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The Zombie Apocalypse Speculation Thread
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I'm pretty sure they have those, or at least seminars.
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Ceterum autem censeo, Carthaginem esse delendam
That would be pretty racist.
I wondered why we were building all those suburbs.
If the news and government remain stubbornly convinced it's rioting for three or four days, it's probably going to reach critical mass.
If It gets figured out in six hours, radio and television gets blanketed by detailed instructions on what zombies are, how it spreads, and how to kill them, and the government declares martial law and controls the panic, then the zombies wont stand a chance. While people might not be quick to kill anyone bitten, after they hear about it they'll atleast restrain them, or anyone showing disease like symptoms.
Even in the films (and yes I know theyre films) news casters report the story but laugh at it themselves as, lets face it, the dead coming back to life isn't something you'd take at face value. Untill ones eating your face that is.
Also; to the person who commented on zombies giving normal people something to do, that pretty much happens in one part of the original DotD.
Sounds like an excellent idea to me! Where do I sign up?
Your friends turn on you sometimes.
Eh, those guys were all douchebags. "I'm fat and hungry, lets all go risk our lives to get me a burger down in the flesh eating zombie ridden areas of the mall!"
I don't think there's ever actually been a zombie survival game in the mainstream that went for that feel.
Theres never been a long term zombie survival game. They've all relied on a larger foe at work who needs to be defeated.
I mean look at all the choices and arguments people make in this thread
If you could test them out in a game environment it would be magical
Most outbreaks probably wouldn't be global. We might lose the initial city and of course infected people would escape before military quarantines, but once people found out they would be more prepared and large scale infections would be prevented.
The real problems would start when people begin to use the infection as a weapon. Its not hard to get the virus, just get some blood from a zombie you killed. Infect food/water/random people and the everyone's lives would be altered. All food/drinks would be questioned. Do I have a cold, or am I infected? Governments have to begin executing healthy people (Assuming no cure) when it turns out that everyone who ate at this mcdonald's today ate contaminated food and needed to be stopped.
google "All Flesh Must be Eaten".
The horde type are as scary, look what they did in Land of the Dead. Slow but so many of them that they took out the city.
Just give 'em the ol' slip.
I think how long it takes to infect everyone/how long it takes to fight depends on how long it takes the army/national guard/whatever to get here.
Hell, I'd say your best bet is to head to the local military base. Bradley Airport in CT, for me.
Just head up there, tell them that SHIT HAS GONE DOWN. Tell them what you've seen. Anyone worth their
salt would know that people don't panic that terribly when they're joking, and you'd probably get quite a few people to listen. And me, I'm lucky. My sister and her husband are in the AF, so I'd pretty much just go "Lemme see Staff Sergeant Carroll." and...well she'd probably see her little brother shaking and covered in blood/dirt and you're all set.
But think about it. A military base is an AMAZING place to stay. They are specifically designed to handle just about anything. Weaponry, food, water, first aid. Plus they can "flood" the hangar with foam, so if zombies manage to find their way inside, they can at least incapacitate them for a while.
Then you've got people trained with firearms to kill, as well as body armor.
And people are overestimating zombie strength. They ignore the pain that pushing your muscles too far gets, true. But if you have an aluminum baseball bat and one zombie, you can hold him off till he rips his muscles to shreds trying to get to you, pushing and clawing, eventually just destroying his arm and giving you a clean shot to the skull.
As for weaponry, anything used for cutting and hacking thick objects. Katanas are nice for the speed they allow, and they're made to cut through bone fairly efficiently. Ninja-to/Wakazashi/any smaller katana-type sword are your best bet since they'd be easier to wield. A metal bat or mace, too. Maces were designed to crack through armor and break bones, so something tells me a dull mace would do WONDERFULLY against a skull.
Machetes are probably your best bet blade-wise. They are used for chopping thick limbs from trees, and won't shatter or dull easily. Hatchets too. The weight they come down with would be great for chopping through the brain.
As for a gun, shotguns are loud and can spray, but handguns might not be effective at far range. A rifle(preferably NOT bolt-action. That second or two it takes you to reload/pull the bolt back might just get you bit...but why are you using it at close range?) and a handgun work best. They require only basic training(it's pretty much second nature to hold and fire a pistol at close range, so really it's only recoil, sound, and maintenance you'll need to learn, which is important anyhow).
