Chapter Eighty-Eight
 
They were back at the bottom of the hill. Victoria was attending to Yoona since she was the only one who knew first aid. However, she was only a beginner in the medical field, and not to mention, they did not have sufficient medical kit. It was not enough for Yoona at all.
 
“Unnie, how is Yoona?” Yuri asked as soon as Victoria retreated from Yoona. She wished she could offer the older hunter some help, but she knew nothing about medical except for bandaging minor wounds.
 
Victoria looked unusually stern. “Two of her rib bones are fractured. We have to send her to the hospital immediately.” She couldn’t tell what broke Yoona’s ribs, but she assumed it was the tree bark since Wooyoung found her there. She might have tripped and rolled down the hill. The tree managed to stop her from getting to the bottom, but the impact she received should not be mild.
 
“Un… unnie… is… tha… that… you?”
 
The sudden call from the familiar voice startled her. Yuri was stunned for a second until she realized Yoona was the one calling for her. She rushed to her side immediately and held her shoulders gently.
 
“Yoona!” Yuri couldn’t hold back those tears that had gathered almost in an instant when she heard Yoona’s weak voice. This is Yoona! She was the little sister who she adored the most! Yuri couldn’t believe her eyes when she found Yoona in this state. It was merely a few hours ago when Yoona was still having a cheery conversation with Jessica, but now… she was struggling to speak!
 
“Un… unnie… Sooyoung––Ah!” Yoona flinched in agony when she felt a sharp pain on the side of her body. It hurt her so much that she even stopped her breathing for a second.
 
“Yoona!” Damn it! How she wished she could suffer those injuries on behalf of Yoona. “Yoona, slow down! Don’t worry, I’m listening to you. Just tell where Sooyoung is slowly. I will look for her.” If only Yoona wasn’t distracted by the injuries, she would have felt Yuri’s trembles.
 
Yuri was truly frightened by the situation. They did a search around the area where they found Yoona, but there was no sight of Sooyoung at all. She couldn’t imagine the possible outcome of the missing hunter when Yoona was already in this state when they found her.
 
What if… What if…
 
Yuri bit onto her bottom lip tightly as she tried to stop herself from tearing even more.
 
“The… tomb…” Yoona struggled to speak once again. She might be in pain, but at least she was saved by their fellow mates. Sooyoung… she had sacrificed herself just to get her out of that tomb. She had to inform them about Sooyoung before it was too late. “There… There are… ma… many mutants… inside…”
 
“What tomb? Where is the tomb?”
 
“On.. top… of th… the… hill…” Yoona tried to reach for Yuri’s hand, but she was too restless to do so. “Un… Unnie…”
 
Yuri noticed her action. She quickly held Yoona’s hand in hers and pulled it close to her chest.
 
“I’m here!”
 
“Plea…se…”
 
Tears burst out of her eyes in an instant. Yoona had completely forgotten her injury as she cried out loud.
 
“Save Sooyoung!”
 
*
 
Yuri, Wooyoung and Junho were dashing through the empty hallway with Yuri leading in the front. Victoria had volunteered to send Yoona back to the headquarters and Amber decided that she should follow her partner in case the enemy ambushed them.
 
“Sooyoung! Where are you!” Yuri’s anxious voice amplified through the empty path. They had combed through every single corner which they came across, but everywhere was empty. There was neither soul nor mutant anywhere. It was as if they didn’t even exist in the first place. “Sooyoung! Can you hear me? It’s me, Yuri! Please answer me!” The lack of response was gradually draining Yuri’s hope away.  She felt like she had returned to the time whereby she found a stoned Sooyoung on the ground.
 
Nobody knew what happened to her, how she became traumatized and was left alone like that. But whatever it was, at least she recovered. She could gobble her snacks like how she did usually and no one needed to worry for her.
 
But now, tragedy had taken place for her again.
 
Yoona said they were ambushed by a large group of mutants. Those mutants were different from the ones they met in the past because they acted like a normal human, except that they couldn’t speak and their skins were rotten. They had difficulties in handling the mutants. If Sooyoung hadn’t thrown her out of the surrounding mutants, she wouldn’t have had the chance to escape the tomb. It was precisely because of Sooyoung’s sacrificial that Yoona was able to be found and rescued by them.
 
However, if the mutants were like how Yoona had described, it seemed that there was only one possibility to the outcome of Sooyoung.
 
She… could have been killed by them.
 
“Sooyoung!” Yuri continued to call for her friend. She wouldn’t care if was hurting. It was devastating enough to find an injured Yoona. She couldn’t bear to see a similar or worst situation happened to her other friend.
 
She hadn’t even apologized to her yet.
 
