THE VARIANT: ZERO HOUR

5. A BLOODY SLAP FOR THE CREATOR

 

The silence that had blanketed the Archive Room lasted only two seconds before it exploded into pure violence.

CRACK!

The toe of Min-Ji’s military boot slammed into Minseok’s jaw with the full force of a soccer player taking a penalty kick. The sound of cracking bone mixed with the sickening tear of flesh.

Minseok was thrown sideways, slamming into a steel shelf and sending files cascading down on top of him. The middle-aged man groaned in agony, spitting on the floor. Three of his front teeth came loose, mixed with a thick clot of dark red blood that dripped onto his already filthy white shirt.

"You son of a bitch! The apocalypse out there is because of you?!" Min-Ji roared. Veins bulged on her neck, her eyes red with an uncontrollable rage.

One kick wasn't enough. She racked her Glock 19 with a sharp, violent motion, pressing the cold steel barrel right against the temple of Minseok, who was curled on the floor, whimpering and clutching his face.

"I'm gonna blow your fucking head off right now! Let's see your sick fucking brain splatter all over this floor!" Min-Ji threatened, her finger tightening on the trigger.

Seeing this, Jaemin, who had been in shock, instantly snapped out of it. BANG! If that gun went off in this enclosed space, the sound would echo all the way to the lobby. They’d become a free buffet for the hundreds of monsters downstairs.

"WTF, Min-Ji! Stop, for fuck's sake!"

Ignoring the stinging pain from the glass in his left arm, Jaemin lunged forward and grabbed Min-Ji's wrist, yanking the barrel of the pistol toward the ceiling just before she could pull the trigger all the way.

"Get off me, Jaemin! Let go!" Min-Ji thrashed wildly. This former fixer's strength was incredible, but Jaemin used his full body weight to pin her arm down.

"Are you insane, you asshole?! You want to go deaf and get us all killed?!" Jaemin yelled right in her face. "You fire that thing now, and the sound will be a dinner bell for every hungry fan out there to break down this steel door! We'll die a stupid death because you couldn't control your temper!"

Min-Ji glared at Jaemin, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Her chest heaved with fury. But slowly, the cold logic in her pragmatic brain began to take over. She knew Jaemin was right. A gunshot was a VIP ticket to death.

"Dammit," Min-Ji swore, finally lowering the gun. She roughly shoved Jaemin's hand away, then kicked Minseok in the stomach, making the man cough up more blood. "I really want to skin you alive, old man."

Jaemin took a step back, breathing heavily himself. He glanced over at Jihoon, who had been woken by the commotion and was now staring in horror from behind a stack of cardboard boxes. Jaemin gave his brother a hand signal to stay put.

His gaze then shifted back to Minseok, who was crawling pathetically on the floor. Any sympathy he might have had was completely gone. Where he once respected his elders, he now saw only a piece of trash who had triggered the end of his world.

"You listen to me very carefully, you psycho," Jaemin hissed, his voice as cold as ice. "Explain it to us, right this second. What the hell were in those vials? And who is Dae-woo?!"

Minseok was sobbing, blood dripping from between his split lips. He hugged his knees, his shoulders shaking violently. The man had been mentally broken long before the apocalypse even started.

"Dae-woo? he’s my son," Minseok sobbed, his voice hoarse. It was a pathetic sound, but neither Jaemin nor Min-Ji felt a shred of pity. "H-he was a good boy, but he was always bullied at his school. Every day he’d come home with new bruises. A senior once broke his ribs, stomped on him. The teachers looked the other way. The police were bribed."

Minseok looked up, his swollen eyes radiating a crazed desperation. "I-I couldn’t stand to see my son tortured! As a father and a research doctor, I-I just wanted to make him strong! I experimented in secret, using the lab facilities here at the hospital. I mixed illegal steroids, animal growth hormones, and mutated stem cells. I-I named it Strain-B."

"You injected your own son with an illegal experimental drug?!" Min-Ji cut in, laughing with sarcastic disbelief. "You're a real contender for Father of the Year, you bastard."

"I just wanted his body's cells to regenerate faster! So he wouldn't feel pain anymore when they beat him!" Minseok shrieked defensively, as if his actions were perfectly reasonable. "B-but the experiment was flawed. The virus attacked his brain instead. Shutting down his logical functions and multiplying his primitive instincts. T-this morning, Dae-woo… he bit my wife at home. H-he became patient zero."

