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boxxsaltzTitle: Sugar We’re Goin’ Down Shootin’
Author: boxxsaltz
Rating: R
Pairing: Yoona/Tiffany
Summary: One mission: Stay alive. But only at the cost that they could do it together.
Warning: Violence, death, guns and things la la la
AN: Part III of the Girls With Guns Series
AN: Because![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rules1through8 wanted yoonfany and it takes me eons to write.
Sugar We’re Goin’ Down Shootin’
Part I
She should’ve stayed at home.
Rained oozed down the diner window, streaking along paint chipped letters. Yoona stared at her bike getting pummeled by thick, weighty drops, seeping into the leather of her seat and dripping into the gears and machinery of the bulky thing.
Hand reaching across the table, she picked up a coffee cup just as the diner bell chimed. She sniffed at the brackish liquid and cringed. Gone cold, stale and tasteless. She placed it down as feet clamored over to her and a body landed in the chair across the table.
“It’s a storm out there.” Red hair shook as a pale hand tossed it about. Beads of water sprinkled on the table, dripping onto the gloss of a sun stained menu.
Damp fingers picked at the menu, cracking it open as thunder shook the glass window. The place was empty, cold. Dead.
“Where’s the waiter?” Her voice was the warmth that the diner needed; its low register resonating like the thunder while her zipping eyes matched the flickering lightning.
Yoona sat back in her chair, fingers undoing the wrapping of a piece of bubblegum as she shrugged. Popping it into her mouth, her tongue danced. The sugar and flavors were soothing to her and she chewed faster, letting the calming effects of it sink in.
“How’s the water?” Asked Yoona.
“Low.”
She nodded, mouth smacking loud and unflattering along with a new shuffle of feet.
Yoona looked up, watching as a greasy looking woman with a parted mouth and gnarled looking hair headed their way. Her apron was stained and her shirt was in need of a decent wash. She looked like death and that was hardly inviting.
“Oh,” red hair whipped around as a head swiveled to look at the approaching woman. “There she is.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, a faint buzz hissed through the air.
It happened so fast neither one of them reacted to the woman’s head snapping backwards as a bullet pierced her skull and she toppled to the ground.
Dark brown eyes met hers and Yoona twisted off the silencer on her pistol to hide the equipment away in her coat.
“We should go, Tiffany.” Her head cocked toward the window.
Through the pouring sheet of rain, a group of lazily, limping bodies were headed toward the diner. Their slack open mouths and deranged eyes alighted with what they could possibly find and feast on inside. Except, there hadn’t been food in the diner for months – until now. Two fleshly beings were all they needed.
“We’ll come back for your bike later?” Tiffany stood, tying back her hair with a piece of elastic rope she had hanging around her neck.
Yoona nodded and grabbed her helmet. “Let’s go.”
Jumping into Tiffany’s jeep, the engine revved.
They didn’t think twice as they sped through the cluster of bodies. They rolled over the hood and smacked into the windshield leaving their putrid, blackish blood smeared all over.
“Oops,” Tiffany giggled, turning on the wipers.
Yoona felt a smile crack at the corner of her mouth as she chewed on.
Suddenly, she didn’t hate the day so much anymore.
-/-/-/-
It all started with a car accident. Yoona remembered the day perfectly.
All the inmates were crowded in the mess hall. Old Jiyoung was arguing with Fighting Fei about something pointless as usual and Yoona was trying to swipe Bora Bora’s ice cream off her tray.
She had nearly succeeded until Tattle Tellin’ Goodie Two Shoes Ji-Eun opened her mouth and Yoona got a hand around her throat before an officer hollered at them to shut up.
Their heads all snapped over to where a guard was asked to turn up the volume and everyone listened in.
It was just an accident. A gasoline truck had tipped over on Banpo Bridge, spilling its contents into the river and all over the road. Emergency vehicles with their flashing lights peppered the bridge within a cluster of abandoned cars.
Yoona could see people in yellow suits, arms waving frantically and giant hoses spraying water. The sight of the military was the only thing out of character until Yoona started listening to the news anchor -
“It is reported that the truck was not hauling gasoline, but rather a mass quaintly of Biological Waste Chemicals…”
Yoona took that opportunity to snag Bora’s ice cream and pulled away from the table letting the report resonate in her ears.
The news told them they shouldn’t panic. The authorities were cleaning up the spill.
The news told them that the waste was not harmful. It would dissolve away in a couple of days.
The news told them that the military involvement was to make sure it was not an attempted terrorist attack. They had nothing to do with it.
A week later, Yoona learned all those things were lies.
Plate of pie in hand, legs curled beneath her on a couch in the recreation room, she watched on the news as the end of the world began.
-/-/-/-
They were like reptiles, Yoona thought. It was a weird thought. But that’s how they were to Yoona as she peeked through the blinds of the house, watching them stagger lazily along the streets.
They were less active in the day because of the heat. Like cold-blooded creatures, they were prone to shutting down, less likely to attack when sun beat down on their heads. It made daylight safer to go out in but no less dangerous.
“Food is almost ready.” Tiffany leaned over the island in the kitchen, staring at Yoona who was at the window.
The house they were in belonged to the Hwang’s – Tiffany’s family. They were gone. Apparently Tiffany lost her mother in the first flux of crawlers and her dad, a military man, left to try and get a handle on the mess but never returned.
Yoona moved away from the window and into the kitchen. She leaned against the wall waiting for her to finish.
“I’m going to the school later.” Said Tiffany, moving to the stove and poured the creamy contents into two bowls.
Yoona made herself comfortable at the table as Tiffany picked up a set of spoons and set the table.
“I think I’m close.”
Yoona nodded, mouth occupied with shoveling the nasty concoction into her mouth. She had lost the ability to truly taste anything long ago. It was why she was addicted to things that were sweet. It was all she could really taste.
“I found a car that had the motor I needed. I want to see if I can get it to work.”
“Mhm,” Yoona gave her reply.
“Slow down, Yoong. It’s not going anywhere.” Tiffany reached over, rubbing a bit off the corner of her mouth. Yoona licked at the spot tasting the spice Tiffany’s finger had left from what she used to flavor the soup.
“There has to be someone else…” Tiffany dropped her hand, trailing off on her speculation of a safe zone somewhere out there. “Will you come with me?”
Yoona licked the back of her spoon, savoring the warm food on her tongue a moment. “Before sunset?”
“It won’t take long.”
-/-/-/-
Yoona stood watch at the door while Tiffany worked.
She had been tinkering with the intercom and communications system at the old middle school in the neighborhood ever since Yoona had met her.
