Mad Zs are undead infected with a mutated form of ZN1. In terms of looks, Mad Zs are indistinguishable from normal Zs but they are much faster and more aggressive.
Mad Zs often appear extremely damaged in a way that would usually kill or at least disable a normal zombie.
It is currently unknown as to why Mad Zs started appearing and what determines who turns into a normal Z and who goes Mad upon death.
Attributes[]
Mad Zs have greater physical prowess than regular Zombies and are much more resilient. Despite trauma to the head they go on, risking to hurt or kill anyone unlucky enough to cross their path. Even near complete destruction of the brain may not kill them as shown at the start of the 4th episode of the 4th season though as it seems, in most cases, destroying more than half of the brain is enough.
On that note, "unkillable" is not a word one would properly use to describe a Mad Z, rather they are almost impossible to mercy. Enough blunt force trauma or force seems to be able to put them down for good, as shown with the reanimated corpse of Lt. Mueller and an unidentified zombie at the beginning of "A New Mission: Keep Moving".
Mad Zs cannot be controlled by Lucy at all, and she cannot read their mind as she states "Well, with regular Zs, I can hear their names, see flashes of their lives, I can talk to them. Mad Zs, it's just screaming" (Season 4 Episode 4)
(In some cases) Mad Zs have shown superior intelligence compared to normal Zs though not by much. They will try to disarm and separate people to gain an advantage. They seem to be able to hunt their prey using tactics like stalking and picking off prey one by one.
Mad Zs seem to care little for cold weather unlike their normal Z brothers, as seen on the 9th episode of season 4, a Mad Z named Scampy (Name given by Simon) followed him through the frozen tundra and managed to get all the way to the NSA base.
Notes and speculation[]
- More often than not they don't seem to have the blind looking eyes most zombies have but it is inconsistent and is no real way to tell Mad Zs apart from normal Zs. (It might have something to do with how recently they turned and they might get blind eyes after a while).
- Mad Z's could have appeared as early as season one withing the Zunami and be represented by the leading fast zombies but it is uncertain if this is the case at all.
- There is a possibility that the ZN1 virus becomes more sophisticated the longer it festers in a living host, hence its absence during the early days of the infection and why freshly killed humans reanimate as quicker and sometimes tougher zombies than most others.
Related quotes[]
"He's not my friend, he's more like an acquaintance I keep murdering" by Simon Cruller about a Mad Z (Scampy) following him for 200 miles.
Trivia[]
- First seen on Season 4 on the Escape from Zona episode (Sgt. Czarnecki).