Waking up to the smell of sulfur was normal for the inhabitants of Earth. So was the smog-filled sky, the rivers full of oil, and the trash covering every inch of the forests.

They weren’t fazed by the random green goo oozing out of the cracks in the wall or the rats that live in their homes.

Despite all of the rats, ooze, and trash they were healthy. There were no diseases, you see, because they were already dead.

They were zombies, the walking dead.

Over 600 years ago radiation was at an all time high. Everything became radioactive. The radiation sunk into the Earth seeping into the corpses that lay beneath the ground. The radiation then caused the corpses to wake up and come back to life.

When the dead awoke, the sky turned red. The radioactive materials that the humans dumped into the earth came to the surface causing this phenomenon. Radioactive liquids started to rise from the ground, coming out of the cracks in the sidewalks and infiltrating pipe-ways. 

What goes around comes around. The humans were killing their mother and she became angry. Everyone knows that karma, eventually, comes back to haunt you but the humans didn’t listen. So when radiation seeped into the ground the earth had the opportunity to take her revenge.

The undead walked around seeking vengeance on those that woke them from their slumber, on those who were killing the planet they lived on. And they started hunting. Hunting humans.

The undead showed no mercy in killing. Blood flooded the streets, screams filled the air, it was a never-ending nightmare.

But one day the screaming stopped and humans disappeared. The zombies thought that the Maker made the final punishment, ending the reign of humans once and for all.

After the initial apocalypse 634 years ago humans became extinct and the undead found themselves in a crisis. There wasn’t enough food. So they evolved, eating the radioactive materials humans had left in the forests and the trash they had left in the streets.

They begin to, slowly, adapt. They grew to find out that they didn’t want to be known as “brainless killers.” They decided to reinvigorate the planet that they lived on but first they needed to find a way to communicate with one another.

ZSL, zombie sign language, was established. The Walking Dead found that they liked communicating with each other and enjoyed each other’s company.

The undead decided, unanimously, that they wanted to undo the damage caused to the earth by their predecessors. They wanted to save their oceans, rebuild their forests, and heal the ground. They were split into three societies.

One was focused on healing the ground and earth’s greenery by destroying the diseased plant life and replanting new ones.

The second’s mission was about clearing the oil from the water by building big filters and pumps.

The third was centered around radiation control and dispersion by focusing the radiation to the cities where there are no inhabitants, waiting for the radiation to naturally go away.

The thing with zombies is that they are slow. No judgment! I mean they used to be dead. But they don’t give up, and they will restore the earth even if it takes millions of years.

The days for the undead are usually the same. Get out on the streets, eat a few pieces of trash, go to their factions, do some work, take 10 for a lunch break, work some more, drag themselves back home, and have a huge trash feast with their family.

It might sound boring but they like it. They love having a purpose, no matter how meticulous it might be. They love their earth, and the earth loves them.

Zombies were used to the quiet of the world. They were used to the grunts that they exchanged with each other.

The day started like any other. The sun peeking through the smog, the rats waking up the rot-infested humanoids they lived with, and the smell of freshly picked trash. 

Grunts were being exchanged on the street when all of a sudden the ground began to shake. The ground then broke, dust was thrown in the air and all you could see was the shine of metal. The grunts turned into wailing. 

Through the dust and the smog the undead could make out people. And these people were walking out of the hole that the big, shiny, metal thing had made.

Zombies were used to a lot of things. The rotting skin on their face, their bones sticking out, the greenness of their flesh, and their brains, peeking out through the top of their head. What they weren’t used to was this: the sight of humans coming back.