She was good at it – a wiz with her hands. She worked quickly and soundlessly twisting wires, connecting cables, tapping fingers on keys and eyes taking in jumbled words and numbers on screens like a pro.
“My dad was an encoder.” She had explained. Yoona’s dad wasn’t as cool so she never brought him up.
“Got it!” Tiffany yelled, voice echoing out into the halls.
Yoona’s grip tightened on her pistol, silencer in place. The sun was starting to dip and she could hear the groans and hisses of the walkers outside while the ones inside the school building were loosening up from their lukewarm slumber.
“Hurry.” Yoona whispered, head leaning out the classroom door.
The hall was a mess of crimson and black streaking walls and floors like a five-year-old sloppy paint job. The reek of dead bodies permeated in a gag worthy stench that Yoona had grown used to.
Crackling sounds from the room, Yoona looked back to see Tiffany hook in a pair of roughed up headphones and set them over her head. She flicked down a mouthpiece and turned a few knobs, typing on a keyboard.
“Hello? Hello? Is anyone there? Anyone? Hello?”
Yoona’s jaw tightened. Something clattered down the hall out of her sights around a corner. Groans followed and her hands tingled in anticipation as she cocked her gun.
“Tiffany.” She hissed, warningly.
“Just a few more – Hello? Yes! Hello!”
The change in her tone drew Yoona’s eyes back. Tiffany was waving her hands, pointing to the mouthpiece excitedly while Yoona eased out of the classroom and readied to take aim.
“Yes. My name is Tiffany Hwang. There are two of us. In Gyeonggi Province. What is your location?”
Yoona tuned out the rest, eyes on the emerging head coming around the corner. A hand slapped the ground, fingers clawing to pull a body after. The sound from the zombie’s mouth was gnarled, throaty, rasped.
Raising her gun, Yoona readied herself to pull the trigger when another came after it faster than the first. Her heels planted, aim on the newcomer when a walker strode out, head turning one way down the hall to the other.
Its crazy eyes found Yoona and it screeched a sound that echoed through the halls and sprang forward.
Shit.
A runner.
Finger pulling the trigger, she took a shot. It screamed again and lunged. She missed its head and tried again. Smelling breath licked at her face as slimy hands gripped her arms and it took everything in Yoona not to scream with the gurgled noises the monster was giving.
“Yoona! Drop!”
She did what she was told, letting all her weight crumple to the floor as an ear shattering shot rang out.
The zombie fell on top of her in a heavy heap. Yoona struggled from beneath it, grabbing her gun. She shot at the two crawlers as Tiffany emerged from the classroom holding her rifle and backpack.
“You okay?” Asked Tiffany, offering a hand.
Yoona nodded and got up on her own. “There’s more.”
They could hear them coming. It was an eerie sound, brought out by the empty corridors. Their dragging, hissing, moaning, clattering came from every which way, confusing the ears as it echoed off the walls.
“We can go.” Tiffany reloaded her rifle and started off down the hall.
Yoona’s shots were sloppy, missing their target more than usual as they bulldozed through the masses rallied together around the school. Her body felt like lead and her arms felt like jell-o as she swung around her gun, shooting blindly into the darkness that had come on them.
Getting to the jeep, Yoona dove in, slamming the door and panting beside Tiffany who turned the key and started the car.
“Everything okay?” Tiffany asked as the jeep rolled over a decayed body in the street.
Yoona fumbled, struggling to open a piece of hard candy in her lap. She tried to push the memory of that runner holding onto her, crushing her beneath its weight, from her mind.
It was too familiar. Much too familiar.
She popped the candy into her mouth and closed her eyes.
It wasn’t until it dissolved in her mouth, spreading the flavor of watermelon on her tongue, that she stopped shaking.
-/-/-/-
Their destination was Sinan according to the longitude and latitude coordinates Tiffany had received.
“What about your bike?”
“We can leave it.” Yoona picked up a sheet of paper Tiffany had written the information down on. The bike would only draw attention to them anyway. “Do you trust them?”
Tiffany threw her hair up into her rope and stuffed another box of ammo into her backpack. “What do we have to lose?”
Our lives, was what Yoona wanted to say but that was honestly all she had left and her existence was hardly more than the dead they were shooting up on a regular basis.
“If there is a place out there where we don’t have to live like this, I’ll take the chance.”
“What if there’s not?”
“Do you trust me?”
Tiffany’s eyes were on her. She hated when Tiffany looked at her like that. So open and pleading. It made the sane part of Yoona buzz while the other part of her threw up walls and defenses blocking any of it from coming in.
Yoona took a breath, tasting the words on her tongue. They were like devil’s candy – delicious but dangerous. “I trust you.”
The smile that spread on Tiffany’s mouth was as if Yoona had offered her the world. Little did she know, that’s exactly what Yoona had done. But she’d never admit it.
She didn’t even want to admit it to herself.
-/-/-/-
Yoona sailed down the road, foot heavy on the gas. Beside her Tiffany held a wrinkled map over her legs, feet thrown up on the dash and head leaned back against the seat. She shuffled in the console between them, finding a stale piece of candy and offered it over.
“Thanks,” Tiffany took it with a smile. She used her teeth to undo the wrapper and popped it into her mouth as Yoona did the same. “Look.”
Yoona’s eyes drifted from the bulge of hard candy in Tiffany’s cheek to follow her finger to a speck on the side of the road. Drawing closer, she made out the details of a body. It was too put together to be undead, splayed along its stomach, face buried in the dirt with a pile of junk surrounding them.
“They look fresh.” Tiffany noted.
She hadn’t seen many alive in months. It was nothing but limping corpses and Tiffany’s blood pumping life that had surrounded her.
“Pull over!”
“What?”
“Stop the car.” Tiffany yelled. “Pull over!”
Yoona looked up in the rearview mirror as she slowed down. The lump on the side of the road they had passed was running full speed after them.
“She’s one of us. Stop.”
Pulling to the gravel, Yoona yanked the car into park.
“Tiffany!” She hissed as the passenger door slammed.
Pushing her door open, she climbed out, following Tiffany down the road.
The one running slowed her pace, knee high boots jingling with chains as she came up on them, breathing hard. She wore nothing but shorts and a frayed shirt kept together by pins and poor sewing.
Yoona noted the gun holsters hanging off her waist. She held two pistols on each hip and a metal water canteen held on by a leather strap that bumped against her thigh.
“I’m clean.” Peeling off her sunglasses, she held up her hands., tiptoeing up to them.
Yoona stared at her straight in the eye. Anyone with the contamination, their eyes held a yellow tint. It was the first sign of infection and the promise of zombification unless someone shot them through the heart before the blood could spread it all through the system.
