Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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People were busy checking the time. They stared at the clock at the bottom of the computer screen, their wristwatches, and the time on their phones, counting each passing second.

"30 minutes, 29 minutes... 28 minutes."

Seoyeon, who had been sitting quietly as if dead, looked at her phone and counted the remaining time. The stopwatch she had started as soon as she heard there were 30 minutes left was ticking quickly. It didn\'t provide any comfort.

Time passed the same for everyone. Seoyeon glanced at the lectern.

Rustle, rustle, rustle.

As the time for the containment team to arrive drew nearer, the pages of the book continued to turn, one after another.

At that moment.

Bang—

Yeonwoo suddenly threw open a cabinet. It was filled with mysterious files. He began pulling them out in large handfuls and tossing them haphazardly onto the floor like trash.

"What are you doing? Those files were all organized! Put them back!"

The researcher, who had turned his eyes from the computer, approached in a panic, extending his arm before he reached Yeonwoo.

Yeonwoo threw the files forcefully before the researcher could grab him. Yellowed papers fluttered through the air as the researcher frantically tried to catch them.

"No! Stop that!"

The commotion drew all eyes from the clocks to Yeonwoo and the researcher. They looked at him as if he were mad. Yeonwoo didn\'t care and continued to throw the documents wildly.

"Calm down. We just have to wait 26 more minutes."

Kang Yeol approached Yeonwoo. Yeonwoo threw a bundle of files at him too. Kang Yeol swatted it away, the files exploding like a bomb.

The once tidy floor was now scattered with papers. Over this mess, Yeonwoo\'s voice rang out.

"How many pages has he read? 20? 30?"

"...About that many."

"25 pages."

Seoyeon, who had been counting the time with her eyes and listening to the sound of turning pages with her ears, added.

"How much time is left?"

"25 minutes... Ah, now 24 minutes."

"So what will we do after he dies? There will be about 20 minutes left. Are we just going to sit here, counting the time?"

Yeonwoo spoke as he emptied the cabinet. He tossed the documents on the floor, pulled out the shelf brackets, and leaned them against the wall.

He never turned his body towards the lectern.

"That thing came down from the lectern by itself. What do you think will happen if it consumes that person too? Won\'t it be able to reach us here?"

Crack!

He pulled out the last shelf bracket with enough force to nearly break it. Yeonwoo threw the bracket to the floor, panting as he removed his suit jacket and loosened his tie.

He took a final look at the others.

Whether he got fired or they were killed by the anomaly, he might never see their faces again.

Seoyeon, who had been calculating something on her fingers, widened her eyes.

"Roughly 4 pages per minute? In that case... two more people could die. Maybe three."

"Exactly. I don\'t want to die, so I\'m doing this. You should all find your own way to survive."

That was all he had to say to people he met for the first time today.

Yeonwoo wrapped his loosened tie around his eyes. That wasn’t enough, so he draped his suit jacket over his head and tied the ends together.

Then, he blindly reached out, felt the empty cabinet, and crawled inside.

Yeonwoo squeezed himself into the cramped cabinet. His muffled voice came through the fabric of his suit jacket.

"Close the door and lock it, please."

After a brief moment, there was a creak as the cabinet door closed. Click, the lock was fastened.

Whoosh—

Yeonwoo exhaled a hot breath. The warmth and moisture from his breath filled the space inside the tie and the suit jacket covering his face. It was hot and suffocating.

However, this was the best method he could think of. If he wanted to survive, he had to endure.

In the narrow, dark cabinet, Yeonwoo, his head wrapped, closed his eyes. He could hear the sound of his pounding heartbeat. He breathed calmly and regularly.

---

---

Thump, thump—

A narrow, dark, hot, and quiet world.

He couldn’t tell how much time had passed. It felt like ten minutes, maybe five. Perhaps twenty? It felt like he had been trapped for an incredibly long time.

Maybe only three minutes had passed.

Yeonwoo shifted his body. His legs were numb, so he changed his position. His sweat-soaked clothes clung to his skin.

“Hoo…”

Breathing deeply only made his throat feel tighter. The smell of burnt fabric from his suit jacket was suffocating. It felt like he would suffocate to death.

‘Containment team? Anyway, I have to stay like this until someone opens the door. Endure.’

Yeonwoo imagined ice or iced Americano, or shaved ice, gritting his teeth.

If he couldn’t endure, he would really die.

Then, distant sounds reached him. Muffled by the tie, suit jacket, and cabinet, the sounds from outside were fragmented.

“Tha██ ey██ cov██, hol█ hi█ han█?”

“Goo██ █ssessm██.”

It sounded like multiple people murmuring.

‘Has the containment team arrived? Has it already been 30 minutes? I hope so.’

His calves and thighs were numb, and his back, shoulders, and neck were aching.

Even changing positions didn’t relieve the persistent pain. The stifling heat and sticky sweat made it even worse.

‘Should I loosen this a bit? No, I can’t. Endure. Who knows what could happen.’

