Dead or Undead?

[FoodFight]

I'd say that conclusion is suspect, considering that Bub was at a military installation, was not kept in isolation, and could plausibly have seen salutes rendered before. I must disagree. While it was a military installation, it was primarily indoors, where saluting is limited to reporting to an officer, reporting for pay, etc. IOW, fewer occasions to render the salute. Coupled with the fact that they were under arms, any salutes he may have witnessed would be modified (i.e. the rifle sling would be grasped prior to rendering honors), an action which he didn't include. Since he wasn't throwing salutes at every private who crossed his path, and only saluted the one remaining commissioned officer in attendance, I seriously doubt that it was mimicry. Lastly, his familiarity with the service automatic. Both loading procedure an the practical application once it was loaded. Either he was an amazingly quick study (with a mildewed brain to boot), or he had done that sort of thing before.

[Wyldwraith]

All right then, The arguments made that support some sort of pro-potential zombie intelligence theory can be applied equally as still more reasons not to want to come back. IE: The only thing worse than having your consciousness paralyzed/forced to watch as hideous instincts drive your decaying body to commit atrocity after atrocity is if your consciousness is even more intact than we've been lead to believe in zombies. Just stop and do your best to imagine reaching the horrified realization that you're undead, you will continue to be undead unless/until someone destroys your brain, and that you're clearly capable of understanding the cannibalistic acts your body is performing, and appreciating the pain and terror you're inflicting on still-living humans. Trin's comment about "What if Undead is better?" in reference to the fact you might be headed to Hell when you die I answer with: "How is what I just described NOT eternal torment?" Yes, it MIGHT end when your decaying body finally surrenders at long last to rot and becomes non-mobile by falling apart, but what if your awareness of undeath/the awful hunger for warm human flesh lasts even longer. You're a partially mummified head, lying in a filth-covered alley, and this could go on for an indefinite period of time. After all, if the zombie body lasted far longer than the rules of normal corpse decay there's nothing to say that the undead brain in its bone casing couldn't last for a couple hundred years. So your immobile, your eyes have rotted away leaving you blind, the inner ear structures rotted away, leaving you deaf, no other senses to speak of..so you're a vague foggy awareness, trapped in the silent darkness for TWO HUNDRED YEARS. Anyone ever have to go to Alternative Education when they misbehaved in school? When you go A.E, you were sent off at the start of the school day to a separate room containing a teacher/babysitter and other students sentenced to A.E. You're forbidden to speak unless it's vitally necessary, and then only to the teacher, and you have literally endless piles of meaningless, non-graded makework-classwork of the most tedious kinds thrust at you. 2 scheduled bathroom breaks all day, lunch in the A.E classroom, AFTER the entire A.E Class is marched single-file through the cafeteria to collect their school lunches and back to the room. Make a sound, another day of A.E (during which you get zeros for your work in all your normal classes), stop doing the busywork long enough to even massage a cramp out of your writing hand, another day of A.E etc etc. Now, that's NOTHING compared to the undeath situation, but I saw tough 18yr olds break down and cry in A.E. I went once, and anytime I got in trouble after that I made sure I compounded whatever offense I'd committed sufficiently to be suspended out of school. Still, same thing goes for 23hr/day lockdown in prison. It breaks quite a few people, yet ultimately would still be trivial when compared to being the rotted, blind, deaf zombie head in the alley for who knows how long. Just some intended food for thought.

[Trin]

True. And all that might be less than an appetizer compared to the torment of your afterlife. The point is - you don't know. You are comparing against an unknown. Contrive the worst possible thing you can think of and it might be worse. To the previous points, I don't believe Bub's salute was mimicry. Even if he'd seen a salute in the base it was undoubtedly not a crisp professional salute like he gave.

[AcesandEights]

To the previous points, I don't believe Bub's salute was mimicry. Even if he'd seen a salute in the base it was undoubtedly not a crisp professional salute like he gave. I agree. There certainly seemed, to me anyway, to be underlying emotion behind the salute, which made it seem more than just the mimicry of a perfunctory action.

[SymphonicX]

good post - i'd like to see how the other half live but if the resulting infection made me feel really, really bad - which I suspect it would - then I'd probably get myself offed so I don't have to go through the change process. If it was a case of just dropping dead after a few days with a slight fever, then screw it let me walk around for a bit...

[Trin]

Did anyone ever consider that maybe the living dead are seeking humans in hopes of being shot in the head?

[darth los]

Did anyone ever consider that maybe the living dead are seeking humans in hopes of being shot in the head? Very interesting. That would explain why they only go after humans, the only thing capable of squeezing a trigger and ending their purgetory. Anyone else have a thought on that? (Now THERE'S a rhetorical question )

[bassman]

If they were seeking humans for a means to an end, why would they then eat the very same humans, thus preventing the shot to the head?

[Wyldwraith]

Interesting theory Trin, Maybe some of the odd things they do (like the characteristic moan when they're nearing live humans) might be the best they can do by way of warning the humans. If their body is 95% under the control of their rampaging instincts, that would make even more sense. Now that you've got me thinking along these lines it makes me wonder. Their supposed relentlessness, endlessly pounding on barricades or beating their head against reinforced glass with humans on the other side could be their best effort to speed up the process of their personal extinction. Definitely one of the more novel theories I've read here. Good one

[Trin]

If they were seeking humans for a means to an end, why would they then eat the very same humans, thus preventing the shot to the head? How many times have I walked by food and just instinctively eaten it, no matter how bad it is for me? They are us after all, just operating at a less perfect level.