The air is crisp, the sun is shining, and the leaves are slowly falling from the trees. Jennie Monroe is having the time of her life in High School and is especially loving this fall weather. She has a super amazing boyfriend, Chris, who is a total jock. He plays quarterback in the fall and he poll vaults for track in the spring. Chris is her dream boy, he not only is athletic but he’s got a brain too. Which is how Chris won Jennie’s heart. Chris also knew that Jennie just adores autumn and all it has to offer. They had their first date at a pumpkin patch, last year and then went to a haunted house downtown. Now, a year later and Jennie’s best friend, Maggie, has a super great boyfriend too. He’s Anthony, and he plays drums in a band and is kind of a “bad boy”. He is totally Maggie’s speed. The couples always hang out now and have all become really close. Which was easy considering how small their town is. The only problem with a small town is that nothing new ever happens. It is always the same movie theater, same burger joint, and same haunted house attractions.

Maggie came running towards Jennie’s car this afternoon with a flyer for a new haunted corn maze on the outskirts of town. This was so exciting to Jennie, she loves these types of things! She immediately calls Chris and tells him that they are all going to this maze tonight. To Jennie’s surprise, Chris seemed a little apprehensive about going. That did not stop Jennie. She just told him he was being a “scaredy cat”. Chris ultimately said he’d go, only because he knows how much Jennie loves these types of things. Maggie and Anthony were on board too. It was a plan. The flyer said that the maze opened at dusk and that they only accepted cash. The only other real information about the maze was the address and the theme, The Undead.

The girls were both at Maggie’s house getting ready and making sure to dress warm. When the sun goes down the world turns on its’ air condition, to ice cold. Jennie wore her ever so famous leather jacket, while Maggie picked a colorful fuzzy coat. The girls were gabbing about how in love they were with their boyfriends and squealed about going off to college next year together. That is when they heard Anthony’s mustang honk from outside. They ran out to their ride and yelled goodbye to Maggie’s mother.

The ride to the maze took longer than expected and their phones all of a sudden died. Strange. This only made it hard to find where to go. Until finally they saw the signs for the maze, which were somewhat small and rusted down. They followed the signs and eventually found the maze. They were expecting to see a huge crowd of people, considering whenever there is something new in town, everyone goes. Though surprisingly, there was only two other cars parked in the field. The only sorts of decoration was a small shack by the maze and a few dusty scare crows. Jennie was not too overwhelmed with what they she seeing. Chris walked up to the lady at the shack and asked how much for four tickets. The lady groaned and truly looked the part of the “un-dead”. She eventually pointed to the sign behind her, which was seriously faded and had cobwebs almost covering all the words. Chris gave her the money and she groaned again and pointed to this small sign by the corn, which read, “enter here”.

The group of kids were walking through this corn maze for quite awhile and have yet to hear, see, or feel anyone else in this corn maze. Anthony just kept going on saying, “this sucks, it’s even worse than the one Mr. Biggest puts on every year!” To which Maggie would jab him in the arm. Chris was walking in the front with Jennie, when she was starting to get nervous out of nowhere, thinking to herself, “was this a good idea? Should we leave?” her own thoughts surprised her. Jennie was never too scared of any of these silly Haunted House attractions. Why was she feeling this way? Metal dragging on the ground. “What was that?” Maggie squeaked. Then Chris spotted a glint of light on the side of him. They all halted. Anthony was excited now, finally someone came to scare them! He trudged ahead of the group, then suddenly tripped, hard. He fell on something big. He squirmed to his feet when he realized what he fell on, a body. The body was still warm and had blood spilling from it. The group looked at it in horror, and Jennie tried to play off her feelings and say, “Oh, it’s just, um, fake! It’s fake! A part of the maze!” Which might have been true about any other haunted attraction, yet not here and not today. Maggie was not so convinced with her friend’s reassuring words, so she creeped over to it and checked the person’s pulse. None. This was a real dead body. Horrified, Chris went over to the side some and threw up. While this was happening he could feel someone rubbing his back, figuring it was his loving girlfriend. He was so wrong. This was not Jennie and he was no longer near any of his friends. The creature before him hid inside of the maze before he could see it. Chris looked around, confused, and started yelling their names, “Jennie! Maggie! Anthony! Anyone?”. That is when he heard a person crying on the ground a few feet away.

