Apocalypse: Apparently, I Can See Zombies

"How so?"

Jin-woo asked.

"Well, for example, schizophrenia can develop in various ways, but outside of the 'scientifically proven' ways and the ones that don't fit your situation, there are three main ones I want to focus on for you. Either you develop it through genetics, through severe trauma, or naturally due to some complications in the brain, or a chemical imbalance.

For you it was believed that it developed naturally after ruling out the first two and because of your sleep terrors when you were younger."

Jin-woo hearing this said.

"Mom said for the first six months after I was born, I didn't cry. It even got to the point that she and Dad would think I was dead if not for them seeing me breathe. However, after I turned six months old, I cried every day at midnight on the dot up until I turned six.

It was at that time Mom began working with Aunt Madelyn and was able to afford to take me to an expert, who diagnosed me with sleep terrors and prescribed sleep medication."

Jin-woo lowered his head after saying this.

Seong patted his back and said.

"Yeah, that's right. First, you were diagnosed with sleep terrors, and then a year after that you were diagnosed with schizophrenia. I also met you around that time when we were in Elementary School."

Jin-woo smiled when he heard that, and so did Seong, but he soon continued.

"When I interviewed those experts, they all said the same thing, that sleep and schizophrenia are deeply connected, though the exact connections are still being studied. So, because of this, I asked if having sleep terrors at a young age can be a sign of early development of schizophrenia. The answers I got for this question were all confident yes.

However, after explaining that I have a friend who had sleep terrors since they were six months old every day at exactly midnight until they were six, I then asked them if this might have been a strong indication of schizophrenia developing early on.

But after a brief pause, instead of answering yes or no, they would ask if I was just making stuff up because sleep terrors that happened so early and lasted for that long while at a time so specific was unprecedented in the medical field. I even had some directly hang up on me, ha-ha."

Seong chuckled in amusement at that last sentence. However, Jin-woo looked over with a complicated expression on his face. That one sentence was merely a snippet of what Seong had gone through while trying to help him. Plus, he was sure it wasn't easy to get those professionals to be interviewed by a random high schooler in South Korea.

Seong seemed to know what Jin-woo was thinking and he simply shrugged while saying.

"It wasn't difficult, I just had to flex some of my smarts at the right people to make them see I'm an up-and-coming prodigy while saying that I want to learn from the current greats, and I might also come under them in the future."

Though Seong was nonchalant, the words he spoke were anything but. Soon he continued his explanation.

"I suspect the so-called expert who diagnosed your mother thought she was just exaggerating the length of your sleep terror while also thinking it was a coincidence you would cry at midnight and that it was probably due to your diet or something.

All in all, that doctor was a sham, I made sure everyone knew it too." –Seong's eyes suddenly flashed with a gloomy look, but it quickly faded before he got back onto the topic—"After the interviews, I started to get suspicious that you didn't have schizophrenia at all, and it was this bit of doubt that led me to focus on your sleep terrors more.

The first one I looked into was that time when I visited your old house in Gangnam and sang you that nursery rhyme for the first time. That's why I was going to that library, I was researching the car crashes that happen along the route your father would have taken to the airport."

Upon reaching here, Seong looked over at Jin-woo and finished with a smile. Explore stories on empire

"I finally found what I was looking for the day before the accident. The day when you had that night terror and your father was supposed to leave, a truck carrying construction pipes overturned near Gimpo Airport. Thankfully, no one died… All thanks to you that is!"

Seong suddenly reached out and started ruffling Jin-woo's hair. At the same time, he sighed and said.

"I found a few more information like this after recalling some of the night terrors you would have, so I knew this wasn't a coincidence. I realized that my friends' dreams could somehow predict the future. I was excited, but equally nervous that this would end like any other FD* horror movie, but thankfully I was wrong.

During the day of the accident, I was theorizing why you had this ability and found Schrödinger's thought experiment. It fits your case perfectly and it even makes sense why you started crying when you were six months old. That's around the time the brain's Temporal Lobe, which stores and retrieves memories while being responsible for language comprehension, starts to develop rapidly."

Seong's hand gently patted Jin-woo's head as he suddenly said softly.

"It's not your fault Jin. Even though you don't have schizophrenia, those visions can still be considered sleep terrors, and I can't explain how much trauma it would cause to someone who had it for as long as you have. Sudden and unexplainable panic attacks are just one of many symptoms from that trauma."

Jin-woo kept his head lowered and remained silent. He was trying not to cry.

After rubbing his eyes, he asked while looking over at Seong.

"You explain my ability to see the future, but you haven't explained the reason why I can see you. Seeing your ghost isn't exactly related to future sight."

Seong frowned in thought while scratching his chin. After a while, he said defeatedly.

"Honestly, I have no idea, there's no scientific explanation for this. The only explanation I can think of is that you're a spiritual prophet who was bestowed with powers by a higher being to see the future and communicate with the dead."

"Haha…"

"Haha…"

"…"

"…"

Jin-woo and Seong both started laughing but they soon stopped and glanced at each other, their eyes mirroring each other's skepticism.

Hesitating, Jin-woo asked.

"You don't think that's really the case, right?"

"I… I don't know."

As the two youths were grappling with the possibility of the existence of a God, the second bell signaling the start of the session after lunch suddenly rang out.

Jin-woo glanced at the speaker in the right corner at the back of the room and said.

"I'm worried this noise will set off the zombies. I might have to go to the fourth floor and tell everyone that help is coming."

A difficult expression appeared on Jin-woo's face as he contemplated going through with this. However, a cacophony of noise suddenly drifted in from the slightly open windows that show part of the football field outside.

Seong and Jin-woo both jumped up and rushed towards a window. They then saw a horde of zombies spilling out onto the football field and spreading out in every direction.

With one look at these students in uniforms, they could tell they were second years from the west wing.

However, what made the two start to panic slightly was that many of these zombies were heading in the direction of the gymnasium.

Class 1A was to the far right of the east wing as opposed to the gymnasium, which was to the left, so they were unable to see the gymnasium to understand why the zombies were heading in that direction.

However, they felt like it couldn't be anything good.

***

*FD=Final Destination

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