Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

The funeral home was supposed to be a shortcut.

Just a crumbling relic tucked between two collapsed office buildings. Faded ivy crept up its shattered stone walls, and a rusted sign out front still read:

"Elias & Sons – Dignity in Departure."

"Creepy," Milo muttered.

"Efficient," Lara corrected. "It connects to the main sewer artery. We can bypass the raiders entirely—if the tunnels under it haven't collapsed."

"I'd rather be shot than stuck under this place," Ryder added, gripping his blade.

Tess, still in the scorched wedding dress, stepped through the doorway first.

Inside, time had stopped—and not gently.

Caskets lined the walls like waiting mouths. Ash coated the floor. Framed portraits of the dead smiled down from smoke-blackened walls. The air smelled of dust, dried roses, and something far more sour beneath.

In the embalming room, they found the hatch.

Rusty. Bolted. But intact.

"This drops into the sub-basement," Lara said. "If it's clear, it'll lead us out of the sector."

Ryder tested the latch. "It's stuck."

Tess spotted movement.

Outside the front windows, shadows slithered.

"Raiders," she whispered. "Four. No… five."

They were boxed in.

"Options?" Milo asked.

June would've known what to do. Her absence lingered like a wound.

Lara stared at the nearest casket. Then another.

Then she made the call.

"We hide. Inside."

Milo froze. "You want us to hide in coffins?"

"It's either that or get gunned down in the lobby," Ryder growled. "Pick your box."

They climbed in.

One by one.

Tess slid into a deep, velvet-lined coffin with cracked gold hinges. Milo, beside her, held her hand. Lara eased the lids closed from the inside, mouths of wood sealing them into darkness.

It was silent.

Hot.

Too still.

Tess counted her breaths to stay calm.

One.

Two.

Three—

Footsteps.

Inside.

The raiders had entered.

Through the slit in her coffin's lid, she glimpsed boots moving past. Voices murmuring.

"Clear."

"Check the rooms."

"Basement's bolted. Leave it."

Tess held her breath as one of the men paused near her coffin. He ran a finger across the lid, then chuckled.

"Creepy place. Bet it's full of ghosts."

He moved on.

A few minutes passed.

Then silence.

Then—

Gunfire. Screams.

Not from the funeral home—from outside. Someone else had ambushed the raiders.

Lara threw her lid open. "NOW!"

They burst out of the coffins like the dead reversed.

Milo broke the hatch lock. Ryder dropped into the shaft first. Then Tess. Then the others.

The tunnel smelled worse than death. But it led away. Down. Safe.

They walked in silence for a long time.

Tess looked at her hands. Still trembling.

"I didn't think I could do it," she whispered. "Lie in a coffin."

Lara gave a tired smile. "You didn't lie in it. You escaped in it."

Ryder added, "Let's just not make a habit of it."

And as they vanished into the dark, the funeral home above sat quiet again—its coffins closed, its ghosts at rest…

Except one lid remained open.

A single coffin—marked "Elias Jr."—with claw marks on the inside.