Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

It began as déjà vu.

As they escaped the lab, Juno realized the corridor they ran through looked identical to the one they'd just left—same flickering light, same broken wall vent, same blood smear.

"Did we circle back?" she asked.

Shade frowned. "We haven't turned once."

Then came the whispers.

Soft. Repeating.

"Run. Run. Run."

And the humming—faint, mechanical. Familiar.

H-13, now fully awakened from the serum merge, stopped in his tracks.

"This facility isn't built like others," he murmured. "It's alive with echoes. This is where they tested memory loopers."

Juno froze. "Tested what?"

H-13 turned to them. "Devices that trap infected minds in time loops. Makes them relive their final moments. Over and over. To observe behavioral decay. But sometimes... the minds weren't dead."

They turned a corner—and saw themselves.

Their own bodies—walking the opposite direction.

Then it reset. They were back at the flickering light again.

Juno's skin crawled. "We're caught in a loop."

Shade pointed to a monitor embedded in the wall. It flashed the words:

PROJECT: LOOPER UNIT 4 – STATUS: ACTIVE

Sub-Protocol: MEM-ECHO CONTAINMENT ENGAGED

Subject Identity: Juno Mira, File 342-Z

Her name.

Her file.

"Wait," she said slowly, stepping toward the monitor. "It's my loop. I'm the anchor."

H-13 nodded. "This section is using your unresolved trauma as the loop's core. Your memory is the power source."

"But how do we break it?" Shade asked.

"We don't," Juno whispered. "I do."

She stepped into the center of the corridor, where the hum was loudest. As she focused, the surroundings rippled. The corridor transformed.

Into a hospital room.

White tiles. An empty bed. A broken IV. Her younger self—sitting in the corner, clutching a stuffed fox.

Juno knelt in front of the memory. "It's okay. You're safe now."

The child didn't look up. "They told me he'd come back."

Juno's throat tightened. "He didn't."

"But I waited anyway."

Juno gently reached out, and the girl disappeared—like smoke in light.

The hum stopped.

Lights stabilized. The loop shattered.

They were back in the lab, corridor behind them sealed off.

Shade exhaled. "You did it."

"No," H-13 said, staring at the console. "They did."

He pointed to the monitor. It now displayed hundreds of names—each a looping memory signature. Survivors used as batteries.

LOOPER BANK: ONLINE

Awaiting memory collapse confirmation.

"They're still trapped," Juno said. "Thousands of them."

"We'll save them," H-13 promised. "But not yet. First, we stop the next upload."

"What upload?" Shade asked.

H-13's eyes flashed.

"They're preparing to loop the entire city."