The Likelihood of a Successful Zombie Apocalypse
Yesterday when I was walking home from work I saw a some older dude lurching about in the road in what I can only describe as a “zombie-esque” fashion. Now very likely this individual was not a zombie, I’d be more willing to bet that he may have had some mental illness or even further more willing to bet that he was drunk (yes this is judgmental but if he doesn’t want to be judged then he shouldn’t lurch about in streets during the day). But because of his zombie-like movements I got to thinking about how likely it would be for a zombie apocalypse to occur if an actually case of a zombie or zombies happened. I’m not saying how likely is it that zombies will someday occur (the answer is obviously 37.2% likely) but if and when said zombies do occur how likely is it to cause a major, potentially apocalyptic, event?
To figure this I think we have to take into consideration a number of factors. I believe some important areas to consider are as follows:
- What causes the zombies? The cause of the existence of zombies (or zombie like beings) would obviously play a huge roll in how the zombies are able to spread. If say the zombies come about like in “Night of the Living Dead” (and all other George A. Romero zombie movies) then we could have corpses digging themselves out of the ground all over the world. Considering the number of dead bodies all over the place this could cause quite a number of zombies suddenly being present which of course would greatly increase the chance of an all out apocalypse. But if the cause of zombies is an isolated infection case then the spread may be much hindered. This brings me to my next point.
- How does the zombieness spread? In almost all zombie movies and literature the infection can be spread through a person being bitten by a zombie. In “28 Days Later” (and its sequel “28 Weeks Later“) the infection (which could be argued not to me true zombie because the people are essentially still alive, just blood -thirsty and crazed with the Rage Virus) can also be passed through infected blood or saliva without being bitten. The infection type could greatly determine how fast zombies are able to spread. If Romero’s ”all dead bodies turn into zombies” were to occur then anybody who died for whatever reason would become a zombie thus making quite a lot of zombies. If the infection must be directly transmitted from a zombie to a non-zombie then said infection might be more controllable. Then again it could spread as an airborne infection or via a device like cell phones (Stephen King’s novel Cell) and that too would probably be really hard to fight.
- Where does the zombie outbreak start? If we have a Romero outbreak of zombies then we likely have zombies all over the place. This would be bad. If zombies come about from an infection of some type where does this infection first occur; some isolated facility far away from large human populations or right in the middle of a city? Obviously if zombies start occurring in an area of dense population there will be a greater probability of a spread of zombie infection. On the other hand an isolated incident will provide more time for preparation and control.
- What type of zombies are we dealing with? I give you two basic choices; slow or fast? If the zombies are the traditional lurching slow corpses then I would argue that they would probably be reasonably manageable as long as one didn’t encounter too many at a time. However if we are dealing with the “28 Days Later” type of infected I’d be a lot more concerned. Fast zombie-esque beings are fucking scary and seem a lot more dangerous than a shambling corpse.
- How do people react to the zombie outbreak? If people act like idiots when the zombies arrive (like they tend to in most zombie movies) then we will have some problems. On the other hand if people keep cool, try and play it smart, and organize responsibly it will be much easier to defend against the zombies encountered. Also we should consider whether or not the government/military takes action in controlling the outbreak or if they act like a bunch of douche bags and try and cover the thing up until it is too late.
Okay, that is about all I’ve got right now. I’m sure there are other factors I’ve over looked but that’s okay, if y’all think of any drop a comment. You may scoff at the idea that zombies will ever occur but it is the people like myself who are willing to consider the possibility who are more likely to survive should zombies suddenly appear.
It seems like it’s a running theme in zombie movies I’ve seen (and I admit, I haven’t seen too many) that the main characters at some point or another try to get to an island to escape the impending doom.
This could result in 1) not making it to a boat, 2) making it to the island and being greeted there by more zombies, or 3) making it and living happily ever after in isolation (or until zombies learn to swim).
So maybe as a sidenote to the “location” bullet, you could say proximity to an island could affect the success of zombies taking over. At least that would give the living a fighting chance.
If you consider on ’28 weeks’ later that there were zombies “swiming”and ripping people off the boat. It so it may just be possible that they can swim. And also on ‘dawn of the dead’ after the credits there is a little sketch about them getting to the island and there being zombies there already. Obviously we won’t know until a zombie apocalypse actually occurs.
Ahhh, yes, islands. Good call. Also if the Zombies start off on an island, like say Haiti (because of all the vodoo jazz) then they would be further isolated until, as you said, they learn how to swim.
