Has anyone seen the Premier of the new series on AMC? Watched it last night and was somewhat impressed. The effects are very good and I read the storyline is the same as the Graphic Novel of the same title.
I was of the understanding that Zombies didn’t eat anything except human flesh and in the season premier the undead tear into our heros (can’t remember his name right now) horse. It made for a good scene, but I hope the writers don’t deviate too far from known Zombie characteristics. I guess Zombies, like anything else can evolve.
Lets see how different our intrepretations of Zombie activity can be.
My thoughts:
Zombies are mindless, driven by the need to consume Human Flesh, and for the most part work mostly off sight.
Zombies can only be killed by trauma to the brain.
Zombies are mostly nocturnal, but can be out in the day time.
Zombies enjoy the company of other zombies and will not eat each other.
The only way for a Zombie to reproduce is to transmit saliva or blood to a non zombies blood stream.
Zombies cannot talk but can vocalize grunts and such.
Questions:
How long can a Zombie live without food?
Can an aniaml become a Zombie?
If you were bit in the arm, how long do you have to severe the limb before the infection reaches the heart or can you even stop the infection from spreading?
Feel free to correct me if I have misstated any of my observations and please add any info that may be pertinate to us as a group in understanding Zombie behavior.
Anyway, looks like it could turn out to be a good series.
The zombies in the source comic, and for that matter the zombies in the original Night of the Living Dead they were based off of, eat the flesh of all living things. In fact, that scene with the horse was taken verbatim from the comic.
In the comic, they attempt to cut off a person’s limb after being bitten twice. To avoid spoilers, one time it works, the other time it doesn’t. Weird thing is, the one who took longer to get chopped is the one that lived.
Zombies don’t actually NEED to eat. If you locked one up in an airtight room, walked away for a hundred years, when you came back and opened the door the damn thing will still be there to rip your throat out.
Zombism, or the walking plague, is caused by the Solanum virus. It has a hundred percent transmission rate, and is 100% lethal. Animals who consume the flesh of a zombie, or are bitten by one, will contract the virus and eventually die. Unlike humans, however, they will not rise again.
This is reality, not the Walking Dead by the way.
Love. Peace. Metallica.
There seems to be a misconception about what they eat. At TD pit in this post, they eat flesh but the general public seems to think they eat brains. I can only find one or two references to zombies eating ONLY brains therefore I have to believe they are flesh eating.
Another common mistake is the ways to kill a zombie. The zombie uses the existing neural pathways that were in the host human but it’s boiled down to the basic necessity: food. Also, this creates a path to kill a zombie, which is the hypothalamus. this is the part of the brain that controls hunger and the only part of the brain still active in a zombie. Destroying this part of the brain destroys the zombie. Also, severing the spinal column will subdue them, but they should be burned anyway.
This brings up another point: Be careful how you kill it. If you spend an entire mad of bullets and take out the knees of a zombie it will simply crawl after you. There are no nerve endings left to stop it from coming at you quite quickly while you try to reload. Also, Setting them on fire is a really, really bad idea as you will have a flaming zombie chasing you while setting fire to everything in it’s path as it goes.
KH- The prevailing theory is that any living organism needs fuel to continue moving and the zombie is no different. The zombie has an indefinite hibernation period that allows them to “sleep” for many many years before being reactivated to eat. This would appear to the person who locked them away that it neve slowed down but in fact it would be in hibernation for 95 percent of the time you were away.
In a zombie invasion I would have tools to take out zombies from a distance, medium range and up close. They also have to be portable. I would have a rifle, a sawed off shot gun and a chainsaw with a samurai sword as a back up. Also, a few hand guns. The problem with hand guns is that you have to be able to hit multiple heads in swift succession sometimes in the dark. A shot gun with with buck shot will take out two or three quickly.
