Surviving a Zombie Outbreak

Originally posted by thelibra
Further, since zombies need not breathe, they can simply wander into oceans and walk to the next beach available for tastyflesh.

completely false. Zombies are undead and, therefore, they have no need for air. There have been cases, as documented in world war z, of zombies taking out whales on their trek from one stretch of land to the next and at the time the book was published it was thought to be the case that the only serious threat of attack would come from the zombies not yet found underwater.

Zombies are undead. they need flesh to slow down their decay but over time they will rot like any other corpse.

God I love it when this thread comes back to life. It is almost as if the thread is undead.....

Anyway, this idea that the zombies can have zombie children doesn't really make sense to me. I understand that the sexual urge is pretty basic, but why would they want to have sex? Food seems to be the primary drive of a zombie's will. Everything else that follows is just a by product of this need to feed. Even if there was a shred of humanity left in the zombie to rape, would the female zombie even realize she is with zombie child let alone actually care for it to feed it. I stand by my belief that zombies are a single generation problem. They will eventually rot and become goo. As long as they are somewhat contained, they cant feed.

Now about this newer Z-strain Danny speaks of, if this were the new scenario, all bets are off. If you approach me, you best be able to articulate to me that you are a friendly, because you will be shot otherwise. It is way too unstable a situation to be guessing who is who.

I just had a thought about using engineered bees that desire some sort of scent that the zombies give off. Maybe alter them in a way that would make their stings fatal to zombies. Maybe an antivirus of sorts that stops their motor functions when stung???

I'll be out on a houseboat with my radio waiting for the all clear in the mean time.

i personally cant wait to find out

Originally posted by thelibra
So I guess it'd be plausible. Presumably since both are human, and the brain, rather than the genetics themselves, would be affected, impregnation could result, though god knows what sort of abomination would result from the union of a human and a zombie.

Not from the Romero zombie standpoint, but from the rabid infectious zombie/human, there certainly could be impregnation through zombie. However I'd expect there to be a lot of biting and chewing during the act which would likely negate the STD aspect.

The half human/zombie hybrid would also not be a factor because soon after the act, and long before the baby develops, the human would have turned into the infected anyway, and unless the infected managed to find enough food to survive alone during the pregnancy, both would die before the 9 months were up.

And, if we assume that the baby is born, it wouldn't likely live much past birth, unless the virus also brought the mother to a prehistoric, primal motherly state.

you also have to wonder whether or not zombies biologically can breed. remember, a lot of virus' cause the infected to become sterile. lets hope this is the case. im not up for being chased by 6 legged, wall climbing, venom spitting superfreaks that would be produced

Not from the Romero zombie standpoint, but from the rabid infectious zombie/human, there certainly could be impregnation through zombie. However I'd expect there to be a lot of biting and chewing during the act which would likely negate the STD aspect.

That's not accurate the Romero scenario also had the recently deceased returning to life who had not been bitten or infected. I believe that is mentioned in Night of and at least some versions of Dawn.

Originally posted by kickoutthejams
That's not accurate the Romero scenario also had the recently deceased returning to life who had not been bitten or infected. I believe that is mentioned in Night of and at least some versions of Dawn.

You're right, night of the living dead, and dawn of the dead (original) made reference to the dead rising from their graves. As a matter of fact, the zombie that killed Barbara's brother in "Night" had risen from the grave, and wasn't infected by another zombie. I was talking about the Non-Romero zombies, ie 28 Days later.

can we pretty much throw out the Romero zombie? all that magic and stuff. yea, it makes for a great movie but in reality those zombies would never happen

Romero zombies and magic? I don't follow if anything the Romero trilogy at least was the only social study and fairly gritty realistic like.

Originally posted by DannySpade
can we pretty much throw out the Romero zombie? all that magic and stuff. yea, it makes for a great movie but in reality those zombies would never happen

Romero zombies were never stated to be magic. As a mater of fact, in the original trilogy, they never knew what caused the outbreak. In one of the offshoot comics, they say that the event was a side effect of radiation occurring from an unknown alien vessel crash landing on Earth. So it wouldn't really be magic but more of a sci-fi thing.

i got ya. i was just using the Romero as an example. but u understand wat type of zombie i'm talking about. the slow moving, half decomposed, steryotypical zombie that can easily be disproved

Zombies cannot mate.
None of they're internal organs work, so why would ANYONE assume theyre #stick does?

