What you are describing sounds a lot like the original concept of a vampire. Before Stephanie Meyer (and her predecessors), folklore said that vampires were demons that possessed corpses. Some vampire tales don't even stick to the popular idea of "blood-drinkers", but instead had the monsters just gorging on human flesh (and probably some blood, too, unless they were smarter than Shylock), or, if it was a woman who died in childbirth, stealing/eating infants and small children.

Your creatures sound similar to this, but the fact that they directly serve your "Satan" villain makes me think that they are slightly different. I agree that having the demonic element takes away from the Sci-Fi aspect (maybe making it more of a Fantasy/Horror?). Starting near the beginning, was the disease that killed so many a natural, scientifically-explainable disease, or was there something supernatural to it that might lead in to the after-death effects?

As for the question that seemed to be asked, Scientific or Supernatural? I would ask you what is your purpose for writing this book? Do you have a particular message that you want to convey to readers? And then, which way (scientific/supernatural) will best aid you in your endeavor?

Perhaps the curse (if I am following this correctly) is that your Satan-type figure killed these people with a plague found native in his own blood. His blood was poisonous and also possessed the capacity to animate those it killed. Perhaps those animated aren't even separate entities but simple drones or extentions of this villain, that he can use to see and act through like a hive-mind. That way the "zombies" are carriers of this disease, but perhaps the antidote would lie in extracting a blood sample from the villain to create an antibody. This idea still keeps the concept still fairly entrenched in fantasy, however.

Being the extremely evil person that I am, I have some twisted suggestions . What if whatever caused these things to exist has mutated them in various ways? So they aren't just rotting corpses, but ravenous monsters, stronger, faster, and better equipped than the average corpse.

The average corpse isn't equipped with anything.

Going in-things you only hear on HW!

Well, if you are going at this from a scientific perspective, then I would say that the zombie-like drone effects could be a symptom of the virus itself. They could be incubating in the ground or where ever for as long as you want. They could still be alive sort of but controlled by the virus, if you see what I'm saying. If you are doing this magically, I don't see a problem. I love the idea and have something similar in my world. Magic is its one explanation, as if it needed one.

-Aeleknight

I think nameless is good; it increases terror!

^_^ ok

I wonder if I should name them or just keep them nameless.

Yeah, like; run away!!!! It's the......er....

Going in - things you only hear on HW!

@Sui: Joel, definitely Joel

eru