Story 554: The Barn Awakens

The sun had set, plunging the farmland into an eerie twilight. The barn, silhouetted against the orange glow of the horizon, now stood as a menacing shadow. The ZETU team, regrouped outside after clearing the hive inside, wasn’t ready for what was about to come.

“Something’s not right,” muttered Captain Marcus Kane, his eyes scanning the field littered with the fallen zombies. “That hive was destroyed. Why are we still picking up movement?”

Ethan ‘Brain’ O’Connor’s tablet beeped urgently. “Captain, I’ve got seismic activity under the barn! Whatever’s left down there is… big. And it’s waking up.”

A tremor rippled through the ground, causing everyone to steady themselves. The barn groaned as the ground beneath it shifted, and from the earth erupted a towering zombie monstrosity, its decayed skin glowing faintly with a greenish hue. The creature’s chest was a pulsating mass of the same energy that had powered the hive.