MCAG Chapter 52

Episode 52

In the end, we decided to stay here for the night and entered the staff room behind the desk where tickets and popcorn were sold. There were no zombies in sight, but we didn’t have the guts to sleep in an open area. If zombies appeared, they wouldn’t be able to enter easily if we blocked the door well enough. On the other hand, being in a sealed space could trap us if zombies gathered, but I had a reliable dealer and tank*¹(referring to Do-yoon and Ga-eun as a type of players in a team – Do-yoon the dealer and Ga-eun the tank who withstands damage and deals a lot of damage) with me.

One of them could take down multiple adult men or the main zombie alone if they went berserk, and the other had top-notch skills. With these two, I felt I could handle any situation somehow.

“Why can’t we go out? And when did that thing appear…?”

“I don’t know either.”

“How do we get rid of that? In the hospital, I was too focused on running away from the zombies to notice, but at some point, it disappeared, right? That’s why we could get out.”

While I was contemplating whether to tell her about clearing the stage, he returned from searching the area and handed me a blanket he had found. It was cold, so I gladly accepted it. However, I felt bad using it alone, so I suggested the three of us share it, but both of them refused and wrapped the large blanket tightly around me.

“Wrap yourself up. You’ve been cold since earlier… and your complexion isn’t good either.”

“Maybe it’s because it’s winter.”

“I’m fine, and so is he. It’s not the season; it’s because you’re not in good condition.”

Whether his words were right or not, his hand, as he patted my cheek, was warm. My hands were freezing, but his were so warm that it made me confused. Did he hold a hot pack or something? Why was he so warm?

“Ms. Ga-eun, give me your hand for a moment.”

I grabbed her hand just in case, and she too had a higher body temperature than me. I started wondering if there was really something wrong with me.

Could it be because I lost too much blood…? I’d been feeling cold since earlier….

“Don’t use that ability recklessly from now on. You made your condition worse by vomiting blood because of it.”

“…Hey, you were bleeding just as much as I did. Ms. Ga-eun was stabbed with a knife and bled a lot, didn’t she? I wasn’t the only one who was spilling blood all over the place.”

“You spilled more still, so just stay still. Don’t argue.”

Saying that, he gently stroked my face, as if trying to share his warmth. Eventually, I closed my mouth.

As the warmth touched my body, the tension in my body eased and I settled down. I propped up my legs and hugged them, curling my body into a ball. I said I would take the first watch and then sleep. However, they told me to sleep first, saying they would take turns. It was a very tempting offer, but my conscience wouldn’t let me follow it.

“It’s okay. You’re a patient, Ms. Ji-ah. You need to rest well since you’re weak right now.”

“Don’t worry about us and just go to sleep.”

It was true that it would be a bit unsettling to sleep and trust someone as weak as me to keep watch. I wasn’t in a condition to fight properly at the moment, unlike them.. At times like this, it was better to just sleep so I wouldn’t be a hindrance, right?

Rationalizing it that way, I nodded and agreed, buying my face in my knees and closing my eyes. I shook my head when they told me to lie down instead of sleeping like that in case I was uncomfortable. It wasn’t like there was a bed — it was just the cold hard floor, so I didn’t want to lie on it. When I thought about it, I missed the basement of Stage 2. It was really cozy and nice there….

Thinking that, I slowly drifted into sleep.

 

***

 

When I opened my eyes again, I saw her sleeping on one side and him sitting next to me, allowing me to rest my head on his shoulder.

“Are you awake?”

“Yeah… What time is it? How long has it been?”

I asked him with a blank face as I looked up at him. He stroked my head and said it was already morning.

“Did you sleep well? Were you comfortable?”

“I was asleep like I passed out. I didn’t even dream and just slept. Guess I was really tired.”

“You did overdo it yesterday. A lot happened, after all.”

“That’s true… But what about you? Did you sleep well? You probably didn’t get much rest while keeping watch here. Aren’t you tired?”

“I’m fine.”

“Really? But you must be tired from overexerting yourself yesterday too…”

Then he smiled faintly and buried his face in my shoulder, locking me in his arms.

“Being close to you like this makes all the fatigue disappear.”

Perhaps it was because of my ability. But it could also be that he was just saying it for the sake of it, so I stayed quiet and then, he spoke again.

“It’s true. I really feel lighter and refreshed when I’m with you. You’re not using your ability right now, are you?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

Judging by his reaction, it didn’t seem like he was lying. If so, it must be true. Well, it wasn’t a bad thing, so I decided not to think about it too much. Rather, considering it a good thing, I quietly stayed nestled in his arms, hoping it would help relieve some more of his fatigue. It wasn’t until a long while after that, when she woke up, that I moved away from him.

After having a light breakfast and going outside, I was relieved to see the interior of the cinema looked the same as yesterday. It would’ve been only natural for nothing to change if the circumstances were normal, but after having been slapped in the face so many times in the last change, I could no longer fully trust what I knew beforehand.

“Noona, what is the clear condition here? There don’t seem to be any zombies.”

When he came by my side and whispered so quietly that only I could hear it, I remained silent for a moment before speaking.

“Why do you think there aren’t any?”

