Work Text:
Introduction
I, the author of this text, understand that the introduction tends to be the most tedious part of any work, so I will keep this short. It has come to the attention of many in recent years that there is minimal compiled documentation on how the undead act, so I decided to put together some of my (limited) research. I do warn, I am not qualified by any means and my information is likely all over the place, so any mistakes made can likely be attributed to my lack of experience.
All that out of the way, I hope this isn’t a complete waste of my (or your) time.
– Anon.
General Information
The undead, or zombies as they are colloquially known, are the result of a currently unnamed, likely magical-in-nature disease, which is spread through blood (being bitten or otherwise coming into contact with infected blood).
This disease can cause early symptoms such as sluggishness, lack of appetite, numbness that spreads from the initial contact point (e.g. a bite wound), sudden fever, and a craving for human flesh. After 1-2 weeks, the mind appears to be cut off from the body, and the way they behaves is more animalistic, and they are no longer able to speak— though, there is debate on whether the mind is fully gone and unretrievable, or whether it is locked away behind some form of ‘barrier’. It is at this point that the body begins to decay, teeth and nails sharpen, and they lose all blood from their body through various orifices. The fact that the body still stays intact after this is one of the reasons why people believe that this is a magical disease.
Behaviours
One of the simplest ways to determine whether a humanoid is undead is to pay attention to their movement. While sentient beings tend to have at least some sort of goal in mind when moving around, such as finding food and water, social interaction, etc., undead tend to either stay still or wander aimlessly when there is no one it can attack in its view. Furthermore, they run slower than the average human, and tend to stumble often as if limping— although, using this latter information only to decide whether someone is undead or not does eliminate the case that someone is only injured.
Because the main goal of the disease is to spread, the undead do not appear to have any particular strategy when attacking, and they almost always use offensive attacks. This makes them very easy to fend off, as they can be easily overpowered and/or escaped from. However, as the body itself is already dead, the disease is very difficult to kill. Methods used include:
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Burying in sand or dirt
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Submerging in water (though this is not recommended, as the water then becomes contaminated and unusable)
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Removal of limbs
However, action can also be taken to make the undead act more docile toward sentient lifeforms. In personal experience, surrounding the undead with brightly coloured objects or objects that were familiar to their past, uninfected selves (which I will touch on again in Personal Theories), providing them other, preferably far away food sources, and blindfolding them. Thicker material like denim is used to avoid bites.
Personal Theories
All of this in mind, here are two theories that I, tentatively, think are true. Again, I am not a professional, and I do not claim any of these to be scientifically correct, backed by actual research or honestly make sense in the slightest to anyone except me. Call these conspiracy theories, if you want.
First of all, I do not believe that the personalities of those who are undead are permanently deleted, if you will. In my experience, the infected individual tends to lose the ability of speech before the ability of individual thought, and the undead in question also reacts positively to things they were once familiar with. Keeping this in mind, I think it isn’t that far of a stretch to think that this is because there is still some part of their mind that is active and able to interact with the world around them.
It does make me think, though; if I was turned undead, but still kept a little bit of my mind, that little bit remaining would probably go feral too. To be stuck in a decaying body without being able to speak or move of my own will would drive me insane. Maybe I would, too, start feasting on human flesh.
In any case, my second and last theory is that undead can be brought back to some form of sentience, if given the chance.
If you think about it, the reaction given when seeing something familiar implies that the memories of being alive are not fully gone. Maybe it’s similar to when the brain usually tries to protect itself by hiding memories from the individual, except this time it’s triggered by the disease.
Maybe, considering all this, it would be possible to bring back my friends victims of the disease back to their minds. I, personally, have not done any field research on how this could play out, and I honestly don’t know if anyone will be alive able to read this, but if given actual investigation that I won’t be carrying out because I think if what’s left of my friends is gone for good I might kill myself as I don’t have the capability to do so, there could be promising results.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Personal Theories section was written at 4 A.M., at a time when I had not slept for three days, which is likely the cause of my rambling. Still, I think that I’m right that maybe I am going a bit that I’m close enough to being that this is an important note to this article, and I am therefore keeping it in. – Anon.