Chapter 279

Chapter 279

It had been five minutes since a zombie apocalypse had broken out in the midst of our personality test.

“Watch your head.”

“Phew.”

We were crawling through the ventilation shaft. There were cameras here and there, preinstalled, which told us we were probably on the right path.

This route seems okay. The production team that had remained had stood in front of the air vent on purpose, making it seem as though it was hidden away thoroughly. But in truth, it was natural to seek out the production team in the event of an emergency. This meant the story was coming across more naturally.

The mood isn’t bad, either. Though this was cliché, the inside of the shaft was dark and spooky, making it easy to concentrate on the presented scenario.

We could also hear creaking and zombie noises through the walls.

“Whoa.”

“The noises…”

“Those are zombies, for sure!”

Looks like nobody is having trouble becoming immersed. I checked over the tense members. Mentally nodding to myself, I continued crawling. A moment later, we came to a fork in the shaft when we rounded a corner. Chungwoo, who was at the lead, stopped short.

“Should we split—”

“Shh.”

He pushed himself close to one side and had the others follow right behind him.

“Oof!”

This suggested he had seen something, and the others quickly plastered themselves to the wall. Then we heard a monstrous screech.

Big Sejin let out a shocked noise, and Raebin quickly clamped a hand over his mouth. There was another air vent opposite us, and a zombie was inside it, screaming. The suit it was wearing was covered in fake blood and wounds, and pretty scary to look at.

Wow. He’s really giving his all. It seemed the production team had invested some money into hiring actors. The situation felt pretty realistic.

Wait a second. I did not like what I was hearing. Something broke.

“…!”

The fan attached to the air vent where the zombie was fell off and bounced away.

Before the fan could even land at our feet, Eugene shouted in English, “To the right!” and then in Korean, “Go right! Go right!”

“Yikes!”

He scuttled off down one of the forks like lightning, pulling the other members along by their hair and hands.

What are we, sheep? It worked, however. We raced down the shaft on all fours and arrived at the opposite end. At that moment, however, the zombie behind us began trying to destroy the vent in order to get inside, shaking the shaft noisily.

There was a loud crash.

“Oh my god!” Raebin screamed.

“L-let me get it open!” Ahyeon said, reaching out and pulling on a lever next to the vent.

It came away easily, and we were greeted with total darkness. The vent opened into a space that wasn’t lit up. I opened my mouth right away.

“I can’t hear any zombies in there.”

Chungwoo replied immediately, “Let’s go inside, single file. Be careful!”

“Okay!”

We started climbing out one by one. Relying on the faint light coming from the vent, I checked that the members who’d gone down first were helping the others get down. I got out almost at the same time as Chungwoo. Then, I closed the vent behind us. There was a loud thud, indicating that the zombie was still hard at work.

Big Sejin shouted calmly, “We can’t lock the cover in place! Look around for something we can use to block it!”

“Hold on a second! If we push this up against it…” Bae Sejin pointed at something dark near where he was standing.

Raebin ran over and called out, “It’s a cabinet!”

“Move it!”

Three of us held the vent cover in place, just in case, and the rest went over to the cabinet. There was no time to waste. Another thud came, and I could feel the vibrations with my hands as I gripped the vent.

“He got it open.”

The zombie had destroyed the vent cover it had been attacking and accessed the shaft. I saw the zombie around the corner.

“Look. Over there.”

“Hey! Here it comes!”

The situation had grown so urgent that we were all starting to sweat.

It’s going to slow down a bit, right? This lab had included a product placement ad and everything. Surely they’d give us at least a minimal amount of time to handle the situation. The zombie, however, whose bones were creaking as it writhed about and approached us… was approaching at a terrifying pace.

Sh*t. It had nearly reached us already. I pushed more firmly against the vent, just in case. While I appreciated their passion for acting, they really needed to chill out.

“Out of the way!”

I immediately twisted aside, and Chungwoo followed suit. A piece of metal furniture was shoved up against the vent, crashing into the wall. It was the cabinet. The huge piece of furniture covered more than half the vent and was pressed up against the wall.

That was when the zombie threw itself against the grating with a hiss. This cabinet, which had taken four grown men to move, seemed to contain some pretty heavy stuff. The zombie was unable to make it budge. It grunted in frustration.

Eugene, who was standing closest to the cabinet, nearly came within swiping distance of the zombie behind the vent because of how hard he’d been pushing.

“…!”

It hissed and growled, and Chungwoo and I quickly pulled him back. He jumped and moved away.

“Are you all right?”

“No problem,” Eugene said in English, and said in Korean, “Let’s go!”

He looked perfectly fine as he smiled. None of the fake blood had gotten on him.

“Phew. That’s a relief. We nearly might have had to tie you up!” Big Sejin joked.

“Haha!”

A few of the members finally laughed. The situation had been more serious than anticipated, and they’d grown very tense. The initial panic was finally starting to wear off a little.

