Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

00:09:57.

The moment Juno injected the Countdown Serum, the world began to shudder.

Not physically—but psychically.

She dropped to her knees, breath caught mid-scream as the serum coursed through her veins like liquid fire. Her vision fractured—realities layered atop one another like broken mirrors. And in each shard, she saw them:

The Turned.

The Forsaken.

The Whispering Dead.

All connected.

All aware.

Because she was now the center of the hive.

H-13's scanners went wild. "Her neural signature just spiked across the entire infected grid. She's become the signal."

Shade gripped her shoulders, but recoiled as heat pulsed from her skin. "Juno, talk to me!"

She opened her eyes—pupil-less, glowing with silver-blue light.

"I can feel them," she gasped. "Everywhere."

Below the Core Spire, across the streets of Valemire, in the tunnels of the Deadlands and the vaults of buried labs, every infected body froze. They turned their heads skyward, eyes wide, mouths trembling.

Then they moved—together.

Marching, swarming, running.

Not in rage.

In worship.

The Hive was awakening.

REMAINS stood at the apex of the spire, arms spread. "The serum didn't sever the virus. It called it home. She's now its speaker."

Axen grabbed his rifle. "What happens when it gets here?"

REMAINS smiled. "It doesn't want to kill her. It wants to become her."

00:06:24.

Across the city, the infected gathered in circles, surrounding the tower. Not attacking—waiting.

Shade looked to Juno. "Can you control them?"

"I don't know," she whispered, voice layered with thousands. "They're… thinking. Speaking through me. They remember who they were. Their pain. Their hunger."

A roar echoed from beyond the skyline.

The Hive Core had arrived.

A grotesque, writhing mass of limbs, faces, and spines fused into one monstrous being—a living virus, evolving in real time. It crawled like a wounded god across buildings, absorbing anything in its path.

H-13's voice dropped. "This is it. The central mind. The original carrier."

Axen whispered, "Patient Zero…"

00:04:40.

The Core Spire cracked under the Hive Core's weight as it climbed, reaching for Juno with a hundred twitching hands.

But Juno stood.

She walked to the edge of the tower.

The Hive pulsed.

And listened.

"I know what you want," she said, her voice echoing across every infected brain. "To live again. To be more than rot and whispers."

The Hive leaned closer.

"But not like this."

She pressed her glowing hand to the spire's reactor grid—where the city's neural web intersected.

00:01:01.

"I'll give you a new memory," she said. "One final thought to carry forever."

"What memory?" the Hive hissed through ten thousand mouths.

Juno smiled sadly.

"Mercy."

And activated the pulse.