Her eyes were clean, nice and white against the tans of her skin and deep black of her hair. Yoona relaxed, hand lifting off her gun tucked into her body holster. Yoona gave Tiffany a nod and she loosened her hand from her rifle strap slung across her chest.
“What’s your name?”
“Yuri,” the girl dropped her hands down, rubbing one across her bare stomach to clear the dirt away that had stuck to her skin. “I was on my way north looking for water.”
“Not much left,” Yoona informed.
That was how it all started. The truck spill into the river festered. The workers on the water were the first to manifest. The contamination seeped into their pores, taking over quickly and violently. It spread, hitting one person after the other.
Water became scarce, bought off shelves, dams were built to keep the river flow from reaching anywhere else but it still spread. All up and down the country it spread.
“Do you have any?” Asked Yuri. The look in her eyes was hopeful and Tiffany’s nod brought a new light to her face as they walked her to the jeep.
Yoona kept a sharp eye, watching as Yuri hungrily downed one of the bottles. Tiffany giggled as it dribbled down her chin and used the tail of her shirt to help wipe it off.
Turning away, Yoona ignored the pale flash of skin and Yuri’s dark eyes that had dipped down to take it in.
“Where are you two headed?”
“South.” Tiffany answered, filling up the bottle halfway for Yuri again. She was already looking better, her plump lips nice and glossy and full from the effects of the water.
“South?” Yuri took a glance at Yoona who shrugged.
She only knew as much as Tiffany had told her and she wasn’t in the mood for filling in this nomad. She wasn’t in the mood for agreeing to drive Yuri to her camp or accepting the offer to stay the night. But,
“We need someplace safe to sleep, Yoong.” Tiffany had convinced her. The echo of the request to trust her was evident in her tone.
Yoona kept her eyes on the road and away from the rearview mirror as Tiffany turned her body around in her seat to talk the way with Yuri.
Sometimes Yoona really didn’t like sharing.
-/-/-/-
Yuri was resourceful.
She lived in some kind of hut built out of the rubble and remains of destroyed houses. There was a little dug out hole in the ground for cooking and a patched up pipe that would drain rain water away outside so it wouldn’t leak in.
Yoona stood outside in the heat, head moving left to right as she surveyed the area. Barbed wire surrounded but Yoona knew better than to think that would keep the crawlers away. If they could beat down doors on houses, enraged and mad with hunger, simple wire wouldn’t stop them.
They couldn’t afford letting their guard down. Yoona had once, and she suffered from it. Being reunited with a loved one after a year and a half in prison had clouded her judgment. The hope that,
“It was only a scratch, Soo. You’ll be okay,” meant that Sooyoung wouldn’t wake up in the middle of the night, eyes aflame and dripping mouth hovering over her was dumb of her.
Yoona rubbed at her arm feeling where that runner had grabbed onto her – where Sooyoung had gripped. She was too far-gone – was far-gone since that zombie clipped her leg days before.
Yoona had grabbed the closest thing to her, jamming it into Sooyoung’s head and drowning in the dark, ugly blood that erupted from the wound.
She should’ve known better.
“Yoona?”
She looked back over her shoulder. Tiffany moved her hair from her face as she stepped up to her. She looked just as fragile as Sooyoung had. But what Sooyoung didn’t have that Tiffany did was a burning belief that they could make it out alive. Together.
“Food is ready.”
“They’re coming from that way.” Yoona pointed off into the distance. “I think the jeep tipped them off.”
“How many do you think?” Tiffany shielded her eyes from the sun, squinting into the distance.
She couldn’t help the smile tugging on her lips. “We can take them.”
Tiffany’s own grin pulled. There was something exhilarating about getting back at things that wanted them dead. It brought a weird sort of pleasure that they shared when guns were in hand and adrenaline spiked to its peak.
“Of course we can.”
-/-/-/-
“Yoona!”
She lurched from sleep, sitting up on Yuri’s cot in a confused mess of thoughts. Hadn’t Tiffany been beside her? Her hand touched the small space next to her. Cold. Where had she –
“Yoona!” Tiffany’s voice had her rolling onto hands and knees, hands shuffling in the darkness for her holster.
The sounds of hissing and moaning hit her ears. Yoona panicked, her heart leaping into her throat as she her fingers hit metal and leather and she bolted for the entrance of the hut.
The night was dark, only lit up by a partly cloudy moon and Yuri’s flashlight that had been tossed onto the ground. The owner of it was a few feet forward, guns in hand and shooting at the mass of zombies surrounding them.
Yoona’s neck whipped around finding Tiffany who stood on top of a totaled car, rifle in hand and aiming.
“Tiffany!”
She distracted her.
A grubby hand gripped Tiffany’s ankle and she was pulled. Yoona yelled as she watched Tiffany fall backwards, back smacking against the metal of the car where her skull cracked against it.
“Tiffany!” Her voice was doubled, matched by Yuri’s own holler as she sprinted over.
Using the handle of her gun, Yuri bludgeoned a sunken in head, spewing blood everywhere. Bony hands gripped Yuri’s waist but she was quick, twisting around to sink a bullet into its skull and hit the ground where she scooped for Tiffany.
“Yoona! Help!”
Lunging forward, she whipped out her gun, aim on the one still clutching Tiffany’s ankle and shot. It fell back against the car, screeching into the air, alerting the others.
“The jeep!” Yoona ordered. “Go to the jeep!”
She rounded, shooting into the masses. Out the corner of her eye, she saw Yuri lift Tiffany up into her arms and start a lopsided jog toward the car.
“Get off!” Yoona screeched, foot lifting to kick at a stomach oozing entrails out into the dirt.
Sticky, putrid breath was in her face. Slimy hands gripped at her and Yoona struggled. Her gun just titled up the right angle and she pulled the trigger.
Shaking it off, Yoona turned, running from the crowd. Just up ahead she could see Yuri approaching the car. Digging in her pocket, Yoona found her keys, yanking them out just as a series of shots sang through the air.
It was slow motion the way it all happened.
Yuri jerked forward by an impact. Tiffany went flying out of her arms, hitting the dirt at the same time Yuri did, skidding along the mud.
Yoona’s neck whipped back, breath taken from her lungs at the sight. Confusion hit her at the sight of a cluster of military personnel in the distance, their machine guns lighting up like fireworks as they fought to massacre the walking dead.
Bullets rained down and Yoona hit the dirt. She gripped at it, splinters filling her palms as she clawed her way to where Yuri was struggling to get to her feet. Crackling radios and military commands filled the air with the chorus of dropping bodies and machine gun firing.
“Yuri!” She hissed.
