THE VARIANT: ZERO HOUR

10. SHOVING THE BEAST

"MMMPHHH! MMMMMPPHHH!"

Minseok’s screams were muffled by the black duct tape over his mouth, turning into a deafening, nasal howl. The middle-aged man's eyes bulged as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.

The teeth of the woman in the white blouse, now fully mutated, had sunk deep into Minseok's right shoulder. The doctor's white coat was torn like wet paper. The sickening sound of flesh being chewed alive and cartilage snapping echoed in the cramped four-by-four-meter room. Fresh blood sprayed out, drenching Minseok's face and splattering the metal shelves behind him.

"Son of a bitch! Get off him, you pig!" Jaemin cursed.

He didn't give a damn about Minseok himself, but if the old man died, any information about the virus would be lost forever. Jaemin grabbed a folded metal chair from near the desk and raised it high.

Min-Ji, standing nearby, had already raised her Glock 19, ready to pull the trigger and put a bullet straight into the female monster's head.

"Don't shoot, wtf! Don't!" Jinwoo yelled in a panic, his hand instinctively knocking Min-Ji's arm upward just before she fired. "The sound will bounce right outside! Hundreds of zombies in the hallway could break down that door if they hear a gunshot!"

"So what, you want us to cuddle with this thing, huh?! Move, you asshole!" Min-Ji barked, her eyes flashing with anger. The former fixer hated having her plans interrupted.

"We use brute force, damn it! The room's too small to shoot without risking a ricochet!" Jinwoo shot back. The cop threw his own revolver to the floor to avoid any accidents and charged forward, empty-handed.

BAM!

Before the female monster could tear into Minseok's carotid artery, Jaemin slammed the back of the folding metal chair into its spine with all his might. The impact was so hard the chair itself bent slightly.

The monster was thrown sideways, its bite releasing from Minseok's shoulder. A chunk of the doctor's flesh came away with it, sending the old man into violent convulsions against his bonds as blood poured from the wound.

The female monster rolled across the glass-strewn floor and then rose with jerky movements that defied the laws of anatomy. It turned toward Jaemin, its jaw, smeared with fresh blood, hanging wide open as it hissed in rage at having its meal disturbed.

"Come on, you office zombie! You're already pissed off and you haven't even gotten your paycheck!" Jaemin taunted, though his heart was pounding like a drum. He held the metal chair in front of his chest like a shield.

The monster shot forward like a hungry leopard. The tight space gave Jaemin no room to dodge. He was forced to take the charge head-on.

CRASH!

"Ugh, son of a bitch! It's heavy, wtf!" Jaemin groaned. His back slammed into an archive shelf, sending dozens of brown folders raining down on them.

The monster’s hands, its fingernails now long and blackened, clawed at the air, trying to reach Jaemin's face through the gaps in the chair. Jaemin pressed the chair against the monster's chest with his entire body weight, the veins in his arms bulging as he fought against a brutish strength that was completely illogical for an office worker.

"Jinwoo! Get its legs, damn it! It's kicking the shit out of me!" Jaemin yelled.

Jinwoo, already on the floor, slid under the shelving. He wrapped his arms around both of the monster's ankles, trying to pin them like a professional wrestler.

"Hold still, you psycho!" Jinwoo swore as he absorbed the monster's wild kicks. The broken heel of the woman's shoe caught him in the jaw. "Agh, fuck! My jaw! You've got the strength of a goddamn linebacker, lady!"

"Shut up, both of you! Hold its head!" Min-Ji commanded. She stepped forward in the impossibly tight space, holding her tactical folding knife in a reverse grip, ready to stab down into the monster’s skull.

But the monster seemed to have eyes in the back of its head. It thrashed with insane power, struggling so hard that the metal chair was knocked from Jaemin's hands and sent flying into a corner.

With nothing to stop it, the monster lunged for Jaemin's throat.

"Big bro!"

At the most critical moment, when its rotting teeth were just millimeters from Jaemin's artery, a small shadow shot out from behind a pile of cardboard boxes. It was Jihoon.

The twelve-year-old boy, who usually did nothing but cry and hide, was now standing with a pale but determined face. In his small hands, he held a medical anatomy encyclopedia as thick as a massive dictionary, its cover made of heavy-duty cardboard.

"Die, you ugly monster! Don't eat my brother!" Jihoon screamed.

THWACK!

Jihoon swung the heavy book with all his might, slamming its hard corner directly into the female monster's temple. The impact made a dense, sickening sound.