“So… they are here?”

“We need to look around first. We can’t stay stuck here forever.”

While we were talking, she came over and asked about our next steps.

“We haven’t explored everywhere here yet. We need to check carefully, just in case.”

“If there’s a place we haven’t checked…”

“There’s still that place.”

I pointed towards the theater. Should I call it fortunate amidst misfortune? This cinema was smaller compared to others. So, there were fewer screening rooms, and they were smaller, which made the burden lighter.

Still, I shouldn’t be too relieved. An unpredictable situation like last time could occur again.

“Do we really need to search there thoroughly?”

“In a normal situation, we wouldn’t need to, but we’re not in a normal situation. If we let our guard down and zombies jump out from there, what will we do? We’re already trapped on this floor and can’t go down to the first floor. We might be stuck here for who knows how long, so we need to secure this entire space and get it under control for safety’s sake.”

That being said, I wondered if the last ally was safe. From the illustrations I saw in the game, he seemed scared and a bit flippant… Thinking about him being stuck in that narrow space for days, surrounded by zombies, made me feel a little sorry for him. Especially since the lights were out — the zombies being everywhere in the dark.

Or maybe not? Maybe it was better that the lights were off? Seeing them in the dark might be less horrifying than in the light…

The zombies in this stage were all inside the theaters. As if they were people who turned into zombies while watching a movie, they were still watching the film even after death. Their tenacity was intense, so if we turned off the movie, the zombies, who had been stable until now, would do a 180 and charge at us.

“It does seem safer to do that. It’ll be a bit of a hassle, but we’ll have to check them one by one carefully.”

“But we’ll finish quickly because there aren’t many screening rooms. Probably.”

If we followed the strategy guide, we’d finish quickly, but there was one problem. Should I tell them about it or not? I told Do-yoon that I knew the future, so I could come up with some excuse, but I couldn’t do the same for her because it was entirely too troublesome. But if I acted like I knew everything and told her to act exactly according to my strategy, she would find it strange, wouldn’t she? But I couldn’t tell her I knew the future either…

If she knew that, she would definitely rely on me. Every time something happened, she would ask me first if I knew anything. It would be troublesome, so I didn’t want to say anything. Moreover, the future I knew wasn’t always accurate. Unexpected things could happen, just like last time, and my existence as a variable had already changed a lot from what I knew.

“Then let’s start with Theater Hall 1.”

Saying that, she strode forward. I watched her sturdy back and slowly followed behind. Soon, we arrived at the entrance, and I thought about what would be inside. If we were lucky, we might face the main zombie right away and finish quickly. But if that happened, he might suggest going down to the first floor after seeing the clear message, and we might not be able to enter the screening room where the ally was trapped. If that were the case, it would be better to meet the ally first.

 

[I really enjoyed today. I really wanted to see that movie. Thanks to you, I got to watch it for free… Thank you.]

[No, thank you. I was thinking of going alone since there was no one around me that had the time, but thanks to you, Hyun-ji, I didn’t have to watch the movie alone.]

 

The door must’ve been opened while I was thinking because the sound of a movie playing reached us. We entered the screening room and looked towards the sound. On the screen, a man and a woman were walking down a dark alley, relying on the faint light of a streetlamp.

 

[Sigh… What is that guy doing? He needs to go for it more aggressively! Instead of walking apart so awkwardly like that, get closer, hold hands, set the mood, and then just go for it…]

[Hey, be quiet! And move back a bit. We might get caught.]

[Look at what those stupid people are doing. It’s so frustrating, I can’t stand it!]

[No, be quiet and stay still. If you push me like that…]

[You move. I can’t see…]

 

Another pair of men and women that were following the couple from a distance argued and eventually fell with a loud noise. At that moment, an unpleasant, ear-piercing sound cut through the movie’s audio.

“Kreee!”

“Kraa!”

I turned my head away from the screen towards the source of the sound. What met my eyes was the sight of zombies filling the seats, making sounds that resembled laughter.

 

[What are you two doing here?]

[Why are both of you suddenly there…]

[Ah… haha. Oh? What a coincidence to meet here. We were just passing by…]

[Y, yes! We were just passing by. Woah, totally didn’t expect to meet you guys here!]

 

The scene wasn’t even that funny. It looked like a typical romantic movie situation where a couple was on a date, and their friends who were following them got caught. Well, I could consider it a funny scene in a way if it was some other situation, but the problem was that the ones laughing at it weren’t humans but zombies. Dead corpses shouldn’t be able to laugh, even if they were watching a movie.

As if on cue, they all laughed loudly at the same time as if they planned it together, and soon after, it became quiet again, with only the sound of the movie audible. Moreover, their faces weren’t showing any signs of amusement while they laughed.

Their behavior was mechanical, as if they were following a set program. The eerie, unnatural sight made the hair on my neck stand up.

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1*(referring to Do-yoon and Ga-eun as a type of players in a team – Do-yoon the dealer and Ga-eun the tank who withstands damage and deals a lot of damage.)

Bro this novel…. That sounds terrifying T-T

Happy new years in advance to my dearest readers! your comments and support means everything to me 𖹭 here’s to another year of reading good stories!