The Last Of Us – Zombie Slang To Prepare You For The Apocalypse

Monday 16th of January sees the UK premiere of the hotly anticipated HBO TV series, The Last Of Us – an adaptation of the critically acclaimed video game series of the same title.

It’s already been said by critics that the zombie apocalypse drama is to be a finer replacement for The Walking Dead, the last big hit zombie apocalypse show from AMC that recently ended.

To ensure you’re prepared for the impending apocalypse, or just watching the show, the team at Preply have compiled a list of zombie- related words and slang from The Last Of Us game series and other undead-related media.

Walker

Walkers are pretty much another name for zombies. However, walkers refer to the stereotypical slow-moving form of undead popularised by director George A. Romero in his 1968 film Night of The Living Dead.

The term ‘walker’, however, wasn’t coined until much later, with the hit AMC series The Walking Dead beginning to call these variations of zombies by this name.

Runner

In The Last Of Us video games, those infected and becoming zombies go through four stages of infection across the span of years. The first stage post-infection is called a ‘runner’.

Runners are similar to walkers, in the sense that they’re human-like, rotting and undead. However, what makes runners scarier than walkers is that they are extremely fast and run at humans at intense speeds.

These types of zombies are likely to be extremely prevalent in the early episodes of The Last Of Us series.

Stalker

After a few weeks of being a runner, zombies in The Last Of Us become what’s known as a ‘stalker’ in the second stage of infection.

In this second stage, stalkers have similar characteristics to runners. However, they are much more aggressive and appear with fungal growths on their head, which doesn’t make for a pretty sight.

Clicker

When the infected in The Last Of Us reach the third stage, they become what’s known as a ‘clicker’ after around a year of infection. They appear with gruesome-looking fungus growing across the entirety of their head.

Clickers are much more dangerous than runners and stalkers, and now possess levels of strength that surpass the average human. They’re certainly not something you’d like to face off with in an apocalypse.

Bloater

Bloaters are the fourth, final and rarest stage of infection in The Last Of Us, and they’re certainly not ones to be messed with.

After many years of infection, an afflicted individual will reach this stage. Bloaters have extremely high levels of strength and their entire bodies are covered with thick fungus which acts as protective armour. This makes them extremely resistant to weapons and firearms.

Juggernaut

Also going by the names of tanks or brutes in various forms of media, ‘juggernaut’ zombies are extremely large creatures with brute strength large enough to throw vehicles and other heavy objects.

Juggernaut zombies are mainly featured in video games such as Left 4 Dead and State of Decay, and usually appear as boss battles.

Crawler

A ‘crawler’ is similar to a walker zombie, but they crawl rather than walk. This can be for several reasons, such as lost legs or the infection making the host more animalistic.

Crawlers can be very difficult to spot with them being on the ground, and they’re sometimes referred to as ‘ankle-biters’, a testament to their surprise attack when not spotted.

Hunter

A hunter isn’t a zombie at all, they’re very much human and not infected. However, due to years of living through an apocalypse, hunters are humans with corrupted minds that hunt for other survivors’ supplies with no mercy.

Like zombies, hunters are mainly seen as cannibalistic, such as in The Last of Us. The Last Of Us and The Walking Dead are the two main series depicting hunters.