It happened only in movies.
Ivo imagined that he was Harrison Ford, running for his life through the Temple of Doom while a giant boulder chased him.
It was daring and exhilarating.
If only it was as glamorous as the movies.
On that day, it was hauntingly real. Death chased after him. Death in hundreds, probably thousands. They screeched in feral roars and salivated with hungry eyes. Ivo felt as if his lungs were about to burst as he ran through the empty halls of his abandoned call center.
"Ivo! Where are you?" The handheld radio that Ivo procured from the production floor crackled to life. Ivo had to dive into a tiny space under a cubicle to keep himself hidden.
"I'm almost at the exit Julie! How is she?!" Ivo whispered at the radio in between labored breaths.
"Not good. She's barely holding on. You got the antibiotics?" The voice on the radio was piercing that Ivo had to turn down the volume.
"I have it, but I'm surrounded. Send help! Please!' Ivo whispered frantically.
"Wait for him in the parking lot. Stay safe." The voice ended with a dull beep.
"You can't stop now Ivo," Ivo told himself as he got up. He sprinted toward the lobby as collective snarls started to echo behind him. He glanced back and saw the rabid horde of monsters rushing toward his direction. The square pupils in their eyes flourished with sinister hunger. Their bodies, which seemed like the torsos of a dog and a goat haphazardly fused together, twisted and turned as they gave chase.
Ivo toppled several trash cans on the path of the oncoming assailants to slow them down. A small cluster of the monsters dispersed momentarily but more of them emerged from the rooms and aisles around him. Ivo scampered toward the giant double doors that led to the lobby and flung them open. His legs almost gave in as he tripped over scattered body parts of barely recognizable work colleagues with the exit just a few feet away.
A monster erupted through the enormous glass window beside him which separated the main call center floor from the entrance lobby. It snarled before Ivo and bounded forward to attack.
The man braced himself as the monster pinned him down to the floor and sunk its teeth into his right shoulder. Ivo felt as if a sizeable portion of his flesh and cartilage was torn off and his right arm went slick with warm blood. To his left, just a few inches away from him, was the mangled corpse of a young man who used to be a member of his QA team. He watched as one of the corpse's eyes fell out of its half-eaten head.
"Fuck no! Fucking not like this," he cursed under his breath. He clenched his left fist and threw several uppercuts under the monster's throat. "You won't turn me to monster shit!" He pummeled the monster's side at every word until it let go of its bite, giving him enough space to kick the monster aside. The monster landed on its feet and glowered at Ivo while a group of its brethren gathered around the man in a semi-circle. Ivo stared back at the horde while hiding his own trepidation. He thought of a line from his favorite TV show to somehow collect some bravado.
"Not today motherfuckers. Not today," he spat at his predators.
As if answering Ivo's challenge, the monster he kicked away gave a vicious roar and then lunged forward. Its fangs were inches away from Ivo's face when the monster's goat-like head exploded, spraying his face with blood and entrails.
Ivo heard rapid, sharp explosions and it took him awhile to recognize them as gunshots. A monster fell after three to four shots until the lobby was filled with both human and monster corpses.
