Young and Young at Heart (The Rewrite of The Walking Dead Game: S2) [TWDG/TWD]

34. Meal Time

"Okay, so far we've covered the rapid transformation that occurs after someone dies that turns them into a lurker, how that changes the body, their bizarre tendency to stop rotting after a certain point, their general impervious nature to anything that does not destroy their brain, their instinctive need to kill and eat living things, as well as how that has no relationship to their well-being," recapped Gene. "What else?"

"How bout how to kill them?" suggested Bridget. "You know, the only thing we need to know?"

"Right, killing lurkers." Gene took his marker and drew an arrow pointing to the head of a figure he drew earlier. "You destroy the brain. Typical methods include gunshots and blunt objects. Now, moving on to—"

"Oh come on, you spend like twenty minutes talking about how they rot, but only five seconds on how to fight them?" protested Bridget. "I thought you were teaching us stuff we need to know?"

"If you had been paying attention, Bridget, you'd realize this is stuff you need to know," said Gene. "How they rot affects their effectiveness. Freshly made lurkers have more muscle mass, making them stronger and more dangerous. Whereas ones who have decomposed for some time have fragile limbs. If you find yourself without a means to destroy the brain, aim at one of their legs. There's a good chance you could break it, greatly reducing their mobility."

"Cool," said Bridget.

"Since their senses of sight and touch degrade considerably not long after transformation, Lurkers hunt mostly by sound, smell and taste, and in that order. Following noises, they're at their most gullible, and without smelling prey nearby, can be fooled repeatedly.

"Once they've smelled something alive they become more focused, ignoring most noises. In addition to living people, most animals and even just fresh blood will attract a lurker. Once they've tasted blood they feed until such time they no longer taste fresh blood, or they hear something loud enough to distract them and start the whole process over."

"These things sound like wimps," said Bridget. "Dumb wimps. Slow, dumb, wimps."

"What they lack in cunning and agility they make up for in tenacity and willpower. They don't sleep, they don't eat, they don't feel pain, and they never stop. Slow as they are they can cover a lot of ground because they never rest. Their average speed is around two miles an hour, but over twenty-four hours of nonstop movement they can—"

"Wait, I know," interrupted Clem as she tried to figure the problem in her head. "It's... forty-eight, right?"

"Yes, about fifty miles a day if they hear something loud enough. Even if one of you went four miles an hour, a fairly modest pace, you'd have to walk for twelve hours straight, at that speed, to equal the same distance they'll travel in the other twelve hours you'll need to use for sleeping, eating and everything else we need to do to stay alive.

"And there are the bites. Lurker bites are fatally toxic. This seems to be specific to bites as we've had people scratched by lurkers and plenty have come in contact with them alive or dead and been fine. But something in the bite will kill you, usually within a few hours. And the only known cure is simply removing the part of the body that was bitten," explained Gene in a grim tone.

"Are you sure about that?" asked Clementine. "I knew someone who cut off his arm after he was bitten and... it didn't work."

"We've had two people survive bites because of amputation. But we've also had three die after amputating, although one was likely from blood loss..." Gene trailed off as he momentarily lost his train of thought.

"So, even though it's possible, it's not exactly a fool proof solution. Especially if you're bitten somewhere you can't cut off." Gene took a breath and looked at his watch. "Well, it's close enough to lunch for a break. So, unless any of you have any questions?" Clem thought to herself, then raised her hand. "Yes?"