The monster staggered sideways, its head snapping to the side from the unexpected blow from its blind spot. Its attack on Jaemin missed, its teeth clamping down on empty air.

Jaemin's eyes went wide, shocked to his core that his little brother had dared to intervene. "Jihoon! Get back, wtf! I've got this!"

A surge of pride mixed with panic exploded in Jaemin's chest. Seizing the moment while the monster was dazed, Jaemin wrapped his right arm around its neck from behind, locking it in a brutally tight chokehold.

"Jinwoo, Min-Ji! Help me push this bitch toward the window! We're throwing it out!" Jaemin roared, dragging the wildly thrashing monster toward the frame of the shattered window.

"I've got its legs! Pull, Jaem!" Jinwoo scrambled to his feet, lifting the monster's legs as if he were carrying a log.

"Move, I'll give it the farewell kick!" Min-Ji sheathed her knife and took a step back to get a running start.

The three of them coordinated in the middle of the now-devastated room. Medical records were scattered in pools of blood, shelves were dented, and the foul smell of iron filled the air. This was no longer a safe zone. The place had been compromised.

Jaemin dragged the monster backward until its back was against the edge of the gaping window. The evening wind blew in, hitting their sweat-and-blood-streaked faces.

The monster thrashed, clawing at the arm Jaemin had around its neck, tearing open his old wounds and drawing fresh blood. But Jaemin didn't let go. He twisted his body, releasing the chokehold at the exact moment the monster was balanced on the window's edge.

"Now, Min-Ji!" Jaemin yelled.

Without an ounce of mercy, Min-Ji took a short run-up and delivered a Spartan kick with the sole of her military boot, hitting the female monster square in the chest.

CRACK!

"GRAAARR"

The monster's roar was cut short as its body was thrown through the window frame. Gravity took over. The savage woman plummeted from the third story.

Two seconds later, there was a sickeningly loud thud from below, followed by the deafening blare of a car alarm. The monster's body had slammed onto the hood of a doctor's car parked in the hospital lot.

Silence instantly fell over the Archive Room.

The only sounds were the ragged, desperate breaths of Jaemin, Jinwoo, and Min-Ji, as if they'd just run a ten-kilometer marathon. Jinwoo leaned on his knees, rubbing his bruised jaw. Min-Ji leaned against the wall, staring coldly out the window.

Jaemin slumped to the blood-soaked floor, staring at his own trembling hands. He then turned his head toward Jihoon. The boy was still standing frozen, hugging the thick encyclopedia, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

Jaemin forced a proud smile, despite his split lip. He gave a shaky thumbs-up. "That was a hell of a swing, kiddo. You saved my life, wtf."

Hearing the praise, Jihoon’s defenses crumbled. The encyclopedia fell from his hands, and the boy ran forward, throwing his arms around Jaemin's neck and sobbing loudly. "I was scared, big bro... I was so scared you were going to get bitten."

"Shhh… I'm okay. I'm right here," Jaemin returned the hug tightly, kissing the top of Jihoon's head.

In the corner, Minseok whimpered in pain, blood continuing to flow from his torn shoulder. The old man's face grew paler. The room now smelled like a slaughterhouse. There was no feeling of safety left. The broken window let the outside air in, creating a new paranoia that another monster could leap in at any moment.

"We can't stay here anymore, Jaem," Jinwoo said quietly, looking at the chaos around them. "The smell of the old man's blood is going to attract the whole building. Sooner or later, that steel door is going to give."

Min-Ji nodded in agreement. "This room is dead. We have to find a way to"

Ringgg! Ringgg!

A cheerful sound, a stark contrast to the bloody atmosphere, suddenly cut through the silence. The ringtonea K-Pop song set to maximum volumeechoed in the small room.

Jinwoo and Min-Ji jumped, startled. They both turned to look at Jaemin.

Jaemin froze. It felt like his heart had stopped beating. The sound was coming from the pocket of his jeans. His cell phone was ringing.

With a hand that was still trembling and smeared with monster blood, Jaemin reached into his pocket and pulled out the phone. Its screen glowed brightly in the evening gloom, displaying a contact name that made it feel as if the air was being forcibly sucked from his throat.

On the screen, written with a red heart icon, was a single word:

Mom 

Jaemin swallowed, and it felt like swallowing broken glass. His eyes instantly burned with unshed tears. In a world that had just fallen apart, his mother was calling. But for some reason, Jaemin's gut screamed that this was a terrible, terrible omen.