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> through a scientific standpoint, why are zombies so damn fast?

Zombies aren't real... there can be no scientific standpoint. There can be an in fiction reason, but that depends on the fiction not science.

This. There are slow mob zombies. There are fast bite your face off zombies. Just depends on the movie/show.

there is no science about zombies, in real life the dead muscle tissue, even when electrically stimulated, will quickly coagulate and stiffen. Even if somehow the brain could turn back on in this point, the muscles are completely unresponsive.

The zombies in the show are made up so their speed is arbitrary

r/asksciencefiction

As fictional creations they are as fast or slow as the writer needs them to be in order to advance the plot. Original zombies were shambling and slow. They caught people through numbers and surprise. Or by pursuing the person until they made a wrong turn and got cornered. Shaun of the Dead plays on this older zombie concept.

Using your example of The Last of Us, there are several situations in which the main characters would absolutely have been killed were they not wearing full plot armor. But the zombie moved just a hair too slow, or got distracted, or went too fast and somehow overshoots. Or tackles them in just the perfect way to not be able to manage a bite. Never happens for the poor schmucks in the background though. Zombies run 'em down, pure focus, perfect aim. Tackle them mouth first, bitten in less than a second. Turned in 5 seconds. No hours long mournful transition allowing tearful goodbyes with loved ones.

The classic zombie being re-animated dead were generally slow and not agile factoring in decomposition and muscles losing their elasticity.

Modern "Zombie" movies and shows have taken a few different routes. In cases like 28 days/weeks later, world war z, and the ladt of us. It's a viral/parasitic/fungal infection taking over the host leaving the body largely intact and functioning.

Theoretically in these cases the invasive species could override our built-in limits like ignoring pain to push the host to exteremes for longer periods.

What everyone else said about them being fake so it doesnt matter is true but there's reasons behind the fiction.

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The only real world possibility of "zombies" have to have an intact cerebellum and primal brain functions.

Those zombie movies that suggest a virus, or fungus that destroys the brain's frontal lobes are in the realm of possibility.

Those zombie stories of the dead coming back to life are simply ludicrous. Without a functioning cerebellum to coordinate movements, zombies aren't crawling, let alone standing, let alone walking, or running.

Not a biological answer: zombie mythology had traditionally presented them as slow and shambling, a deadly threat, but not too difficult to escape if you have an escape route. Think "Night of the Living Dead", right up to "Shaun of the Dead", easily 30-40 years of that portrayal in the zeitgeist. I think it was largely "28 Days Later" that popularised the "fast zombie" threat, which really ups the ante in this genre. "The Last of Us" builds on that strain of the mythology very nicely.

Total fiction, of course, but scary nonetheless.