Jaemin stood frozen. His mind struggled to process this insane information.

"So the woman in the ER earlier." Jaemin mumbled, remembering the woman Minseok had injected before all hell broke loose.

"That was the nurse who tried to help me when I fled with the virus sample," Minseok bowed his head in shame. "I-I panicked. I accidentally injected the remaining sample into her when we collided in the lobby. And the virus it spreads through blood and saliva in seconds. I… I never meant to destroy the world."

Silence crept back into the room. A silence that felt far more lethal than before.

Inside Jaemin, something dark had just awakened. The memory of people jumping to their deaths from the upper floors, the giant security guard who had almost chewed his face off, and Jihoon trembling with fear, it was all because of the insane ego of the man in front of him.

Without realizing it, the dark side of this ordinary young man had surfaced. He no longer felt sick at the sight of blood.

Jaemin walked slowly to a nearby steel shelf. His hand reached out and grabbed a thick patient medical record, bound in a hard plastic cover.

He turned and walked toward Minseok, who was still hunched over, crying.

"You know something, old man?" Jaemin's voice was eerily calm, but it carried a murderous aura that even made Min-Ji raise an eyebrow. "My little brother, Jihoon, he has asthma. Sometimes his friends make fun of him because he can't run fast in gym class. But I never once thought about injecting him with some mutagenic goo to turn him into a monster."

Minseok looked up, staring at Jaemin in confusion. "W-what do you m-mean?"

"My point is, you’re not a caring father. You’re just a selfish loser who’s watched too many sci-fi movies, you piece of shit!"

WHACK! CRUNCH!

Jaemin swung the thick, hardcover file with all his might, smashing it into the center of Minseok’s face like he was hitting a baseball.

The crisp sound of cartilage breaking was sickeningly loud. Minseok let out a high-pitched scream, falling flat on his back while clutching his face. Fresh blood gushed from his nose, which was now bent at an unnatural angle, staining the dusty floor.

"Ssshh… nice hit," Min-Ji murmured with a low whistle, slightly impressed by Jaemin's sudden brutality.

Jaemin tossed the bloody file onto the floor. He crouched down, grabbing the collar of Minseok's lab coat and hauling the middle-aged man's blood-streaked face level with his own.

"From now on, you're my prisoner," Jaemin whispered right into Minseok’s ear, his voice an unforgiving threat. "You're going to be useful by telling us how this fucking virus works. But if you dare open your mouth, make a sound, or even look at my brother with those filthy eyes of yours. I will personally throw you out that third-story window. Let you get eaten alive by your own creation. Got it?!"

Minseok could only nod weakly, sobbing uncontrollably as blood continued to pour from his nose. The man was utterly broken.

"Good." Jaemin released his grip, letting Minseok slump to the floor. He looked at Min-Ji. "You got any zip ties or something? We need to tie this pig to the shelf pipe so he doesn't try anything."

"Got paracord in my bag," Min-Ji tossed a coil of black tactical rope to Jaemin. "Tie it tight. If his hands turn blue and lose circulation, leave 'em."

Jaemin caught the rope and began to bind Minseok's wrists to the steel shelving post, ignoring the doctor's pained whimpers. Just as he finished pulling the final knot tight, a sudden noise stopped him cold.

BANG! BANG!

A brutal pounding slammed against the steel door of the Archive Room from the outside. The force of it made the shelves in the room vibrate slightly.

Min-Ji instantly raised her pistol, aiming it at the door. Jaemin reflexively stood up, putting himself between the door and Jihoon. His hand tightened around the broken broom handle he’d prepared earlier.

They held their breath, preparing to face whatever monster was trying to break its way in.

But it wasn't the growl of the undead they heard. From behind the thick steel door, a human voice yelled in frustration, followed by the sound of heavy panting and a string of curses.

"Open the damn door, you assholes!"

Jaemin's eyes went wide. His heart pounded in his chest. He knew that voice. It was his best friend since high school, Jinwoo, who was now a cop. But how in the world could Jinwoo be at this hospital right now?!

BANG!

A second series of blows hit the door, this time followed by the sound of claws scraping against the metal from the outside.

"Jaemin, hurry up and open it! I've got a zombie reunion party on my ass out here, goddammit!" Jinwoo yelled in a panic.

Jaemin swallowed hard. He looked at Min-Ji, who met his gaze with a deep frown, her pistol still locked on the door. The safety of the room they had just secured was now on the line.