Story 816: The Awakening Horror

The underground tunnel was damp, the stench of decay and mildew thick in the air. Leon winced as Evelyn wrapped his wounded arm in cloth, her hands steady despite the fear behind her eyes.

“That thing,” Mia muttered, reloading her pistol, “it should’ve died.”

Leon shook his head. “No. It wasn’t just another mutation. It knew us.”

Silence fell over them. The idea was terrifying. Zombies didn’t know. They acted on instinct, on hunger. But this thing—it had studied them.

Above them, the faint scraping of claws against metal sent a chill through their spines. It was still there. Watching. Waiting.

Then, the sound stopped.

Mia swallowed. “I think it’s gone.”

Leon wasn’t so sure. He nodded to the others, motioning deeper into the tunnel. “We need to move.”

They pressed forward, the flickering glow of Evelyn’s flashlight illuminating something strange ahead.

A corpse.