Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

They buried June by a fallen billboard on the outskirts of Sector 7, where the fog never lifted and the air always smelled faintly of rust and sorrow.

Lara dug the grave in silence. Milo stacked stones. Tess, still limping, placed the only flower she could find—a wilted marigold—over the wrapped body.

Ryder stood a few steps back. Watching. Not praying. Just… watching.

None of them said what they were thinking: June died screaming.

And they didn't save her in time.

Twelve hours earlier, they'd taken refuge in an abandoned daycare. Bright walls. Tiny chairs. Crayon murals stained with mold. It should've felt innocent. It didn't.

That night, June couldn't sleep.

She sat on the cracked playmat, sorting through a box of children's flashcards like it still mattered what "A is for Apple." Her hands trembled.

Lara sat beside her. "What's going on?"

June didn't answer at first. Then: "Something touched me in the Mirror House. But not like a grab. It… lingered. It was cold. But when I moved—my skin felt warm. Still warm. Like it didn't want to let go."

"You think it marked you?"

June nodded. "I think it missed me. And now it's following."

Lara stared at her hands—so steady when holding an axe, so useless when it came to saving people from the intangible.

That's when the generator died.

Darkness swallowed the daycare. And in the pitch black, June whispered: "It's here."

A shape flickered in the hallway mirror. June screamed.

By the time Lara got to her, it was already inside her skin.

Not a bite. Not a scratch.

A possession.

Her eyes went white. Her mouth opened, but her voice echoed in two tones.

"Still warm," she rasped. "Still mine."

Milo couldn't look. Tess wept.

Lara didn't hesitate. She held June in her arms as she seized, then quieted. No blood. No gore.

Just the light fading behind her eyes.

When it was over, her skin was still warm.

"I thought I had more time," Lara whispered after the burial.

"You gave her peace," Ryder said. "Most people don't get that anymore."

"But I couldn't stop it."

"You were there," he said. "You held her. That's more than most ever get."

Milo lit a candle and set it on the rocks. The flame wavered but held.

Tess whispered, "Do you think she knew she was going?"

Lara nodded slowly. "Yeah. I think she felt it coming… but she didn't run. She just wanted to be touched one more time. By someone real."

The fog thickened around them, curling like fingers, hiding the edges of the world.

They didn't say goodbye.

They just stood there.

Not ready to walk away.

Not yet.