Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

EXT. INDUSTRIAL OUTSKIRTS – PRE-DAWN

The city's edge was wrapped in a sick fog, the streets eerily still beneath gutted warehouses and collapsed smokestacks. Lena and the team moved fast and low, packs light, eyes scanning every window.

WARD (whispering):

"They're adapting. Moving in patterns. Not just mindless anymore."

BRIGGS (weakened):

"Then they're evolving."

THE GIRL:

"Or someone's teaching them."

That thought settled in heavier than the morning mist.

INT. PARKING STRUCTURE – EARLY MORNING

They ducked into a broken garage to rest. Lena checked Briggs' wound—it had spread into his veins, black and twitching.

BRIGGS:

"If I turn... you know what to do."

Lena didn't answer. She didn't need to.

Suddenly—a screech echoes. Not an animal. Not human.

THE GIRL (alert):

"They're here."

From the garage's depths, figures emerged—not walkers, but sprinters. Fast. Feral. Eyes blazing with hunger.

WARD (shouting):

"RUN!"

EXT. ALLEYWAYS – MID-MORNING

The chase was relentless.

They sprinted through narrow passages and over debris. One of the Turned lunged from a window—Lena dodged and slashed with her knife, the blade catching bone.

BRIGGS (struggling):

"Keep going! Don't stop for me!"

LENA (grabbing his arm):

"Not a damn chance!"

Ward covered the rear, gunning down two with controlled bursts. The Girl lobbed a flare into a drainage tunnel—flames whooshed, momentarily blinding the horde.

EXT. SCHOOLYARD RUINS – LATER

They collapsed behind a broken wall. For now, they'd lost the pack.

WARD (panting):

"They didn't follow. They... regrouped?"

THE GIRL (nervous):

"Why didn't they just swarm us? They had numbers."

Lena stared into the empty lot. The fear wasn't just survival anymore—it was strategy. The Turned were learning.

FLASHBACK – LENA'S MEMORY:

Her brother, Danny, bleeding out in a stairwell. Surrounded. A young Lena screaming for help that never came.

DANNY (weakly):

"Don't let them change who you are, Len."

BACK TO PRESENT – SCHOOLYARD

Lena shook off the memory. Focus.

LENA:

"We keep moving. We don't stop until dark."

WARD:

"They'll be waiting again."

LENA:

"Then we change the rules."

She pointed toward the storm drains—an underground path most would avoid.

LENA:

"We take the tunnels. No noise. No lights. Just guts."

Briggs groaned, barely conscious. The Girl moved beside him, quiet but resolute.

THE GIRL:

"We'll carry him if we have to."

INT. STORM DRAIN ENTRANCE – NOON

They disappeared into the earth, the surface behind them howling as the Turned returned—sniffing, hunting, organized.

EXT. CITY SKYLINE – DISTANT VIEW

Above the crumbling buildings, an eerie, synchronized shriek pierced the sky—hundreds of the Turned, converging with purpose.

They weren't just hunters anymore.

They were a pack.