Disclaimer: Please note that this story has nothing to do with another one also titled "Rise of the Dead Horde" by cossacks, or "Rise of the Dead" by Nytewalker. Any similarities shared by the stories are entirely coincidental, save for the title. The original incarnation of this story's title was also "Rise of the Dead", and I do not intend to dishonor it by changing the name to something else.
Anyways, I've waited a long time for this day. It's taken me about four years, but the revised version of this story is finally out. I hope you'll enjoy it.
Rise of the Dead: The Eleventh Hour
Prologue: The Hour of Reckoning
(September 13th, 2011)
"The hour of reckoning draws near. Judgment day is here and gone." – 11th Hour, Lamb of God
The end of the world didn't come as expected. Around a decade into the second millennium, we humans as a collective race began dreading the end of the world. The two most probable causes of the apocalypse were either a nuclear war, or global warming. Both probabilities were greatly feared, and people rallied together in attempts to try and stop them from happening. Preventing the war was one cause quickly given up. The real motive of every war was a motive fueled by greed, and greed is one of the basic human natures. You can't stop human nature. And besides. Do they really want to know the truth? Do they want the real motives of the war? No, that patriotism is all crap. And deep down in their hearts, they knew that. Like they'd admit it though. So the people started looking for a new (and easier) cause to support.
Anti-Global Warming. Remember to turn off the lights in the bathroom after you just took a leak. Ride a bicycle or go on a bus instead of driving your car. Use solar powered cars instead of gasoline-fueled vehicles. Reverse the climate change and save the polar bears. Not that they really did any of that though. Maybe some people who were actually dedicated to the cause did it. What about the rest of the people? Nope, not a thing. Well, except for turning off the bathroom lights after taking a crap. Everything else was just ignored. As if those people truly cared about it enough to do anything in the first place. Besides, they were all too convinced that even if they didn't do it, it didn't matter. They were just one person, and there were thousands of other people over the world saving the environment. Nobody wants to give up the comfort they already have just to help someone else. When a couple billion people over the world start thinking like that, then the end of the world would come that much sooner. And it did come. Except it wasn't the person we expected to arrive at the door.
Well, perhaps it was. Death wears many faces. He does comes in many shapes. Or perhaps this was the hand of God, who was orchestrating such chaos and destruction. Perhaps he thought it was time for Earth to be cleansed. The vile race of humans had already done enough damage to permanently scar the face of this once-beautiful maiden. It was only right that their destructive exploits be put to an end. Ironic that the Gods chose to clean out the human race with an abomination more vile than anything one had ever seen.
Zombies.
The threat came from nowhere. And everywhere. And where once the hand of God has struck, that house is forever shaken. As the endless hordes of undead rose, the darkness of a new blackened sun engulfed the world, drowning everything in dark shades of black and blood. The hour of reckoning had come. The end was at hand. There would be no escaping this time
Author's Note: Several of the themes introduced in this chapter and story tie in with the lyrics of the song "11'th Hour". which is mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, if anyone is interested in delving deeper into the themes of this story. A side note, there will be a lot more song references later on. Hopefully this bit of information will be useful to those who like that kind of stuff. Anyways, thanks for reading. That'll be all from me. Oh, and don't forget to leave a review. It'd be most appreciated, thank you.