“Sooyoung! Answer me! It’s Yuri! We’re here to help you! Soo––”
 
Her voice seemed to have stuck in when her eyes captured that lonely white figure with long blonde hair, squatting in the middle of their path.
 
She seemed so familiar… way too familiar that her heart started to thump heavily against her chest.
 
It can’t be! She… She was still holding her in her arms before she left the headquarters!
 
“Yuri, that person looks kind of like your––” He gasped and immediately covered his mouth upon recognizing the identity of that white figure.
 
“Jessica…” Yuri called out, almost breathlessly.
 
Her soft call startled Jessica. She whipped her head to the back and her eyes widened uncontrollably when she saw Yuri and two other hunters standing behind her.
 
“Yuri…”
 
“W–Why are you––” She never had the chance to finish her sentence when someone else caught her attention instead. “Sooyoung!” Her friend was lying lifelessly next to her girlfriend. Yuri stared at Jessica unbelievably, “What did you do to her?”
 
“I––”
 
Before anyone could react, Yuri had already pulled out her gun and was pointing at Jessica.
 
She clenched her teeth tightly and asked shakily, “Were you lying to me all these time?” Tiffany appeared in her mind out of the sudden. She recalled how that girl would constantly warned her about Jessica, but she would always shrug them off and never listen to her. She also remembered how Tiffany tried to kill Jessica the other day, but failed because she stopped her, in which, it resulted her in leaving Aurales.
 
If… If Jessica was really someone dangerous like what Tiffany had been telling her––
 
“Is that what you will do? Pointing your gun at me when you find out I’m someone different from what you had in mind.” Jessica rose up from the ground slowly, never taking her gaze off from Yuri. “Just a few weeks ago, you were saying you will marry me. Yet, you’re pointing your gun at me now without giving me a chance to explain myself.”
 
“You betray me, Jessica.”
 
Jessica looked at Yuri for a while before bursting into laughter, trailing the hunters into more confusion.
 
Seeing how Yuri was clueless of what to do or what to say, Wooyoung stepped forward and asked, “What’s so funny?” He didn’t like Jessica’s laughter. That laughter, for some reason, sounded depressing in his ears.
 
The blonde gradually quietened down as she tried to catch her breath from the excessive laughter. “I’m just laughing at myself,” She casted her gaze on Yuri. “For believing Yuri blindly.”
 
Yuri tightened her grip on the gun, “That’s my line.”
 
“Right…” Jessica snorted and turned away. She squatted on the ground again. She was going to reach for Sooyoung when a loud gunshot surprised her. She pulled away from the unconscious hunter and turned back to three hunters.
 
Smoke was emitting from Yuri’s gun.
 
“Are you really going to shoot me?” The expression on Jessica’s darkened. She didn’t think Yuri would do that to her.
 
Yuri made a step closer towards her, “Stay away from Sooyoung.”
 
“You really don’t trust me, do you?”
 
“I said stay away from Sooyoung!”
 
Jessica was silent for a moment before she spoke again, “I’m such a fool for falling in love with you.”
 
Bang!
 
“Yuri!”
 
Junho tried to grab hold of Yuri, but he was too late. Jessica was already lying in her own pool of blood by the time he reached her.
 
“Damn it, Yuri! Why did you pull the trigger!”
 
It happened too fast. Yuri didn’t even realize she had just shot Jessica.
 
“I… I shot her…”
 
“That’s right, you shot her.”
 
That voice!
 
All three of them snapped their heads towards the entrance’s direction out of surprise. That voice… No way, it couldn’t be! She was supposed to be injured and on her way back to the headquarters now!
 
“Yoona.”
 
Her hope was crushed when Wooyoung verified the identity of the new intruder.
 
The smile on Yoona’s face had never been so annoying, “I would have punished you for not addressing me as Your Highness, but since you got that obstacle down for me, I’ll forgive your careless action.” Everyone averted her gaze to Jessica in unison when Yoona directed her finger at her.
 
“What are you talking about?”
 
“Oh, you still don’t get it?” Yoona laughed loudly, as though she had heard the greatest joke in the word. “Jessica unnie had been interfering with my operation ever since she appeared. I’ve been trying to lure Tiffany unnie to kill her, but aish! Just as I finally managed to get Tiffany unnie to pull her blade on Jessica, Sooyoung just had to come along and ruin everything. But I guess… having this result is much more satisfying than the previous one.” She smirked at the scene in front of her, implying to the hunters that she was more than glad to watch Jessica dying in her lover’s hand.
 
“You… You’re crazy!” Junho exclaimed.
 
The smile on Yoona’s face was gone, replaced by a dark and eerie expression which none had ever seen.
 
“Oh Junho, let me show you what crazy really is.”