Originally posted by MichaelMyers
Zombies cannot mate.
None of they're internal organs work, so why would ANYONE assume theyre #stick does?

The conversation was about the "diseased" zombies that are essentially fully functional living humans with an infection similar to rabies that causes insanity and violent responses. Because they're regular humans they can mate.

Wow man! I have only read the OP, and checked out your zombie guide!!
Thats impressive work I cant count the number of times I have sat around with my buddies talking about this very thing. hehe.
You have this down to a science, good thing so do my friends and I.. I have to show them this! This just might become the standard!! I have played this out many times in my head. Why really? I dont know, but some say its a waste, I say its not a waste. You never do know do you?
I just know I always keep my boots on and my guns oiled
And yes I was a boyscout

Edit: That stuff is down right spooky!!! Im reading this stuff, and its put together to make me feel as if this is going on around me, and has been since WW2.. Thanks now I will have nightmares tonight..

[edit on 7-7-2007 by zysin5]

Realistically, you should get a .22 rifle (or maybe a garand) and run like umm... something that runs fast. But if you are a real gun nut/millitary guy, get the biggest #ing gun yyou can find *cough*GAU-8*cough* or a .50 Desert Eagle. Put the GAU-8 Avenger on your roof and have your Desert Eagle with you at all times. Or maybe a .700 Nitro Express... Naw
Or maybe a tweaked 18-wheeler...

[edit on 9-7-2007 by ShadeWolf]

But on a roof, the gunfire draws out more zombies. You would only manage to get yourself surrounded and eventually trapped up there.

I like the 18 wheeler idea, except for the road blocks by dead vehicles. After a few rammed blockades, your rig may not be running for the long haul. Your luck would be a break down at ground zero, whih would really suck.

plus, as any right thinking person has to consider, guns will run out of ammo. it doesnt matter if you have enough ammo to last you a week or a year or a decade, it will run out. and the moment it runs out, thats when you become prime grade-A tender loin. im not completely bashing guns here though. like ShadeWolf said, .22 would be great to have with you. its relativly light, easy to load/ clean, good for sniping to a certain extent but is also good melee weapon, ammo isnt too space consuming and is fairly easy to come by and the fact that when a round from a .22 enters the skull, it ricoscets (*spelling) around, turning the brain into a nice slushy, helps a lot. but remember this would be your PRIMARY weapon, not your ONLY weapon. it will be load so take into consideration that everytime you use it, more zombies will come. for your handgun, your best bet is gunna be the US Beretta M92 .9mm. its compact, light and carries enough ammo to get you out of a jam and into a safe zone, given theres one fairly close. the problem with the Desert Eagle is its recoil. its a crazy strong gun so unless you are extremely trained in it, it'll take more time than you have to fire, recover and fire again. and please dont forget, machetes dont require ammo and the human spine is not as strong as steel. and in the case of the Lyssa-X zombie, which im pretty sure is the only one we're considering now, any major wound will at least slow your pursuers down. in the case of vehicles, the smartest thing to do would be to grab a mountain bike. they're quite, human powered so fuel isnt an issue only fatigue, the can handle treacherous terrain, they can weave so traffic jams arent a problem and, at least in my experience, i havent met anybody who can run faster, let alone farther, than a six speed bike

I'm sure it's been said, but I'll reiterate, LEATHER.

Leather chaps, jacket, gloves, and boots. Zombies may be tough, but they're unlikely to bite through leather. You'll get hot sticky and nasty in it, but it's better than the other option.

...not unlike Blade in the avatar? heh heh

Last night I had a thought, how would this end?
All those who would die have. Those hearty souls that survived have banded together. We are five minutes from the closing credits so to speak, and now we learn how we beat the zombies. What was it that was done to rid us of the last one?

A simple guess would be starvation and general rotting, or in the viral scenario, starvation and parasites.

Originally posted by shadow watcher
...and now we learn how we beat the zombies. What was it that was done to rid us of the last one?

A simple guess would be starvation and general rotting, or in the viral scenario, starvation and parasites.

Well, in World War Z, there wasn't any "quick fix" to the Zombie problem. It was eventually solved through hard work, regrouping humanity, training them, revamping production, organization, and then a slow and steady reclaimation of the land. It took 10 years to reclaim America. Humanity adopted the RTKR (Resource To Kill Ratio) mentality, and developed the most efficient zombie weapons possible.