Fear filled eyes glanced back at her and Yoona noticed the stain of blood growing bigger across Yuri’s back and spilling onto the ground.
“Yoona?” Yuri’s eyes were wide. She was in shock. A bloody hand rose up to her face. “Yoona!” She screamed.
A shot planted itself between them.
“Yoona!”
The back of her hand swiped across Yuri’s face in a slap, snapping her out of it. “Get in the car!”
“The military –“
“If they wanted to help they wouldn’t be shooting at us! Move!” She pushed Yuri away, key sinking into the door and popped the locks.
Back door flying open, she pushed, heaving Yuri’s trembling body inside before she went for Tiffany who was slowly coming to. Her head lolled, gash on the side of it dirtying up her pretty face.
Yoona crumbled.
“Tiffany, come on. We have to go. We have to –“
An explosion shook the earth.
Debris flew up and came down in a heavy pummel. Yoona arched her back over tiffany, blocking the most of it.
“Let’s go!” She gripped her shirt, pulling as hard as she could.
Tiffany responded, body sluggish as she struggled to her feet, head held down by Yoona’s hand and was thrown into the car.
Yoona scrambled to the driver seat just as another grenade exploded and revved it to life.
Driving off Yoona panted, brain unable to process.
What the hell just happened?
-/-/-/
The bandages were soaked through when Yoona went to change them.
Knowledgeable fingers worked with ripped rags, dabbing at the bullet wound on Yuri’s side. The girl spread out in the back bed of the jeep winced, eyes pinching shut as Yoona cleaned the stitches she had sown in with a spool of fishing wire and a needle she sterilized with a match.
“How’s it look?”
Yoona looked up from the ugly crisscrossing of veins around the wound. It was purple and black and swollen in a dangerous way.
Yuri breathed in heavy puffs, wide eyes bloodshot and worn. Her tanned skin was glossy with sweat from the infection that had spread. Yoona had done her best but Yuri’s chances were slim.
“You’re healing.”
Yuri’s lashes drooped in relief. Yoona finished wrapping the rags around her stomach, hooking them secure with a rusty safety pin. Pulling down Yuri’s shirt, Yoona picked up a blanket and draped it over Yuri’s shoulders.
“Sleep,” she brought a sponge dipped in water to Yuri’s lips and squeezed it so she could drink.
“Thank you, Yoona.” Her lips cracked, bleeding in the chapped creases.
“We’ll keep watch.” She made sure Yuri was completely inside the jeep before pulling down the trunk door and walked away.
She found Tiffany under the shelter of a broken in roof of a gas station. Yoona crawled inside, wiping Yuri’s blood off her hands onto her jeans. Tiffany swished the soupy contents of a dinner in a bent up tin can and handed it to her.
“How is she?”
“Dying.” Yoona sipped at the stew and grimaced.
“Most of our rations were at Yuri’s camp.” Tiffany admitted.
Yoona didn’t have the strength in her to be upset about it. She drank the rest in silence.
“Why do you think the military was there?” Yoona shrugged. Tiffany leaned her back against a concrete. “Do you think they’re finally doing something?”
“Why didn’t they help us?”
“Maybe they didn’t see us.”
Yoona eyed the bandage on the side of Tiffany’s head. The concussion was small, something they had encountered times before but with Yuri shot and seeing blood streaming down Tiffany’s face, Yoona had nearly lost her mind.
“Can I tell you a secret?”
Yoona nodded.
“I’m scared.”
“We can make it.” Yoona reassured. She kept her own worries to herself. “But we need to get rid of Yuri. She’ll slow us down.”
Tiffany smiled, fingers brushing back her hair. “You’re cute when you’re jealous.”
Yoona’s mouth bobbed. The back of her neck erupted in heat. She busied herself, unrolling the comforter that served as a cot for them to sleep.
“Do you think she’ll make it to morning?”
“I-“
“Not what you hope, Yoong.” Tiffany pressed, catching her eye.
Yoona felt ashamed for even thinking so cruel about the wanderer. Yuri had been good company – a change in pace. If anything her presence had brought a new sort of hope to Tiffany. They didn’t see humans much these days.
“I don’t know,” Yoona admitted. She wouldn’t say that what she hoped and what she figured were the same. She had seen the way Yuri’s hands had shaken and how her eyes didn’t focus. It was only a matter of time. “You sleep first. I’ll keep watch.”
“I’m not tired.”
“Tiff -”
“It wasn’t your fault, Yoona.”
Yoona looked away from the bandage on Tiffany’s head. If she had just been awake none of this would’ve happened. She shouldn’t have trusted Yuri on her own. She shouldn’t have trusted the two laughing and joking alone.
“We’ll stay up together.” Tiffany didn’t give her room to argue.
Yoona let it go and finished spreading out their cot, smoothing out the blankets evenly along the floor. She used their backpacks as pillows placing them at the head where Tiffany laid back, rifle strung on standby along her stomach.
Yoona sat cross-legged next to her, playing with her gun in her hand.
“I don’t think I could do it,” said Tiffany. Yoona could only make out her eyes in the darkness. “I couldn't do this alone. You say we need to get rid of Yuri but you should’ve left me a long time ago. I’m the one slowing you down.”
“Tiffany…”
Head lolling, she looked up at Yoona, lips tugging into a straight line. “If anything happens to me…”
“Don’t.”
“I’m serious,” Tiffany sat up. It was so dark Yoona could hardly see her but she could feel her sitting close enough for her uneven breaths to lick at Yoona’s face. “Don’t let me be like Yuri. I want you to do it.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
“Please, Yoona,” Tiffany’s fingers were hot on her face, pulling Yoona back around so she faced her. The reflected shine of the moonlight lit up Tiffany’s eyes. “I don’t want you to have to see me like that.”
Knots started to form in her stomach. She swallowed against the lump in her throat. She hadn’t been strong enough to do it to Sooyoung when she had already known. The memory of it all was still engraved on the back of her lids, looming in her dreams like a disgusting nightmare. She shouldn't have let Sooyoung suffer. She shouldn't allow Tiffany to either.
“I’ll do it.” Yoona whispered, locking her eyes with Tiffany’s.
Tiffany nodded, head leaning forward so their foreheads pressed together. Yoona shivered at the feeling of Tiffany’s lips brushing hers as she whispered,
“Promise me, if anything happens, you’ll keep going.”
“If you do it for me.”
Tiffany nodded, thumb stroking her cheek. “Do you promise?”
Tilting her head up, Yoona brought their lips together letting the kiss serve as some vague answer. But Yoona knew, as arms wrapped around her, guiding her down to rest on top of Tiffany’s body that, if Tiffany went, she wouldn’t have the strength to keep going without her.