The rifle works great for distances, especially with a scope. A pistol is light-weight, easy to use, and ammunition will be common as HELL(Got a Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or any sporting goods store? You've probably got rifle and pistol ammo out the ass). If you make your stand at a mall or shopping center, you'll pretty much be set till the army comes in. On top of that, they'll probably have at least SOME books on "Rifles/Pistols for Complete Fuckwits" so you can learn how to maintain, hold, and shoot it on the fly.
I see it going down as it did in Shaun of the Dead. No one is quite sure what's going on until it's too damn late. It only takes about a day for them to "take hold", but the military reacts fairly quickly and ends it. All-in-all, casualties will be a bit hefty, thinning out as you go, and by a week or two weeks, it's just clean up with zombies all but eradicated.
It's a web game, but it's a pretty nifty zombie survival game. Certainly more survival oriented than Dead Rising.
Fire might have some problems with lack of stopping power against a raging zombie horde, but explosives (especially incendiary explosives) would be effective at destroying or disabling zombies. I'm not aware of any mainstream zombie that is fire immune in the long term.
If the zombies need to eat, the best way to reduce the threat of an overwhelming number of zombies in the long term would be to hole up survivors somewhere remote while the zombies starve themselves down to more manageable numbers. They wouldn't be able to use the systems necessary to support populations like we do.
Also; I'd be down for that "All flesh must be eaten" RPG, but Im a complete RPG virgin, not to mention a Post by Post RPG virgin. Am I too noobish to join?
Sorry, but a shotgun is your best bet. Handgun ammo will not be available at most major stores, since Wal Mart has now stopped carrying pistols. Also, shotguns require much less training and are far easier to hit things with. Also, they have as much distance as you need with a guaranteed head blown off. Also, katana=NO. 99% of katanas made today are made of cheap shit steel that couldn't hold its own against a piece of paper, much less several heads.
And for the military base thing? They don't just let anyone in and arm them, seriously.
Shrapnel would do nothing, since the odds of it hitting them in the head are small. Incendiary would work in the long run, but until then you have flaming zombies that set alight anything they touch, making a bigger problem (city fires). Now I will leave. I was once incredibly addicted to zombie survival.
It wouldn't have to immediately kill the zombie to be useful. A zombie minus appendages is less dangerous, and the concussive force could keep a group at bay at least temporarily. Shrapnel would be less effective against them than humans, but there is more to explosive weaponry than just shrapnel.
And if a city is completely overrun with zombies, setting it to the torch isn't that bad of an idea.
Obligatory rant
Problem with burning everything is that it releases a TON of carbon and other polutants into the air, and get enough cities burning and the environment will be good and properly fucked.
Most people here are assuming that the government/military will take the threat as a true zombie outbreak when in reality they would most likely assume the threat is normal humans but the facts are exagerated. Because who in their right mind would think zombies are real? They're a thing of the imagination of movie directors and gaming nerds.
I like World War Z's take on how the military may react to an outbreak. Think of the entire population of New York City leaving in one big stream with possibly millions of zombies behind them following their food source. At some point the military creates a blockade to let the healthy people through and sets up defenses to await the zombie horde. When the zombies do show the military attacks like it would a normal threat. Throw in the bombs and let the grunts shoot at the targets (yay for over simplification). When the targets don't go down from being shot in the chest 50 times, the front line grunts will start to panic. And when they see a zombie crawling at their feet with just the head attached to a neck and shoulder with one arm pulling it along after being hit by said bombs, the front lines will run. I don't care how many zombie/horror flicks you see, it will not prepare someone to see that in person. The front lines will break.
And those that say a giant ship like a cruise ship or something, that would be good until the bitten wife that was smuggled on board by her husband becomes a zombie and your in the middle of the ocean, you're good and fucked. Most people will not be able to leave their loved ones behind or kill them if they become a zombie. They just couldn't handle it. And we can say we would be able to all we want, but there is no way to tell if you could actually leave the person you've loved for 10, 15, 20 years behind while they seem to be good and healthy but just have a small bite on their leg/arm.
In America, most major cities would probably be screwed. Hordes of refugees running one way, smaller hordes of survivalists with too many guns running the other way, gangs looting/fighting/running the hell away... the government would probably be unable to do anything for the city itself and set up a perimeter well outside the city. (Or nuke it, depending on how nutty whoever happens to be the president is) Europe, on the other hand, has somewhat more defensible establishments, but a generally less heavily armed population (Although many maintain a home guard of some kind). Switzerland, having a network of tunnels built into the alps from the Cold War wherein the entire Swiss population (or their population of 1970, anyway) can live for three years without going outside, and having equipped every man in the nation with an assault rifle, would beat the living hell out of the living dead, for example.
