THE VARIANT: ZERO HOUR

1. DEATH AT THE TIP OF A NEEDLE

 

CRACK!

The sickening sound of a jawbone being forced open echoed in the waiting room, a spray of thick black fluid instantly staining the white linoleum floor.

"Motherfucker! Get back, you dog!"

Jaemin cursed with everything he had. His body slammed hard against the floor, his breath knocked out of him as one hundred and fifty pounds of dead weight crushed his chest. Above him, Dr. Ahn, the surgeon who had given him a friendly smile just ten minutes ago, had become something straight out of his deepest nightmares.

The doctor's lower jaw was ripped open, all the way to his ears, revealing wildly twitching cheek muscles and teeth gnashing with bloodlust. Thick saliva mixed with black blood dripped down, landing right on Jaemin’s cheek. The putrid, coppery stench of rot assaulted his nostrils, making his stomach churn violently.

"Jaemin! Big bro!"

In the corner of the room, blocked by overturned waiting room chairs, Jihoon screamed hysterically. The twelve-year-old boy was curled into a ball, his arms wrapped around his knees, his body shaking uncontrollably. His face was as pale as a ghost, his wide eyes locked on his brother, who was struggling to hold the monster’s neck back with his bare hands.

"Stay right there, Jihoon! Don't you come over here, what the fuck! Close your eyes!" Jaemin yelled, the veins in his neck bulging.

The muscles in Jaemin's arms felt like they were about to explode. He was just an ordinary twenty-five-year-old whose idea of exercise was slouching on the couch playing video games on his day off from the café. He was completely outmatched by the unnatural strength of the monster on top of him. The thing's sharp teeth were now just two inches from his neck.

Jaemin’s mind raced. How the hell did today get so fucked up?!

Just fifteen minutes ago, the world had been perfectly fine. They were just waiting in line at the Daehan Metropolitan Hospital lobby for Jihoon’s routine asthma check-up.

“Ma’am, are you serious? The insurance doesn't cover the new inhaler? He's twelve years old. It’s a shame if he has to use the old one, he still coughs a lot at night,” Jaemin had protested at the administration desk, trying to negotiate with a receptionist who looked exhausted.

“Sorry, Mr. Jaemin. That's the policy from corporate. If you want the newer model, it will have to be an out-of-pocket payment. The total comes to eighty thousand won,” the receptionist replied, her voice flat with disinterest.

Jihoon, standing beside him, just tugged on the hem of Jaemin’s jacket. “It's fine, big bro. The old one is okay. I’m already feeling better. We should use the money for fried chicken tonight instead. C'mon, let's go, I wanna play games with my friends.”

“Shut up, you little brat. This is adult business. Your lungs are more important than fried chicken, you get me?” Jaemin said, lightly smacking the back of his brother's head before turning back to the receptionist. “Alright, ma’am, I'll just use my debit card!”

Before the card could even change hands, a long, piercing scream tore through the hospital lobby.

"HELP! DOCTOR! SHE'S CONVULSING!"

Jaemin remembered that moment perfectly. He’d turned toward the emergency room, its doors wide open. On a gurney, a female patient covered in blood was thrashing wildly. But the strange thing was, Jaemin’s eyes had caught a glimpse of a middle-aged man in glasses standing near the gurney. With a trembling hand, the man injected something into the patient's neck, then quickly backed away and disappeared through the emergency exit.

And then, all hell broke loose.

The female patient suddenly stopped seizing. She was still for two seconds before she leaped off the gurney with an impossible, inhuman speed. She lunged for the neck of a nurse who was trying to restrain her.

"ARGHHH! LET GO! HELP! GET THE HELL AWAY!"

"CALL SECURITY, SHIT! THERE'S A CRAZY PATIENT!"

Blood sprayed six feet into the air, splattering across the lobby's glass walls. People started screaming, running, and trampling each other in a panic.

Dr. Ahn, who happened to have just stepped out of the elevator, tried to run in and intervene. "Restrain the patient! Everyone, stay ca—ARGHHH!"

The surgeon's heroic sentence was cut short as the female patient turned, her eyes completely white, no pupils. She launched herself at Dr. Ahn, biting into his neck and severing his carotid artery. The doctor collapsed, convulsing on the floor, as the people in the lobby screamed even louder.

"Bro! What is that?!" Jihoon had started to cry, his small hand gripping Jaemin’s tightly.

"I don't know, shit! Don't let go of my hand, Jihoon! We're leaving, now!"

Jaemin immediately pulled his brother, trying to run for the exit. But the chaos was already too severe. Within seconds—literally seconds, not minutes—Dr. Ahn, who had just been bitten and died, suddenly began to seize with bone-jarring spasms. His spine arched backward with a horrifying series of cracks, and he rose to his feet. The doctor turned his head, and his dead eyes locked onto them.

And that’s how Jaemin ended up here. Cornered in the dental clinic’s waiting room not far from the lobby, pinned down by the former surgeon who was now something else entirely.

"Graaaarrghh!" Dr. Ahn roared, spraying his foul spittle right into Jaemin’s eyes.

"Fucking gross! Your breath smells like a sewer!" Jaemin yelled, turning his head away while still struggling to hold the monster's neck back. The doctor’s fingernails tore through the sleeve of Jaemin’s flannel shirt, scratching his skin and drawing a stream of fresh blood.

