The Walking Dead: What would you ask a walker?

If you could talk to a walker to find out what it’s like to be one, what would you want to know? What questions would you ask? We asked our readers just that.

We know quite a bit about walkers on The Walking Dead from our perspective. They are dangerous. If we are bitten, we will get a fever and die and turn into one ourselves. If given the chance, they won’t just bite us, they will devour us. They will eat us up.

Their appetite is insatiable. They don’t die unless we kill their brain. Traumatic brain injury is the only thing that stops them. Dr. Jenner showed us that most of the brain function is gone. He said the part that makes “you you” is gone.

But what is it like to be a walker? What do they feel or think, if anything? If you could ask some walkers a question or two to find out more about what their wandering life is like, what questions would you ask to discover more about them?

I asked our readers on Facebook and Twitter that very thing. Here are some of their questions:

Do you remember who you were?
Do you enjoy your new freedom from responsibility?
Don’t you ever get tired and want to sleep?
Have you ever considered going vegan?
How many people have you eaten?
How many miles have you traveled?
Is there a special someone in your undeath?
What are your long-term goals?
Have you intentionally eaten someone you disliked?
Do you have a zom-bae?
Do you know you are falling apart?
Do you feel remorse for needing to kill living things to keep going?
Is it possible to resist the urge to eat?
What does human flesh taste like?
Do you prefer men or women?
Do you know you’re dead?
Why do you travel in herds?
Why do you move so slowly?
Any preference to how I kill you?
How did you die?
Do you know you’re scaring people?
What’s it like being all gushy?
Do you feel the hunger? Do you ever feel full?

These are great questions. Unfortunately, the walkers can’t answer them for us. We have to ponder the answers ourselves from what we can figure out from clues and our own guesses.

More from Undead Walking

The idea that they know anything about their former lives or have any piece of who they were before is the biggest piece of the zombie puzzle. It’s one that I don’t believe to be true. It’s one that Hershel and Milton grappled with at one time. The Governor allegedly did as well, but that’s another story.

The physical issues of hunger and decay are other big questions. Ironically, the living could never keep going with injuries or decay to the extent that the walkers suffer, yet the walkers keep going.

Intent and remorse. Those are interesting issues as well. One of my favorite parts about zombies is that I believe they are not malicious or malevolent. That makes them an intriguing enemy.

People we once loved. People somebody loved. Strangers. People that look like us. Regular people. Turned. Turned into enemies. Turned against us. Turned into mirrors. Turned into bosses. Turned into eating machines. Something we would never wish on our lived ones.

Next: Memorable Walkers

My questions would be do they have any awareness of their being at all. Not who they were, but of their wandering and suffering now. Does it matter to them if they are killed? Do they hope they are killed? Do they hope to keep wandering ? Do they not care one way or the other.

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