Cain coughed. "Guys," he said weakly, "kill me."
Silence~
For a minute now, neither of them said anything. Owen and Mikasa stared at each other.
Obviously, they weren't going to kill their friend. Unlike those who turned almost immediately after the bite, Cain still looked sane.
Albeit he was pale and cold, and dark circles were underneath his eyes, he wasn't snarling or attacking them, begging to feed.
"Don't you get it?" Cain raised his head. Of course, he was weak, but he raised his voice higher than before.
"It's like in the movies, once you get bitten, you become one of them," he added.
"This isn't a movie," Owen responded. He couldn't possibly kill his friend.
"Look around you, shit that happens in movies—this is it. Kill me, and please..." Cain sucked in the tears that attempted to roll down his eyes. "Don't tell my mom I died stupidly."
Owen gripped his bat so tight that veins appeared on the surface of his fist.
His eyes were beginning to wet, and he couldn't look his best friend in the eye. He was going to smash the latter's head open.
However, Mikasa quickly stopped them. She stood, spreading her arms, which signaled him to stop.
"Mikasa," Cain muttered weakly.
"I promised Miss Nora I'd bring you home safely. I wouldn't be able to face her with your injury, let alone tell her you died," she explained.
"But Mikasa—"
"Shut up, Cain," she yelled at him, cutting him off before he could speak more. At the moment, tears rolled down her eyes.
She looked at his arm. "I'll cut off his arm instead, that should prevent him from turning," she suggested. "Right?"
The question was directed to Owen, but he didn't know what to say.
At the very least, the solution was better than losing his best friend, so he accepted it.
---
Breaking News:
Earlier today, the world changed to a man-eating-man world. Government officials have confirmed this pandemic to be caused by zombies.
The government officials are working non-stop to locate the root of this virus. It only took an hour before the whole of Tokyo was infected.
Adding to the mysterious pandemic, strange reports have been recorded about some humans obtaining classes. The government has instructed those who obtain these abilities to present themselves.
Due to the pandemic, a lockdown has been initiated. If you're in Top Fast City, we have a message for you...
Evacuate the city. All humans within the Top Fast District must gather at the Top Fast Bridge for immediate air transport within the next twenty-four hours. Good luck.
"Tsk, so there are other humans like us, eh?" a middle-aged man with a rough beard snarled. Like Owen, he had also selected a bat.
So it was easy for him to quickly end the life of the zombie approaching him from the right.
On top of that, he was also bulkier and bigger than Owen.
He and his gang covered the streets even with the zombies around. They sat on top of cars like the pandemic was nothing to them.
"These things are fucking slow," said another.
They were a total of four members, with the only girl who obviously belonged to the boss of the group.
"Say we hit the bridge, eh?" the slender one among them asked. His accent came off like that of a Brit.
"If we keep ourselves on the streets, we're going to get killed," the boss informed them. He walked towards a zombie and effortlessly slapped its head from the body.
But the head was still moving, so he decided to squash it with his foot.
He was the only one who had reached the required level to choose a class.
His choice of class was the tanker class; those who chose this obtained enormous strength, speed, and stamina.
There were other classes like the support class, the combat class, the assassin class, the berserker class, and lastly, the scout class.
"Alone, they're fucking weak, but once they swarm us, we'd die for sure," he added.
"Hey, are those kids?" the bulky survivor pointed out the three individuals that had just walked out of the alleyway.
"I'll be damned, kids surviving this shit? Woah, you three must be really tough," the boss introduced himself and his gang.
Judging by their weapons, he figured Owen and Mikasa were among them—those people with strange quest panels.
But what he couldn't understand was the boy behind them. In terms of skin color, he was no different from the zombies—pale.
"What happened to your friend's arm?"
Owen and Mikasa simultaneously looked at each other, wondering what would happen if they told the truth of how Cain's arm was missing.
'Hmmm... The boy was bitten?' he thought. He faked a smile. These two were obviously valuable assets to him.
After all, he was gathering his own group of survivors—only those with the strange game-like panel.
"Sad story, I presume," he said. "Come with us, we're heading to the bridge. Everyone is evacuating the city," he added.
"Oh, thank you, but we have to check out the Top Fast Hospital before anything," Owen slightly bowed and began to go left with his friends.
Even if there was a zero percent chance, Cain was taking the chance to search for his mom. They had tried calling her, but she said something about being trapped and told Cain to run far away from the city.
He could barely walk properly without dragging a foot behind, and on top of that, his arm stank. Excluding his sane mind, Cain could be mistaken for a zombie.
"Alright, wait up," the boss said, signaling his gang to come with him. "Let me guide you there. It's not good to leave kids alone nowadays."
Owen didn't mind, but Mikasa felt something was off. So she slowed down and walked behind Cain.
"Since when did we start protecting children? Besides, they can take care of themselves. Can't you see? They've awakened," the boss' girlfriend pointed out.
"I know," the man growled. "But that boy—he was bitten. Any time from now, he could become a zombie."
"So?"
"He is not an awakened either, these weaklings should now this world no longer needs them," he grinned.
Little did he know, Cain heard him loud and clear. 'How did I hear him from that distance?', he wondered. 'are my turning into a zombie already?'