Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition
Chapter 1275 - 1275: Story 1275: Betrayal on Camera

Rain fell sideways as they reached the outskirts of Old Gravis City, its towers long reduced to skeletal frames and flickering neon ghosts. Juno, Shade, and H-13 took shelter beneath the collapsed canopy of a former security broadcast station—Station AX-6, its walls tagged with graffiti like warnings from the dead.

H-13 scanned the doors. "Still sealed. But interior power registers minimal. Might be salvageable."

Shade kicked in the emergency access panel, and the steel door groaned open. Inside, the air was thick with mildew and static. Broken monitors lined the walls, their screens frozen on looping images—decades-old news, riots, classified VIREX feeds.

But one screen caught Juno's attention.

A red blinking icon:

LIVE FEED ARCHIVE — LAST ACTIVE: 72 HOURS AGO

TAGGED: SUBJECT JUNO

Her blood ran cold.

She activated the console. The screen flickered… then displayed grainy footage.

It was her—inside the safehouse. From overhead. From eye-level. From angles that shouldn't have existed.

Every move. Every breath. Every word recorded.

Then, the feed switched—another room.

Dr. Yssel.

Alive. Calm. Reviewing the footage. And beside her, speaking in low tones, stood someone Juno hadn't seen in months—

Mason.

Once part of their crew. Once her confidant. Missing since the escape through Sector 4.

Her voice cracked. "No…"

He was supposed to be dead. Or worse—turned. But here he was. Whole. Speaking strategy with Yssel.

Shade clenched his jaw. "Guess we found the leak."

The next segment showed Mason holding a datapad with H-13's interface on screen.

"Subject H-13 is unstable," Mason said in the feed. "But the girl—Juno—is consistent. Predictable under emotional stress. We can use that."

Juno turned away from the screen, hands trembling.

"He sold us out. All this time—he's been feeding her data. Every step, every hiding place…"

The betrayal burned hotter than any infection.

H-13 stepped forward, expression unreadable. "He must've activated a sleeper feed. I didn't detect any breach in my logs."

Juno's eyes flicked back to the screen. More clips appeared—of Caleb's ambush, the moment at the riverbed, even Axen's death—all recorded.

"Why?" she whispered. "Why keep watching?"

Then Yssel's voice, chillingly composed:

"Juno is the keystone. But she needs the illusion of freedom to unlock. Let her believe she's in control. Let her trust the wrong people. That's when she opens."

Shade turned to H-13. "Can you trace where this data's being sent?"

He nodded, already working. "Encrypted, but yes. It's bouncing off a VIREX drone tower in Sector 12. That's where they're waiting."

Juno's rage boiled over.

"No more running," she said. "No more trusting ghosts."

She pulled the hard drive from the console, slung it in her bag, and raised her weapon.

"Mason chose his side. We'll show him what that costs."

Thunder cracked overhead as they stepped out into the storm.

And far away, behind a flickering surveillance wall, Mason watched.

And smiled.