sh-Shit… Hey, what the hell? You said we could ignore her! That she probably couldn’t even handle a gun!”
“Agh! Why are you yelling at me? How was I supposed to know the bitch was a crack shot?”
“Because of you, we’re all gonna f—Ugh!”
The man never finished. I burst from the deepening shadows and drove my military-issue machete into his neck.
“A-Aaaargh!”
His companion, who had watched it happen, panicked at the sight of me and fired wildly. But I was too much of a veteran to get hit by blind shots from a clumsy amateur. I slid low across the ground, passing between his legs before kicking him in the small of his back and pressing the muzzle of my gun to the back of his head.
“Uh, ugh, w-wait a minute!” he shouted hastily. “S-spare me. J-Just this once. I had no choice; he made me do it. Okay?”
He trembled, rambling on. ‘Please let me live, I was wrong, I’ll never do it again, please save me…’ Listening to him, I wondered how many people he’d watched beg for their lives just like this. Instead of staying in a safe shelter and following the rules like everyone else, these types chose to roam the Infected-swarmed wasteland, killing helpless refugees and treating them like toys.
That’s what raiders were.
“Your tone’s a little casual for someone begging for their life.”
“Uh, er, p-please, spare me, ma’am.”
If you let men like this live, they create ten, twenty more victims. I’d made that mistake once, sparing a raider who went on to massacre a small refugee outpost. Everyone there died. From the moment I saw the corpse of a five-year-old boy who had been fond of me, I stopped seeing raiders as human.
“No.”
Bang! I ended his life with a single shot, then lowered my rifle and turned. The fake priest was dragging Jun as a hostage into the cathedral. Figuring I was overdue for mass, I followed him inside.
“Y-you! Who are you?!”
All his earlier arrogance was gone. The moment he saw me, the fake priest began to tremble and shout, the muzzle of his gun pressed against Jun’s cheek.
“Who the hell are you, you bitch?!”
Bang! Bang!
The bullets slammed into the ground, nowhere near me. He was panicking. What a waste of ammo.
“Hey! Hey! I’ll let you go, okay? This isn’t all of us, you know! We have a separate supply team. Way more guys than this.”
“When they get here, you’ll both be dead! So get out of here while you can. Got it?”
Just as I suspected, this wasn’t their whole crew. I blinked slowly, considering my options, but it didn’t take long. My gaze fell on Jun, who was sniffling in the fake priest’s grip.
“Your name is Jun, right?”
The boy glanced nervously at his captor before slowly nodding.
“Did he hit you?”
His shoulders trembled. Then, perhaps unconsciously, he covered a bluish bruise on his arm with his hand.
“Did he hit your sister, too?”
A sharp gasp came from the side. I glanced over and saw Yongcheol, who had already staunched his bleeding, holding a crying Yeon. She was sobbing, practically hyperventilating. It wasn’t a pretty sight. I turned my gaze back to the fake priest.
“If you were going to play at being a priest, the least you could have done was not hit children, you fucking fake.”
His face twisted into a snarl. “Fuck you, what’s it to you?! Do you know these brats? Do you? You don’t! So just get the hell out!”
He waved his gun wildly, a move made possible only by the distance between us. It was born from the arrogant certainty that I couldn’t hit him from this range and the vile assumption that I wouldn’t dare shoot with the child there.
“You’re wrong.”
I didn’t move a single step. I just aimed my rifle, my eye finding the scope.
“I mean, a sister busting her ass to find her little brother isn’t just gonna walk past kids getting beaten, right? Don’t you think so?”
Hearing my words, the fake priest stared blankly for a moment before his eyes shot wide, his mouth gaping, “What?”
His eyes darted around before he let out a choked gasp.
“Wait… You… don’t tell me, you’re Min Ah—!”
He never finished. A hole blossomed in his forehead, and he tumbled backward, his body coming to rest at the foot of the cross. A false priest, struck down beneath the very symbol of the man who came to save the wretched. Having arrogantly posed as a man of God while committing sins that were the antithesis of His will, he now received his punishment. Gazing at the ironic scene, I made the sign of the cross.
“Hallelujah.”
Amen.