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And the Dead Shall Rise


The Bible was always clear on the subject: the dead would rise again. 

Thessalonians, Corinthians, Isaiah, John, Revelation - they all foretold it happening. Even the Torah and Quran gave fair warning. 

I guess no one took the advice too seriously. Most folks just preferred quoting the parts that felt personal.

Scripture has long been used in attempts to justify our inhumanity toward one another.

But then it happened.

Evans City, Pennsylvania was a small town of fewer than 2,000 people. Another 4,500 lay buried in its cemetery.

It was the latter figure which presented the initial problem.

No preacher shouted, "the dead in Christ shall rise!" There was no warning at all. Scripture had always been clear on that too.

One by one, the dead did rise.

And they were angry.

Imagine resting peacefully, presumably for eternity, and something wakes you. Not unlike disturbing an afternoon nap, they rose groggy, confused, and downright pissed off.

And they were hungry too.

Maybe they guessed the living had disturbed their silent slumbers. The ferocity of their attacks certainly suggested as much.

It began with a young couple - siblings, actually - visiting the graveyard. The brother was attacked. His sister ran for her life.

The dead appeared everywhere.

The situation spread north and south, but like most situations, it wasn't deemed serious until it affected commerce. When the dead descended on businesses and shopping malls, the authorities demanded a physical response.

Not only did they call in the National Guard, roaming groups of slapdash militias were tolerated too - beer-swiggin', gun-totin' Average Joes armed with hunting rifles and years of experience tracking deer.

The dead moved slowly.

That made them easier to track.

But how do you kill something already dead?

They aimed for the heads. If there was any logic to it, the assumption was that this would stop them long enough to burn them.

At least they couldn't bite.

The news failed to report the reality.

The grainy images and newsreels showed ambulatory corpses being gunned down. Good ol' American ingenuity and the Second Amendment had saved the day.

The dead weren't stopped so easily.

Many of the headless forms stood to fight again.

Arms flailing, they grabbed and tore apart any living thing they could lay their hands on.

Smaller animals, low to the ground, escaped.

The larger ones didn't.

This included people.

Just imagine coming face-to-face with an animated, headless corpse. Shock was the natural response. Standing in awe of such Biblical retribution meant certain death.

The dead were surprisingly strong.

It took time, but the numbers couldn't be ignored. There were simply more dead than living - with the numbers growing - and there was no stopping them.

I guess Scripture had warned us about that too.

The final television broadcast before WIIC went dark showed a preacher in a sweat-stained suit reading - through tears - from the book of Isaiah.

"For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?" - Isaiah 14:27

The signal dissolved into static.

Then, for a few seconds longer, the camera kept rolling.

Behind him, through the studio shadows, something moved.




copyright notice © 2026 Michael C. Metzger


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