Located on a small street around the outer edge of the city was a movie theater. Though small, with only half a dozen auditoriums, the business managed to pull in a decent profit. At least It did before the pandemic hit. Having to shut down for a few months, the owner of the theater tasked one man to maintain the equipment while it wasn’t being used. Usually he did this by running a series of sound tests in early mornings once a week. But some times he’d take advantage of the empty theater, and watch a five dollar DVD, on a thousand dollar screen. If his boss ever found out, he’d definitely be fired...until the next weekly sound test that is.

The owner had no clue on how to maintain his own equipment, and he was too cheap to shell out the extra money to hire someone who could. This left the man with only one option, Frank. The thirty something year old wasn’t exactly a professional, he’d been around long enough to learn how to keep things going, but that was about it. Only getting paid minimum wage, Frank was knew he was being taken advantage of, but he didn’t really care to find another job. He had a cheap apartment, a modest car, and a fair amount of free time. The job wasn’t too hard, despite having to fix one or two problems every weak, and was comfortable. So why rock the boat? This left Frank and his boss in a stale mate. He kept things going, and the man usually left him alone. Which is why Frank was currently watching the Dawn of the dead, in theater 2.

Popping open a soda can, while sitting in the front row, Frank comfortable watched the movie playing on the big screen. Every now and then the man would chuckle, laughing at an internal joke. Every now and then he’d give an approving nod, usually when one of the undead appeared on screen. He couldn’t help but recall the days he himself played one of the ghouls. His coworkers didn’t know, but before he gained weight, he use to be an actor. He didn’t have any big roles, but he had a fun time appearing as an extra in a few shows. Now, he just spent his time watching his favorite movies, instead of trying to star in them. Another scream rang out from the speakers. Rolling his eyes at how fake the acting seemed, Frank reached for his soda. But the can felt off. Looking down at his drink, he realized the can had sprung a leak.

“Shit, that’s not good. At least it didn’t get on the seats.” Grumbling, Frank quickly got up and headed out of theater to get some cleaning supplies, leaving the movie to play. A few minutes passed, and the guy managed to mop up his mess. Not wanting to have to drag the bucked halfway across the building, the man settled with dumping the dirty water out the emergency exit door located at the side of the theater.

“Help!!!” Another scream filled the building.

“...huh, that one was actually pretty good.” Propping the door open with the mop bucket to let it drain, Frank went back inside to see what part the movie was on, but strangely all he saw were credits.

“Please! Help!”

Finally the man realized that he hadn’t been listening to the movie. Hearing banging coming from the hallway, the man began running toward the front of the building. Hearing frantic banging coming from the front door, Frank picked up the pace as he entered the lobby. A worried the female voice came from outside.

“Is anybody in there! Please! Open up!”

Coming up onto the entrance, the man saw a short dark haired girl through the small window, looking as though her life were in danger. Fumbling with the keys, Frank’s stubby fingers took a moment to unlock the door.

“Oh thank god!”

“W-what’s going on-” Trying to see outside the door, the man was surprised to be shoved back by the small girl, who turned around to pull the door closed behind her.

“WAIT FOR ME!” Another voice came in from outside, as a tall boy wearing a red hoodie ran out from the darkness of the parking lot. For a moment the man thought the girl would close the door on him, probably the guy she was running from, but instead she moved aside allowing the boy to dive in.

“What the hell is wrong with you two?!” Now frustrated, the older man stepped forward to to stop the two, but the girl’s ear piercing scream stopped him. Still trying to pull the door shut, the girl seemed to be having trouble, as though something was fighting her. An arm suddenly reached in through the open space, attempting to grab her. Having to jump back, the girl let go of the door, allowing it to fling open.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Run!” The girl screamed, passing Frank. The boy in the red hoodie must have already left, because Frank was left to face whatever was entering the small foyer alone. Turning back to the open door, the movie theater employee got a close look at the danger entering the building.

Being a zombie fanatic, Frank has seen a lot of gruesome and gory corpses. Each more extravagant than the last. Because of this, the man made it his passion to critic the zombies in every movie he watched. It was too the point that he could tell you how much cornstarch, rubber, or hairspray was used to make each monster. So, when he saw a group of zombies enter the building, it didn’t take him long to know that these monsters, were real. Suddenly years of what ifs, and survival training, kicked in. Lashing out with his foot, Frank knocked the feet out from under the zombie closest to him. Not bothering to look back, the man started running after the girl, who was already entering the hall. Frank still had half a mind to grab the broom that was propped against the concessions counter earlier.

