Message #1263

[Victoria Liss]

The zombies
To date in the comic book series, every deceased human being has risen as a zombie, as long as their death did not destroy their brain. It is unclear how long a person must have been deceased before they are reanimated: Tyreese's daughter "comes back" within a few minutes after death, but Shane's body does not reawaken until after having been buried. Zombie body fluids getting on a human will not infect them. A person bitten by a zombie and infected with their fluids will grow sick and die within hours or days, rising as a zombie. A bite as seen so far will always lead to death if the infected body part is not cut away and cleaned immediately.

The zombies crave human or animal flesh. Some, dubbed "roamers", travel constantly and will chase prey or noises for many miles. "Lurker" zombies await prey to come close to them, making noise only if they are agitated, but will then behave as "roamers" do. Other zombies vocalize and make grunting or moaning sounds at times or constantly, but some do not. All the zombies move much slower and more irregularly than humans, and humans can easily outrun or even briskly out-walk a zombie. As depicted in the comics, the zombies can very briefly move more quickly, by lunging. None of the zombies have ever been depicted as able to grow tired. It is stated that zombies may follow something that has caught their attention for hours, after which they may follow in the general direction for days, even if they have forgotten what they originally were pursuing. Zombies may also follow other zombies, and this is explained as they believe the other zombies are pursuing a food source. This can create herds of hundreds or thousands of "roamers", all following each other under the assumption that some of them are pursuing victims, regularly growing in size and absorbing more zombies.

The only way to kill zombies is by destroying the brain, though some characters prefer decapitation, which leads to the heads still trying to bite. Zombies do not notice humans who smell like zombies, such as when a survivor rubs "zombie grime" on their body or stays in the vicinity of severely disabled zombies. Also, a zombie who is around a human for long enough will become acclimated to them and generally stop attacking. In Woodbury, the "Governor" kept his zombie daughter in his house long enough that she generally stopped attacking him, but would still attempt attacks on other humans in her presence. The character Michonne also traveled for an extended time by herself and was safe because she had tied the zombies of her boyfriend and friend to her (after removing their arms and jaws so they could not attack her).