Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

In the year 2237, Earth's desperate search for resources had pushed humanity to the farthest reaches of the solar system. Saturn, with its mysterious rings, was the latest frontier. A team of astronauts, led by Commander Evelyn Park, had been dispatched to investigate an anomaly detected in the planet's outermost ring.

The readings were unusual, even by Saturn's standards—faint energy signatures pulsing rhythmically, like a heartbeat in the void.

The spacecraft **"Eclipse"** hovered just beyond the rings, its crew staring in awe at the massive planet and its majestic rings, which appeared almost tangible, like a vast cosmic record spinning in the blackness of space. Commander Park initiated the descent. The mission was clear: retrieve samples and investigate the source of the anomaly.

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The lander touched down on a fragment of ice and rock within the rings. As they disembarked, the crew noticed that the ground beneath their feet was unsettlingly soft. It almost seemed to give way under their boots, as if it were alive. Park dismissed the sensation as nerves—space plays tricks on the mind.

As they moved towards the anomaly's location, the faint pulsating grew louder, resonating through their suits. The ground began to shift and shudder. Lieutenant Harris, the team's biologist, knelt to collect a sample, only to be violently yanked beneath the surface. His scream cut off abruptly as he disappeared into the shifting terrain.

Panic surged through the crew. They tried to retreat, but the ground erupted around them, revealing pale, decayed hands clawing their way up from the icy depths. The dead had been buried within the rings—ancient astronauts or lost colonists, no one knew—but they were not resting in peace.

Park fired her weapon, the energy blasts illuminating the hollow eyes and gaping mouths of the undead, but there were too many. One by one, her crew was dragged under, their screams swallowed by the endless, echoing pulse. The commander fought desperately, her suit alarms blaring as the atmosphere became increasingly hostile.

As she was pulled down, she caught a final glimpse of the Eclipse, its lights fading into the darkness above.

The ship's AI registered the loss of life signs and initiated an automatic return sequence. The Eclipse ascended into the cold, silent void, leaving behind nothing but the undisturbed, eternally spinning rings of Saturn. The anomaly remained, its rhythmic pulse continuing to echo through the vastness of space, a warning to any who dared disturb the dead that now ruled Saturn's icy rings.

As the Eclipse drifted back towards Earth, a faint signal echoed from within the ship's hold. The pulse had followed them. Whatever haunted Saturn's rings was not content to remain in the depths of space. And as the ship approached the blue marble of Earth, that pulse became a whisper—cold, insistent, and hungry.