Jennie was in a fit of confusion and worry, “Where is he? Guys! Why did he leave us? Did someone take him? What is going on?”. Maggie and Anthony were freaking out as well, but trying their best to remain calm for Jennie. Corn stalks being pushed aside quickly, then quicker, and quicker. Everyone was frozen and wide eyed towards the sounds coming closer and closer. At the last second, when the sounds were almost upon them, Anthony grabbed the girls hands a told them to, “Run.” which is just what they did.

Chris was crouched down next to this person who was in a ball of tears, he felt empathy for them. He said, “What’s your name? Do you know where we are?” the small person raised its head and he saw something unimaginable. He flung himself back and saw a face of rotting flesh, which looked as if it was melting with every tear it shed. In a small raspy voice it responded, “No where, here, there, and all around.” then it smiled. The smile was like no other smile Chris had ever seen, it was a smile that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Which he hoped would be a long time, but he was not so sure in this moment. All he thought was, ‘Run.’

The three friends had been running and running through this maze for five, ten, fifty minutes? With each step they felt their legs would crumble underneath them. They heard sounds, sounds that would make someone’s stomach turn inside out. They sounded like humming of a little child’s song, but in reality they were moans from the dead. “Wait wait! What’s that? Over there?” yells Maggie. The group stops running for the first time since they begun. They could see from the holes through the corn stalks, a road. They began running to it. Until BANG! They were side swiped by something, a person?

Chris was running with his eyes closed trying to get the image out of his mind, and tell himself it was not real. He knew this was a lie, it was as real as you and me. The air turned hot, hot like a screaming tea kettle letting the brewer know it was boiling. Then he felt a hard smack against his entire body. Had he run into something? Yes! He had! He ran straight into his friends and his girlfriend. Oh, how he needed them right now, after what he had seen and felt. This was like a gift all wrapped up on Christmas morning. He was no longer alone. But there was no time for a reunion, they needed to get to the road, and get there fast.

Was it the road they came in on? Or a different one? Which way? Right or left? No time for this, Jennie started running to the left down the road. She could see something down the way. A figure, coming towards her. She turns back to run the other way when she realizes her friends are gone. All that is left of them is a trail of blood leading into the maze and some pushed back stalks. Does she follow it and find her friends? Or does she keep running on the road? She does neither and starts to cry. One tear drops and then they all start to flood out. She looks down at her damp hands and sees blood. She is crying blood and she starts shaking tremendously. Something is now behind her, her eyes are big with fear, and her body is frozen. She can hear it breathing and she can smell it rotting. She knows she needs to run she has to.

Jennie ran for miles and miles until she realized where she was. The entrance of the maze and there was the shack and Chris’s car. She gets to the car and starts the engine. It starts, not like your typical horror movie, to Jennie’s delight. She flores it.

Detective Morgan Jones has been helping Jennie locate her lost friends. For three months. Jennie knew she should have tried to find them that day. Maybe she could have saved them, or maybe she would have died too. The town has been in a frenzie looking for these kids too. No trace. No one can find the maze either, “The maze just up and walked away,” said Detective Jones trying to make light of the situation. Jennie would not be surprised. It was like the place was living and dead all at once. That night Jennie knew she would not be able to sleep, just like the past three months. Tonight felt different though. Something was in the air, like electricity. When she heard the banging on her door her heart sank into her stomach. Was it the police with news that her friends were dead? Was it new they were found and are safe and sound? Could it possibly be Chris or Maggie or even Anthony?

There was no one there. Just a piece of paper with dirt smudged on it. Jennie slowly picked it up with trembling hands and it read, “Haunted Corn Maze, Night of the Undead. We need you Jennie. Love, Chris.”