Zombies

**Zombies** are among the most popular types of monsters recognised in today's society. They are corpses of once living creatures that have been reanimated by outside forces.

The term *"zombie"* is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli. Zombies have gone by many names throughout history and have been divided into various different (sub)categories based on their origins and behaviour. A Zombie or reanimated corpse is a sentient or non-sentient creature that is controlled by other forces than itself. A zombie may be living, dead or dying. There are various methods of creating a zombie of which the most popular ways are by a virus or bacteria, powerful reanimation or necromantic spells and soul trapping. Due to their rotting flesh and dead appearance, zombies are often connected with diseases and death. However, zombies may be as natural as humans themselves. Zombies do speak in a floppy manner which becomes more prominent in the later stages.

## Description

Zombies never sleep, and they are incapable of fatigue. Fatigue in the muscles is caused by a lactic acid build up. Zombies are incapable of producing this acid. Since they are incapable of producing lactic acid in the muscle tissue they feel no symptoms of fatigue. Zombies are impervious to pain and require no air to breathe. The small portion of the brain which the parasite needs requires such a small amount of oxygen that simply by being in an environment where oxygen is present will suffice. This means, obviously, that a zombie can survive on land; however, this also means that a zombie can survive under water as water is one part oxygen. They are thus immune to drugs, poisons, gases, extremes of temperature and pressure, high voltage electricity, suffocation, and drowning. While not invulnerable to physical injury, zombies can suffer great damage to their bodies (including dismemberment) without being adversely affected. Dismembering the legs will render the zombie immobile, but the creature will still continue to subsist. Likewise, decapitation will incapacitate the body, but the head will still "live". Zombies have no concept of fear. You cannot scare a zombie. The small amount of brain that they have does not process fear. A zombie will see you and feel the need to kill you without being intimidated by the number or the weapons.Zombies raised by necromancy are more dangerous than virus raised zombies because magic controlled zombies work by the will of the master making them more dangerous and a potential enemy to the living.Eventually, zombie flesh melts away as it ages making them more and more powerful and skeleton-like. Zombies have the ability to detect scents and can differentiate between the living and the dead; they prefer to feed on living flesh. Covering one's self in the scent of decay can act as a camouflage. They can also use sight to distinguish the living from the dead, although they seem to have poor eyesight as their irises fade and decay over time. They make up for this with heightened senses of hearing and smell. Darkness seems to have little effect on zombies' senses at close range, and in areas devoid of light they can still find their way around as they would in the day. Individual zombie strength depends on the physical makeup of the individual and on how long they have been reanimated. When attacking, zombies often become more lively, exhibiting full-body effort, and can produce enough force to quickly overwhelm an adult human. Zombies have been shown to be able to rip open human and animal victims with ease, and they can even rip off human limbs with enough force. As zombies decay, however, their muscles, and consequently, their entire body, becomes slowly, but surely, weaker. Zombies feel no pain. Although seemingly unintelligent when not active, they can react quickly to sufficient stimulation, and can rapidly overpower a victim they have taken by surprise. Though their bodies are no more or less durable than a non-decomposed human body, they can absorb all manner of physical damage, even when badly decomposed. Anything other than a head attack, spinal cord severing, or dismemberment leaves them seemingly unfazed. As long as their brain remains intact, everything that is attached to the brain can continue to function as normal, even if only the skull remains and is severed from the body. Other than a mostly intact brain, zombies don't appear to require any vital systems or organ functions to survive, although their ambulatory functions do decrease as their level of decomposition increases. Sufficient physical damage can slow them down, or render them incapacitated. They are difficult to shake off if they do manage to grab their victims, often allowing their arm to be ripped off before they will begin to let go. A reanimated body responds to stimuli such as light, scent, and loud noises. Oddly, even if the head is separated from the body, as long as the brain is intact, the head will still attempt to eat anything within reach. The body of a zombie does appear to be truly dead, which means that it does not feel pain, has no reflexes, and wounds to it will not heal; its rate of decomposition slows drastically but does continue. There is anecdotal evidence that some retain vestigial elements of memory and personality and this is shown some repeating behavior such as clinging to possessions, attempting to open doors, and even using large rocks to break through windows and doors. Zombies though, are incredibly unintelligent and generally unable to use tools or understand the need for them. It has been hinted at that newly reanimated corpses retain some basic sense of intellect and perhaps memory, and can perform very basic tasks such as opening doors. They have no sense of self-preservation other than eating, and will not react at all to the deaths of other zombies or to potentially lethal dangers to themselves. They are have a hard time overcoming obstacles, but have on occasion been shown to perform tasks like running and climbing fences. Because a zombie is derived from a human form, it is limited physically by many of the same constraints that a human has. But because a zombie is, by definition, dead, it slowly rots and decays like other dead organisms. Over time, flesh and muscles deteriorate, and it becomes less and less formidable. They are only truly killed by destroying the brain, a common theme in many zombie variations. A severed head will remain animated and aggressive until the brain is destroyed or eventually disintegrates from decomposition. Fire has little effect on zombies, other than possibly angering them further, and normally lethal things such as acid or electricity also do little to impede them. They can be paralyzed if their spinal cords are severed, though if they still have enough functional use of their arms only makes them much less ambulatory, clawing and dragging themselves across the ground. Radiation isn't enough to keep someone from turning and if a person dies of radiation sickness, their walker remains will be radioactive. Though zombies retain a physical resemblance to the living, cognitive similarities are almost non-existent beyond low-level functions, though there are examples of behavior that suggest zombies may retain small fragments of memory of their past lives. Zombies have enough intelligence to walk upright, to use their bodies to break objects, and to climb around or over somewhat small obstacles such as chain-link fences. Zombies can ascend and descend staircases. They cannot generally operate doors or gates and only attempt to do so when they are relatively "fresh"; they tend to bash through obstacles rather than traversing them. Mostly, zombies are void of any emotional expression and thought. When stimulated, whether by noise, sight of prey, or simply encountering a problem they cannot solve, they quickly descend into a state of murderous aggression. If they spot prey when stimulated, they can pursue them ceaselessly, showing ravenous hunger. They are not hunters, however, and take no concern in alerting their victims or trying to hunt them with intelligence, always seeming to roar, grunt, and growl whenever they are stimulated. Zombies seem to only be drawn to noise (such as that of a gunshot), presumably because they attribute the source of the noise to be caused by potential victims, and the smell of any blood that does not belong to a zombie. They have however occasionally been shown to be able to catch their victims by surprise. Zombies also tend to form groups and stick together, and mimic the actions of other zombies, giving them a mob mentality. This can lead to zombies forming "herds," large hordes of zombies are far more dangerous and aggressive than smaller groups. They lack any remaining speech capabilities, and can only moan, grunt, or wheeze, as well as roar and scream when alerted.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Resilience** - Zombies do not feel pain or notice injuries. They constantly move towards their prey regardless of their physical state and completely lack any sense of self-preservation, ignoring any and all obstacles and attacks.
* **Infection** - Modern zombies infect their victims with whichever ailment allows them to maintain a semblance of life. They pass on the infection through bites and scratches, so any victims they do not manage to devour completely will eventually be killed by the infection and reanimated as a zombie.
* **Numbers** - Zombies always seem to travel in large groups. The more people they infect and kill, the more their numbers swell, making it all the more futile to fight them.
* **Strength** - As their brains no longer register pain, zombies use their full strength, without the limits a normal human's brain has to protect the bones from breaking.
* **Stamina** - Zombie's body was technically dead, their musculature produced considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity.

