The strangest part of that scene is
Michael yells
Randy! Not Randy? Maybe the next part is too much
on my part, but I think Randy responds. There is a distinct growl. Is there enough of his mind left to recognize it? There are two aspects to that.
1) Is there recognition of a "self"? The biters are not mindless, but would they recognize themselves in a mirror?
2) Cognitive ability. Some of the first changes are intellectual. Is there a Tower of Babel aspect? Maybe they no longer understand English, but when Michael yells Randy, Randy might go [biter] holy shit did he just say Randy or did he just bark at me like he rabid dogs they are [/biter]
I have always attributed strong foreshadowing to Michael's comment, "Now, that
Riley warned them in their own language. They probably understood that shit" from
Chapter 1.
Compared to the biters, the humans seem more like the Romero-style Zombies. They are slower, weaker and their flesh is softer as if it is rotten. It works physically, but the intellectual aspects breaks down because the humans are certainly making much better use of tools...
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