Chapter 43-3: The Darkness Ahead

[LiamKerrington]

Hi.

While the pheromone idea seems reasonable-ish we’ve gotten confirmation that it doesn’t work already, haven’t we? I thought the list where Datu found the address was a photocopy of the original. Regardless, the markings from the prison weren’t originals so the idea of a scent of some sort doesn’t work.

Yeah, this detail has slipped my mind. Thank you for pointing me towards it. Certainly - while looking at photocpies there is no chance that a certain scent my play into it as well; so in that regard my thoughts are proven to be wrong (to a certain degree though, see below). I am sorry.

And yet I add two buts:

But no 1: R2Da2's reactions to the symbols on copies or the "natural" ones are evident. Seeing and "understanding" them may (not necessarily will) indicate that the zombie-agent changes the way the brain functions and thus makes the brain operate based on some weird way of "hardwiring" just like different insects react to certain conditions in the environment.
But no 2: While R2Da2 reacts to the pictures on the photocopy with a serious, short-lived headache, he is totally out of a control for a short period of time when he faces a sign at the church. Why is that so? Because his zombification-process has advanced even further, or because other factors besides the optical impression have to be considered as well (aka smell, scent, hormons, gases), or maybe both?

Anyway: This is very interesting. So I would like to approach it much broader:

- When the zombocalypse kicked in, Ink was in the police van. And he was already covered in those tattoos. Zombies attacked his van. And back then we wondered why they stopped attacking the van and/or Ink. Probably because they "understood" the symbols on Ink's head? With the latest "news" this assumption has certainly become more certain.

- We also know right from the start of the zombocalypse that them zombos behave much more based on instinct than on conscious decisions. But we know that consciously made decisions and performed actions play into their behaviour as well. Regardless of that they react to human pheromons almost automatically (instinct). While hunting they apply all natural actions - attacking in numbers, in small numbers or as solitair creatures most of them (except for the Behemoths) use the surrounding or environment like beasts of prey do - so certainly a combination of conscious understanding, working with the environment AND instinct (remember the first encounters between zombies and Saul and Angel? It was not only mindless attacks already back then!).

- Also we know that Ink's army-zombies follow orders - they have created ambushs, captured victims, left alone solitairy easy prey, orchestrated attacks etc.

- Considering the huge amount of potential zombies in the area of LA alone it is kind of astonishing how few zombies there were right from the beginning.

- We must not forget: Not every zombie from the beginning was part of Ink's army; this is especially true for the zombie-hotspots in other areas, the many Little Ones from Boulder and Irwin, Hawaii, the sea, and quite certainly many of the early waves at the Colony. (Arguable, though, if we consider Ink being the one who started it all ...)

- Finally we know from R2Da2 that "understanding" or "reading" the symbols used by Ink does not require any learning to do so while being a zombie.

So the question would be: How or why do the zombies (only from Ink's army?) "understand" these things?

Theory a) The zombie-agent activates core information in the long-term-memory of the zombies - like esoteric or religious information/ symbols -, which the humans learned or at least glimpsed at over the years before the zombocalypse; such information focusses a lot more on emotions or emotional reactions instead of analytical thinking. With the zombie-agent this information along with the emotional concepts behind them has started to surface in dominant areas of the mind, which would make the zombies follow "orders" or "these symbols" much easier; this could also mean that probably many zombies were killed by Ink's zombies, because they were not able of understanding these symbols properly. R2Da2 points in that direction, because R2Da2 is the only one from the group of survivors about whom we know that he is a religious man and who therefore has put a lot of effort into understanding certain religious symbols - but I am aware that this is the first case we have making it hard to verify this theory; also the behemoths in the prison seem to add some problems to this way of looking at it.

Theory b) The zombie-agent modifies certain parts of the memory- or understanding-centers in the human brain in a way that the zombos' brains react automatically, kind of "more instinctive" to pre-programmed symbols or arrangements of sign-elements (lines, dots, waves, circles, squares ...) just like insects react to certain smells, light-patterns, temperatures, etc. - I know: there is little evidence (if any) available to support such an idea.

And yet both theories are kind of "scientific" approaches. And I could imagine that any of them, maybe even both, could be the theme behind all things WA-zombos ... Or something else. Thinking of it in these ways simply reveals that you can try a more or less "scientific" thinking towards these unexpected turns of events without considering fancy magic or some abra kadabra hokuspokus or shit regarding the understanding or reading of symbols ... I certainly am curious what it will be in the end, if we receive any explanations at all ...

Best wishes!
Liam