Undead 101 Part Two: Fact or Myth

As alluded to in my last post, this post will be dedicated to separating the facts about ghouls from the myths.

• Revanants only eat brains. MYTH. They eat flesh, regardless of whether it is your brain or your any other part of your body.
• Revanants prefer human flesh. FACT. It's not exactly known why, it could be a simple matter of taste. The condition of the human has never been proven to be a factor, nor the condition of any nearby animal; given the choice between an ailing 80-year-old human and a two-year-old champion racehorse, the ghoul will always choose the human. Which is not to say the revanant will completely ignore the horse if the human is absent. Revanants will also go after ailing humans and healthy ones with no prejudice either.
• If you are bitten by a ghoul, you are doomed to become one. FACT. While the cause is unknown, there has never been a recorded case of a human being bitten without turning.
• Revanants fear fire. MYTH. They fear nothing and feel no pain or heat. Which is the primary reason that incendiary weapons such as flamethrowers and Molotov cocktails are to be used in very specific combat situations and for cleanup only; while a revanant will eventually be destroyed by fire, it can take a long time for it to happen. Long enough that one would have to deal with burning ghouls.
• Revanants are slow, plodding, clumsy creatures. FACT. There has never been a recorded case of a ghoul running, jumping, or swimming. Even climbing a ladder designed for small children is a difficult task for the undead; rock walls, rope climbs, even steep enough hills are all but impossible. The fastest recorded ghoul movement was 2.1 miles an hour, and that ghoul happened to be seven feet tall.
• Revanants can be killed by decapitation. MYTH. Only destruction of the brain will completely kill a ghoul. Which is not to say decapitation is futile, as the body from the neck down will now be a motionless corpse. However the neck will still bite and gnash at any flesh that gets close to it. This is extremely important to remember as people can and have been turned by decapitated ghouls!
• Revanants don't breathe, pump blood in their veins, sleep, or depend on food, water, and sleep. FACT. All things that keep the human engine alive do not function with the undead. Why they hunger for flesh despite not needing any is a subject long debated by researchers.
• Revanants get 'full' of flesh after a while and become harmless. MYTH. In one documented case, a ghoul that was captured for experimentation was given an entire horse to feed on. Eventually the stomach of the ghoul ruptured and burst... but the ghoul kept on feeding until the horse was picked clean.
• Sunlight kills ghouls. MYTH. If it were that easy to kill them, all one would have to do is wait them out for a few hours!
• Ghouls instinctively hunt down their loved ones first. MYTH. It is true that 70% of ghouls attack someone they knew in their past life first. This is only by happenstance, as the ghoul merely goes after what it first encounters indiscriminately. Ghouls have never shown even a shred of long-term or short-term memory.
• Ghouls will sometimes pick up a brick or rock to smash through a window. MYTH. Ghouls have sub-infant reasoning, logic, and intelligence. Never has a ghoul used a weapon, opened a door with the doorknob/handle, unfastened a seat belt, yanked a chain until it broke, or anything of the sort. In one case, a ghoul's mouth was duct taped shut and placed in a room with a horse. The ghoul tried to bite the horse in vain, over and over, never realizing that there was something keeping it from opening it's mouth.

Any further questions about zombies not answered here can be addressed to zombieleaks@yahoo.com. All personal information will be omitted.

NEXT: So you think your neighbor is a zombie...