Ch.89Encounter with the Unknown! (5)

#089

While the man and the old man were blaming each other.

When the Abomination that had been trying to attack her suddenly stopped moving, Agent Kuma lowered her submachine gun briefly and said:

“That thing, it’s stopped now, right?”

“Seems that way… We should request backup immediately.”

Himena tried to communicate with the temporary command center through her earpiece.

“Command center, this is Libero from Immigration Control. Can you hear me?”

-…bero… now… Abomi… escape….

“Is the reception bad? An Abomination has appeared. Distance approximately 200 yards. However, the Abomination isn’t showing any movement.”

-Confirmed… support… coming. Stay… right there… do.

“Is my earpiece broken? Kuma, try contacting them too.”

Since she heard the word “confirmed,” it seemed her message was getting through to the command center, but Himena was frustrated that she couldn’t hear their orders clearly.

“This is Patel, Agent Patel. Testing if reception is good…”

After trying to contact the command center through his earpiece, Kuma shook his head and said:

“Mine isn’t getting any response at all.”

“Signal jamming? Ah, this is getting really complicated.”

Himena wanted to make a crying face.

How could two people who weren’t even veteran agents handle an Abomination that even twenty members of the Rapid Response Team couldn’t contain?

“We’re fucked. Let’s just hold out as long as we can and then run…”

Himena sighed deeply while checking how many magazines she had left.

Kuma was surprised by Himena’s casual profanity, as it was the first time he’d heard her swear directly.

“Excuse me? What are we?”

“I said we’re fucked.”

“…Do you usually swear?”

Himena had never sworn at work except when Dexter severely provoked her.

Realizing she had just cursed, Himena hesitated for a moment before boldly standing her ground.

“Why, am I not allowed to?”

“No, you can. It just seems a bit out of character for you…”

Hearing Kuma’s comment, Himena checked her magazine once more, then glared at him and said:

“…Don’t worry about my swearing.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Kuma shut his mouth, thinking it unwise to criticize someone holding a gun.

While Himena might not swear at work, she definitely had quite a temper.

After staring at each other in silence for a while, they both suddenly realized they had forgotten about the monster in front of them.

Between them, they had only two spare magazines.

Thirty rounds per magazine, totaling 60 rounds.

Including the half-spent magazine, they had about 75 rounds.

“We’ll make it back alive, right?”

When Kuma expressed concern for their safety, Himena gave him a slight glare before carefully suggesting they should give up that hope:

“…There’s a civilian town behind us.”

“What?”

“Even when we retreat, we need to take a wide detour to prevent that Abomination from heading toward the residential area.”

In other words, they needed to lure it away somehow, so survival was a secondary concern.

When Kuma’s face hardened as he understood Himena’s meaning, she sighed deeply, bent slightly at the waist to prepare for running, and asked:

“Kuma, are you in good shape?”

“Despite appearances, I’m from Navy SEAL. I’ve got enough stamina for running.”

“That’s good news. Turn around and run, then take a wide detour around that rock. I’ll run toward the mountain area and make a similar wide detour.”

After finishing her instructions, Himena stared at the nodding Kuma and added:

“You’re a SEAL, should I be giving you orders? Don’t you know better?”

“No, I’m quiet because your method seems effective. I don’t think there’s any particularly better approach.”

Kuma stretched lightly and continued:

“I’ll give the signal, and we’ll start then.”

Looking at the still-motionless Abomination, Kuma shouted energetically:

“Heeeey!!! Look at me!!!”

With those words, the previously still Abomination flinched, then began to approach slowly with footsteps that shook the ground.

“Now!”

With that signal, both of them started running quickly, then split in two different directions at a certain point.

-Grooooowl…!

-Ratatata, ratatata!

The Abomination hesitated about whom to follow, when suddenly it was hit by bullets flying toward it.

“Over here, over here!!!”

After being hit by Kuma’s bullets, the Abomination snorted once and began chasing after him.

-Ratatata, ratata!

-Grooooowl!

As the Abomination tried to chase Kuma, bullets started hitting the back of its head.

“I’m over here too!!!”

Himena was shooting at the back of the Abomination’s head while running.

After hesitating again, the Abomination decided to continue following Kuma, who was closer.

-Thump, thump, thump…!

Kuma felt the ground-shaking vibrations getting closer to him and glanced back to see the Abomination charging terrifyingly toward him.

He wanted to shoot while running, but it wouldn’t be effective against the Abomination right behind him.

-Bang!

With the sound of a shot followed by a thud, the Abomination’s steps faltered, and it collapsed right where it stood.

When Kuma looked back while running hard, he saw the Abomination clutching its ankle, which now had a hole in it.

Turning his head to the left, he saw Himena getting up after kneeling on one knee with her submachine gun shouldered.

‘She aimed for the ankle from that distance?’

Although the Abomination’s ankle was thicker than a human’s, the distance between Himena and the Abomination was about 350 yards.

That was a difficult shot to make under normal circumstances.

‘Does she have a shooting specialty?’

Kuma was surprised to see this unexpected side of Himena, whom he had thought was just a rich girl.

According to the Rapid Response Team, even if bullets penetrated or lodged in the Abomination, it would recover quickly.

The Abomination, its ankle somewhat recovered already, began thumping after Kuma again.

‘It doesn’t have infinite stamina, so how can it keep moving?’