A searing pain shot through Jaemin’s arm, but adrenaline numbed it. He knew that if he gave up for even a second, this thing’s teeth would tear out his throat, and its next target would be Jihoon.

I can't die. Not now. Shit, if I die, who's going to protect Jihoon?!

The panic and naivety of an ordinary young man began to evaporate, replaced by a primal, savage instinct to survive. He needed a weapon. His eyes darted wildly across the linoleum floor around him. A medical trolley had been knocked over during their struggle. Cotton balls were scattered everywhere, a bottle of alcohol was shattered, and there—a large glass syringe, its barrel broken, leaving behind a lethally sharp edge.

"Jihoon!" Jaemin yelled, his voice hoarse, his strength almost gone. "Cover your ears! Don't listen to anything!"

"Big bro! Don't die, please!" Jihoon’s sobs grew louder as he pressed his hands hard against his ears and squeezed his eyes shut.

Hearing his brother's cry, the last shred of doubt in Jaemin's mind vanished. This wasn't a person anymore. It was a rabid animal that had to be put down.

Jaemin released his right hand from the monster’s neck. The moment its defense was open, Dr. Ahn's head shot down to bite him. In a split second that felt like slow motion, Jaemin twisted his head to the left. The monster's teeth missed, instead tearing the collar of his shirt and cracking against the floor.

Using that momentum, Jaemin's right hand swept the floor, his fingers closing around the shattered glass syringe. His hand was shaking badly, slick with his own blood.

"Eat this, you fucking doctor!"

SHHNK!

With a final burst of strength fueled by pure desperation, Jaemin plunged the sharp glass edge right into Dr. Ahn's right eye socket. The glass pierced the eyeball, driving deep until it punctured the brain behind it.

The monster convulsed violently. Its guttural growl turned into a choked gurgle. A thick, reddish-black fluid erupted from its eye, drenching Jaemin’s hand and face. Jaemin didn’t stop. Gritting his teeth, he twisted the glass shard inside the monster’s skull, making sure its brain was completely scrambled.

THUD!

Dr. Ahn’s body finally went limp, collapsing on top of Jaemin like a sack of rice.

Jaemin's breath came in ragged, burning gasps. His lungs were on fire. With what little strength he had left, he shoved the corpse aside. He sat there, panting, staring at his hand, which was now trembling uncontrollably and covered in a thick, black, sticky gore.

“I … I just killed someone? No, that wasn't a person. That was a monster,” he muttered, trying to convince himself as he wiped the blood from his face with the back of his shaking hand.

"J-Jaemin?"

Jihoon's small voice snapped him back to reality. The boy slowly opened his eyes, staring in horror at the dead doctor on the floor, then at his brother, who now looked like a cold-blooded killer.

Jaemin scrambled to his feet, ignoring the stinging pain in his arm and back. He rushed over to Jihoon and pulled the boy up.

"I'm okay, Ji. I wasn't bitten," Jaemin said quickly, forcing his voice to be as calm as possible despite his heart still hammering against his ribs. "We have to get out of this room. Everyone in the lobby is probably gone. We'll find a way through the back corridor, toward the emergency exit. Got it?"

Jihoon nodded stiffly, tears still streaming down his face. The boy was too shocked to speak, his body trembling violently. The trauma was already setting in.

Jaemin cursed internally. Dammit. I have to keep it together for him. He squeezed Jihoon’s small hand tightly, making himself the anchor for his little brother’s sanity.

"Listen to me. Whatever you see out there, don't let go of my hand. If I tell you to run, you run as fast as you can. Understand?"

Jihoon swallowed hard, then gave a weak nod. "Y-yeah, bro."

Jaemin kicked a chair out of their path and crept toward the frosted glass door of the waiting room that led to the main corridor. Outside, the sounds of human screams had mostly faded, replaced by the shuffling of feet, low-pitched groans, and the wet, tearing sound of flesh being ripped apart.

Jaemin held his breath. He turned the doorknob slowly. Click. The door opened silently.

He peeked his head out, looking down the nurses' station corridor that was usually bright and clean. Now, it looked like a butcher's abattoir. Blood splatters painted the white walls, the fluorescent lights overhead flickered erratically, and the stench of death hung heavy in the air.

But that wasn't what made Jaemin’s blood run cold.

About sixty feet ahead of them, down the long hallway, stood a crowd of nurses and patients with their backs to Jaemin. Their bodies were bent at anatomically impossible angles. Several of them were clustered together, tearing apart something on the floor that was no longer recognizable.

The click of the doorknob Jaemin had just released, though incredibly quiet, echoed in the silent corridor.

Instantly, the sound of tearing flesh stopped. Complete silence.

As if commanded by a single hive mind, the dozens of figures in the hallway simultaneously froze. Then, with a horrifying, jerky motion, about thirty nurses and patients slowly turned their heads to face Jaemin and Jihoon.

Their eyes were all completely white. Their mouths were smeared with fresh blood. Some were missing their jaws, others had entrails spilling from their medical uniforms.

One nurse standing at the very front, her face half-caved in, opened her mouth wide and let out a deafening, high-pitched shriek.

"GRAAARRRGGGHHH!"

The shriek was an alarm. Dozens of pairs of white eyes now locked onto their targets. And in the next second, the entire horde of the living dead broke into a dead sprint, charging down the corridor, straight for Jaemin and Jihoon.

Jaemin’s eyes widened in sheer terror.

"RUN, JIHOON! FUCKING RUN!”