I thought of the Triffids when I read the post about zombie plants.
Have you ever read the book "Monster Island" by David Wellington? It starts off with your basic zombie setting, world going down, and this one guy gets an idea that the reason zombie's are "mindless" is because of the braindamage they experience during the period following death before reanimation. So, since he is a fatalist, he decides to hook himself up to an incubator to maintain oxygen flow to his brain, and then induces death to himself through lethal injection. Sure enough a few hours later he wakes back up as a zombie, but his mind is still fully intact with no brain damage.
That all happens in the beginning of the book so no spoilers there, the rest of the book is him struggling to overcome the desire to eat human flesh while trying to integrate himself back with the remaining human population, or instead choosing to succumb and rule the zombies instead...an interesting read, but also might produce a little different setting than the normal zombie wasteland.
Another "different" type of zombie is "The Rising" by Brian Keene. This one is horrific though as the zombies are actually spirits from another dimension that are replacing human souls. Picture a world full of zombies with completely intact minds, hunting down the remaining living, as every human that dies makes way for another of their kind.
Just some ideas beyond the run-of-the-mill zombie setting.
Have you ever read the book "Monster Island" by David Wellington? It starts off with your basic zombie setting, world going down, and this one guy gets an idea that the reason zombie's are "mindless" is because of the braindamage they experience during the period following death before reanimation. So, since he is a fatalist, he decides to hook himself up to an incubator to maintain oxygen flow to his brain, and then induces death to himself through lethal injection. Sure enough a few hours later he wakes back up as a zombie, but his mind is still fully intact with no brain damage.
That all happens in the beginning of the book so no spoilers there, the rest of the book is him struggling to overcome the desire to eat human flesh while trying to integrate himself back with the remaining human population, or instead choosing to succumb and rule the zombies instead...an interesting read, but also might produce a little different setting than the normal zombie wasteland.
Another "different" type of zombie is "The Rising" by Brian Keene. This one is horrific though as the zombies are actually spirits from another dimension that are replacing human souls. Picture a world full of zombies with completely intact minds, hunting down the remaining living, as every human that dies makes way for another of their kind.
Just some ideas beyond the run-of-the-mill zombie setting.