Now this is a neat little game! It's a shame it flies under the radar, but I'm glad the judges picked up on it. Congrats on making it in the top 10!
I enjoyed the story and world this game was introducing and combat was well balanced and fun. There were a lot of typos and weird run-on sentences which were distracting and sometimes forced me to read the same line a few times to understand it, but the strength of the worldbuilding shines through all the same. What's awkward now can easily be polished up with a proper editor. (Like the intro scene with the car. Very cool scene, but it runs on too long and over explains things.)
I like that everyone can equip the same weapons (minus the dog), I tried to keep the bat with the sweep attack on my fastest character. The glass and wood planks are nice environment puzzles and I really like the Psyscan (though it's very underused in the demo) btw, small error likely, if you psyscan the room the main party drops in or the room with the glass and broom, inspection spots turn up on the wall where you can't reach them.)
I ended up getting stuck and was sad I couldn't save after asking what to do next. (after you get the one time use key from the zombies. I couldn't find any door to use it on.) I also have to wonder, did you make the party invincible? I thought I was going to die when everyone hit max SANS (btw the spring water adds SANS instead of taking it away lol) but somehow, the party pulled through at 1HP all around.
The pockets system didn't seem to work.
Anyway, great entry! I really enjoyed it. It's a wonderful start and will certainly shape up into a unique game if you expand on it and give it the polish it currently needs.