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Theory abounds as to how they hunt and how they are organized. The five senses are dulled and even nonexistent in most cases. The sense of smell is the only sense that is confirmed to be gone as the undead do not breathe. Sight should be diminished as the eyes and their connections to the brain are decaying. Many people feel that they are safe as long as they are out of sight of the undead, however, too many ghouls with scooped out eye sockets have been the end of hapless refugees.

The next sense called to question is sound. The sound of shuffling feet crunching over debris, glass, metal and bone would easily mask the sounds of running feet. Breathing is different. Breathing normally might go undetected forever, but rarely is anyone heard breathing normally while surrounded by hundreds of hungry, vacant faces. Often your breath out in the field will be labored, panting and fast, alerting everything from other humans and animals to the undead around you of your presence.

But sound alone cannot guarantee the exact location of their prey. Sensations of touch, feelings of warmth and cold would still effect the undead. Like a cold draft chilling your spine as it breezes past you, so too does warmth seem to effect the living-dead. Having no body heat to distract them from the warmth of others, the undead can easily pick up on a heat signature that moves about. Fire, being degrees hotter than human flesh and must faster and more erratic in its movements seems to keep them at bay the same way it does animals in the wild. But the soft, steady heat of human flesh moving in any direction at any speed draws them. They can bumble into a hundred of their own kind with little to no awareness that they’ve come across another creature, but as soon as warm flesh comes close they attack.

These senses combined seem to have given them a functional hunting skill that has astounded most. They see movement in the distance, hear a faint gasp and finally locate the heat from their intended target.

They will not break away from a kill until it is cold and will never touch flesh that is as dead as them.

Q) How do they organize?

A) The living-dead are drawn by one common, undeniable need. Eat.

The fact that they travel in large clusters or swarms is considered a coincidence. They possess no reasoning, social or communicative skills. They go where instinct and supposed memory tell them that people congregate; churches, shopping centers, hospitals and government/city centers. When one ghoul detects prey and moves, others notice and converge on the victim. They have what appears to be a great amount of patience. In reality they are waiting. They follow those who appear to be seeking out a new source of food; otherwise they stay in the location of their last kill or their own death. Beyond that, little is known.

Q) How do you stop them?

A) Kill the brain and burn the body.

As long as the brain is connected to the body, the body will continue to kill. As long as the brain is intact within the skull, the mind is still conscious and will attempt to bite if approached. Even after immobilized, the threat of disease and death through body fluids and decomposition will remain.

The most time honored and accepted method is to aim for the head and hope that a single shot will scramble the brain enough to immobilize the ghoul. Beyond that it is recommended to aim for the ankles, already swollen with fluids and blood and cripple the ghouls. Falling into a pile one atop another they will be easier to contain and incinerate.

Be mindful of the sounds and sights around you. Animals, especially birds will flee from areas populated by the living dead. Be mindful of the sounds you hear. If there are no birds chirping, no domesticated or livestock animals grazing and making noise, chances are excellent that you have stumbled into the hunting grounds of the living dead. Avoid urban areas if possible and always be ready to run. As long as the ghoul is post rigor mortis, you should be able to easily out run it.

Good luck.
-L. v.B.