Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition-Chapter 2107: Story : The Stairs Below

The floor trembled again.

Dust rained from the cracked ceiling as another deep roar echoed through the lower levels of the building.

Elena Voss stared at the hallway.

Down.

That was the only direction the creature had given her.

But the hallway was still packed with zombies.

Their gray bodies pressed together in the darkness, their hollow eyes glowing faintly as they shrieked toward the crooked mark carved into the doorframe.

None of them were looking at her.

They were all staring at the symbol.

Calling the hunter.

The creature beside her crouched low, muscles tense.

“Elena,” it growled again. “Now.”

She nodded.

Her bare feet moved silently across the floor as she stepped toward the doorway. The creature slipped ahead of her, its massive body sliding through the shadows like living smoke.

The zombies in the hallway barely reacted.

They were too focused on the mark.

One corpse stood directly beneath it, its mouth stretched wide in an endless scream.

The creature struck first.

Its claws ripped through the screamer’s skull with a brutal snap. The body collapsed instantly.

Before the other zombies could react, the monster lunged forward, smashing two more corpses aside and carving a narrow path through the swarm.

“Go,” it snarled.

Elena ran.

She slipped past the pile of broken bodies and burst into the hallway. The stench of rot hit her instantly, thick and suffocating.

The corridor stretched in both directions.

But only one way led to the stairwell.

She sprinted.

Behind her, the creature tore through the zombies that tried to turn toward her. Bones cracked and bodies slammed into the walls.

The dead weren’t chasing her.

Not yet.

Their attention kept drifting back to the screaming mark in her apartment.

But the noise of the fight was starting to change that.

Elena reached the stairwell door and shoved it open.

The stairwell was dark.

Cold air drifted upward from the depths below.

For a moment she hesitated.

The roar from beneath the building came again.

Closer.

The sound was enormous.

Whatever lived down there was far bigger than the zombies.

“Elena!” the creature barked from the hallway.

She stepped into the stairwell.

The metal door slammed behind her as the creature forced its way inside. Its claws scraped against the concrete steps as it rushed down beside her.

They descended quickly.

One floor.

Two floors.

Three.

The sounds of the zombie horde above slowly faded.

But new noises began replacing them.

Low growls.

Wet dragging sounds.

Something moved in the darkness below.

Elena stopped halfway down the next flight of stairs.

“What... is down there?” she whispered.

The creature didn’t answer immediately.

Its glowing eyes scanned the darkness beneath them.

Then its ears flattened.

“Problem,” it growled.

A shape slowly appeared at the bottom of the stairwell.

At first Elena thought it was just another zombie.

Then it stood up.

It was enormous.

At least seven feet tall, its body swollen and twisted. Its arms dragged across the floor like heavy chains, and its jaw hung open far wider than any human mouth should.

Its eyes glowed the same sickly color as the tall zombie from the hallway.

But this thing was far more monstrous.

The creature beside Elena snarled.

“Guard.”

Elena’s stomach dropped.

“Guard for what?”

The massive corpse at the bottom of the stairs suddenly lifted its head.

Its glowing eyes locked directly onto Elena.

Then it roared.

The sound shook the entire stairwell.

Above them, the distant zombie horde suddenly began moving again.

And far across the city...

The great hunter howled once more.

Because Elena Voss had just discovered something terrible.

The building didn’t just contain zombies.

It was protecting something.