Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

Trust didn't come easy anymore.

By morning, the firehouse felt smaller. Four people made it feel full—too full. Especially when one of them might already be infected.

Lara sat across from the gear locker, where Tess slept behind the metal grate. Her fever was rising. She moaned softly in her sleep, fingers twitching. Milo hadn't left the door all night. He clutched a flashlight like a weapon, eyes bloodshot, muttering, "She's strong. She's not like them."

Lara wished she could believe that.

June stood by the broken window with binoculars, scanning the empty street. "I see movement two blocks away," she said. "Too fast for the dead. Too… controlled."

Lara's heart jumped. "Raiders?"

June shrugged. "Could be. But they're armed. Looks like a recon team."

They were running out of time. Between Tess's condition and the threat of human danger, the firehouse wasn't safe anymore.

"We need a fallback location," Lara said.

Milo stood, instantly on edge. "You're thinking of leaving us."

"I'm thinking of keeping us all alive," Lara snapped.

"You'd leave Tess behind."

"If she turns, we all die."

June stepped between them. "We're not abandoning anyone. Not yet."

Milo's voice cracked. "She's my sister. I watched her carry me through a school full of walkers. Don't you dare talk about her like she's already dead."

Lara softened. She remembered Ethan's last words. I love you.

She'd wanted to believe he'd come back. Was she about to deny someone else the same hope?

She walked to the locker, crouched beside Tess. Her skin was pale, sweat clinging to her neck, but she was still breathing evenly. Not growling. Not twitching with rage.

Lara leaned in close. "If you can hear me, Tess… fight it. Don't leave your brother alone."

Tess's eyes fluttered open.

Lara gasped and stumbled back.

But Tess didn't attack. She blinked slowly. Confused. Human.

"I'm… still here," she whispered.

Lara unlocked the door. Milo rushed forward, nearly collapsing beside his sister. He sobbed into her shoulder. "You scared the hell out of me."

Tess coughed. "I'm not turning?"

Lara shook her head. "Not yet. That means something."

June looked toward the window again. "Movement's getting closer. Two blocks down. Still headed this way."

Lara grabbed the axe and flashlight. "We leave tonight. Quietly. If Tess can walk, we go together. No one gets left behind."

That evening, they sat together in the firehouse kitchen—eating canned peaches in silence, passing one flashlight around for warmth more than light. The wind howled outside. The dead moaned from alleyways.

But in that crumbling shelter, with strangers who had become something more, they held on.

Not just to survival… but to trust.