Episode 53
It wasn’t just me. Ga-eun, who had been watching the scene right next to me, also had a strange expression on her face. When I gently nudged her, her startled face looked at me in surprise.
“Ah, Ms. Ji-ah… those are zombies, right?”
“Probably.”
“But how can they… It doesn’t make sense for zombies to be watching a movie, and they’re laughing?”
“Just think of them as weirdos and ignore them. There’s no point in thinking too deeply about it.”
She seemed like she had a lot to say still, her mouth opened and closed, but eventually she just said this;
“Do you think they don’t know we’re here? Or are they pretending not to know?”
“I don’t know… But one thing’s for sure, they’re focused on the movie. And they’re definitely zombies, not humans.”
He also seemed flustered by their behavior, unable to say anything. He just stared at them with a disgusted expression. Suddenly, applause sounded throughout the theater, growing so loud that it drowned out the movie. Curious, I looked at them and saw they were clapping with expressionless faces, just like before. They soon stopped all at once and it became quiet again.
…Were they like because they possibly had memories from their time as humans before they became zombies?
I thought it might be like the doctor and nurse zombies in the Operating Room in Stage 3. It was too eerie to see them laughing and clapping at scenes that weren’t even funny.
“Ms. Ji-ah, I feel uneasy for some reason. Those things are definitely zombies, but it feels like they’re not…”
“…I feel the same way.”
“Should we… just leave?”
He seemed to agree with us and nodded, trying to leave the theater. However, our wish was not to be fulfilled. We didn’t know when it had shut, but the entrance to the theater room was firmly closed. No matter how hard we pushed, the door wouldn’t budge.
“The door won’t open.”
“Should we deal with those zombies, then? They seem completely absorbed in the movie right now, so let’s take care of them first and then try to open the door again.”
I knew the door wouldn’t open, so I didn’t dwell on it. The moment we entered the theater room, the door was set to remain closed unless the movie stopped. All the zombies in the theater were so engrossed in the movie that they did not care if another zombie next to them was getting killed. However, the moment the movie stopped, they would become aggressive and attack. Therefore, there were two ways to leave this place.
One was to kill all the zombies who were absorbed in the movie and then stop the movie to go outside. The other was to stop the movie first and then escape outside while avoiding the attacking zombies, locking the door behind us. The latter method was obviously more efficient, but the problem was how to explain this to them.
Suddenly telling them to tear the screen and run to the door seemed too strange. Not the part about killing the zombies, no, that was expected, it was suddenly ripping apart the screen part that was hard to explain.
While I was thinking about this, they had already started moving. They began killing the zombies sitting in the front row one by one. The zombies didn’t even take their eyes off the screen, even when their comrades next to them were dying. They didn’t show any movement until the moment they died. Their behavior was so bizarre and grotesque that I faltered for a moment, but I took out my cutter knife to kill a zombie and help even a little anyway.
“This place is so weird. They’re not normal.”
“They’re zombies. They’re not supposed to be normal.”
“That’s true, but… they’re too different from the other zombies we’ve seen so far.”
Finally, after killing all the zombies in the theater, we looked at the dead zombies with uncomfortable expressions.
“…The door still isn’t opening.”
“If killing the zombies doesn’t open the door… should we stop the movie?”
“Now that you mention it, it is strange. It’s weird that the movie is still playing in this situation. Isn’t it, noona?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t make sense.”
Then, everyone’s gaze shifted towards the projection room, where the light towards the screen was pouring from.
“Let’s go.”
As I said so, I led us briskly to open the door and went inside. Then, in the empty projection room, I saw the projector running by itself.
“There’s no one here, so how is this thing running?”
“Hmm… anyway, it feels off, so let’s turn off the machine.”
I tried to turn off the projector to stop the movie after that, but since I didn’t know how to operate it, I just ended up breaking it. At that moment, the movie cut off, and the lights in the screening room, which had been dark, turned on. As the interior of the screening room lit up, the sight of the zombies we had just killed morbidly became even clearer. I suggested we go to the door again and led them there.
“Ah, it’s open.”
“Good. I feel uneasy staying there. Let’s get out quickly.”
