First let return to the OP vision for this thread.
A classical Zombie outbreak.
Well in my books a classical outbreak is all dead bodies buried in a particular area returning to the surface once more. It never seems to be a world wide event. Rather some random town in the US.
Yes Zombies are slow and ponderous, but your classical zombie also has a lunge for you. Covering the last 3-5 feet in moments.
I have shaken my head at people that suggest you only have to push the zombie to arms length to get away. Which means putting your hands on the zombie. Providing them an opportunity to bite you. Remembering they can bite you anywhere to infect you.
Evacuate LA ? now i am not an American citizen and am unfamiliar with the size or layout of this city. Surely though all thoroughfares out of the city could not contend with the waves of people fleeing via car. Creating massive traffic jams. Sure the zombie may only move slow, but you aren't moving any ware. I think also this is assuming everyone will and is able to obey this order. What about the elderly and infirm ? they would need to be taken out by ambulance or perhaps at a stretch a bus. Then what happens when there is the inevitable traffic accident ? Slows everything down again. Then there are those that give into the human condition: greed. Not every one is going to flee, rather the more undesirable side of society will stay behind to loot and pillage. More often then not getting themselves added to the horde in the end.
I have read discussions about zombies not having super human strength. This may be so for long decayed cadavers. How ever recently dead converts have a non deteriorated muscle mass. Now they are dead the function that limits human strength to prevent injury and skin rupture would presumably be switched off. Now this is a leap i admit, but for the sake of the classic zombie we will make that leap. As eventually in classical films the zombies bash the door down in the end. So then they can now reach their full potential strength limits. Fair enough they don't have adrenalin but they also know nothing of pain.
The idea of a medical facility containing the outbreak is absurd. Self preservation dictates here. Who, even if bitten, is going to knowingly hand themselves in ? Knowing full well there is no cure short of a shotgun blast to the head ? even though if they know eventually they will die from the infection and become a zombie no one would hand themselves in if they knew a shotgun awaited their fate. No one i know wants to hurry their own death. So then they avoid the inspection points and eventually turn and bite someone.
We have now come to the spread. Is it the bite ? or is it the saliva ? let's go with the saliva. But lets say the word hasn't gotten out about the saliva spreading just yet. You are married, get bitten when you are in another room from your wife, you kiss each other out of affection, she is now infected...kids ? kiss your kids goodnight, infected...
Someone put out a 24 hour incubation period in their posts. Which holds true in most classical films. Having said that it doesn't require you to be dead to incubate. In fact quite the opposite. People getting bit, then turning at some critical juncture 24 hours later. They die and instantly become a Zombie, usually biting the person nearest to them.
Slaying of the horde. Has anyone here knowing killed someone ? Let me clarify that. Any one here not professionally trained as a solider, police officer, professional hit man, armed security guard, etc, knowingly killed someone ? Now imagine it was Grandma that died 2 years back. Could you still pull the trigger ?
One guy mentioned swords, (i can't be arsed going back and getting his name.) i just have one question for him. Do you now how fatiguing it is to swing a sword for hours on end ? Trust me it is debilitating, particularly on the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. I train Kendo / Kenjuitsu and even the wooden Boken eventually take their toll.
I am in the school that incendiary weapons aren't effective against Zombies. To me the odds of the brain pan compromised and allowing the brain to exposed to the flame are slim. Then we could also argue that the brain would boil in its own fluids. Hmm, which now makes me ask a question. I had always thought the brain was one of the first areas to decompose, so why do shots to the head achieve anything ? Some one please point me in the right direction if i am errant about this.
Any way i step of my soap box for now, but suggest any posters here look for a game system called " All flesh must be eaten ". It is a Roleplay system of rules aimed directly at Zombie apocalypses.
Sinc,
Imperial War
A classical Zombie outbreak.
Well in my books a classical outbreak is all dead bodies buried in a particular area returning to the surface once more. It never seems to be a world wide event. Rather some random town in the US.
Yes Zombies are slow and ponderous, but your classical zombie also has a lunge for you. Covering the last 3-5 feet in moments.
I have shaken my head at people that suggest you only have to push the zombie to arms length to get away. Which means putting your hands on the zombie. Providing them an opportunity to bite you. Remembering they can bite you anywhere to infect you.
Evacuate LA ? now i am not an American citizen and am unfamiliar with the size or layout of this city. Surely though all thoroughfares out of the city could not contend with the waves of people fleeing via car. Creating massive traffic jams. Sure the zombie may only move slow, but you aren't moving any ware. I think also this is assuming everyone will and is able to obey this order. What about the elderly and infirm ? they would need to be taken out by ambulance or perhaps at a stretch a bus. Then what happens when there is the inevitable traffic accident ? Slows everything down again. Then there are those that give into the human condition: greed. Not every one is going to flee, rather the more undesirable side of society will stay behind to loot and pillage. More often then not getting themselves added to the horde in the end.
I have read discussions about zombies not having super human strength. This may be so for long decayed cadavers. How ever recently dead converts have a non deteriorated muscle mass. Now they are dead the function that limits human strength to prevent injury and skin rupture would presumably be switched off. Now this is a leap i admit, but for the sake of the classic zombie we will make that leap. As eventually in classical films the zombies bash the door down in the end. So then they can now reach their full potential strength limits. Fair enough they don't have adrenalin but they also know nothing of pain.
The idea of a medical facility containing the outbreak is absurd. Self preservation dictates here. Who, even if bitten, is going to knowingly hand themselves in ? Knowing full well there is no cure short of a shotgun blast to the head ? even though if they know eventually they will die from the infection and become a zombie no one would hand themselves in if they knew a shotgun awaited their fate. No one i know wants to hurry their own death. So then they avoid the inspection points and eventually turn and bite someone.
We have now come to the spread. Is it the bite ? or is it the saliva ? let's go with the saliva. But lets say the word hasn't gotten out about the saliva spreading just yet. You are married, get bitten when you are in another room from your wife, you kiss each other out of affection, she is now infected...kids ? kiss your kids goodnight, infected...
Someone put out a 24 hour incubation period in their posts. Which holds true in most classical films. Having said that it doesn't require you to be dead to incubate. In fact quite the opposite. People getting bit, then turning at some critical juncture 24 hours later. They die and instantly become a Zombie, usually biting the person nearest to them.
Slaying of the horde. Has anyone here knowing killed someone ? Let me clarify that. Any one here not professionally trained as a solider, police officer, professional hit man, armed security guard, etc, knowingly killed someone ? Now imagine it was Grandma that died 2 years back. Could you still pull the trigger ?
One guy mentioned swords, (i can't be arsed going back and getting his name.) i just have one question for him. Do you now how fatiguing it is to swing a sword for hours on end ? Trust me it is debilitating, particularly on the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. I train Kendo / Kenjuitsu and even the wooden Boken eventually take their toll.
I am in the school that incendiary weapons aren't effective against Zombies. To me the odds of the brain pan compromised and allowing the brain to exposed to the flame are slim. Then we could also argue that the brain would boil in its own fluids. Hmm, which now makes me ask a question. I had always thought the brain was one of the first areas to decompose, so why do shots to the head achieve anything ? Some one please point me in the right direction if i am errant about this.
Any way i step of my soap box for now, but suggest any posters here look for a game system called " All flesh must be eaten ". It is a Roleplay system of rules aimed directly at Zombie apocalypses.
Sinc,
Imperial War