Convict Unit: Black Parade

Thup-thup-thup!

The rifle in Model Student’s hands spat fire. The silenced rounds instantly blew the head off the zombie latched onto his leg.

But that didn’t make the wound disappear.

“Fff… fuuuck…”

The prim expression that always graced Model Student’s face shattered.

He frantically rolled up his pant leg to administer first aid but suddenly flinched, raising his rifle. It was aimed at the other agents.

Miss Hellth, Flight Risk, and even Ghost, who had remained silent until now.

All of them were slowly raising their weapons at him.

“Yo, Model Student.” Miss Hellth gripped her spear tightly, jutting her chin at him. “An Awakened zombie is way more dangerous than a regular one. You know that, yeah?”

“Wait, hold on…”

“You’ve been bitten and infected. You’ll turn in twenty-four hours, tops. And it’s going to be excruciating. If you’re going to die anyway… wouldn’t it be better to die cleanly at our hands?”

She took a slow step forward. “I’ll make it painless. Just stay still.”

“Cut the bullshit!”

Click!

Model Student’s face gleamed with sweat as he leveled his rifle at the others, his voice a low growl. “Don’t talk so casually when it’s not your life on the line! There has to be a way. There has to be!”

“As if. There’s no cure for this. At least, not one that’s going to appear in the next twenty-four hours.”

“That VIP we’re supposed to rescue—Patissier. He was researching something in this city, wasn’t he? What if it’s a cure? Huh?”

His eyes were becoming bloodshot. Whether it was the infection setting in or the sheer panic of the moment, no one could tell.

“All I have to do is find Patissier, find the cure that fucker worked on, and take it. Right? Then everything will be fine!”

“Model Student… how about living up to your callsign, eh?”

Miss Hellth was now ten paces away. She could extend the length of her blood-red spear. He was already well within her range.

Her fierce eyes glinted with a chilling, murderous intent.

“This’ll be over quick.”

“Don’t come any closer!”

Shhk—!

Model Student ripped a grenade from his tactical vest.

“Zombies react to loud noises, remember? One more step, and I’ll set this off. Every last zombie in the area will come running.”

“Try it. My spear will cut off your arm before your finger can pull that pin.”

“The pin’s already out.”

He was right. His vest was designed so that the pin was pulled the moment the grenade was detached, allowing for an immediate throw. All he had to do was release his grip on the safety lever, and the fuse would ignite.

Miss Hellth’s eyes narrowed. “You little shit…”

“I’m not asking you lot to save me. Just let me go my own way. We can search for Patissier separately. This is a big city. Instead of the four of you wasting time trying to eliminate me, I can cover more ground and narrow the search area. It’s a win-win, isn’t it?”

The agents exchanged glances. He wasn’t completely wrong.

“And if we find Patissier, and he really was researching a cure, I can take it and live. See? Problem solved, right?”

Just then, a voice crackled through their earpieces.

«Commander here.»

Seo Hae-eun’s voice was distorted—the transport had moved farther away—but they could make out her words.

«Let Model Student go. It’s better than causing a scene. The rest of you will continue the mission as a four-man team.»

“Phew…”

As Model Student let out a sigh of relief, the Commander continued.

«Model Student, you will proceed with a separate search as you suggested. But if your zombification progresses too far, or your search takes too long, you know what happens. We’ll have to… deal with you.»

“I know. I want to live, so I’ll do my best to find Patissier as quickly as possible.”

«Good. Effective immediately, Miss Hellth is the team leader. Hellth, you have field command. Begin the search for Patissier.»

Model Student jutted his chin at Miss Hellth. “You heard her. Lower your spear, and I’ll disarm the gren—”

In the following second, everything happened at once.

Shink—!

Miss Hellth’s red spear shot out like a bolt of lightning, severing the wrist of the hand holding the grenade.

“…?!”

As the severed hand flew into the air, spouting blood, Model Student fired the rifle in his other hand.

Thup-thup-thup-thup!

The suppressor muffled the sound, but the shots were still loud. They stopped just as quickly.

Miss Hellth’s second strike sliced the rifle in two, sending shattered fragments flying.

At the same time—BOOM!

The grenade, still clutched in Model Student’s severed hand, detonated in midair.

Flight Risk and Jae-hee screamed and hit the dirt. Ghost clicked her tongue and took cover behind a thick-trunked roadside tree.

«Dammit, what are you doing, Hellth!» Seo Hae-eun yelled through the comms. «I told you to let him go!»

“Didn’t you make me team leader?”

Beneath the brilliant fireworks, Miss Hellth closed in on Model Student, a cruel curve to her lips.

“An Awakened zombie is extremely dangerous, Commander! And an A-Ranker like him? He’ll turn into a monster! Why would we leave such a liability alive?!”

«…»

“I’m eliminating him here!”

Miss Hellth charged, her stance low to the ground.

With his one remaining hand, Model Student drew a pistol from his holster. “You crazy fucking thug—!”

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Model Student fired wildly, but Miss Hellth deflected every bullet, whirling her blood-red spear like a windmill.

“I know all about it, Model Student. Ever since you joined the Black Parade, you’ve been saving every Paradise Credit you’ve earned, haven’t you?”

“…!”

“Hoarding them like a squirrel in winter. I hear it’s gotta be a few million Credits by now.”

The realization of her true motive hit him, and Model Student trembled with rage. “Bitch! You were after that from the start…!”

