Girls Never Die || TripleS

9 - Instigation

Heavy black smoke blanketed the air. Cars had slammed into light poles, buildings, trees, fences, and other cars. The smell of burnt metal and gasoline was nauseating as the firefighters did their best to put out every flame.

The station had received a flood of calls, all describing an attack in the heart of Seoul, near one of the largest hospitals, by a rabid patient in a lab coat. Due to the overwhelming number of calls, the station had sent nearly half of their workforce and two firetrucks.

They had to park the cars hundreds of meters away due to the traffic. A large portion of the police squad were setting a blockade around the perimeter.

Kotone, her partner Suyeon, and the rest were tasked to search the inner area.

Kotone gulped, watching the numerous bodies lying motionless on the floor as she and her partner walked in the middle of the road.

"I've never seen anything like this..." Suyeon whispered. Kotone nodded in agreement, a weight settling in her chest as they passed by the corpses. Their clothes were torn with their arms and faces sporting scratches. They all had a common injury: a bite on the shoulder.

The duo stopped in front of an ambulance. A young man lied on the ground with his back against the road. Blood pooled around his head.

"So, this is the first victim?" Kotone spoke, recalling the debrief.

Suyeon looked at the ambulance. Its doors were swung open, and it had crashed against another vehicle, that had flipped over due to the sheer speed of the impact. She looked inside. Blood decorated the ambulance's interior, but not one body was present. The cop looked around with a hand resting on her revolver, an unnerving feeling settling in her gut.

Kotone leaned down with one knee on the road. She observed the body attentively, her eyes trailing over the various injuries and stopping at the missing chunk of flesh in its shoulder. She held her breath, noticing a piece of the man's collarbone was slightly peeking out.

"They said a bite did this?" she asked, pressing two hands against his neck. There was no pulse.

Suyeon turned her attention to her squad mate. She glanced at the bite and frowned. "The perpetrator would have to be insanely strong to tear off an entire chunk like that."

Kotone sucked in a breath. She pressed the button on the handheld transmitter attached to her police vest. "Suspect is assumed to have outstanding physical strength. Stay on guard."

"Roger that." A voice buzzed from the device.

"To think a single out of control person could do this much damage..." Suyeon murmured, waving a hand in front of her face as a cloud of smoke blew in her direction.

"One of the craziest things I've seen." Kotone agreed, taking another look around her. Other officers talked with each other as they compiled information. A few firefighters were putting the fires out with a fire hose attached to the fire hydrant on the sidewalk.

She huffed. "After what I saw today, I don't think I can go down to the skatepark with Yeonji."

Suyeon hummed. "Yeah, I think I'll take some time off. This is nauseating. Someone else can take care of the vigilante problem."

"Oh, don't even get me started on that," Kotone sneered.

The nearby sound of a whimper caught the officers' attention, and they spun their heads in its direction. A man in a clean suit appeared from behind the ambulance. He walked oddly, looking to the floor. There was a small scratch on the visible side of his face.