Dead-On-Dead Violence?

[SRP76]

I thought of this after watching Dawn for the billionth time:

These things are supposed to be powered by instinct. That means they are largely running on autopilot, repeating ingrained habit.

Now, it doesn't take long. I once worked in a busy convenience store for about 20 straight days. One night, I woke up from my sleep to find my hands moving out, giving change to some phantom customer. Obviously, it was my body working on nothing but ingrained instinct. And that happened after only a few weeks.

So, figure a survivor: he has lived for months on end, and every single day revolved around "see a zombie, shoot it in the head". It would become a true instinct, no thought involved. Raise weapon to head, fire.

That got me to thinking, would it be reasonable to assume that some of these survivors that eventually fall (like Stephen), should continue to behave in the "zombie killing" mode, after they die?

Especially a guy like Stephen, who reanimates with gun-in-hand. Instinct should tell him, "raise gun to head, and fire" every time he encounters a zombie.

Any thoughts?

[Yojimbo]

Very interesting. I have never thought about that, but I think that you are right. It would be pure instinct.

Along those lines, I wonder if a reanimant would see an attractive member of the opposite sex and want to hit on it? Maybe a real player before death would not be able to resist the urge. Also, would the smarter a person was while alive dictate how they would be as the living dead? I would imagine that a stupid person would make a really stupid zombie (caught endlessly looping in a revolving door, that sort of thing)

Anyways, very insightful thought you have there!

[clanglee]

:D True true. Interesting thought man. I would be typing passwords all day as a zombie.

[AcesandEights]

I think there would have to have been a whole ton of effort and experience in that area to ingrain the action. Unless you were "in the (zombie) sh1t" I don't know that it would come so naturally or that a person would have the time and experience to ingrain the instinct. You say people seeing and shooting zombies everyday, but I don't remember a lot of protagonists shooting zombies in a threatened scenario daily, it's more like punctuated periods of violence and then days or weeks of inactivity. Still though, I'm sure we assume that there are people out there loaded for bear and offing zeds as they go by either personal inclination or necessity.

If you were in the military doing this (fighting your instinct to shoot center mass, assuming you weren't trained in the day of 'kill the suicide bomber') or in the civilian 'sweep and clear' teams, it would be a different story, and I suppose there'd be a definite shot at getting the sort of activity you were talking about.

Plus, I think the very nature of the act itself is fairly beyond the emotional pale for people, so I wonder if training people who are feeling conflicted tides of emotion and impulse (disgust & revulsion, utter fear coupled with their survival instinct banging away in the back of their brain, the adrenaline rush from most of these things etc.) would hinder or help training? Also, would the complete lack of the emotive qualities that were present when they learned the act of taking a head shot matter when they're dead?

Any thoughts from trained shooters?