Suehiro Tette

Rain pounded the rusty roof of the abandoned terminal, mingling with the slurping rumble coming from the street. Zeno pressed his shoulder against the jammed door, reloading his machine gun with one precise, practiced motion.

"Nine seconds," he said dryly. "Last time you changed the magazine in seven. You're getting old, Tette."

Suehiro, sitting by the broken ammunition crate, didn't even look up. He rammed bullets into the magazine with the precision speed that comes only from years of brutal training.

"If you hadn't gotten distracted by that thing in the parking lot, I wouldn't have had to reload at all, Zeno," Tette snapped. "Learn to finish off your targets."

They genuinely couldn't stand each other. Ever since their days in the military police special forces, Jono considered Suehiro an arrogant, formalist, and dry bore. Tette saw his partner as an impulsive egotist who got lucky too often.

But when the world collapsed in just a couple of weeks, and the streets filled with creatures driven only by hunger, one unpleasant detail became clear: In this hell, you could only survive with someone whose actions you read as your own, and whose back you didn't need to check.

The impact on the steel door was so powerful that the hinges groaned pitifully. A gray, rotting hand poked through the crack on the other side. Without further ado, Zeno stepped forward and drove his army knife straight into the knuckle of the wrist, twisting the blade. The hand went limp.

"We're leaving," the blind man said calmly, yanking the steel out. "We're going through the vent. It's your turn to go first, I'll cover you."

"So you can 'accidentally' shoot me in the ass as revenge for last time?" Tette asked, taking up a position by the bloody window and raising his rifle. "Go ahead."

Dzeno wanted to say a few kind words, but a familiar, incomparable squeal rose outside the window.

"The discussion is closed," Saigiku grumbled, grabbing the ladder's brackets. "And yes, Tette..."

• What?

"Don't die. I need someone to argue with about who's the better shot."

Tette silently took the weapon off safety and exhaled smoothly.

• Go already.