-
Author: boxxsaltz
Rating: R
Pairing: Yoona/Tiffany
Summary: One mission: Stay alive. But only at the cost that they could do it together.
Warning: Violence, death, guns and things la la la
AN: Part III of the Girls With Guns Series
AN: Because
rules1through8 wanted yoonfany and it takes me eons to write.Sugar We’re Goin’ Down Shootin’
Part I
She should’ve stayed at home.
Rained oozed down the diner window, streaking along paint chipped letters. Yoona stared at her bike getting pummeled by thick, weighty drops, seeping into the leather of her seat and dripping into the gears and machinery of the bulky thing.
Hand reaching across the table, she picked up a coffee cup just as the diner bell chimed. She sniffed at the brackish liquid and cringed. Gone cold, stale and tasteless. She placed it down as feet clamored over to her and a body landed in the chair across the table.
“It’s a storm out there.” Red hair shook as a pale hand tossed it about. Beads of water sprinkled on the table, dripping onto the gloss of a sun stained menu.
Damp fingers picked at the menu, cracking it open as thunder shook the glass window. The place was empty, cold. Dead.
“Where’s the waiter?” Her voice was the warmth that the diner needed; its low register resonating like the thunder while her zipping eyes matched the flickering lightning.
Yoona sat back in her chair, fingers undoing the wrapping of a piece of bubblegum as she shrugged. Popping it into her mouth, her tongue danced. The sugar and flavors were soothing to her and she chewed faster, letting the calming effects of it sink in.
“How’s the water?” Asked Yoona.
“Low.”
She nodded, mouth smacking loud and unflattering along with a new shuffle of feet.
Yoona looked up, watching as a greasy looking woman with a parted mouth and gnarled looking hair headed their way. Her apron was stained and her shirt was in need of a decent wash. She looked like death and that was hardly inviting.
“Oh,” red hair whipped around as a head swiveled to look at the approaching woman. “There she is.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, a faint buzz hissed through the air.
It happened so fast neither one of them reacted to the woman’s head snapping backwards as a bullet pierced her skull and she toppled to the ground.
Dark brown eyes met hers and Yoona twisted off the silencer on her pistol to hide the equipment away in her coat.
“We should go, Tiffany.” Her head cocked toward the window.
Through the pouring sheet of rain, a group of lazily, limping bodies were headed toward the diner. Their slack open mouths and deranged eyes alighted with what they could possibly find and feast on inside. Except, there hadn’t been food in the diner for months – until now. Two fleshly beings were all they needed.
“We’ll come back for your bike later?” Tiffany stood, tying back her hair with a piece of elastic rope she had hanging around her neck.
Yoona nodded and grabbed her helmet. “Let’s go.”
Jumping into Tiffany’s jeep, the engine revved.
They didn’t think twice as they sped through the cluster of bodies. They rolled over the hood and smacked into the windshield leaving their putrid, blackish blood smeared all over.
“Oops,” Tiffany giggled, turning on the wipers.
Yoona felt a smile crack at the corner of her mouth as she chewed on.
Suddenly, she didn’t hate the day so much anymore.
-/-/-/-
It all started with a car accident. Yoona remembered the day perfectly.
All the inmates were crowded in the mess hall. Old Jiyoung was arguing with Fighting Fei about something pointless as usual and Yoona was trying to swipe Bora Bora’s ice cream off her tray.
She had nearly succeeded until Tattle Tellin’ Goodie Two Shoes Ji-Eun opened her mouth and Yoona got a hand around her throat before an officer hollered at them to shut up.
Their heads all snapped over to where a guard was asked to turn up the volume and everyone listened in.
It was just an accident. A gasoline truck had tipped over on Banpo Bridge, spilling its contents into the river and all over the road. Emergency vehicles with their flashing lights peppered the bridge within a cluster of abandoned cars.
Yoona could see people in yellow suits, arms waving frantically and giant hoses spraying water. The sight of the military was the only thing out of character until Yoona started listening to the news anchor -
“It is reported that the truck was not hauling gasoline, but rather a mass quaintly of Biological Waste Chemicals…”
Yoona took that opportunity to snag Bora’s ice cream and pulled away from the table letting the report resonate in her ears.
The news told them they shouldn’t panic. The authorities were cleaning up the spill.
The news told them that the waste was not harmful. It would dissolve away in a couple of days.
The news told them that the military involvement was to make sure it was not an attempted terrorist attack. They had nothing to do with it.
A week later, Yoona learned all those things were lies.
Plate of pie in hand, legs curled beneath her on a couch in the recreation room, she watched on the news as the end of the world began.
-/-/-/-
They were like reptiles, Yoona thought. It was a weird thought. But that’s how they were to Yoona as she peeked through the blinds of the house, watching them stagger lazily along the streets.
They were less active in the day because of the heat. Like cold-blooded creatures, they were prone to shutting down, less likely to attack when sun beat down on their heads. It made daylight safer to go out in but no less dangerous.
“Food is almost ready.” Tiffany leaned over the island in the kitchen, staring at Yoona who was at the window.
The house they were in belonged to the Hwang’s – Tiffany’s family. They were gone. Apparently Tiffany lost her mother in the first flux of crawlers and her dad, a military man, left to try and get a handle on the mess but never returned.
Yoona moved away from the window and into the kitchen. She leaned against the wall waiting for her to finish.
“I’m going to the school later.” Said Tiffany, moving to the stove and poured the creamy contents into two bowls.
Yoona made herself comfortable at the table as Tiffany picked up a set of spoons and set the table.
“I think I’m close.”
Yoona nodded, mouth occupied with shoveling the nasty concoction into her mouth. She had lost the ability to truly taste anything long ago. It was why she was addicted to things that were sweet. It was all she could really taste.
“I found a car that had the motor I needed. I want to see if I can get it to work.”
“Mhm,” Yoona gave her reply.
“Slow down, Yoong. It’s not going anywhere.” Tiffany reached over, rubbing a bit off the corner of her mouth. Yoona licked at the spot tasting the spice Tiffany’s finger had left from what she used to flavor the soup.
“There has to be someone else…” Tiffany dropped her hand, trailing off on her speculation of a safe zone somewhere out there. “Will you come with me?”
Yoona licked the back of her spoon, savoring the warm food on her tongue a moment. “Before sunset?”
“It won’t take long.”
-/-/-/-
Yoona stood watch at the door while Tiffany worked.
She had been tinkering with the intercom and communications system at the old middle school in the neighborhood ever since Yoona had met her.
She was good at it – a wiz with her hands. She worked quickly and soundlessly twisting wires, connecting cables, tapping fingers on keys and eyes taking in jumbled words and numbers on screens like a pro.
