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On screen the ghouls closed in on the bloodied group of scientists. Their lab coats were soiled with so much blood one would think they were originally red. The leader, an attractive woman in her mid twenties raised the M16 to her shoulder and fired. The gun kicked with a loud bark.

The audience cheered as the rounds smacked into the dead flesh of the attacking zombies. Suddenly the gun clicked on empty. The woman, who was obviously not a realistic vision of a geneticist, searched her pockets for another magazine but came up empty. The three remaining creatures advanced on her. They were almost close enough so that she could have smelled their breath had they had any, when the film tore.

The audience groaned and cursed. The auditorium lights came on, the muzak started playing and the advertisement slides were projected on to the screen which only moments before had been filled with visceral images of death and mayhem. Now it showed greasy hot dogs and popcorn covered in artificially flavored butter topping that was bound to clog your arteries faster than the real thing. Gary's stomach churned.

"So much for the ratings system." He muttered.

The audience began to step its protests up a notch. A few daring individuals were throwing their over-priced drinks up at the window to the projection room. One teenager was even attempting to climb up the side of the entrance nook so as to yell at the projectionist face to face. From the seats below his buddies laughed and held his feet. Gary shook his head in amazement.

"Where the hell are Ted and Frank when you need them?" He muttered referring to the malls two night security guards who, as usual, were nowhere to be found when needed.

Audiences usually didn't react this badly to interruptions in their movie. Then again, the audiences didn't usually consist of entirely teenagers and insomniacs. That's what the theater got when they ran a late screening of two zombie movies in a row near Halloween.

Gary stood up and looked back towards the projection booth, where the teen was now struggling to regain his balance so as not to fall. A faint wisp of smoke came out of the window. He could also hear the sound a deep male voice, undoubtedly belonging to the manager, screaming curses.

One rather obnoxious heavyset woman from Gary's row was shouting "Somebody tell them to start the movie!" Her husband, a man of similar girth threw his half full water bottle at the screen, while shouting similar objections. Gary thought he shouldn't have thrown the water away, as he was sweating profusely.

Gary got up out of his seat and proceeded to make his way down the row, uttering apologies as he banged and bumped into other patrons. The loud, heavyset woman spilled some of her bucket of popcorn as he bumped her.

"Watch it you little flea!" she shouted at him. He did his best to ignore her and continue on his way.

"You should apologize to my woman! Look at what you did! Done Spilled half her popcorn!" he exclaimed.

"Sir, I believe they have free refills on those buckets." Gary said, both pointing at the popcorn ad on screen and continuing to distance himself from the couple. The man merely grunted, and went back to his shouting and cursing at the advertisements on screen.

Gary had to squeeze past yet another foul smelling man. This one was on his cellular phone's headset, complaining to whoever was on the other end about the interruption. Clearing this final obstruction, Gary was finally in the aisle and could walk without stepping on anybody's foot. He quickly made his way to the doors to the auditorium, amidst cheers and a chant of the word "refund". Gary simply smiled and nodded. He was not going to demand anything, especially a refund. He hadn't even paid for a ticket.

Unknown to these people, he worked here. He was watching a movie on his off time. He sure wasn't going to tell the paying customers that, though. He had made that mistake before, only to be showered with popcorn, chocolate covered peanuts and threats of bodily harm.

Once in the lobby, Gary headed for the stairway that lead to the projection rooms. After typing his code into the keypad three times, the door finally unlocked. Gary went up the stairs, taking two of them at a time. From here, the smell of smoke was even more distinct.

"What did those idiots do this time?" he muttered changing his pace was a quick walk to a run. As he turned the corner, he ran smack into a rather attractive woman, who in turn screamed. She tried stepping backwards but instead fell onto her rear with a loud thump.

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