Do you know what terrifies me the most about zombies? It’s not their slow, lumbering drag. Neither is it their insatiable appetite. Nor is it their decomposing flesh that I’m sure smells like something that came out of a garbage disposal unit. No. What scares me the most about the undead is their blank, vacant eyes. For behind that empty stare is a soulless body that possesses no sadness, fear, hate, love or passion for, or about, anything we humans consider as the stirring of the spirit.
![Asbury Park [Photo credit licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asbury_Park_Zombie_Walk_(5144677424).jpg)
Some may find the zombie appetite for human disconcerting. In reality, how different is it from the compulsion that potential cold-hearted murderers feel when they roam the naked streets? If you’ve ever seen Stephen King’s The Shining, then you’ll know what I mean. Jack Nicholson’s character reminds me of a hunger-driven zombie. Focused. One-track mind. His only goal is to kill. As frightening as he is, I’ve seen his character repeated from one movie to the next. It’s not scary anymore. Dare I say the word? His character is predictable.
But those eyes—they have to be the single most feared thing I can think of when someone asks me about zombies. It’s like looking into a cold bucket of ice knowing that no matter how much I try, I will always feel as if the frigid waters will wash over me whenever I get lost in them. I suppose this is understandable, considering the undead originates from the same dirt pit friends and family members may one day fill.
In that same vein, the bodies of the soulless increase in strength and might.
I can’t describe my feelings when I imagine what it would be like to confront a zombie with its piercing eyes on top of me. How could I put into the words the zombie’s ability to measure the time it will take for it to catch and eat me before I realize I should have made a run for it?
The blank stare is what generates terror in my bones. As hard as I try, I can’t shake its indifferent gaze from the deepest parts of my body. It will stop at nothing to gain an advantage over my weaknesses. It will never surrender.
All of the undead’s temptations originate from when it sets its pale eyes on its victim. How can I overcome such a vile beast if all I can think about are those eyes?
There has to be a solution to this fear I have. There has to be.
What do you fear of the undead? Do their eyes bother you as much as it bothers me?
Looking to God 
I feel like the zombie’s hunger is why the lifeless gaze is so frightening…anything else that would hunt you feels something. A thrill in killing you, or a determination to eat, or maybe an equal fear of what you will do if it doesn’t kill first…but zombies don’t have that. They don’t feel anything about killing you. They just do it because you are there.
There is a lot about zombies that make them terrifying. They are soulless, hunger-driven creatures. But I think what scares me most is the potential of a loved one turning. To witness the moment when all recognition leaves their eyes empty and be left with the shell of a human being.
My fear is that they don’t tire. Not stopping and that means being on your guard all the time. That is enough to freak me out. That means you really can’t survive alone.
yep that’s pretty much what scares me too… you know like all the other sort of monsters out there tend to have a reasoning mind behind them… vampires, werewolves, psychos… they have enough sense where you can talk to them… maybe even talk them out of killing you… or buy yourself enough time for the calvary to come… but zombies don’t know, don’t care, and just want to eat your face off… which freaks me out…
Have you ever met one of those people who, when you say something to them, stare you straight in the eye and you think ‘is this person going to say something?’ That stare is disconcerting. It makes you feel like you haven’t finished the point you were making. Almost tempts me to say to them, ‘are you still awake?’
The stare is a weird thing. Probably explains why dogs get freaked out by it too!
Great post…love how you conveyed the ice bucket, that cold fear washing over you. It’s awful to even say, really, but the worst fear of zombies I ever feel is when I have zombie dreams with my kids in them. I think having a child or children you love, and trying to protect them from zombie, or predatory post-apocalyptic living sociopaths, would be the scariest thing about a zombie apocalypse.
For me I think the scariest thing is the change of the people we know from loved ones and peers to monsters that want to kill us. That sense betrayal must be intense. Then there’s the hope, that maybe this one person will survive the bite. It’s so brutal to think of how it would feel to go thru these moments watching people die and transition to zombies.
Also, a lot of people don’t like to think of the soulless undead. The complete extinction of anything resembling a human personality. The ” divine ” spark of individuality that makes us what we are – extinguished & replaced by a shark – or wolf – like primitive drive to survive at whatever cost : Your life & safety, your friends, family. The eyes of a zombie are as soulless as any machine.
Their eyes are definitely creepy. I think part of it is because we’re used to looking into a person’s eyes for emotions or signs of intent. If they’re blank and dead then that’s all you see. Personally, I fear the swarm because it’s unnerving to think about getting torn apart by multiple people.
Zombies is a state of mind. Look at our lives. We are taught to work, and therefore, we have the money to eat and therefore we work more. We are slow on the job to the point of robotics and repetition is our key to life. Actually maybe the zombies have it better. At least they do not think life to death.
If I had to pick one thing to be disconcerted about, it would be the moans. Assuming we’re in a zombie apocalypse here, the white noise created by the groans they make as they clamber around would be the worst. You don’t have to look them in the eyes. It’s rather hard to stop hearing them though.