“My dad was an encoder.” She had explained. Yoona’s dad wasn’t as cool so she never brought him up.
“Got it!” Tiffany yelled, voice echoing out into the halls.
Yoona’s grip tightened on her pistol, silencer in place. The sun was starting to dip and she could hear the groans and hisses of the walkers outside while the ones inside the school building were loosening up from their lukewarm slumber.
“Hurry.” Yoona whispered, head leaning out the classroom door.
The hall was a mess of crimson and black streaking walls and floors like a five-year-old sloppy paint job. The reek of dead bodies permeated in a gag worthy stench that Yoona had grown used to.
Crackling sounds from the room, Yoona looked back to see Tiffany hook in a pair of roughed up headphones and set them over her head. She flicked down a mouthpiece and turned a few knobs, typing on a keyboard.
“Hello? Hello? Is anyone there? Anyone? Hello?”
Yoona’s jaw tightened. Something clattered down the hall out of her sights around a corner. Groans followed and her hands tingled in anticipation as she cocked her gun.
“Tiffany.” She hissed, warningly.
“Just a few more – Hello? Yes! Hello!”
The change in her tone drew Yoona’s eyes back. Tiffany was waving her hands, pointing to the mouthpiece excitedly while Yoona eased out of the classroom and readied to take aim.
“Yes. My name is Tiffany Hwang. There are two of us. In Gyeonggi Province. What is your location?”
Yoona tuned out the rest, eyes on the emerging head coming around the corner. A hand slapped the ground, fingers clawing to pull a body after. The sound from the zombie’s mouth was gnarled, throaty, rasped.
Raising her gun, Yoona readied herself to pull the trigger when another came after it faster than the first. Her heels planted, aim on the newcomer when a walker strode out, head turning one way down the hall to the other.
Its crazy eyes found Yoona and it screeched a sound that echoed through the halls and sprang forward.
Shit.
A runner.
Finger pulling the trigger, she took a shot. It screamed again and lunged. She missed its head and tried again. Smelling breath licked at her face as slimy hands gripped her arms and it took everything in Yoona not to scream with the gurgled noises the monster was giving.
“Yoona! Drop!”
She did what she was told, letting all her weight crumple to the floor as an ear shattering shot rang out.
The zombie fell on top of her in a heavy heap. Yoona struggled from beneath it, grabbing her gun. She shot at the two crawlers as Tiffany emerged from the classroom holding her rifle and backpack.
“You okay?” Asked Tiffany, offering a hand.
Yoona nodded and got up on her own. “There’s more.”
They could hear them coming. It was an eerie sound, brought out by the empty corridors. Their dragging, hissing, moaning, clattering came from every which way, confusing the ears as it echoed off the walls.
“We can go.” Tiffany reloaded her rifle and started off down the hall.
Yoona’s shots were sloppy, missing their target more than usual as they bulldozed through the masses rallied together around the school. Her body felt like lead and her arms felt like jell-o as she swung around her gun, shooting blindly into the darkness that had come on them.
Getting to the jeep, Yoona dove in, slamming the door and panting beside Tiffany who turned the key and started the car.
“Everything okay?” Tiffany asked as the jeep rolled over a decayed body in the street.
Yoona fumbled, struggling to open a piece of hard candy in her lap. She tried to push the memory of that runner holding onto her, crushing her beneath its weight, from her mind.
It was too familiar. Much too familiar.
She popped the candy into her mouth and closed her eyes.
It wasn’t until it dissolved in her mouth, spreading the flavor of watermelon on her tongue, that she stopped shaking.
-/-/-/-
Their destination was Sinan according to the longitude and latitude coordinates Tiffany had received.
“What about your bike?”
“We can leave it.” Yoona picked up a sheet of paper Tiffany had written the information down on. The bike would only draw attention to them anyway. “Do you trust them?”
Tiffany threw her hair up into her rope and stuffed another box of ammo into her backpack. “What do we have to lose?”
Our lives, was what Yoona wanted to say but that was honestly all she had left and her existence was hardly more than the dead they were shooting up on a regular basis.
“If there is a place out there where we don’t have to live like this, I’ll take the chance.”
“What if there’s not?”
“Do you trust me?”
Tiffany’s eyes were on her. She hated when Tiffany looked at her like that. So open and pleading. It made the sane part of Yoona buzz while the other part of her threw up walls and defenses blocking any of it from coming in.
Yoona took a breath, tasting the words on her tongue. They were like devil’s candy – delicious but dangerous. “I trust you.”
The smile that spread on Tiffany’s mouth was as if Yoona had offered her the world. Little did she know, that’s exactly what Yoona had done. But she’d never admit it.
She didn’t even want to admit it to herself.
-/-/-/-
Yoona sailed down the road, foot heavy on the gas. Beside her Tiffany held a wrinkled map over her legs, feet thrown up on the dash and head leaned back against the seat. She shuffled in the console between them, finding a stale piece of candy and offered it over.
“Thanks,” Tiffany took it with a smile. She used her teeth to undo the wrapper and popped it into her mouth as Yoona did the same. “Look.”
Yoona’s eyes drifted from the bulge of hard candy in Tiffany’s cheek to follow her finger to a speck on the side of the road. Drawing closer, she made out the details of a body. It was too put together to be undead, splayed along its stomach, face buried in the dirt with a pile of junk surrounding them.
“They look fresh.” Tiffany noted.
She hadn’t seen many alive in months. It was nothing but limping corpses and Tiffany’s blood pumping life that had surrounded her.
“Pull over!”
“What?”
“Stop the car.” Tiffany yelled. “Pull over!”
Yoona looked up in the rearview mirror as she slowed down. The lump on the side of the road they had passed was running full speed after them.
“She’s one of us. Stop.”
Pulling to the gravel, Yoona yanked the car into park.
“Tiffany!” She hissed as the passenger door slammed.
Pushing her door open, she climbed out, following Tiffany down the road.
The one running slowed her pace, knee high boots jingling with chains as she came up on them, breathing hard. She wore nothing but shorts and a frayed shirt kept together by pins and poor sewing.
Yoona noted the gun holsters hanging off her waist. She held two pistols on each hip and a metal water canteen held on by a leather strap that bumped against her thigh.
“I’m clean.” Peeling off her sunglasses, she held up her hands., tiptoeing up to them.
Yoona stared at her straight in the eye. Anyone with the contamination, their eyes held a yellow tint. It was the first sign of infection and the promise of zombification unless someone shot them through the heart before the blood could spread it all through the system.
