Surviving a Zombie Outbreak

dude, you're making me want to reread the book.

Originally posted by Crakeur
dude, you're making me want to reread the book.

Funny you mention that... Last night after 'Potter, I had to dig out my copy of WWZ and start reading it again.

I can't wait till the movie comes out. I hope to god it's not directed by Uwe Boll.

All I need is a hatchet (sharp and durable) and an escalator.

I don't know if anybody mentioned it here (I didn't read all the pages on this thread)

i understand the hatchet but can you elaborate on the escalator?

Wow, the escalator thing is making me wonder. What good could an escalator possibly do during a zombie attack?

Weird

Originally posted by DannySpade
i understand the hatchet but can you elaborate on the escalator?

I suspect the whole "hatchet and escalator" idea is that the zombies come up the escalator one at a time then *chop* off comes their head.

Though I suspect there would quickly be a build up of dead zombies making life difficult for the hatchet wielding living.

that or you destroy the up escalator and leave the down one so being a right thinking human you can use the down one both ways but the zombies will be incapible of moving quick enough to get upstairs. then again, thats only in the romero zombie case. lyssavarius zombies will easily be able to get up

Zombie outbreak would be awesome.
One of my fave games was a REALLLY bad pc one called Carmageddon.

It was a Death chase 2000 kind of setup but you had to squish zombies with your car to get time bonuses.

Yayy. Green goo everywhere..

Bring on the Zombies and my Vauxhall combi with a titanium cowcatcher

[edit on 26-7-2007 by AGENT_T]

Well, plus there's the whole issue of fatigue, on the part of the wielder of the axe, the axe itself, and the escalator.

Assuming there were even electricity available to power the escalator during a serious zombie outbreak (which is doubtful), they aren't really designed to handle gallons upon gallons of liquid gummy zombie drippings, bits of flesh and bone, etc, falling/dripping between the seams and along the sides. Many have safety cutoffs nowadays in the event that something gets stuck between the steps, like a hand or foot. It'd probably be less than a dozen off'd zombies before the escalator ground to a halt.

An axe is actually a pretty poor choice of weapons against a grabby mob of creatures who don't care if they're injured. Versus humans, it's great, cause axes will scare the hell outta whoever they don't incapacitate. If it's just a normal fireaxe or wood-cutting axe, then decapitating a standing, moving, rubbery target, will be extremely difficult. Axes are actually made to cleave and split, not to slice through like a razor. Further, most axes are going to have a narrower head than a human neck, or one roughly the same size. So you'd not only have to gauge the vertical position of your swing with an error margin of only a couple of inches, but you'd have almost zero room for error horizontally, to line up the axe head with the neck.

You could probably split/cleave the skull with an axe easily enough, but wherears this would drop a human almost instantly, the chances of it completely destroying a zombie brain to the point it could no longer operate any part of its body are minute at best. Lots of people throughout history have taken an axe to the head and not died. Additionally, there would be a substantial backsplash of infectious fluid spraying out and backward from either side of the axe head. Lastly, there's a very significant risk of your weapon being lodged into a zombie's skull, stuck in a rib cage, etc, and the now within-arm's distance zombie will have nothing between you and him.

Now, those two problems aside, unless you're a forest ranger, or live in a heavily wooded climate where you chop wood constantly by hand with an axe, you're going to get very tired, very quickly. Chopping wood is really hard, exhausting work, even if you're using gravity to your advantage against a stationary piece of wood which the axe was designed to cut. Using a woodcutting axe against zombies would be far, far more strenuous as you'd be fighting gravity to keep the axe level, concentrating entirely on hitting a narrow margin on the neck, defending yourself, and both you and the target would be moving.

I'd have to say the "axe and an escalator" plan probably wouldn't be survivable for more than a desperate attempt at few minutes delay in a best case scenario.