“But why did the door suddenly open after it wouldn’t open just a moment ago? Is it because we broke the machine? Or did someone lock it from the outside and then unlock it…?”
“I don’t think there’s anyone else here besides us… And if there is someone, why would they go through the troublesome process of locking it and unlocking it?”
“That’s true… Then why on earth..?”
As we stepped out of the theater, they sighed in relief and started talking about the door being locked. I subtly corrected their misconceptions to guide them closer to the answer and dropped a hint.
“So, does that mean breaking the projector machine opens the door? The door didn’t open even after we killed all the zombies, but it opened after we broke the machine.”
“That seems the most plausible explanation for now.”
“But that’s ridiculous. What connection is there between breaking the machine and the door opening…? It’s like someone is watching us and manipulating things at the right moment. Like we’re moving within a predetermined framework…”
I flinched as her words hit the nail on the head and couldn’t say anything.
“It’s something that can’t be explained scientifically.”
“Don’t think too deeply about it. We can’t scientifically explain zombies either. Dead bodies coming back to life and moving around. Not to mention, there’s something invisible preventing us from going outside, both in the hospital and here… Magical things are already happening.”
I didn’t want her to dig too deep into this question anymore, so I wrapped it up with plausible words.
“By the way, what should we do now? Should we check the other theater rooms? There might be zombies acting the same way as just now.”
“I think it’s better if we look around more.”
“What about you, Ms. Ga-eun?”
“…Let’s check the other places too.”
***
As we continued to check the other theaters one by one, only two came to be left: Screening Room 5 and Screening Room 6. However, we still hadn’t encountered the main zombie or the ally. This meant that the main zombie was in one of the remaining rooms, and the ally was in the other. I wanted to meet the ally first. But even if I wanted that, the probability was still 50-50.
“Only two rooms are left now. This one will probably be the same as the others, right?”
“Probably.”
I checked the clothes and the large stick placed right in front of the door again and placed my hand on the door handle.
“Then I’ll open the door.”
Having repeated this four times before, I now opened the door with familiarity and entered. As soon as I stepped in, something under my feet made me stumble and almost fall.
“Are you okay?”
“Y-yeah, thanks to you. But something caught on my foot…”
Fortunately, he quickly grabbed me from behind, so I only staggered and didn’t fall. Anyway, I looked down to see what was caught on my foot, and there was something crouching there.
Huh… was this what I thought it was?
“A person?”
“A person?”
Hearing my words, she, who had just entered, asked if there was a survivor. Instead of answering, I pointed to the ground, where a man was hunched over.
“Is this really a person? It could be a zombie.”
“Step behind me, Noona. There can’t be a person in a place like this.”
At that moment, the man who had been lying down on his stomach flinched and slowly rose up. Seeing this, the two of them hid me behind them and prepared to attack at any moment. The man who stood up looked around for a moment, and then started to whimper softly.
“Huh… When will this end…?”
[Everyone, run! They’re chasing us… Cough!]
[No! Jessica!]
[Aaah!]
“Hik! Ugh… Please stop…”
The man flinched at the screams coming from the movie and covered his ears with both his hands, trembling uncontrollably. Seeing this, they, who had been on high alert, relaxed as if they’d judged him to be harmless.
“Is he really a person…?”
She tilted her head, lowered the pipe in her hand, and approached the man. She was about to put her hand on his shoulder to talk to him when…
“Aaah!”
“Ah!”
The man jumped and screamed in horror as soon as her hand touched him. She was also startled and screamed.
“What! What…? Oh…? Oh!? A person!”
He looked at us, hesitated for a moment, and then, with a brightened face, ran and clung to her as if he had known her for a long time.
“Finally, another person…! Huh… Sniff. Please help me. Sniff…”
I felt a slight pang of guilt when I saw his reaction that was bigger than I’d anticipated. If I’d known he would be so happy to see another person — I regretted not rescuing him immediately yesterday, even if I felt lazy.
“Zombies… Sniff. They’re here… We’re trapped here… Sniff.”
Looking at him pitifully as he struggled to speak properly and sobbed, I signaled her to take care of him while I tried to go outside.
Aww. well, that’s the usual reaction one would expect from a person. Welcome to the gang, cutie
