Jessie walked down the quiet street, leaves crunching under her feet in the early morning stillness. She shivered against the autumn chill, hurrying towards Landon's house. They were all meeting up to walk to school together, as usual.

She was nearly at Landon's when a strange gurgling sound stopped her in her tracks. It seemed to be coming from the backyard of the rundown house up ahead. Cautiously, Jessie crept towards the sagging wire fence and peered over.

A hunched figure shuffled awkwardly across the yard, dripping ooze. Jessie squinted, heart pounding. Was that Old Man Withers? But why was he up so early, and why was he moving so...strangely?

She watched in horror as the figure turned, revealing a face mottled with decay, jaws snapping rhythmically. Empty white eyes fixed on her. Before Jessie could even scream, the creature lunged at the fence with a guttural moan.

Jessie leapt back, pulse racing. This wasn't Old Man Withers. It was some mutated, walking corpse! She had to warn the others.

Bursting through Landon's front door, she found him gulping down milk in the kitchen. "There's a zombie!" Jessie shrieked.

Landon blinked. "Wait, what? Did you have a weird nightmare or something?"

"I'm serious!" Jessie insisted. "It was at the old Withers' place, all decomposed and growling."

Landon raised an eyebrow. "It was probably just a rabid raccoon. You've been watching too many horror movies."

Their banter was interrupted by frantic pounding at the door. Mark and Drew rushed in, both pale and wild-eyed.

"Guys, the dead are rising from the cemetery!" Mark exclaimed. "We just saw these freaky looking things climbing out of the ground!" Drew nodded rapidly in agreement.

Landon looked stunned. "No way. Jessie just said she saw one too."

The four friends stared at each other. Jessie's encounter was bizarre enough, but reports from Mark and Drew too? Landon shook his head in disbelief.

"I guess Crazy Cranston actually pulled it off," he muttered. "Making real zombies or something. We need to get somewhere safe, figure this out."

The group hurried to Landon's basement, securing the doors. Peering out the small windows, they could see more zombies emerging everywhere, blank-eyed and ravenous.

Their town was plunging into chaos and one thing was clear - their normal lives had just taken a very abnormal turn.