Christmas with the Dead

Calvin lives a quiet, ordinary life with his wife Ella and their daughter Tina in Mud Creek, East Texas. The holiday season brings the usual small-town pressures, but he’d rather rest than decorate. The town feels intimate and safe, a routine world about to be disrupted.

A freak lightning storm, born from strange electrical currents, sweeps through Mud Creek. The storm’s violence is felt in an instant as witnesses collapse and die on the spot, shattered by forces beyond comprehension.

Calvin discovers his wife and daughter appear dead after the storm. Tina rises first and slips away, followed by Ella as a zombie who attacks him. He is left to grapple with a new, terrifying reality in his home.

Calvin learns from neighbor Ray that Tina had bitten him during the chaos, and he killed her with a hammer to stop the spread. The truth deepens his isolation in a town that has become one long, unwinnable nightmare. The line between the living and the dead suddenly feels painfully thin.

The aftermath isn’t just personal loss; Mud Creek becomes a zombie-filled landscape. The living scavenge and hide while the dead roam freely, turning the town into a perpetual threat. Calamity has transformed the place into a hostile frontier.

Two years pass and Calvin has adapted to life among the undead. He keeps Ella chained on the back porch and feeds her dog food, clinging to any remnant of humanity. He maintains a radio vigil, broadcasting for any sign of life beyond Mud Creek.

On a rooftop, Calvin and GM—who insists on wearing iconic 3D glasses—ignite a loud, pounding soundtrack. The rhythm lures the zombie horde from the woods, and the undead seem to dance to the beat as if compelled by the music. The moment crystallizes the strange, brutal courage of surviving in Mud Creek.

Calvin’s broadcasts reach beyond Mud Creek when former inmates from a state mental hospital hear the message on car radios and arrive armed. They seize both Calvin and GM, flipping the power dynamic and plunging the two men into a new peril. The radio signal becomes a beacon that brings danger as well as hope.

Led by a magnetic cult-like figure named Reverend Mac, the prison-hardened inmates impose control over the living and form a precarious alliance with the undead. The town’s balance collapses as fear, faith, and violence merge in unpredictable ways. Calvin and GM find themselves trapped in a chilling new maze of threats.

Calvin and GM plot a way to escape the double menace—the Reverend’s fanatic followers and the zombie horde that still stalks Mud Creek. They must navigate shifting loyalties and the constant danger of the undead while seeking any chance to break free. The plan underscores how fragile survival has become.

As the community fractures, Calvin holds onto a stubborn hope for human connection and a return to some normalcy. The world remains haunted by the storm’s lingering effects, and every small act of mercy or companionship carries outsized meaning. Mud Creek stays a place where trust is scarce and danger is constant.