Her eyes were clean, nice and white against the tans of her skin and deep black of her hair. Yoona relaxed, hand lifting off her gun tucked into her body holster. Yoona gave Tiffany a nod and she loosened her hand from her rifle strap slung across her chest.
“What’s your name?”
“Yuri,” the girl dropped her hands down, rubbing one across her bare stomach to clear the dirt away that had stuck to her skin. “I was on my way north looking for water.”
“Not much left,” Yoona informed.
That was how it all started. The truck spill into the river festered. The workers on the water were the first to manifest. The contamination seeped into their pores, taking over quickly and violently. It spread, hitting one person after the other.
Water became scarce, bought off shelves, dams were built to keep the river flow from reaching anywhere else but it still spread. All up and down the country it spread.
“Do you have any?” Asked Yuri. The look in her eyes was hopeful and Tiffany’s nod brought a new light to her face as they walked her to the jeep.
Yoona kept a sharp eye, watching as Yuri hungrily downed one of the bottles. Tiffany giggled as it dribbled down her chin and used the tail of her shirt to help wipe it off.
Turning away, Yoona ignored the pale flash of skin and Yuri’s dark eyes that had dipped down to take it in.
“Where are you two headed?”
“South.” Tiffany answered, filling up the bottle halfway for Yuri again. She was already looking better, her plump lips nice and glossy and full from the effects of the water.
“South?” Yuri took a glance at Yoona who shrugged.
She only knew as much as Tiffany had told her and she wasn’t in the mood for filling in this nomad. She wasn’t in the mood for agreeing to drive Yuri to her camp or accepting the offer to stay the night. But,
“We need someplace safe to sleep, Yoong.” Tiffany had convinced her. The echo of the request to trust her was evident in her tone.
Yoona kept her eyes on the road and away from the rearview mirror as Tiffany turned her body around in her seat to talk the way with Yuri.
Sometimes Yoona really didn’t like sharing.
-/-/-/-
Yuri was resourceful.
She lived in some kind of hut built out of the rubble and remains of destroyed houses. There was a little dug out hole in the ground for cooking and a patched up pipe that would drain rain water away outside so it wouldn’t leak in.
Yoona stood outside in the heat, head moving left to right as she surveyed the area. Barbed wire surrounded but Yoona knew better than to think that would keep the crawlers away. If they could beat down doors on houses, enraged and mad with hunger, simple wire wouldn’t stop them.
They couldn’t afford letting their guard down. Yoona had once, and she suffered from it. Being reunited with a loved one after a year and a half in prison had clouded her judgment. The hope that,
“It was only a scratch, Soo. You’ll be okay,” meant that Sooyoung wouldn’t wake up in the middle of the night, eyes aflame and dripping mouth hovering over her was dumb of her.
Yoona rubbed at her arm feeling where that runner had grabbed onto her – where Sooyoung had gripped. She was too far-gone – was far-gone since that zombie clipped her leg days before.
Yoona had grabbed the closest thing to her, jamming it into Sooyoung’s head and drowning in the dark, ugly blood that erupted from the wound.
She should’ve known better.
“Yoona?”
She looked back over her shoulder. Tiffany moved her hair from her face as she stepped up to her. She looked just as fragile as Sooyoung had. But what Sooyoung didn’t have that Tiffany did was a burning belief that they could make it out alive. Together.
“Food is ready.”
“They’re coming from that way.” Yoona pointed off into the distance. “I think the jeep tipped them off.”
“How many do you think?” Tiffany shielded her eyes from the sun, squinting into the distance.
She couldn’t help the smile tugging on her lips. “We can take them.”
Tiffany’s own grin pulled. There was something exhilarating about getting back at things that wanted them dead. It brought a weird sort of pleasure that they shared when guns were in hand and adrenaline spiked to its peak.
“Of course we can.”
-/-/-/-
“Yoona!”
She lurched from sleep, sitting up on Yuri’s cot in a confused mess of thoughts. Hadn’t Tiffany been beside her? Her hand touched the small space next to her. Cold. Where had she –
“Yoona!” Tiffany’s voice had her rolling onto hands and knees, hands shuffling in the darkness for her holster.
The sounds of hissing and moaning hit her ears. Yoona panicked, her heart leaping into her throat as she her fingers hit metal and leather and she bolted for the entrance of the hut.
The night was dark, only lit up by a partly cloudy moon and Yuri’s flashlight that had been tossed onto the ground. The owner of it was a few feet forward, guns in hand and shooting at the mass of zombies surrounding them.
Yoona’s neck whipped around finding Tiffany who stood on top of a totaled car, rifle in hand and aiming.
“Tiffany!”
She distracted her.
A grubby hand gripped Tiffany’s ankle and she was pulled. Yoona yelled as she watched Tiffany fall backwards, back smacking against the metal of the car where her skull cracked against it.
“Tiffany!” Her voice was doubled, matched by Yuri’s own holler as she sprinted over.
Using the handle of her gun, Yuri bludgeoned a sunken in head, spewing blood everywhere. Bony hands gripped Yuri’s waist but she was quick, twisting around to sink a bullet into its skull and hit the ground where she scooped for Tiffany.
“Yoona! Help!”
Lunging forward, she whipped out her gun, aim on the one still clutching Tiffany’s ankle and shot. It fell back against the car, screeching into the air, alerting the others.
“The jeep!” Yoona ordered. “Go to the jeep!”
She rounded, shooting into the masses. Out the corner of her eye, she saw Yuri lift Tiffany up into her arms and start a lopsided jog toward the car.
“Get off!” Yoona screeched, foot lifting to kick at a stomach oozing entrails out into the dirt.
Sticky, putrid breath was in her face. Slimy hands gripped at her and Yoona struggled. Her gun just titled up the right angle and she pulled the trigger.
Shaking it off, Yoona turned, running from the crowd. Just up ahead she could see Yuri approaching the car. Digging in her pocket, Yoona found her keys, yanking them out just as a series of shots sang through the air.
It was slow motion the way it all happened.
Yuri jerked forward by an impact. Tiffany went flying out of her arms, hitting the dirt at the same time Yuri did, skidding along the mud.
Yoona’s neck whipped back, breath taken from her lungs at the sight. Confusion hit her at the sight of a cluster of military personnel in the distance, their machine guns lighting up like fireworks as they fought to massacre the walking dead.
Bullets rained down and Yoona hit the dirt. She gripped at it, splinters filling her palms as she clawed her way to where Yuri was struggling to get to her feet. Crackling radios and military commands filled the air with the chorus of dropping bodies and machine gun firing.
“Yuri!” She hissed.
Fear filled eyes glanced back at her and Yoona noticed the stain of blood growing bigger across Yuri’s back and spilling onto the ground.
