Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

The neurotoxin hissed through the vents like a whispering serpent.

Red lights pulsed across the ceiling of the sealed VIREX bunker, casting long, blood-colored shadows. H-13's filters kicked into override, but the rest of the team wasn't so lucky. Shade already staggered against the wall, coughing violently, eyes glassy.

"Hold your breath!" Juno shouted, yanking her jacket sleeve over her mouth.

Marcus Thorn's voice echoed through the intercom.

"There's only one cure for what you've become. Fire."

Axen reached the emergency override panel, slamming a fist into it. Sparks flew, but the steel doors stayed shut. "He's rerouted control through the lower furnace grid. We're sealed in unless we burn our way out."

Juno turned to H-13. "Options?"

"Two." H-13 scanned quickly. "One: access the heat exhaust tunnel—melt through the lower corridor. Dangerous. Two: flood the chamber manually and ignite. We may destroy the entire bunker… but open the way."

She looked at Shade, who had collapsed to his knees, barely conscious. Then back at the sealed corridor that led deeper into the research wing.

The furnace room.

Where Thorn was hiding.

"I'll go," Juno said.

"No," Axen growled. "I've lost too many to this virus already."

"You haven't lost me," she said, voice steady. "Not yet."

Juno dashed into the smoke-choked hallway, hacking through the emergency grate that led downward. She descended into the core: a circular chamber pulsing with geothermal heat, magma tubes humming, orange glow dancing off the walls like firelight.

And there stood Marcus Thorn, at the heart of it all, facing the ancient flame reactor.

"You still don't understand," he said without turning. "This virus doesn't destroy. It preserves—in memory, in muscle, in whispers. Even this fire can't erase it."

Juno stepped closer. "Then let's burn the lie it's wrapped in."

Thorn turned. His eyes were cracked with red veins, a mockery of tears. "I tried to atone by staying buried. But you—you brought them back. The voices. The guilt. The unfinished screams."

She pulled the ignition lever beside her.

The furnace roared to life.

Thorn didn't resist. He just stared as flame reflected in her eyes.

As the fire rose, she whispered, "Goodbye, Commander."

She sprinted back up the tunnel as the detonation chain triggered. Alarms shattered the silence. H-13 grabbed Shade and Axen just as the chamber behind them exploded in a roaring inferno.

Flames surged up like a funeral pyre for the dead, ripping open the sealed exits and tearing through Thorn's legacy.

They emerged into the night, coughing, blistered—but alive.

Behind them, the bunker collapsed into a pit of smoke and fire.

No signal. No trace. Just ashes.

Juno stared at the flames, then whispered to the wind:

"Let this be the last fire."

But deep below, within the shattered server banks, one data fragment pulsed blue.

Still whispering.

Still waiting.