Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

The deeper they went, the more it made sense—and the less it felt real.

Juno, Shade, and the fully awakened H-13 now stood before the last sealed vault of the facility: Vault K-0.

The door wasn't just reinforced. It was encoded—biologically. A scanner pulsed blue light across its center with the words:

ACCESS RESTRICTED: BLOODLINE KEY REQUIRED.

Shade raised a brow. "I've broken into VIREX bunkers, cracked neural safes, bypassed Class-7 encryption—but never heard of a bloodline lock."

"It's not encryption," H-13 said. "It's heritage."

Juno stepped forward. "Meaning… it opens with someone's blood?"

H-13 nodded slowly. "Yours."

She blinked. "What?"

He gestured toward the scanner. "The memory loop confirmed it. Your identity isn't random. You're part of the source lineage. You were born from one of the original trial donors. You're not just tied to the cure—you're its carrier."

Juno's breath caught. She remembered the old hospital dreams. The injections. The way the black box responded to her presence. Her whole life, VIREX had watched her… because she was part of it.

Shade stepped closer. "So what's behind this vault?"

H-13 replied without emotion: "The Genome Root—the original bloodline sequencing chamber. It holds the keys to the earliest survivors. The ones who couldn't turn. The ones who made immunity possible."

Juno took a shaky breath and stepped up to the scanner.

She placed her hand on the pad.

A faint prick—then warmth.

The machine scanned, processed, then pulsed green.

ACCESS GRANTED: MIRA GENOME RECOGNIZED.

The door opened with a hiss.

Inside, the room glowed with faint amber light. Rows of sealed vials floated in suspended gel, each labeled with names long faded, some replaced by numbers: S01, S03, S09…

And at the center—one preserved figure.

A woman in cryostasis.

Unmoving. Peaceful.

On the glass was a name: Doctor Leira Mira.

Juno stepped back. "My mother died when I was two."

H-13 studied the data feed. "She didn't die. She was stored. She created the primary strain of immunity. She's the root."

Shade muttered, "That makes you…"

Juno swallowed. "The last living strand."

The chamber's lights shifted. A new message blinked on the central terminal:

WARNING: GLOBAL BACKUP SEQUENCE INITIATED

"Uploading legacy genomes to VIREX command in T-minus 12 hours."

H-13's face darkened. "If they get this data, they'll manufacture loyalty. Splice obedience into immunity."

Juno stared at her mother's frozen face.

She didn't look afraid. She looked… defiant.

"We shut it down," Juno said.

"We destroy the root?" Shade asked.

Juno shook her head. "We choose what survives."

She stepped to the console and typed:

Override Code: Bloodline Auth.

Lights flashed. A new prompt appeared.

"Burn. Back up. Or become?"

Juno turned to the others.

"I'm not just Mira's daughter. I am the key."

And she made her choice.