Ficlets

Zombies Are People Too

The idea that zombies aren’t mindless walking corpses is still a stereotype we struggle with today. If one is raised properly by a necromancer, they are very much like themselves. Just… dead. They can walk normally – none of that stiff, arms out stumbling they do in the movies. They don’t eat brains or flesh. They don’t eat, period. Or sleep, or drink. They can’t have sex (no blood circulation) or smoke cigarettes (no breath) either.

But they have feelings. They love and hate just like they would have when they were alive.

What keeps a zombie animated is the power of the necromancer. Which is why a zombie needs to be raised by one, not by some wannabe or amateur. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you will raise a mindless corpse incapable of coherent thought.

My dad was a powerful necromancer. By the time he brought me back to talk to Liam, the new zombie had changed out of his dirty burial suit and wiped the blood from his lips. He looked human. Liam took my small hand in his cold one, and smiled.

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