Episode 51
“Are you done getting treated, Ms. Ji-ah?”
“Ah, yes. It didn’t take long because I wasn’t injured that badly.”
“We entered this building without knowing what it was while running away from the zombies, so I looked around a bit. The first floor only has a convenience store and a café. The convenience store is empty, and the café is a mess.”
These were things I already knew. This building was the setting for Stage 4. To be precise, only the second floor was Stage 4. The first floor had a convenience store and a café like she said, and if you took the escalator inside, you would reach the cinema.
“There’s an escalator inside that seems to connect to the second floor.”
“You haven’t checked the upper floor yet, right?”
“Yes. I only looked around the first floor, and it’s surprisingly clean with not many zombies.”
I turned my body to look at the entrance of the building we had entered. It was already shrouded in deep darkness.
“It’s already evening.”
Now that I thought about it, the sunset was already gradually setting when we went to the hospital from the supermarket by car. I was so focused on escaping the hospital and reaching Stage 4 that I didn’t notice our surroundings getting darker. We ran and ran, and now it was night.
“We should probably stay here for the night. It’s dangerous to wander around at night.”
“That’s true. It’s reassuring to know that there are no zombies on the first floor since we checked. But we don’t know about the upper floors though. Shouldn’t we check upstairs, just in case?”
To be honest, I wanted to just sleep today and go to Stage 4 tomorrow. I was so tired that I thought I could fall asleep anywhere. But it was cold here. The chill was rising from the floor. Rather than shivering through the night here, it might be better to go to the second floor, where there were cushioned cinema seats to sleep on. After coming to that conclusion, I subtly encouraged them to go to Stage 4.
“You’re right about that.”
“Then I’ll go take a look by myself.”
“No. It’s dangerous for you to go anywhere alone.”
“It’s better to quickly check by myself than for all of us to go together.”
“You never know what’s up there.”
“But your condition isn’t good. You should rest here.”
“Acting alone in this situation is dangerous, listen to me.”
I needed to clear Stage 4, get the gem, and meet the last ally. What the hell did he mean by he was going up alone?
I swallowed the words that were about to come out of my throat and tried to persuade him to bring us along.
“Ms. Ji-ah is right. It’s dangerous to go alone.”
“Right? You agree, don’t you, Ms. Ga-eun? So let’s go up together. Okay?”
“…Alright. Let’s go together.”
He eventually surrendered and agreed to follow my suggestion. If he had insisted on going alone, I planned to send him first and then follow up with her later. That would have been fine too, but it was best to avoid splitting up as much as possible.
“Before we go up, wouldn’t it be a good idea for Ga-eun to find something that could be used as a weapon? There might be a toolbox in the convenience store’s storage or something like that… It would be reassuring to have something at least.”
Saying that, I led her towards the convenience store. The interior was clearly already ransacked by others before us, so there was no food left and only various miscellaneous items scattered on the floor.
I would’ve liked to have something with me too, but with my hand like this… Was there a small, easy-to-carry weapon?
As I looked around, I found a cutter knife on the floor. It wasn’t ideal as a weapon because of how small it was, but I thought I could use it to escape in an emergency. Plus, no matter how insignificant it was, having a weapon in my hand stabilized me both physically and mentally, so I decided to take it with me.
“Ms. Ga-eun, did you find something useful?”
“Ah, just a moment!”
A loud noise came from the storage pantry she had gone into. I was about to get closer because I wondered what the hell she was doing, but she was faster and came out of it. She showed me what she had in her hand and said it was enough.
“Um… where did you get that?”
“The shelves stacked with items inside had collapsed. I dismantled one of the broken pieces.”
She approached me with a casual pace while holding a long iron pipe. I already knew her capability with pipes, so I felt relieved seeing her with it.
“Then let’s go back.”
“Alright, but ah, Ms. Ji-ah, what did you take?”
I took out the cutter knife from my pocket and waved it.
“Since I can only use one hand anyway, it’s fine.”
After leaving the convenience store and re-joining him, I followed them towards the escalator.
“It’s stopped.”
“In this situation, that’s to be expected.”