“I’ll put it to good use for you. Now be a good boy, hand it over, and die!”

Gritting his teeth, Model Student emptied his pistol and threw the useless weapon aside. He drew a curved knife from his belt in a reverse grip.

It was a karambit, a crescent-shaped blade favored in Southeast Asia. He charged, closing the distance between them.

“Fine. Let’s die together, you goddamn muscle-pig!”

“…”

In a close-quarters brawl like this, a spear was at a disadvantage. No matter how skilled Miss Hellth was, or how flexible her blood spear, it couldn’t guarantee lethality greater than a knife when their bodies were pressed together.

In contrast, Model Student was a master of more than just firearms; he was an expert in modern close-quarters combat—CQC—which included knife fighting.

He may have lost a hand, but he hadn’t lost his skill.

“Hraaaagh!” Miss Hellth screamed, her powerful spear swing devastating their surroundings.

“Dieeee!” Model Student roared, dodging the blow by a hair’s breadth and lunging inside her guard, his knife flashing.

They tore into each other, carving bloody lines into one another’s bodies in a desperate, mutual struggle for survival.

And as the two veterans fought their brutal duel…

Geeeehk—!

Kraaaaahh!

The zombie horde, drawn by the grenade’s blast, began to pour in from all directions.

Thump-thump-thump-thump…!

The ground trembled.

Faced with a tidal wave of rotting corpses surging from all sides with monstrous shrieks, Jae-hee could only stomp his feet in panic.

“Waaaaah! It’s like the entire population of Daejeon is coming for us! Shit, what do we do?!”

Hae-eun’s frantic voice cut through the chaos.

«All units, evacuate the area! Now! You’ll all die if you stay there!»

“What about Miss Hellth and Model Student?!”

«If they want to live, they’ll stop and run! You guys get out of there!»

It was then that he spoke up.

“No. Today, the dead shall not harm the living.”

His few remaining strands of hair fluttering in the wind, Flight Risk took a dramatic step forward.

“I will handle this.”

«What? Flight Risk, don’t do anything stupid! I said evacuate, now!»

“Can’t you see, Commander?” He stretched out his arm, pointing at the oncoming horde. “Don’t you see the faces of my adoring fans, here to see me…?”

«Fans? They’re zombies!»

“They’ve come back from the dead just to see me! How could I possibly turn them away?”

Fwoosh!

Flight Risk threw off every piece of clothing under his trench coat in one fluid motion.

Mercifully, Jae-hee was standing behind him, so all he saw was the back of a flapping trench coat instead of the man’s natural state.

“Agh, my eyes!” he still shrieked, covering them instinctively.

“I believe…”

And then, Flight Risk—

“I can flyyyyyy!”

He took off.

His trench coat billowed behind him like a cape as he soared majestically into the air, putting his flying ability on full display.

He gazed down at the horde of zombies staring up at him blankly and, like Santa Claus, began to scatter gifts from his bag.

They were bundles of explosives.

BOOM! KABOOM! KRA-KA-THOOOM!

Pillars of fire erupted on the outskirts of Daejeon.

The bombs Flight Risk rained down from the sky exploded one after another, and the zombies, with no anti-air capabilities whatsoever, were instantly reduced to ash.

The few who were lucky enough to survive the bombardment staggered after him, but it was impossible to catch someone hovering in midair.

“Ehee hee hee! Look at them! They’re my fan club! They’re all following me!” he cackled, doing a jaunty little spin in the air. “Catch me if you can~!”

But there was one thing Flight Risk had overlooked.

This was Daejeon, a metropolis that was once home to 1.5 million people.

Naturally, it was filled with tall buildings, many of which stood at the same altitude as his flight path.

And they were also filled with zombies.

Geeeehk—!

Crash! Crash—!

Zombies poured out of the skyscraper windows, shattering the glass.

They launched themselves at Flight Risk, who was flying right beside them.

“Ah.”

From his level and every floor above, zombies rained down from the windows of every nearby building like a sudden downpour.

Flight Risk took in the sight and let out a sheepish little laugh.

“Looks like I’ve been caught~?”

His voice was so chipper, it was like a star sparkled at the end of his sentence.

And those were his last words.

Flight Risk and his fan club embraced violently in midair. For a split second, a great, tangled ball of zombies hung in the sky.

And then—

KRA-KA-THOOOOM!

The bag of explosives he was carrying erupted in a final, glorious blaze.

The finale of the fireworks display was spectacular. Shattered zombie limbs rained down like freshly popped popcorn, and the windows of the surrounding buildings, already broken, spat out their remaining shards of glass.

And, completely oblivious to the utter chaos around them…

“Uwaaaargh—!”

“Dieeee—!”

…Miss Hellth and Model Student, who had not yielded an inch as they traded blows with spear and knife, finally landed their finishing blows on each other.

Miss Hellth’s spear pierced Model Student’s stomach; Model Student’s knife sliced open the artery in Miss Hellth’s neck, sending blood fountaining into the air.

GRAAAAAHH!

And in that same instant, thousands of zombies descended upon them both like an avalanche.

“…”

Convict Unit: Black Parade.

Mission: Rescue the Patissier.

Fifteen minutes in, three of the five agents were dead.

“Wow…” Jae-hee muttered in awe, watching the clusterfuck unfold. “We are so screwed.”