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"So, Louis Westwind set the fire to force us down," I deduced further.
"I believe so," Chris nodded. "Even if Zenith didn't think of it, Emily would have insisted on going down to put out the fire."
"He would never agree," Anne glanced at Zenith.
He just pressed his lips together, saying nothing.
"Then their team coordinated. Someone set the fire, someone sniped, and someone put the tape recorder behind the door,"
I continued analyzing. "The reason Louis didn't show up is that he was worried we might panic and open the door to fight him."
"That makes sense," Anne agreed.
Zenith nodded slightly.
Chris didn't immediately confirm my assumption.
"I just reviewed all the details from this morning," he said. "I think there's another possibility."
"Could it be that from start to finish, it was just Louis Westwind alone?"
"Could their team have survived with so many people? I find it illogical."
"So I tend to believe Louis survived for various reasons and was discovered by Emily."
"After that, they reached some sort of agreement."
I remembered Uncle Grant telling me that Emily had been going out early and returning late these past few days. Could it be because of Louis?
But I didn't interrupt and continued to listen to Chris.
"Louis wants to kill many people, while Emily only wants to kill the three of us."
"They have common interests but also conflicts. This plan is likely the result of their negotiations."
"I think Louis had promised not to kill Uncle Grant, but he broke that promise."
"And the tape recorder..."
Anne had just started to ask when the zombies outside suddenly exerted more force. The fire door immediately opened a narrow gap, causing the goods on the shelf to fall to the ground.
Something yellowish-white appeared in the gap.
Suddenly, it blinked.
I finally realized.
That was... a zombie's eyeball!
Zenith reacted quickly, firing several shots into the gap.
At the same time, we all exerted force.
With a bang, the door was shut again.
This interruption scrambled my thoughts once more. "Where were we?"
"We were talking about the tape recorder," Anne reminded.
"Right," Chris continued. "The tape recorder was placed in advance."
"When Anne rewound it, I noticed there was at least an hour of blank tape before Lucas's voice started."
"Uncle Grant usually gets up at 4:30 AM. He was shot at 5:10 AM this morning."
"Working backwards, Emily must have turned on the tape recorder and opened the ground floor door around 4 AM."
"They must have rehearsed the timing countless times to achieve such precision today."
"But the problem is, the tape recorder is the most uncontrollable and risky part of this plan. Why did Louis do it this way?"
"The most likely reason is—he is now alone."
"The mall's layout is complex. He couldn't have trapped and killed all of us by himself."
"So one purpose of the recording was to make us believe we were surrounded."
"The second purpose was to divert our attention and buy time for the fire."
Exactly.
Because of the tape, I subconsciously believed Louis was ambushing us in the stairwell.
At the same time, the fire eliminated the idea of hiding out on the rooftop.
Creating the illusion of a sniper made us give up the idea of escaping by rope from the top floor.
I suddenly remembered that after the initial few shots, there was no further activity from the "sniper" downstairs.
Emily had misled us from the start.
The "sniper" was just misinformation.
"So what do we do next?" Anne looked confused.
We couldn't outlast zombies in terms of stamina or endurance.
Though it seemed safe now, we were actually in a new predicament.
"If Louis is really alone, things might not be as difficult,"
Zenith said, taking out paper and a pen from his bag and biting off the pen cap. "You said a zombie was tied on the ground floor, was it inside or outside the door?"
"More precisely, it was at the front entrance."
"Okay." Zenith quickly sketched a map of the supermarket.
The supermarket's main entrance faced southeast, with a shopping street in front.
The back door was to the northeast, with a park opposite.
"If Louis could hit both Uncle Grant and the zombie," he drew two circles on the map, "based on the trajectory, he must be here."
Zenith's pen tapped twice on the paper. "There is a row of steel houses, only about two stories high."
From the map, this row of low houses was next to the park, almost directly facing the supermarket's back door.
We needed to avoid this shooting range.
"Are there any cars near the main entrance?" I asked.
To escape the horde, we needed transportation.
"There are, but they aren't fully repaired yet."
Zenith took out a set of keys from his bag. "They are Lucas Westwind's cars. Three of the four tires have been replaced. The last one hasn't been changed because we ran out of spare tires."
"That will do," I gritted my teeth and took the keys.
The zombies in the stairwell continued their relentless assault.
The door thudded against the shelves.
"Helen, you can't drive that kind of car. Let Chris go with you," Anne directed.
"You two find the car. Zenith and I will hold the fort here. Be quick; we can't hold out for long."
I nodded, and the four of us synchronized our watches.
"No matter what happens, we meet at the supermarket's main entrance in five minutes."
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