## Weaknesses

* **Stupidity** - Zombies have no intelligence and no survival instincts, and so they can be easily lured into traps.
* **Speed** - Traditionally, zombies cannot move very fast due to their decayed state and complete lack of coordination, making it relatively easy to outrun them or navigate through them. However, more recent types of Hollywood zombies have displayed the ability to run, and without being hindered by pain or exhaustion, they can run at an athletic pace so long as their legs do not deteriorate too much.
* **Brains** - Modern zombies generally cannot be stopped without destroying the brain. Any number of weapons can prove useful in causing the damage necessary to stop a zombie completely, but some are better than others.
* **Salt** - Applicable to Vodou zombies only. Supposedly, scattering salt over the graves of the deceased lifts the spell cast over the bodies.
* **Magic** - Zombies are susceptible to the powers of magic.
* **Holy Objects** - Zombies raised by dark magic fear positive energy and thus can be killed by a crucifix or holy water.

## Lore

Zombie is a term used to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli. Of voodoo origin, the word initially referred to a curse cast by sorcerers (or bokors) allowing them to take control of a person's mind, therefore affecting his or her actions. However, due to significant influence of Haitian Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo on witchcraft mythology, this meaning soon morphed into that of a human corpse mysteriously reanimated to serve the undead. Since the late 19th century, zombies have acquired notable popularity, especially in North American and European folklore.

In popular culture, zombies take a number of forms. There are those raised from the dead by a spell or ritual or reanimated by some supernatural event (such as the movies of George Romero), or people turned into mindless violent cannibals by a virus (such as in the movie *28 Days Later* or the *Resident Evil* franchise). Some are mindless, shuffling monsters, others cunning and quick. Methods of dispatch generally involve beheading, staking or fire.

## Notes

* There is plenty of lore out there about zombies, the most common one regards staking a zombie in its grave site.
* In *Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid*, they don't exhibit regular symptoms at first, but eventually get rabid. In this case, shooting them in the head works.
* Interestingly in the first appearance, they act more like the walking dead (Revenants) in European folklore, taking revenge on those who crossed them, easily turning on others etc. However, in all their later appearances they act more like Zombies in common popular culture, decaying corpses who eat the living.

## External Links

* Zombies from Space Dandy Wikia
* Zombies from Koreha Zombie Desuka Wikia