Please Forget Me - Chapter 219

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

By the time we were struggling, night had already fallen, and we had no way of telling which part of the shelter had been breached, or whether the hole was big enough for the dogs to get inside.

“Hey, your left side is breaking through!”

Killian shouted at the man after judging the direction by the sound. We heard hurried movement, then—

“Argh!”

The man screamed.

“I got bitten, damn it!”

Did that mean the hole had grown big enough for a dog to get through? The thought that a dog might slip through any moment and attack me left me frozen.

“What a mess.”

Unfazed, Killian strode over the corpse in the center of the cabin toward where the man muttered curses. We heard the sound of something heavy—probably a rifle the man dropped—then the thudding of blows, the smell of blood, and the dogs’ yelps.

Thud.

From outside came the heavy thud of a dog hitting the ground. Killian had killed one.

At that moment, the dogs stopped their attack. Only Killian’s heavy breathing was audible.

‘Is it over now?’

One dog dead, the rest must be scared off.

Thud.

It was a naive hope. The dogs had only changed their tactics.

Thud.

The door beside me rattled violently, shaking my whole body. The dogs had begun battering the door with their bodies.

“Killian!”

I called as he stepped back from the door. He crossed between me and the door, blocking it. Killian began jabbing the door gap with the bayonet, but the dogs’ assault didn’t stop.

“Ah! The devil dogs are coming in!”

As if that wasn’t enough, a dog slipped through the hole near the man, scratching the cabin floor as it came inside.

“Stop them!”

“There’s nothing to stop! Give me my rifle, you thief!”

“Use your body if you have to!”

“You’re a real devil dog!”

Killian didn’t rush to help this side. The bolt on this door was cracking, and the gap widened, letting in the sharp scent of outside air. This door was just as close to giving way as the other.

“Argh!”

The man screamed again—bitten by a dog this time, and much more desperately. Were we preparing for the end?

“Killian… I’d rather…”

Rather than be torn apart by wild dogs, I wished Killian would shoot me and end it all. Clinging to his shirt, I held on, but Killian didn’t give up, continuing to prod the door gap with his bayonet, trying to calm me.

“Dana, it’s okay. Just a little more, hold on a bit longer.”

What good was holding on? The door would open eventually. Our only choice was whether to face a slow, painful death or a quick one.

“It’s soon. Trust me and wait a little more.”

He spoke as if expecting rescue—though no one was coming. Was Killian going mad like that man?

“Killian…”

I hugged his waist and buried my face in his broad back, crying.

Bang! Whizz!

Something exploded outside the cabin, shooting skyward with a roar. At the same moment, orange flares poured through the holes around the cabin. Someone had fired signal flares from the high ground.

As soon as the silence fell—the dogs and I holding our breath—cannon fire and gunshots echoed around us.

‘Right. There’s fighting on the ridge every night.’

Was this what Killian wanted us to wait for?

The sounds of shells and bullets flying overhead came close. The dogs would surely be frightened and flee.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

But used to the nightly battle, the dogs resumed attacking the cabin as if nothing had changed.

Just when I thought Killian had no other options left, he rested the rifle’s muzzle in the widening door gap, aligned his sight, and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The gunshot rang out but was quickly drowned by the volley of shots from the high ground. At the same time, the thud of a dog collapsing onto the floor came from outside the door.

Only then did I realize what he had been waiting for.