Only domesticated animals will be reanimated when infected and as far as time of infection, it depends on the age of the bitting zombie, the deepness of the cut and the aftercare treatment. The infection is unstoppable in most case outside of extreme measures- IE cutting the arm off- but it can be slowed. Usually the infected show flu like symptoms the progress into pneumonia and then loss of life. At this point the human should be double tapped in the head and then set on fire.
As far as killing a Zombie, seems like any head shot will do, but that may not be the case. The Hypothalamus is very small compared to the rest of the brain and therefore quite hard to hit. You would definately want to use a jacketed hollow-point projectile to ensure maximum expansion and weight retention. It’ll make for a messy kill, but there will be no doubt. It also seems that with spianl cord separation, you need to be close to the base of the brain.
With that said, my choice for protection is this:
Semi-Automatic 9mm Pistol loaded with 145 grain Jacketed Hollow-Points 12 round magazine (General Purpose/Close Range)
.357 Mag or 44 Mag Revolver also loaded with Jacketed Hollow-Points (Medium Range)
30-06 fitted with 3-9×40 Loaded with 150 grain Full Metal Jacket (Long Range)
I would also pass on the chainsaw (too unreliable) and prefer to carry a very sharp Machete (Hand to Hand)
A few gernades (sp?) wouldn’t hurt either.
Heres another question:
If only part of the brain is active and there is no blood flow in a Zombie body how does the flesh not decay? All Zombies seem to be falling apart and decaying so how do they last more that a year without turning to dust?
I think, after a bit of research, I can say that, like any creature, there are differnt species of Zombie. Where all are mindless, they do have some differences. One varity is a voo-doo born version, were a priest or priestess can re-animate the dead to do thier bidding. Another is the Zombie that comes from the grave thru some kind of contamination to seek out human flesh. A third, and probably the most common, is the infected person that is turned to a Zombie thru some kind of chemical or biologic event.
Not all Zombies are dead either. In “I Am Legend”, the Zombies are infected by a Government Accident and don’t appear to die before changing and can be cured. This varity is also very strong and fast as hell, but can’t be outside in direct sunlight similar to a vampire. They also have the ability to think but apparently not to reason.
In “Return”, there were Zombie that could talk and thirsted only for Brains. I can still remember “Send more paramedics”.
I think those fuckers from “Legend” are bad ass, and I wouldn’t want to tangle with those bastards. Come to think of it I want to change my Long Range weapon of choice to a M-16 .223 loaded with 110 grain ballistic tip hollow points and a 50 round mag.
Hypothetical question:
What are the transmission parameters involved with venom/blood based zombie infection?
Meaning, if I’m in tight quarters with a zombie or the zombie is close to someone when it’s head gets blown off, can the infection spread through the blood splatter? does it need to be inhaled, taken into an orifice, find an open wound? Also, is it blood specifically that turns a person or is it a venom? Saliva?
The only problem with weapons like guns and chainsaws is that they make way to much noise when used. They would be like a car alarm alerting other infected to your location. Not saying I wouldn’t use them, but I would try to use a blade or any kind of quiet weapon as much as possible. As for spreading the virus, I have to agree with it being Similar to HIV. Meaning it is spread by getting into your blood stream through an orifice. Making it possible to spread the virus sexually (gag ball highly recommended). A person could also be infected by ingesting the blood of an infected individual.
Don’t think they really breath. I’ve seen them cut in half with no lungs. No lungs. no need to breath.
From the show, The Walking Dead, we see Rick and his Bubby smear Zombie inards all over themselves and walk thru a crowded street, so they can’t smell them. Maybe the breathing is just a means to scent the surrounding air.
I also noticed that when you see Zombies, they are always in a state of decomp. This would lead me to believe that at some point, they will decompose to the point where they are just not able to move. Can that be?
We need some medical expertise on the decomposition rate of human remains. It seems like they are decomposing, but maybe at a slower rate than normal?
My pick for Zombie Kill of the Week would be the guy on top of the tank as Rick climbed out. He hit him a shovel but I can’t comfirm that it was a kill.
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