I looked at the stationary escalator for a moment before stepping up one step at a time. Suddenly, I was reminded of going to the cinema in real life. No matter where you went in the country, the sweet and savory scent of popcorn filled your nostrils when you entered the cinema. But here, there was a pungent and metallic smell of blood. Still, it was much better than the smell in the hospital, so I relaxed my furrowed brow and looked around
Normally, a cinema would be bustling with people, the chatter of friend groups, and movie advertisements would be playing on the screen— but this place was the complete opposite of that bright atmosphere. Except for a couple of fluorescent lights, everything was dark, and it was desolate, not even a single zombie in sight.
[Stage 4: Cinema]
[Congratulations on entering the fourth stage!]
And before long, the screen I’d been waiting for appeared before our eyes.
“….”
“….”
“It’s really dark here. But it doesn’t look like there are any zombies for now…”
While we remained silent, looking at the screen that had just appeared, she, oblivious to it, was looking around. I left her to it and went to the escalator we had just come up on. As I reached out, something blocked me. Seeing me do that, he pulled me close and made me stand by his side. When our eyes met, he spoke.
“Don’t let go of my hand and stay by my side.”
“Okay.”
I held his hand tightly and stuck close to him. Even though I knew there were no zombies, the dark and eerie atmosphere made me feel a bit scared because it felt like something might jump out at any moment. Unlike me, she seemed completely unafraid and was walking around just fine by herself.
“…Aren’t you scared, Ms. Ga-eun? Since we can’t even see our surroundings well since it’s dark…”
“I’m fearless when it comes to this type of stuff.”
“Ah… so you don’t get startled easily even when watching horror movies?”
“That’s right. To be honest, humans are scarier than ghosts. Instead of watching horror movies, I’d rather watch the news.”
“…That’s true.”
As she said, if you wanted to see something truly terrifying, it was better to watch the news rather than pay a lot of money to see grotesque fake ghosts jumping out in horror movies. More horrifying things happened in reality everyday than in the movies.
“Still, don’t wander around too much by yourself. It’s dark, so be careful of where you step.”
Saying that, I took his hand and led the both of us towards her.
“This must be the cinema.”
“Yes, it is.”
“But isn’t it strange? Why are there no zombies at all?”
She tilted her head and continued to look around.
“There are always lots of people in the cinema. There should have been a lot of people here when the zombies appeared…”
“They might have all run away. Or…”
I glimpsed towards the screening room, trailing off my words.
“They could be somewhere else.”
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be here. Anyway, it’s good that there don’t seem to be any zombies in this building itself. We can sleep easy here.”
She said that and suggested going back down; however, he and I didn’t move.
“Aren’t we going down? Are we going to sleep here? Is it better here than on the first floor?”
“Ms. Ga-eun, we can’t go down.”
“Huh?”
She looked at me with wide eyes, not understanding what I was saying.
“We’re stuck. Here. Just like the hospital.”
“Stuck…?”
She narrowed her eyes in confusion as if she didn’t get what I meant at first, then hurried to the escalator we had used to come up, perhaps because she’d finally understood it. Then, she reached out into the air.
“Huh? Why is it…?”
Only then did she realize what was happening and looked at us with a bewildered expression.
“How did you know?”
“I found out because I was trying to go down earlier but found it blocked.”
“Then… what should we do?”
What should we do? We’d just sleep here tonight.
“Don’t stand there, come this way. Since there are no zombies for now, we can just stay here for the night, I guess…”
I didn’t want to move anymore today, regardless or whether we’d entered Stage 4 or not. We’d clear the stage and meet the ally tomorrow. For now, I just wanted to sleep. If we went around looking for the ally and accidentally opened the door to the room with the main zombie, we’d have to fight right away again without getting any rest.
The random elements of this game were really proving to be a problem. The room with the main zombie and the room with the ally changed every time you played the game, so to find them, you had to open all the doors in the movie theater.
If it were fixed, I could at least rescue the ally first… But as sorry as I felt for them, I could only hope they would hold out for just one more day.
early new years treat (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) .ᐟ.ᐟ