“Yoona?” Yuri’s eyes were wide. She was in shock. A bloody hand rose up to her face. “Yoona!” She screamed.
A shot planted itself between them.
“Yoona!”
The back of her hand swiped across Yuri’s face in a slap, snapping her out of it. “Get in the car!”
“The military –“
“If they wanted to help they wouldn’t be shooting at us! Move!” She pushed Yuri away, key sinking into the door and popped the locks.
Back door flying open, she pushed, heaving Yuri’s trembling body inside before she went for Tiffany who was slowly coming to. Her head lolled, gash on the side of it dirtying up her pretty face.
Yoona crumbled.
“Tiffany, come on. We have to go. We have to –“
An explosion shook the earth.
Debris flew up and came down in a heavy pummel. Yoona arched her back over tiffany, blocking the most of it.
“Let’s go!” She gripped her shirt, pulling as hard as she could.
Tiffany responded, body sluggish as she struggled to her feet, head held down by Yoona’s hand and was thrown into the car.
Yoona scrambled to the driver seat just as another grenade exploded and revved it to life.
Driving off Yoona panted, brain unable to process.
What the hell just happened?
-/-/-/
The bandages were soaked through when Yoona went to change them.
Knowledgeable fingers worked with ripped rags, dabbing at the bullet wound on Yuri’s side. The girl spread out in the back bed of the jeep winced, eyes pinching shut as Yoona cleaned the stitches she had sown in with a spool of fishing wire and a needle she sterilized with a match.
“How’s it look?”
Yoona looked up from the ugly crisscrossing of veins around the wound. It was purple and black and swollen in a dangerous way.
Yuri breathed in heavy puffs, wide eyes bloodshot and worn. Her tanned skin was glossy with sweat from the infection that had spread. Yoona had done her best but Yuri’s chances were slim.
“You’re healing.”
Yuri’s lashes drooped in relief. Yoona finished wrapping the rags around her stomach, hooking them secure with a rusty safety pin. Pulling down Yuri’s shirt, Yoona picked up a blanket and draped it over Yuri’s shoulders.
“Sleep,” she brought a sponge dipped in water to Yuri’s lips and squeezed it so she could drink.
“Thank you, Yoona.” Her lips cracked, bleeding in the chapped creases.
“We’ll keep watch.” She made sure Yuri was completely inside the jeep before pulling down the trunk door and walked away.
She found Tiffany under the shelter of a broken in roof of a gas station. Yoona crawled inside, wiping Yuri’s blood off her hands onto her jeans. Tiffany swished the soupy contents of a dinner in a bent up tin can and handed it to her.
“How is she?”
“Dying.” Yoona sipped at the stew and grimaced.
“Most of our rations were at Yuri’s camp.” Tiffany admitted.
Yoona didn’t have the strength in her to be upset about it. She drank the rest in silence.
“Why do you think the military was there?” Yoona shrugged. Tiffany leaned her back against a concrete. “Do you think they’re finally doing something?”
“Why didn’t they help us?”
“Maybe they didn’t see us.”
Yoona eyed the bandage on the side of Tiffany’s head. The concussion was small, something they had encountered times before but with Yuri shot and seeing blood streaming down Tiffany’s face, Yoona had nearly lost her mind.
“Can I tell you a secret?”
Yoona nodded.
“I’m scared.”
“We can make it.” Yoona reassured. She kept her own worries to herself. “But we need to get rid of Yuri. She’ll slow us down.”
Tiffany smiled, fingers brushing back her hair. “You’re cute when you’re jealous.”
Yoona’s mouth bobbed. The back of her neck erupted in heat. She busied herself, unrolling the comforter that served as a cot for them to sleep.
“Do you think she’ll make it to morning?”
“I-“
“Not what you hope, Yoong.” Tiffany pressed, catching her eye.
Yoona felt ashamed for even thinking so cruel about the wanderer. Yuri had been good company – a change in pace. If anything her presence had brought a new sort of hope to Tiffany. They didn’t see humans much these days.
“I don’t know,” Yoona admitted. She wouldn’t say that what she hoped and what she figured were the same. She had seen the way Yuri’s hands had shaken and how her eyes didn’t focus. It was only a matter of time. “You sleep first. I’ll keep watch.”
“I’m not tired.”
“Tiff -”
“It wasn’t your fault, Yoona.”
Yoona looked away from the bandage on Tiffany’s head. If she had just been awake none of this would’ve happened. She shouldn’t have trusted Yuri on her own. She shouldn’t have trusted the two laughing and joking alone.
“We’ll stay up together.” Tiffany didn’t give her room to argue.
Yoona let it go and finished spreading out their cot, smoothing out the blankets evenly along the floor. She used their backpacks as pillows placing them at the head where Tiffany laid back, rifle strung on standby along her stomach.
Yoona sat cross-legged next to her, playing with her gun in her hand.
“I don’t think I could do it,” said Tiffany. Yoona could only make out her eyes in the darkness. “I couldn't do this alone. You say we need to get rid of Yuri but you should’ve left me a long time ago. I’m the one slowing you down.”
“Tiffany…”
Head lolling, she looked up at Yoona, lips tugging into a straight line. “If anything happens to me…”
“Don’t.”
“I’m serious,” Tiffany sat up. It was so dark Yoona could hardly see her but she could feel her sitting close enough for her uneven breaths to lick at Yoona’s face. “Don’t let me be like Yuri. I want you to do it.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
“Please, Yoona,” Tiffany’s fingers were hot on her face, pulling Yoona back around so she faced her. The reflected shine of the moonlight lit up Tiffany’s eyes. “I don’t want you to have to see me like that.”
Knots started to form in her stomach. She swallowed against the lump in her throat. She hadn’t been strong enough to do it to Sooyoung when she had already known. The memory of it all was still engraved on the back of her lids, looming in her dreams like a disgusting nightmare. She shouldn't have let Sooyoung suffer. She shouldn't allow Tiffany to either.
“I’ll do it.” Yoona whispered, locking her eyes with Tiffany’s.
Tiffany nodded, head leaning forward so their foreheads pressed together. Yoona shivered at the feeling of Tiffany’s lips brushing hers as she whispered,
“Promise me, if anything happens, you’ll keep going.”
“If you do it for me.”
Tiffany nodded, thumb stroking her cheek. “Do you promise?”
Tilting her head up, Yoona brought their lips together letting the kiss serve as some vague answer. But Yoona knew, as arms wrapped around her, guiding her down to rest on top of Tiffany’s body that, if Tiffany went, she wouldn’t have the strength to keep going without her.
-
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Date: 2013-12-27 05:38 pm (UTC)