revenge, revenants will hunt down their target, following wherever that target goes. Where the drive is a more general anger, revenants tend to stay in one location, their graveyard, their home, or the scene of a major life event.
Less commonly, some revenants return from the dead in quest of a specific object. Termed âRose Bud Syndromeâ after the 1951 âHearst Incident,â these zombies are no less deadly than ones motivated by anger or revenge, and will literally tear people in half if they come between them and their desire. There have been several cases where the object of a revenantâs drive has been a specific person, but do not be fooled into thinking that âloveâ ever plays a part in the makeup of any zombie. There has been no evidence of love or any other âgoodâ emotion ever leading to the creation of a revenant.
IDENTIFICATION AND THREAT
In many ways, revenants do not fit the modern conception of the zombie, and for this reason they are often misidentified. At a distance, revenants are difficult to distinguish from the living. Although their movements are somewhat slow and mechanical, they are not outside human norms and are a far cry from shuffling gait of mostother zombie varieties. Nor do most revenants display the hideous wounds that are common among horde zombies.
RE-KILLING BILLY THE KID
Undoubtedly the most famous revenant of modern times was William Bonney, better known by his alias, Billy the Kid. Born around the beginning of the American Civil War, Billy rose to prominence during the âLincoln County War,â a bitter struggle between rival ranchers in New Mexico in 1877. During the fighting, Billy proved himself a remorseless killer, and in the years that followed, he traveled around the West working as a hired gun and gambler and leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Finally, in 1881, a sheriff named Pat Garrett shot Billy dead with a bullet to the brain, but the story doesnât end there.
A great mystery surrounds the last minutes of Billy the Kidâs life. For one, some claim that Pat Garrett and Billy were old friends, and, if true, it certainly helps explain what happened next. Billy was buried at Fort Sumner in New Mexico, but two weeks later a soldier from the Fort discovered a hole in Billyâs grave. Billyâs body was missing.
For the next seventeen years, people all over the territory reported seeing Billy wandering the hills. On several occasions, posses were organized to search for the dead outlaw, and once an entire cavalry troop took up the chase. But the only thing any of them ever found were dead bodies, some shot, some torn apart. In 1908, Pat Garrett was murdered by a gunshot to the head. The authorities arrested a man named Jesse Brazel for the crime. During his trial, Brazel claimed to have witnessed Billy the Kid fire the fatal shot. The judge struck Brazelâs testimony from the record, but the jury took less than thirty minutes to find Brazel not guilty.
On the same day that Brazelâs trial ended, the body of Billy the Kid was rediscovered in its grave. In 1940 the United States government erected a steel cage over Billyâs grave. On the governmental requisition form in the box labeled âreason for expenditureâ are the words âjust in case.â The most complete account of the second life of Billy the Kid can be found in the book Re-killing Billy the Kid by C. Upson.
Photos of Billy the Kidâs grave as it looks today, still protected by its steel cage.
All of that said, at close range few revenants will be mistaken for one of the living. Their skin is unnaturally pale, their blood having congealed and often pooled into their feet. This often leads to a tightening of the skin, most noticeable around the fingernails and mouth, giving the impression they have claws and fangs. The tongue and the inside of the mouth have usually turned black. However, it is the eyes that have received most