Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

The tunnel spat them out at dawn.

After days of darkness, fire, and whispers, the world beyond felt unreal—lush trees leaning over a cracked riverbed, golden light filtering through the canopy. The air smelled like moss and memory. Water trickled quietly in the distance.

But none of them relaxed.

"Too quiet," Shade said, scanning the treeline. "No birds. No insects. No rot. It's wrong."

"False calm," H-13 muttered. "I've seen zones like this before—designed as psychological decompression chambers. Precursor to trap zones."

Juno crouched near the riverbed, dipping her fingers in the water. It shimmered unnaturally, refusing to ripple.

"No flow," she whispered. "The river's dead."

And then she saw it: not water—liquid mesh.

A thin film of bio-organic nanogel, transparent and alive, laced across the river like a net.

Before she could warn the others, the ambush sprang.

From beneath the trees, they emerged—VIREX Stray Units. Hybrid operatives once human, now fitted with skeletal exo-rigs and direct-virus neural threads. Eyes white. Skin pale. Weapons fused to bone.

Juno shouted, "DOWN!"

Gunfire erupted across the riverbed.

Shade rolled behind a fallen log and returned fire, tagging two strays clean through the faceplates. H-13 ducked behind an overgrown sensor post, trying to reboot his signal scrambler. Sparks flew as bullets bit into the trees.

Juno darted between roots, firing short bursts from her pulse pistol.

But these weren't like the mindless dead.

They moved with strategy.

Surrounded. Herded.

"Why would VIREX leave operatives here?" she yelled to H-13.

"They didn't," he called back. "These aren't sentries—they're retrievers. Their job is to intercept escaped anomalies. We tripped a flag when we bypassed Reclamation."

"Perfect," Shade growled. "We're famous."

One of the strays activated a net-launcher.

Juno saw it too late.

It struck her in the chest, exploding into a tightening mesh of acidic wire.

She screamed—falling to her knees—claws of heat tearing into her skin.

Then H-13 slammed a decryption rod into the net and overloaded it, shattering the web in a burst of static.

He pulled Juno up.

"Last time I checked," he said through clenched teeth, "I was the only tech anomaly. You're just glitching evolution."

They kept moving.

Shade lobbed a shock charge into the treeline, lighting it up in blue fire.

Screams followed.

The strays hesitated.

Just enough time.

Juno spotted a collapsed bridge up ahead—stone, overgrown, but wide enough to cross.

"This way!" she shouted.

They sprinted.

Bullets chased them.

One grazed Juno's shoulder. Another hit H-13 in the leg—but he kept limping.

Shade covered the rear, then vaulted across the bridge behind them.

And then—detonated it.

The stone exploded into dust and ash, strays plummeting into the mesh river below.

Silence returned.

Breathing hard, wounded but alive, the trio stood on the far side.

"Still want to walk the rest of the way?" Shade panted.

Juno gave a weary smile.

"No. But we're too far to go back."