Personally, I'd go with a nice axe and a simple .22 rifle/pistol in a zombie apocalypse. The axe is multi-purpose and easy to get through a skull with, and the .22s are easy to aim, light, ammo would be pretty common, and could still fuck up a brainpan nicely with a headshot. Then I'd find a nice bicycle and head off to the coast, find a nice small boat, and head to Europe/Canada/Cuba. If the coast was too far away, I'd find a nice remote town or somesuch.
Electrical power seems like a major factor in the survival of urban civilians. Street lights would be a godsend for survivors at night, who would otherwise be completely outmatched by the nocturnal undead. Many other essential services such as health care and water treatment are also highly dependent on electricity. While this question has been asked in the OP, I feel it bears repeating: given a voodoo zombie survival scenario, how many days would it take for electrical power to completely fail? Over what stages would this occur? What else would be affected by complete power failure?
I don't know where your getting your sword info from mate, but katana aren't 'faster' then other swords, and they were definitely not made to cut through bone. Hell, I don't think any sword was made to cut through bone. One of the techniques I learned in Iaido involved doing pretty much a full force blow into an opponents side, and then stepping backwards and pulling to make sure the sword didn't get stuck in their bone. They had no illusions of the sword cleaving straight through someones bones though.
Ninja-to are right out, they are cheap swords that ninjas would drop for a katana any day. I am not sure why you would want a Wakazashi against zombies, the further you can get from zombies the better. Zombies are slow and dumb but they will swing at you and bat your weapons away. You want something with reach, and something with lots of blunt impact force. A mace is a good starting point, a flail? Even better.
Something like a chigriki (staff with a chain with a weight on the end) or a manriki-gusari (weighted chain) or hell even a meteor hammer would probably be your best bet.
A sling would work really well for a ranged weapon too. Forget finding ammo, just find some rocks.
Household Weapon List:
There are so many household things you can use as weapons it mind boggles me. Now, I have decided to compile a list of things that are common in normal households. The first rating is how common it is, than a little description, than the final ZKR (Zombie Killage Rating).
Claw Hammer: (Very High) It is light, easy to carry, great for a backup, almost every house has one. The only problem is you need to get very close, and it is easy for the hammer to get stuck. ZKR: (Medium-High)
Sharpened Broomstick/Spear: (Very High) Easy to make, good distance, however, it takes a lot of skill to get a head kill and not good for groups. However, if you have other people with you this could prove very useful. ZKR:(Medium)
Knife: (High) Most houses have a kitchen knife at least, and many have hunting knives. Not only can they be used for zombie killage, but are also needed to survive in the wilderness. You should always have one of these. ZKR: (Medium, however, because of its usefulness in other stuff, High)
Baseball Bat: (High) Most people have a good baseball bat, and it is quite useful for smashing heads open. However, if it is wooden, after a while it with break, and if it is metal, it will bend. But until that point, which may or may not take a while, it is almost a perfect Zombie Killing weapon. ZKR: (Medium-High)
Machete: (Medium-Low) One of the best zombie killing weapons. If you can get your hands on one of these, keep it. You can take off heads with it easily, it is surprisingly durable, and can be used for other things too such as chopping wood, food, etc. ZKR: (Very High)
Crowbar: (Medium-High) A great weapon. Can smash through skulls with ease, and can also be used to pry open doors, debris, etc. Only downside is that it is slightly heavy and gets stuck easily. ZKR: (High)
Sledgehammer: (Medium Low) Perfect for zombie killing, however, way to heavy to carry around. Maybe useful for killing one zombie in a pinch, or smashing down a door. ZKR: (Medium-Low)
Molotov Cocktail: (Medium-High) Hmmm… The old Molotov. Subject of debate for countless pages. I would say this would be useful as a last ditch weapon against a big crowd of zombies. ZKR: (Medium)
Sword: (Low) Two words-HELLZ NO. Avoid at all costs. Most models made today cant do crap in a real combat situation. Instead, use the sword to kill yourself, and at least stop one zombie. ZKR: (Low)
Power Tools: (Medium High) Require you to get too close and need batteries. ZKR: (Low)
Axe: (Medium-High) A fairly good weapon. A hand axe is a great backup, and can be used for other things as well (Chopping wood, anyone?) but it gets stuck in a zombies head too easily for it to be a practical weapon. ZKR: (Medium)
Therefore, as a zombie-killer, I'd prefer almost any weapon that lets me stay out of their reach (bat, sledge, sword, etc.) over one that made me get closer (knife, claw hammer, crowbar, some power tools.)
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
A zombie ducking and then lurching forward and your done.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat