Sunday, June 29, 2008

Zombies

I watched the movie Diary of the Dead last night. Now, I wasn't expecting too much from this film, so it was enjoyable, when it wasn't annoying. It's still Romero, after all. Anyways, it takes place during the initial outbreaks of the dead starting to rise and has a bunch of college kids trying to get home and survive. This got me thinking, where would be the best place to go if the dead were coming to life and eating everyone? You'd probably want to go somewhere without many people to avoid the huge mobs of dead people. But, you'd still need access to food and supplies, so you wouldn't want to be too far away from civilization.

So, here's my question to y'all: If the dead start to rise and feast on the living, where are you going to go?

12 comments:

phishbone23 said...

G-ville!!!

kevthegreat said...

G-ville has way too many old people. The zombies would take over quick. I think I'd head to West Virginia. It's rural and everyone has guns.

Scholander said...

Believe it or not, this is a topic I have given a lot of thought to. My old housemate and I had many long discussions of exactly what we would do if the dead rose.

I'm actually reading a great book right now called World War Z. It's written as a series of interviews taking place a few years after the Zombies rose. Lots of great ideas about how to survive in this one.

First, own a gun and know how to use it.

If they're Romero zombies (slow, stupid, dangerous only in numbers) find a place where you can hold up for a week or so. This could be in a city, if you've got enough allies to mount a good defense, but not so many as to attract large numbers. Top floors of tall buildings with roof access work, because you can defend stairwells pretty easily, collect rainwater, and flag rescue choppers. A cabin in the woods also works, though you aren't likely to get rescued or easily make it back to civilization.

Stay away from water - it's not a barrier to the undead, and you won't see them coming.

Military bases are good. They have firepower, and are likely to be taking people into shelter, though be prepared to deal with being a refugee. Living in tents, fighting other people for food/water/shelter etc. If you live past the initial outbreak, you'll probably end up here anyway if rescued, so might as well get in on the ground floor.

Gear: As much leather as you can find. You need to avoid bites, and leather will do that. Make a shield. Big and light, if possible. Police riot shields are good, since they're made of plexiglass and you can see through them. Get a gun and lots of ammo for ranged combat, but be prepared for close fighting. A sledgehammer is too heavy to wield effectively when a zombie is on you, and a regular hammer is too small and can get lodged and caught in a skull. A ball-peen hammer works great, or else a baseball bat (metal) or tire iron in a pinch. Carry an extra with you. Basically, raid a Wal-Mart or Sears as fast as possible to gear up.

Don't use Molotov cocktails or other fire, unless there's no way for them to get to you. It won't stop the zombies until they've burned for a long time, and you don't want to have to fight flaming zombies. Plus, burning zombie smells really bad, and the ashes may be toxic.

If we're talking Raged out 28 Days Later style running, highly infectious zombies, you're probably fucked. Get as far away from humanity as possible for as long as possible.

Scholander said...

Also, don't get on a passenger plane or a boat, unless you can be absolutely certain that nobody you're with is infected. You don't want to be someplace that you can't escape from in a pinch if it all goes to hell.

kevthegreat said...

You know, I would stay as far as possible from large groups of people, like a refuge camp or something. You get one zombie in there and it can quickly turn into a huge mob of them. Better to be in a small group, where you can keep track of each other easily.

I don't know what situation you would be more screwed in, the rage virus or the Romero zombies. Obviously the raged "zombies" are more dangerous, as they move quickly, but they aren't undead, so they can die like normal and eventually starve to death once the food runs out. In the Romero films, anytime someone dies, in any way, they become a zombie, unless the brain is destroyed. No place would be safe from that, and there would be no end to it.

phishbone23 said...

I always dreamt that it would be cool to enlist the A-Team in a situation like this....It seems like we would have some fun when a plan came together. I mean, come on, Murdoch vs. a zombie would be some funny stuff!

kevthegreat said...

The only problem is that the A-Team can't shoot for shit. I mean, they can't hit bad guys who are 10 yards away with machine guns, how are they going to be able to hit a zombie in the head before they are mauled?

Scholander said...

Well, Kev, I can't quite agree. After the initial panicky wave of zombie outbreak, the remaining survivors will have a pretty good idea of how to handle zombies, and what to do with the dead/sick. This would be especially true in a military-protected refugee camp. New arrivals would be watched carefully and inspected for bites. The dying would be immediately removed and eliminated to prevent zombification. The random accidental death or murder or mortal sickness would only yield one or two zombies at a time, and could be easily contained. There would be very little chance for a large outbreak, if things were run well.

I suppose it depends on zombie origin. In World War Z, zombies have to be created by other zombies (spread like a highly infectious disease). Which is very easily contained once you know what's going on. If the dead were unexplainably rising, as by Romero rules, it might be a little trickier to prevent outbreaks, but you would expect people to be more careful and watch out for each other more. Altruism would be necessary and desirable in this case, unlike in a disease transmission ruleset.

And, yes, the A-team would kick zombie ass.

kevthegreat said...

I don't know dude. I think paranoia would run high in a large group. Anytime you come down with a cold, there'd be people wanting to shoot you in the head, just in case.

Also, death can be pretty sudden, especially in stressful conditions like that. You get a guy who has a heart attack in an obscured area, and suddenly you have a zombie running around, eating people and creating more undead, and massive panic. You can't underestimate the insanity of large groups of people.

I'd rather go it alone, or in a small group.

phishbone23 said...

I can just picture me and the A-team driving around in our homemade shit kickin zombie mobile. And if somehow, some of those zombies figured out how to drive a jeep, we would make them hit large random bump in the road causing the jeep to overturn and decapitate themselves. This is, of course, due to the proven fact that zombies don't wear seat belts.

kevthegreat said...

Nobod dies on A-Team! They would just capture the zombies and send them to a zombie rehabilitation camp.

Scholander said...

No, that's the beauty of zombies. They're already dead, so you can blow them up on TV. Just like it's ok to kill bug-like aliens on kids' cartoons. The A-Team would have totally been shooting zombies. They'd probably still miss a shitload, cause they suck with guns, but then they'd get trapped in a mine and build a cool metal plow-like contraption to run the zombies over. Thereby proving that it was the crooked mayor who killed the girl's brother.

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