I would love a small G.A.R style zombie infestation. Think how much fun killing stupid, slow zombies would be. You could get in a car and play mailbox baseball, but instead of mailboxes, you would be hitting zombie heads.
Other than that though, 28 Days Later Zombies scare the shit out of me and we would all be thoroughly fucked if that happened.
Good Luck to all the zombie killers.
In The Alphabet of Manliness by Maddox the letter Z stands for zombies and Maddox says that every guy secretly wishes for a 24 hour zombie period so that we could just go to town with awesome badass zombie killings.
YES I’m not the only one. if that shit happens it’ll be sweet, just a small one though, where i can run around killing things and never running out of bullets..haha. Anyways might want to add a sidenot of how to kill said zombies. I was having this debate and just making sure i’m on the same page as everyone else. i say just shootin em in the head….let’s review that topic. Sweet fricken topic though…kudos to you, and i’m right there with ya.
just to put his out there but a zombie out brake is more then real. i cant remember the name exactly but there is a type of snail that once infected with a parasite, its eyes become pulcating and colorful and moves upwords from safe vegetation and into exposing sunlight. then a bird will eat the snail and crap parsites all over the place. then other snails will eat that and birds will eat those…etc,etc. if the parasite mutated and was transmitable to humans it could easly be spread through saliva and blood. and becouse of the mind control factor like with the snails moving away from safty, its most likly possible that zombies would want to bite or maul humans. but its also possible they would be runners like in 28DL becouse if there were in an instict to eat another human and that was are soul driving point, then we would get there as fast as possible without any thought of self preservation (ie bursting through windows even though you will get cut or bursting a door down with your head).it would probably start with some cross breeding of the parasites` bacteria with some other shit (like sleeping sickness) and test it on apes. hence the movie 28DL with animal rights activist fucking the world 3 times over. and the reacton of the people would actualy be pretty calm unless the government of the virus origen trys to cover it up first….so in other words were fucked more then a polish pornstar.
Ok im not a zombie expert but i think if this were to happen then the zombies would be able to run, cause think about it, if some huge body builder gets infected than that new infected has all that muscle to run, jump and smash different things. So I think that the “zombies” will be able to run
yeah, but if it is dead zombi-ism then they would likely be suffering rigor mortis. Muscle tone would have nothing to do with that.
Remember that rigor mortis sets in a few hours after death, then loosing up, say after anothet 24 hours. This means a fresh dead zombie will move quite fast if it has body control. When rigor mortis sets in it will be slow, or stop completely, until the rigor lets go again. Then its moving around freely again. ;:-) Stiffnes after that will happen when limbs dry out
Fast, technically living zombies, a la 28 Days series, are quite possible, some would say likely, in adittion to being, unlike the reanimated corpses, possible. Imagine an inner-city neiborhood. Imagine a dog becoming infected with Rabies. This dog would likely bite several people out of its disease-induced aggression. If this dog was owned by people who used drugs regularly, it could cause a rapid natural selection among the virus population in the infected individuals. if, say, five were infected, it’s likely that there is little effect in one, two die, one exhibits zombie-like symptoms then dies, but there is possibility that one would end up with a rapid-spreading rabies, essentially fast-zombie-ism. In that crowded inner city neiborhood, the infected individual would multiply at a dizzying pace, and the infection could soon start radiating out from this area and sweep through the world.
I have thought for some time that a rapid developing form of rabies would be the most probable contender for a real life zombie situation. Though rabies, once it becomes symptomatic, is currently fatal very quickly wihtout treatment, which would mean that quarantine owuld probably not be too difficult. It is a scary ass disease though. Read about it in Africa and it is enough to make you never want to encounter wild animals.
You left out the completely rational possiblity of a food based infection. Look at mad cow disease and it’s effects. Not only on the infect cow (zombie cow) but the human consuming the infected meat. Also, there are nanobots that are currently in production. I strongly believe zombies will be somewhat of a pesky inconvenience in the future, but do I think they hold the key to our inevitable downfall? No, I do not.
Here are my thoughts on this matter.
I agree with those who distinguish between “fast” and “slow” zombies. The chances of surviving slow zombies are much higher even for idiot who does not believe in this at all.Secondly, in american culture with all of censorship kids would be the first victims of infection without knowing what the fuck is going on outside.Lastly, our earth is overpopulated and those who run this world(banks) would need to eliminate burden that earth is taking with high population.What is not more effective than “controlled rinsing” of population? That will not touch infrastructure of any government including treasure reserves,military,nukes etc. I would strongly recondite for those who is serious about this keep in-touch with each other… eventually you may need all help you can get…