Chapter 0: Dead End
Despite how bleak the subject seemed to be, the end of the world was quite a popular topic of discussion back when people (Well, most people, anyway.) could afford to care about anything other than their own survival. How would either we, or the societies we have worked so hard to build and maintain, eventually come to an end? Would we suffer the same fate as our distant ancestors, and be snuffed out by the strike of an asteroid? Would Mother Nature finally have enough of us hunting her children to extinction and polluting her waters, ultimately deciding to send some extra hurricanes our way? Would a hitch-hiking black hole decide to pass by our solar system for some sightseeing, disrupting our planet's orbit and sending it hurtling into the cold, black expanse of space? Would a world-wide conflict start and spiral out of control, only ending when there was no one left to fight it? New, radically different theories sprung up every day, concocted and shared by people from all different walks of life: scientists, philosophers, former soldiers, cult leaders, frequenters of anime image boards, the list goes on and on. But no matter what the theory entailed or who it came from, there was one, universally agreed upon fact: that humanity would never see it coming.
And ironically enough, despite how often these theories were proposed and discussed, this one aspect did hold true. When the end finally began, when humanity was on the precipice of Armageddon, when the dead began to rise and consume the flesh of the living, most of the world had remained oblivious to its impending doom, almost comically so. And by the time that they had realized what was going on, it was already too late. Now, the world actually HAD ended, forcing mankind to prioritize its survival for the first time since the Stone Age. When it came to the topic of the apocalypse, the question of "how" was answered… but the question of "why" was not. Many were quick to come up with excuses for both themselves and their fellow man, claiming that it was initiated by forces that were beyond their control. Theories concerning "experimental bio-weapons" and "divine punishment" were both the most common, and the most widely accepted schools of thought amongst the survivors. And while both of these theories, although conflicting, would explain why mankind was completely oblivious to the fact that everything they had built was about to crumble into nothing, neither of them explained why it had taken humanity so long to take action. The reason for this massive blunder was simple: They had lulled themselves into a state of false security.
In their almost feverish discussions about the nature and machinations behind their coming doom, they had forgotten that it could come at any time, from any place, in any way. Mankind had become comfortable speaking of the world's end not because it was inevitable, but because they believed it to be "a long time from now" or, something that none of them would live to see. This thought was so ingrained in the human psyche that particularly stubborn individuals denied that the end was happening, even as their loved ones were feasting on their innards. However, human stubbornness can sometimes help just as much as it can hurt. There were those who had refused to die, those who had chosen to fight, to live, to survive to see another day. And the fiercest of survivors can sometimes be found in the most unlikely of individuals, whether they be high-schoolers, children, domesticated animals… or even former desk jockeys.