Naturally, as soon as they’d gathered their wits, they started to complain. This was worse than the time we’d been told we’d get to travel, only to be forced to sell honey pancakes. I understood their reaction.

“I mean, seriously! I never expected this! That production team…”

“I had no idea…”

“No wonder they had us sign some kind of agreement when we came inside. I thought it was because of the tests.”

“Shh!” Eugene held a finger against his lips, deadly serious. “There are more zombies outside! Let’s focus on the situation first!”

He’s so excited. His eyes were glittering. He was clearly having the time of his life.

“Yes, Eugene is right. Let’s figure out where we are. Since it’s dark, we’ll move in groups of two… and I’ll go alone,” Chungwoo said.

“All right, Leader!”

Recalling that the cameras were still running, they quickly resumed their exploration of the room.

Some of this is going to be edited out, anyway. A little more talking might have been fun. I shrugged. Using the faint light coming from behind the zombie in the vent, I began looking around.

“Moondae, I’m not good at seeing in the dark. But I’ll move however you like, so if you could just let me know what you want—” Raebin said.

“Sure. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you if there’s a problem.”

“Yes!”

No zombies have appeared despite all the noise we’re making. That means this room must be sealed… With Raebin following me, as the member who’d been standing closest to me, I quickly moved to the wall. My hand found it soon enough.

“…!”

I felt the texture of it. It was made of wood. I stopped.

A dark, sealed space with strange wooden walls… I had a bad feeling.

“Moondae? Did you notice a strange liquid on the wall, perhaps?”

I moved my hand again. “No. It’s clean. I was just being careful.”

“I see! That’s wise. We don’t know when more zombies might appear!”

Yes. I was overreacting.

This is just us filming on a set. It wasn’t hard to remember that this was nothing more than a variety show, considering that the setting involved a zombie virus.None of the zombies were real, of course, and it didn’t really matter if the room was sealed or not.

“Wait a second,” I said.

“Huh?”

I’d been running my hands mechanically over the wall and suddenly felt something colder than wood.

“There’s… some kind of metal box on the wall. It’s a bit big.”

“…!”

I’d found a suspicious box.

“Moondae, found something?” Big Sejin asked.

“Yeah. One second.”

“I’ll check over here!” Raebin said, moving past me and feeling along the other side of the same box. “There’s some kind of latch on the other side! Should I open it?”

“Huh? Wait! Wait, guys!”

Big Sejin and Ahyeon approached moments later with a flashlight that they’d discovered somewhere in the room.

“That should do it, right?”

“Great!”

We undid the latch, relying on the flashlight to see what we were doing. There was a hum, and the box opened by itself. A blue laser beam shot out of the box.

“Huh?”

“Out of the way!”

Even Bae Sejin and Eugene, who’d been trying to look out through something that resembled a window, shouted.

“Get down!”

I grabbed the member next to me and ducked. There was a click, and our surroundings were flooded with light.

“…?”

I looked up, feeling the brightness burning my eyes. The lights had come on.

Oh, come on.

“It’s fine now.”

“Wh-what?”

I wryly patted the member I’d shoved on the back and helped him get up. I checked the box that we’d opened. It was a large, reddish-brown display cupboard, and behind it was the wall, neatly painted.

It was furniture? What I’d been running my hands along initially had been wooden furniture, not a wall. This wasn’t some cabin made of wood but just an office. An incredulous laugh escaped me. The other members were laughing in the same way, though for a different reason.

“So the lights can come on?”

“We must have looked pretty hilarious.”

“Th-that was pretty tense.”

“How does this work?” Bae Sejin asked, feeling around the box.

Big Sejin laughed out loud and rubbed his hands together. “I guess the lights are activated via a laser— Oh my god!”

“What?”

I looked where Big Sejin was looking and noticed a body in the corner.

Goddamn it!

“Whoa!”

“Oh god!”

“Guys, it’s just a mannequin.”

Correction… It was just a mannequin that looked like a body.

“What’s this?”

The mannequin was dressed in some kind of security uniform, and there was something in its hand that seemed to be an odd combination of a gun and a taser. The barrel was pointed at its own head.

So I guess that’s supposed to be a gun, in the same way that the mannequin is supposed to be a body. I twisted the weapon carefully out of the mannequin’s hand and took a look at it.

Hmm. The barrel was filled with glass.

“This looks like a laser gun.”

“What?”

I recalled the metal box, which had shot out a blue laser. “The tip is similar to what I saw in the box, and it has a similar pattern on the outside.”

“Smart, Moondae!” Big Sejin said.

“One second. S-sorry…”

“That’s brave of you, Ahyeon!” Big Sejin said.

Ahyeon had flipped the mannequin over and found a box and a manual underneath it. Inside the box was another gun that looked identical to mine, and four purple cylinders that looked like they contained actual ammo.

