Bullets flew. Screams echoed. The smell of blood mixed with the foul stench of the undead.
Sarah didn’t look back. She couldn’t. The moment the zombie horde descended on them, everything became chaos. The other survivor group scattered, some caught instantly by the ravenous undead. Sarah’s team sprinted toward the collapsed highway, dodging the grasping hands of zombies and leaping over the corpses littering the streets.
Jason was right behind her, dragging Emily, who had twisted her ankle. “We’re not gonna make it unless we move faster!” he shouted.
“We don’t leave anyone behind!” Sarah yelled, pulling Emily’s arm over her shoulder. The abandoned military base was less than a mile away—according to the old maps—but distance meant nothing in a post-apocalyptic world crawling with the undead.
They ducked into an alley, the horde temporarily diverted by the noise of the gunfight. Sarah forced the group to pause. Sweat dripped from her brow. The undead weren’t smart, but they were relentless.
“We can cut through the drainage tunnels,” Emily gasped. “They lead straight under the outer walls of the base.”
Sarah looked at Jason. He nodded. “Better chance than the open road. Let’s move.”
The tunnel entrance was hidden behind a collapsed service station. Rusted metal bars bent under their weight as they slipped into the darkness. The air was damp, filled with the scent of mold, rust, and something else—death. They moved in silence, guided only by a flickering flashlight. Every sound echoed: water dripping, their footsteps, distant growls. The tension was suffocating.
Halfway through, they heard it—the unmistakable groan of a zombie ahead. It was trapped in the tunnel, its legs shredded but still crawling, still hungry. Sarah raised her knife and silenced it with a swift strike to the skull.
“Keep moving,” she whispered. “They’re close.”
At the end of the tunnel, a metal grate blocked their path. Jason and Sarah pushed together until it finally gave way, the sound loud enough to draw attention. As they emerged into the overgrown courtyard of the abandoned military base, relief washed over them—briefly. The base was not as empty as they had hoped.
Crumbling buildings, overturned vehicles, and barricades covered in blood told the story: there had been survivors here once… and a battle. Dozens of corpses lay in piles, some still twitching. Suddenly, a shot rang out. Sarah ducked instinctively. A voice echoed from the second-story window of an old command post.
“Drop your weapons and state your business!”
Sarah slowly raised her hands. “We’re survivors! Just looking for shelter—we’re not infected!”
A tense moment passed before the door creaked open. A man in a torn officer’s uniform stepped out, flanked by two others. Their faces were gaunt, eyes hollow, but their weapons were steady.
“We’ve seen what desperate people can do,” the man said. “You want in? Then prove you’re not a threat.”
Sarah looked at her team. They were bruised, exhausted, and barely holding together—but giving up wasn’t an option.
“What do you want us to do?” she asked.
“You want a place here? Help us defend it. The horde’s coming—and this might be the last stand for all of us.”
Also Read The Last Stand: A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Story