One was the SIR (Standard Infantry Rifle), a modular rifle that was super accurate and never jammed:

from "World War Z" by Max Brooks

I’ve heard it was a modcop of the AK. I’ve also heard that it was a stripped­down version of the XM 8...

...It might have kicked hard, and it only fired on semi, but it was super accurate and it never, ever jammed! You could drag it through the mud, leave it in the sand, you could drop it in saltwater and let it sit there for days. No matter what you did to this baby, it just wouldn’t let you down. The only bells and whistles it had was a conversion kit of extra parts, furniture, and additional barrels of different lengths. You could go long­range sniper, midrange rifle, or close­combat carbine, all in the same hour, and without reaching farther than your ruck. It also had a spike, this little flip­out job, about eight inches long, that you could use in a pinch if your Lobo wasn’t handy...

...Our staple ammo was the NATO 5.56 “Cherry PIE.” PIE stands for pyrotechnically initiated explosive. Outstanding design. It would shatter on entry into Zack’s skull and fragments would fry its brain. No risk of spreading infected gray matter, and no need for wasteful bonfires. On BS4duty, you didn’t even have to decap before you buried them...

The other weapon was the "Lobo", or, Lobotomizer, if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

from "World War Z" by Max Brooks
...a heavy steel rod ending in what looks like a fusion of shovel and double­bladed battle­axe. Its official designation is the Standard Infantry Entrenchment Tool, although, to most, it is known as either the “Lobotomizer,” or simply, the “Lobo.”

Finishing out the kit for the standard soldier was the new BDU, which consisted of bite-proof kevlar.

from "World War Z" by Max Brooks
There was a lot of references to “the Blue” versus “the Gray,” mainly because of Zack’s skin color and the shade of our new BDUs. They didn’t bother with camo schemes anymore; in any case, what was the point? And, I guess, navy blue was the cheapest dye they had back then. The BDU itself looked more like a SWAT team’s coverall. It was light and comfortable and interwoven with Kevlar, I think it was Kevlar,3bite­proof threads. It had the option of gloves and a hood that would cover your whole face. Later, in urban hand­to­hand, that option saved a lot of lives.

The remainder of humanity that could make it to the Blue Zone, west of the Rockies, formed a New Army, and marched in column, on foot, all the way across America, until they'd find Zack wandering around, and shoot him. They had to watch every foot of ground they crossed, the same way you'd police the area for litter or trash, because any zombies without legs hiding in tall grass was just as much of a threat as the zombie that walked upright. Perhaps more so, because they were often so well hidden.

from "World War Z" by Max Brooks
...We started planting our “garden”: shelter stakes with orange Day­Glo tape in rows every ten meters. They were our range markers, showing us exactly where to zero our sights...

...We massed in a straight line, two ranks: one active, one reserve. The reserve was so when anyone in the front rank needed a weapon recharge, their fire wouldn’t be missed on the line. Theoretically, with everyone either firing or reloading, we could keep Zack falling as long as the ammo held out...

...We had strict orders, only the ones crossing the line. Wait for the others. We’d trained this way for months...

... Doctrine calls for one shot every full second. Slow, steady, mechanical­like. [He begins snapping his fingers.] On the range we practiced with metronomes, all the time the instructors saying “they ain’t in no hurry, why are you?” It was a way of keeping calm, pacing yourself...

...Yeah, the Recharge Teams, this special reserve unit that did nothing but make sure we never ran dry. You only had a certain number of clips on you and it would take a lot more time to reload each individual clip. The Sandlers ran up and down the line collecting empty clips, recharging them from crated ammo, and then passing them out to anyone who signaled...

...There were a couple times I’d miss a shot or maybe take a half second instead of a full. Then suddenly I’d get this tap on my shoulder and I knew I was out of it for five. It really worked. Before I knew it, I was back on the line, bladder empty, stomach quiet, a few less kinks and muscle cramps. It made a world of difference, and anyone who thinks we could have lasted without it should try hitting a moving bull’s­eye every second for fifteen hours...

In the end, it wasn't any new kind of bomb, counter-disease, cure, orbital weapons platform, or even the passage of time. It was a steady, concentrated, organized effort that become more and more efficient. America was retaken one foot at a time, over the course of ten years. With each newly liberated city or stronghold, the number of troops, support infrastructure, and rebuilding of civilization would grow.

In the end, it was ordinary people standing up and making the conscious decision to reclaim the land from Zack.