“Go left!” He shouted, finally seeing the red hoodie of the boy from earlier. The kid must not have herd him, or he was having trouble with his directions, for he hesitated at the ticket podium, where the hallway slit into two directions. Seeing the Girl run passed him, the kid quickly decided to follow her, Frank not too far behind.

These zombies were moving pretty slow, still having trouble making it through the front door. Tripping the first one had cause an obstruction that they were struggling to get around, meaning the three weren’t really in that much danger. That is until the door to the second theater opened up ahead of them.

“Fuck, Watch out!” Realizing he left the back door open, Frank tried his best to warn the two teens.

Seeing another dead hand reach out, the girl let out another scream as she ducked under the Zombie’s reach, unfortunately the boy with the red hoodie wasn’t so lucky. Colliding right into the undead, the two bodies toppled over one another, leaving the red hooded teen on top. Seeing the aged wrinkly, and bloodied face of an old bearded zombie snapping at him, the kid instinctively tried to push the monster’s head back. He failed to notice the two hands wrapped around his throat restricting his airway. Just as the teen thought he was done for, a wooden stake pierced into the Zombie’s eye, gushing blood onto his face. Unable to scream, the boy could only close his eyes in fright. Sadly this didn’t stop the zombie, forcing Frank to stomp down on the stake to drive it further into the zombie’s skull. The zombie finally let go of the kid’s throat, allowing the older man to quickly pulled him to his feet, and drag him along. The group from earlier had almost caught up, and they only had half a broom handle left to protect themselves.

“There’s more out here too!” The girl’s voice came from the end of the hall, as she looked out the side exit.

“Shut the door, We aren't going outside.” Frank explained, waving her over to another door on the side. Pressing a few numbered into an electronic lock, Frank opened the door to the projection room. “We can hide upstairs.”

Without hesitation the two kids ran inside. Frank fallowed, closing the door behind him.

Slumping against the wall of a stairwell, the bearded man finally let out a shaky breath of relief. Two pairs of eyes hesitantly staring at him. Not saying anything, the three stayed silent, taking in what just happened. This was interrupted by a random bang, comming from the other side of the door. “Fucking Hell!”

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The first few floors Rein came across, while descended his apartment building, were quiet. This wasn’t a good sign. That meant either most the residents were still sleeping, or they had already turned into zombies. Still brooding over the incident from earlier, Rein couldn’t help be feel a little let down that the lady died. He didn’t feel guilty though. He knew that he wasn’t going to be able to save every person he came across, he didn’t even really want to try, but he still hoped he would have been a little more helpful than he was. All that training he did, and the knowledge from his past life, had given him a false sense of strength. It made him think he could be some sort of hero in this life, but that wasn’t the case. He was still just an ordinary person.

During his last life, Rein was in this same building when the apocalypse started. He remembered being oblivious about what was going on outside his apartment. It wasn’t until someone had knocked on the front door, that he opened it to find a group of people holding weapons. He thought they were playing some kind of joke, at first, but before he could question them further, the door to his neighbor’s place was kicked in, releasing one of the undead. What came next was a bloody linch organized by the other residents. Too scared to speak up, and still not fully aware of what was happening, the boy just went along with whatever the other told him to do. To be honest, if he wasn’t so scared they might randomly decided to kill him, then he would have run.

From that point on, him and the other residents worked together to make their way down the many floors of the building. After a few more scenes like the one he witness outside his front door, Rein finally came to the realization that these people they were killing actual monsters. Relived to know he hadn’t been kidnapped by a bunch of murderers, a new realization hit the teen. The world was ending. Eventually the small group ended up joining those in the lower levels. Having cleared most of the duplex of undead, the lot of them worked together to survive. Waiting until the military came to save them. But that wasn’t until a few weeks later.

Now, walking the halls of the building, Rein chose to knock on the door of every apartment that he passed. Despite having spent a lot of time with these people in his last life, he didn’t have any fond memories of the other residents. A few of them did save his life a couple times though, which is why he felt the need to at least wake them up, giving them a fighting chance. Any zombie that might be locked inside their homes, would most likely be distracted by the noise he was making, allowing anyone left alive enough time to react. He herd a few scuffles behind closed doors, but nothing sounded too serious. If anyone had called for help, he’d do his best to come to their aid, but… it didn’t seem like anyone needed it. After doing this for about three floors, enough people were moving around for the boy to feel satisfied. It was time for him to get out of here before things got too chaotic.