The Abomination’s unlimited recovery and stamina were incomprehensible even to Kuma, who was being chased.

Whenever Kuma felt the creature getting closer, Himena’s remarkable shooting skills shone.

-Ratatata, ratata!

Thanks to Himena’s efforts to periodically target its ankle to prevent it from running, the Abomination’s attention began to shift toward her.

“It’s heading your way! Be careful!”

Kuma slowed down and raised his submachine gun, trying to target the Abomination’s knee.

‘How on earth did she hit that?’

Even for Kuma with his SEAL background, it was difficult to hit the constantly moving Abomination’s knee in the moonlight.

-Ratatata!

-Grooooowl…!

But Kuma had his pride.

The bullet he fired with maximum concentration flew exactly where he wanted—into the back of the Abomination’s knee.

Thanks to that, the running Abomination tripped and fell flat due to momentum.

He was able to hit it because it was moving away from him at a relatively close distance; if he had been at Himena’s distance, he would have struggled to hit even one out of ten shots.

“Great job!!!”

Himena smiled brightly and continued running.

After several exchanges with the Abomination until their magazines were nearly empty, Himena and Kuma realized they were running out of ammunition.

“We’re really fucked now.”

Kuma had only one magazine left.

Even that last magazine couldn’t be used freely.

‘When is backup supposed to arrive?’

The support forces that should have arrived early were still nowhere to be seen.

“This is Kuma, Agent Kuma! Please respond!”

-…

The earpiece that should connect to the temporary command center remained unresponsive.

“This is driving me crazy.”

It was maddening for Himena too, with the Abomination chasing her from behind.

“Please, *gasp*, stop, *gasp*, following me!”

-Grooooowl…!

She couldn’t remove her protective mask because of the virus carried by the Abomination, and breathing was extremely difficult.

Moreover, feeling her physical limits, Himena felt like she might collapse at any moment.

‘If only there was somewhere to catch my breath…!’

But there was nothing of the sort in the wide-open rocky desert wasteland.

-Ratatata, ratata!

Kuma aimed for the head of the Abomination chasing Himena with warning shots, but it merely waved its arms as if swatting flies and didn’t even turn its head toward Kuma.

Just as Kuma was about to approach Himena, who looked like she was struggling to run:

-Vroooom….

“…Is that backup?”

Kuma felt hope when he heard the sound of headlights and a car engine approaching rapidly from a distance.

-Honk, honkhonkhonkhonk, hoooonk…!

Kuma frowned at the chaotic, noisy honking while continuing to run.

‘Whatever it is, it’s definitely not proper backup.’

“Himenaaaaa!”

Someone was shouting with their head sticking out of the car window.

A deep, rich voice that carried across the state park.

It was a voice Kuma had never heard before, but to Himena, it was the most welcome sound.

“Hik, Dex, hiik, Dexter…”

“Wait for me!”

Dexter, who had now reached them, took something out from the passenger dashboard and transferred it to his left hand.

As the brass knuckles in his left hand began to transform like a glove, Himena wondered what that object was.

And when Dexter aimed that object at the Abomination chasing Himena, she finally recognized what it was.

‘A blaster!’

-Whiiiiine…!

Unlike suppression blaster rounds, high-power blaster rounds made a different loading sound.

It felt different for the user too.

‘This whining feeling.’

It felt like testing the blaster’s durability, extracting maximum firepower—a feeling Dexter quite enjoyed.

Dexter closed one eye and aimed at the Abomination with his trembling left hand, then fired.

-Boom…!

The fist-sized blue plasma flame that shot from the blaster’s muzzle momentarily illuminated the dark surroundings as it flew toward the Abomination’s leg.

The Abomination saw the plasma flame and tried to dodge.

It attempted to swerve sharply, but the rapidly approaching flame grazed its calf before it could fully evade.

-Grooowl…!

The flame had merely grazed it.

It had only grazed past, yet the calf was being eaten away and burning as if the flame had bitten into it.

The Abomination fell and rolled on the ground from the sudden pain.

This was their chance.

“Himena, get in quickly!”

When Dexter’s pickup truck stopped in front of Himena, she removed her protective mask, opened the passenger door, and climbed in.

“Hik, hiik.”

“Close the door and hold tight! We’re going straight to that agent!”

Himena, busy catching her breath, nodded in response and barely managed to close the passenger door. Dexter drove toward Kuma and asked:

“What happened? And why are there only two of you?”

“Hiik, it’s… a long story! Hiik.”

It didn’t seem right to ask Himena for details while she was still struggling to breathe.

Dexter could tell from the Abomination’s condition—bleeding from its ankle and knee—that they needed to continue heading deeper into the state park, the direction the two had been running.

Soon, Dexter reached Kuma, who was running without rest. He got out of the driver’s seat and casually asked:

“You can drive, right?”

“Huff, what? Oh, y-yes, I can drive… huff, but who are you?”

“Dexter Hughes. For now, let’s try to drive it back toward the center.”

Although Kuma was bewildered by Dexter’s sudden appearance, he thought riding in a car would be better than running, so he decided to follow Dexter’s instructions.

Dexter climbed into the pickup truck’s bed, pressed his legs firmly against the sides, tapped the truck a couple of times, and said:

“Not too fast, just enough for that monster to follow us!”

“Got it!”