Alright if this is a zombie survival guide and staying alive is your primary objective.... I would think all you would really need to do in any case scenario would be to arm yourself enough with a full automatic and pistol weapons, and just live up north... How would zombies be able to survive below freezing temps? they do not feel pain and don't feel cold they also don't have the thinking capability of putting warm clothes on haha... So i say just move up north let em chase ya and the can turn into Zombiciles

Originally posted by jheated5
Alright if this is a zombie survival guide and staying alive is your primary objective.... I would think all you would really need to do in any case scenario would be to arm yourself enough with a full automatic and pistol weapons, and just live up north.

Well, I'm not sure if you read the first page or two of the thread, but I'll address both of these suggestions.

First, in regards to "lots of guns and ammo":

Life isn't a First Person Shooter video game. Firearms weight a lot. So does their ammo, being made of lead and all. In anything other than a Class 1 outbreak, it is unlikely you could ever carry enough ammo to deal with all the zombies. Considering you would also need to carry a cleaning kit for both (can't fire that many rounds AND travel rough country without cleaning your guns), that doesn't leave a whole lot of gear necessary to travel across the country on foot.

Guns make a lot of noise, and can usually be heard for miles. Every shot you fire is sure to draw the attention of every zombie within earshot of it. They will then begin to moan, which will extend the audio radius of alert even further, in every direction, so that you will inevitably end up getting swarmed.

Hitting something the size of someone's brain, even with a rifle, while it is moving erratically, bearing down on you, in rapid succession (because there's usually a lot of them at once), over and over again, every time, is very nearly impossible. Add to that the woefully inaccuracy of an automatic weapon, and the sheer wastage in terms of ammo-to-kill ratio against zombies, and the short accuracy range of a pistol, and you've basically just made yourself very noisy bait.

Unless you just happen to have a large private arsenol of firearms, where exactly would you intend to obtain them? In the event of a Class 2 or higher zombie outbreak, gun shops, armories, and hunting shacks are going to be the first places stripped bare by the panicked masses.

Guns against zombies should really only be used in an emergency situation, or in conjunction with other people in a well-organized operation specifically for the purposes of "herding" and killing as many zombies as possible.


As far as running north (or south for southern hemisphere) is concerned:

Keep in mind that in order to get north or south far enough where the zombies would freeze before they could reach you, you would be in a terrain of very few resources in terms of food and fire, which means you might just freeze or starve to death once you get there.

It is absolutely certain that there will be millions upon millions of others with the exact same idea. You will not only have to compete with these people for the scan amount of food, shelter, and burnables available, but also...

...there are likely to be a LOT of zombies between you and your goal. With many millions of people headed straight towards them, being persued by millions of zombies. This means a several million-human sandwich between two thick slices of zombie bread, which would further swell their numbers even further.

Very few places on Earth are frozen year-round. Most only freeze in the winter. Which means that, even if you time it just right to arrive in your area during the freezing season, once spring comes around, and the zombies thaw out, they'll pick right up where they left off in chasing you. The places that are frozen year-round will have almost nothing growing on them, and hence, no firewood, which means no drinkable water, no food, no warmth.

Warm clothes on a zombie would be pointless, as they no longer produce body heat from normal metabolic processes.


In a nutshell, going far far north or south is going to cause you more problems than it will solve. If you have access to all that guns and ammo, your absolute best bet is to move them up to a room with roof access, stockpile as much food and water as you can, and then use your height advantage to systematically and one-at-a-time take down the horde surrounding the building using as few bullets per kill as possible, and once you've cleared the immediate area, restock your supplies, organize the townspeople if any are left, and prepare better defenses, because the second wave of zombies from hearing all the gunfire, and the third wave from the moan-radius extension, are going to be attacking you shortly after the first wave has fallen.

Read the WWZ book when it came out here in the UK, I must say that it was a cracking read!

Is the proposed Zombie outbreak in this particular scenario limited to Humans (like in WWZ, 28 Days Later etc)? Or are animals also vulnerable to infection?

I realise that Zombies would probably eat any creature, but a horse would be a pretty handy form of transport since all the petrol would be either in burning refineries or hoarded by the military. Fodder would also be pretty widely available outside urban areas.

Actually, a donkey would probably be better, can take more weight and live for ages. So, as a preterred form of transport I would ride around the hellish vista on a donkey...... like Sancho of Don Quixote fame!