“Oh, and it seems this mannequin here wrote a little explanation at the bottom of the manual.” Big Sejin read it quickly, then summarized it for us.

The zombie virus, which had been brought into this lab by mistake, had leaked. The only thing that could stop them was this weapon, which had been brought in alongside the virus. Having already been infected, the mannequin was unable to escape and killed himself with the laser gun.

“Whoa. So we can kill zombies with this?”

“Nice.”

Big Sejin pointed at the purple cylinders.

“Those are rechargeable batteries… and each one holds enough charge for three shots!”

“Hmm. Is that right?”

Chungwoo took the laser gun and took aim at the suited zombie clinging to the vent. He was aiming at one of his arms, which was visible next to the cabinet. He fired quickly. There was a hum, and the zombie’s arm suddenly stiffened and stopped moving, like it had been paralyzed.

“Wow!”

“Not bad.”

Chungwoo shrugged and waved the weapon, as if cooling it off.

He said calmly, “I’m sorry, but could you guys move the cabinet a little so I can shoot it in the head?”

“Right…”

It seemed we had now found ourselves in a show about shooting zombies, instead of one that involved running away from them.

***

My prediction was only partly correct. I watched as a zombie rushing down the corridor was met with a laser shot and fell to the floor. It was Ryu Chungwoo’s work. This was the seventh time I’d witnessed something like this.

“Wow.”

“That was amazing!”

“Haha.”

The members were now marveling over his shooting for the eighth time. I was willing to bet my dyed hair that the editing would make a montage of all this.

Chungwoo glanced at the cylinders and shrugged.

“We only have two shots left… I hope we can escape soon.”

“Ugh. You’re right.”

He had been conservative with his shots. Surprisingly, he only ever fired the laser gun when he was confident he could kill the incoming zombie with a single shot. But we’d only had ten shots to begin with, so being wasteful had never been an option.

Maybe we shouldn’t have shot that one in the air shaft earlier. What was done was done, however. I massaged my forehead.

The lab probably only included the gun as a potential cause of conflict within the group. The main focus of the task was moving secretly and cooperatively. Shooting the zombies dead actually took more time, so having two rounds left wasn’t really a problem.

They did a good job planning this all out. The way out was exciting. The bathrooms, which had a zombie in each stall, the private consulting rooms, the playrooms with the spooky music, the corridors… The course was well-built, but there was a concern.

“Phew!”

“Wow. Two hours is a pretty rough limit!”

As we neared the end, we realized that we didn’t have much time left. According to the map we’d picked up at the desk earlier, the back door was at the end of the hallway we were currently making our way down, and I had a feeling that was the exit we were looking for.

And there’s bound to be a twist waiting for us there, too. We checked Bae Sejin’s watch, which told us we had less than ten minutes remaining.

We need to escape successfully for this to look good. It would be perfect if we could make it out just in time.

“Let’s hurry.”

“Keep your eyes forward. Tap on my shoulder if you see a zombie.”

“Okay!”

We passed through a dark hallway as we cautiously moved toward the exit… but nothing untoward happened.

“Wow!”

“I guess this is it, then.”

“Great! We succeeded!”

This is kind of boring. I tutted quietly, but I didn’t try to stop Eugene as he went to pull the back door open. He didn’t succeed. There was a beep, and a red light appeared on the small screen next to the door.

[Please scan your pass card.]

We stared.

“Uh-oh.”

The final ruse had been revealed.

“A pass card?”

The members stared at the door for a while, dazed. Then we quickly got into discussing what to do next.

“Did the production team say anything about this?”

“No.”

“Wow.”

“Should we search the front desk?”

Our instructions were very vague, and we only had ten minutes left. The members were doing their best to think things through, though. It was unsurprising that they were nervous. I was quiet as I stared up at the ceiling.

There has to be some kind of clue. This was the final puzzle, and the clue had to be hidden in something that we’d experienced on the way here. This was the only method that would make for a clean setup and a refreshing escape.

It’ll require some thought, whatever the solution is.

“You think of unconventional ideas, like an idea bank that is crucial to the group.”

“…!”

Wait. I lowered my head.

Got it. I began to go back the way we’d come.

“M-Moondae?”

“One second!”

I had no time to explain.

Nine minutes. We had very little time left. I ran, making calculations in my head as I went. Returning via a straight-line route meant the journey was shorter than expected.

There are no zombies on the way to that room, so if I keep running… we’ll be able to escape! I raced along the corridor a little faster.

That was when I heard a strange noise coming from further down the corridor. Something was collapsing. Dark smoke began coming from the cracks and openings in the walls. The lights, which had been blinking on and off, began to go out one by one. The path forward had gone dark.

The lights went out… I reached the end of the corridor soon enough, smoke billowing in my face.

The smell of burning… I was standing alone in a smoke-filled enclosure. I stopped short. Cold sweat was flowing down my neck.