In the warm, suffocating cabinet, Yeonwoo moved his body to find a cooler spot. Then someone shouted loudly.

“██ mov██! Kee█ han█ hol██!”

“█!”

After a shout, there was silence. Yeonwoo tensed up, feeling his heart pound.

‘What was that? Did the containment team arrive? Or…’

Had someone fallen victim to the anomaly?

He licked his lips and swallowed. His tongue tasted salty from the sweat. He couldn’t afford to feel discomfort; all his senses were focused outward.

He strained to hear what was happening in the lab.

Huff, huff—

His own hot breaths.

“…”

Other than that, there was no sound. Not even the sound of pages turning. He couldn’t see anything with his head wrapped. An ominous imagination unfolded freely on the black canvas of his mind.

‘Damn it. What’s going on?’

Had the containment team arrived? Had they cleaned up and left him behind? Or had the anomaly killed everyone? Or had another accident occurred?

Uncertainty. Anxiety. Fear. He wanted to untie himself and peek through the cabinet’s thin ventilation slits. Yeonwoo’s hand reached the knot tying his suit jacket.

‘…No. Endure. Not yet.’

He forced his hand down. To clear his mind, he banged the metal door of the cabinet. The pain from his fingertips grounded him.

He tried to think calmly with his overheated head.

‘If the containment team had arrived, they would have taken me out. If someone was attacked by the anomaly, there would still be 20 minutes left. That means I’ve only been in here for three minutes.’

There was still a long way to go.

“Hoo…”

He exhaled to expel his thoughts, suffocation, anxiety, and irritation, emptying his mind.

He perked up his ears to catch even the faintest sound. If someone else fell victim, it meant ten minutes had passed.

‘Come to think of it, if two people are sacrificed, we might be able to last until the containment team arrives—no. Don’t think like that. I don’t know how dangerous it could get.’

His vision was blind, and his hearing was half gone. In the dark, stifling world, his thoughts jumped without context.

‘The new employee evaluation is probably ruined. I moved to save myself. Would I get fired?’

He shivered with worry, recalling Dr. Kim\'s evaluating gaze.

‘But survival comes first. Even if others die. I can’t die in their place.’

The faces of the three fellow new employees he met today flashed in his mind, and he shook his head to clear them away. Seoyeon\'s pale face, Kang Yeol\'s unmistakably soldier-like face, Park Sangjoon\'s face, still marked by his years as a civil service exam veteran.

Then, the faces of Han Changseong and Song Siwoo, who had died, also appeared.

‘…They’re dead. Killed by the anomaly.’

Strange things. Dangerous things. He would inevitably face them if he worked at this company.

“Do█t! St██ sti██!”

“Let go██ not go██!”

“Let go! I nee█ to se█! I ha█ to!”

Shouts.

Thud—

Startled, Yeonwoo twisted his body. He moved his head, pressing his ear against the cabinet door. Through the suit and tie, he could hear voices.

“Mr. Park! Sto██! Let go█ █tay sti██!”

“Hol█ on! Don’t le█ go!”

Someone had fallen victim to the anomaly.

Even with the fragmented sound, the situation was clear to Yeonwoo.

He thought,

\'Is there only 10 minutes left?\'

Thump, thump—

Using his rapid heartbeat as a clock, he counted the time. About one minute for every hundred heartbeats.

\'One, two, three... fifty-seven... eighty-nine... one hundred. One minute.\'

“Too lat██! Let go██!”

“F██ it! We ca█ sa█ him!”

\'One, two, three... one hundred. Two minutes.\'

"Gi██ up! Think ██ ou█ sur██ !"

\'...Three minutes... four minutes... five minutes.\'

“Move in! Move in!”

“They’█ her█!”

“Confirm██ entit██! Check██ injuries!”

The first time he heard this booming voice, it pierced through the layers of fabric and hit his eardrums. Yeonwoo was sure.

The containment team had arrived.

"Anom██ confirm██! Injure█ stabil██! Sedati██ inject██! No effec█! All Cle██!”

The sound of reports continued for a moment.

With a jolt, the cabinet door opened. Cool air hit his skin. Still cautious, Yeonwoo, his head wrapped, spoke loudly.

"Is it over?"

"It\'s over. You can come out now."

Yeonwoo hurriedly moved his hands to the knot in his suit jacket.

In his haste, it wouldn\'t untie easily. His fingers fumbled over the tightly bound knot.

Finally, he yanked the suit jacket off over his head like a helmet. The same went for the tightly tied tie.

He endured the scraping pain and pulled it over his head. His face stung, but he finally managed to throw the tie aside.

"Ahhh!"

He felt relieved. He felt like he could live. Yeonwoo limped out of the cabinet, his legs numb.

Under the white lights, he saw the chaotic state of the lab. The new employees in disarray, the doctor, the researcher, the guards with their sunglasses, and the members of the containment team wearing even more advanced gear.