Gatx said:
Well it depends on the rules of the specific zombies we're talking about.
As for us being good at survival, I'd say the comforts of modern living have actually made most of us not as fit for surviving under harsh conditions.
As for pests, if we're talking about virus zombies (which most zombies seem to be nowadays) then of course once anything from the zombie enters another entity they'll become infected, whether it be by the zombie attacking them or them attacking the zombie (talking about pests of course).
As for environmental effects, yes they'd stop moving in the cold, and they would rot faster in hot, humid areas, but this would also only apply for where and when the zombies appear.
And for not feeling pain, well I'd argue that's what would make them more dangerous. If you had one coming at you and you had a gun. If you shot a human in the chest or anywhere they would react to the pain and stop, a zombie would continue to come at you. Not feeling pain would also mean they would be able to push their bodies longer and harder than we can, making them harder to outrun. When you stop to rest, they'll have time to catch up.
Pardon if I interject here, but I feel there area couple flaws in your logic about the undead's threat level.
human survival: Just because the major populace isn't composed of scouts doesn't mean we won't flatten the zombie horde in short order. There's a reason why most countries have a military, and I'm pretty sure a few well placed lures/decoys and a strategic air strike will wipe out a very large amount of undead, ending their threat long before society has collapsed past the point of repair.
Pests: just because zombification works on humans doesn't mean it'll necessarily work on other animals. Different biological makeups can affect how the undead process might work on other creatures, if it works at all. Remember, there's a reason why dogs can't eat chocolate, and we humans can devour it by the pound.
Environmental effects: Doesn't matter what climate the zombie is in. Desert, tundra, rainforest or grasslands, simply being exposed to open air would cause zombies to rot/dessicate. Honestly even in the most ideal climate, most corpses wouldn't last a month before completely falling apart.
Lack of pain: That's rarely considered a positive point. Just because something is immune to pain doesn't mean that it's immune to the damage that pain would have informed the creature of. You can still shoot a zombie's knee and make it collapse, and all the immunity to pain would do is make it face-plant harder and be easier to spot and kill later because it'll still rty and ge t to you (very slowly). Also, being a corpse, and therefore unlikely to heal itself, a zombie wouldn't notice if it had "sprung a leak", meaning that it punctured it's already fragile body with a wound that would eventually empty the majority of the remaining fluid out of it in short order, which would render the zombie utterly incapable of moving at all. Even a glancing blow or shot to an extremity (say for example a foot) would drain the zombie of it's vital function fluids in short order, so all you really need is a sharp stick and a little bit of patience, and even untrained your odds against a zombie are very good indeed.