Rats! Donkeys can make an awful lot of noise. But then again, they can be foul tempered creatures and can pack one hell of a kick.

Originally posted by DenyAllKnowledge
Read the WWZ book when it came out here in the UK, I must say that it was a cracking read!

Ditto, it was the perfect compliment to "The Zombie Survival Guide" by the same author.

Originally posted by DenyAllKnowledge
Is the proposed Zombie outbreak in this particular scenario limited to Humans (like in WWZ, 28 Days Later etc)? Or are animals also vulnerable to infection?

In theory, zombism would not be a cross-species pandemic, at least in terms of its reanimative properties. Thus, a bite from a zombie might cause a dog to die in a few hours, it would not reanimate and become a zombie dog.

The general idea being that if such a reanimative pandemic erupted, then pretty much a gunshot to the noggin is about the only way to keep from becoming a zombie. There's no way one could succesfully barricade themselves against all forms of life on Earth. Ants, roaches, rats, fleas, etc, could carry the disease through all but the most sterile and secure of compounds.

Originally posted by DenyAllKnowledge
...a horse would be a pretty handy form of transport since all the petrol would be either in burning refineries or hoarded by the military. Fodder would also be pretty widely available outside urban areas.

Very true, but they also panic at the stench of death, which would be everywhere. Additionally, unless you carry a curry kit around with you and are trained in the proper care and maintenance of a horse, it will quickly succumb to gout, split hooves, thrown shoes, sores, etc.

Originally posted by DenyAllKnowledge
Rats! Donkeys can make an awful lot of noise. But then again, they can be foul tempered creatures and can pack one hell of a kick.

Donkeys aren't as prone to panic, and usually less maintenance, but can also be extremely stubborn for the most asinine of reasons. I'd be really bummed if I were trying desperately to flee the zombie hordes only to have my noble steed suddenly decide to stand stock-still, and not have a 2x4 handy.

i just wanted to remind everyone that the zombie survival guide and wwz, although good, are not good at all for preparing for the apocolypse. they both cover the solanum zombie which is pretty much your typical Romero zombie which has been easily disproved and in no way will ever occur. the best fictional zombie story to learn from, in my opinion, would probly be 28 days later. it's the closest to that lyssavarius zombie so far. they're quick, vicous and semi-intelligent (they can use stairs and get through doors fairly easily) and based off of this forum i think we've decided its gunna be a form of rabies. so, when you think out your survival plan, keep in mind what your most likely going to be fighting

Originally posted by DannySpade
...they both cover the solanum zombie which is pretty much your typical Romero zombie which has been easily disproved and in no way will ever occur....

Ummm... at what point was the Romero zombie "easily disproven"?
And where was the determination that it will in now way ever occur?
Methinks you made that up.

Originally posted by DannySpade
so, when you think out your survival plan, keep in mind what your most likely going to be fighting

Brooks' ZSG still has a number of good points, even against 28DL zombies. The strategies for fighting them might be considerably different, but the consideration to weapons, travel, gear, and other things might apply. Once I finish Harry Potter 7, I'll reread the ZSG and maybe see if I can't find the bits that would apply to both types of zombie.

However, I would avoid making blanket statements like the first one I quoted without some sort of support, cause I could pretty much offhandedly claim the same thing about 28DL zombies.

If the Ruskies are still about in this situation, maybe we could use a few of those new non-nuclear weapons they've developed.

1. NOONE can say rather "zombies" will move slow or fast, so I don't want to hear anymore of that "this is disproved".
REALLY? You got a SNIP zombie in your basement runnin laps and SNIP?
Shut that SNIP up.

2. NOONE knows what to expect, we've never had a zombie outbreak, so "pre-paring" is SNIP. How do you prepare against something you know nothing about?

3. Horses and donkeys... jesus -slap-



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[edit on 4-10-2007 by Crakeur]

just read the book called the zombie survival gude and the book called world war z they are made by the same guy and they are a fun and informative read

How do zombies detect non-zombies? Though the smell? I thought they are brain-dead thus unable to have brain functions? can't we just moan and act like we're one of them?

sorry, zombies exist in the movies, so im not worried.