Zombie Apocalypse? Oh, Well, It’s Not the End of the World

[sour_idealist]

Everyone loves a good zombie apocalypse AU, right? Or story, if we’re talking origfic. After all, it’s a cool idea, inherently dramatic - our intrepid heroes trapped and desperate as they fight off hordes and hordes of monstrous, mindless, slavering, hungering, rotting mobile corpses -

Wait. Rewind that a bit. No, no, past there:

Rotting.

Okay

Comments

[sour_idealist]

Well, if the outbreak is fast, then that actually hastens the eventually collapse of the apocalypse: less time for all the zombies to rot. It might lower the chances of people initially escaping, but they don't have to fight off the zombies for that long. If everyone's infected within the first six months, then the time to no more zombies is six months plus decomposition time (around two months), so that would mean the zombies would be gone in under a year. And if everyone comes back as a zombie, then it becomes procedure to cremate your dead immediately, strapping the corpses down to do it, and life can still go on although more hazardously.

As to three and four: yes, there would definitely be panic while the zombies were there, and you'd definitely have to fight them off, I'm not arguing that. And yes, a lot of people would probably die. But there's an end to that stage, you know? There's a point within a few years when you stop fighting and start to rebuild. The world isn't permanently zombie-ridden, and I bet it would be possible for a group to outlast them.

Decaptation/headshots will definitely do it

The only reason for this to work is if the brains are a key part, even if they aren't functioning normally anymore. Otherwise, what are you removing with the decapitation? And even if they don't, in fact, need the brains anymore, ligaments decompose too, and nothing's much of a threat when your bones aren't sticking together.

A zombie apocalypse would definitely suck and involve a lot of fighting and desperation in the short-term, though!

[wake_the_dragon]

What if the virus stops rotting? They wouldn't be falling apart, so there wouldn't be a time limit. Also, what do you mean by if everyone's infected? Most of the population, a city, what?

It's not just painic. It's the cults, megalomaniacs, and just plain people who've snapped you'd have to worry about. In World War Z there were a ton of these: Fundamentalist religous groups who thought zombies were a sign of the Rapture; crazy environmentalist groups who thought zombies should kill humanity off because they'd be friendlier to the environment; warlords became a problem in some countries because they didn't want to step down once the danger was passed; Last-Man-on-Earth types who would set traps around where they holed up that would activate and kill other survivers. There was also a condition (which I can't remember if they named it or not) where people became so despondant/depressed/hopeless that they would die from it; they'd go to sleep and then never wake up because they just completely lost the will to live.

Misinformation over how to kill zombies would also be a problem. In World War Z again there was a ton of misinformation: There were some countires (which aren't named in the book) where people thought raping virgins would stop the zombie infection. Others that thought sacraficing people would stop zombies.

Decapatation/headshots if they don't kill a zombie could at least extremely damage it's ability to kill people. How else could they track down survivors? It differs from media to media but I've seen zombies who tracked by sight, by smell, or by sound, all of which would be stopped without a head. Also, they would no longer be able to bite people (I don't think the head would be able to move by itself). It would also be easier to completely dismember and then set on fire or something.

I definitely think the human race would survive and be able to rebuild, just not without a lot of deaths.

[sour_idealist]

I... agree that there would be a lot of deaths, actually, I never said there wouldn't. Things would suck for a while, and a lot of people would indeed die. But I've seen a lot of stories wherein the zombies stick around for generations, or otherwise where it's implied the world is permanently and entirely doomed, and they just... massive plot holes.

Things would definitely suck in the short term, though, I agree.

[wake_the_dragon]

Yeah, I see what you mean. The sticking around for generations thing, could be stupid, but I've seen it done well once where according to the story throughout history there have been periodic outbreaks of the zombie virus. (In the comic, there was this great scene that had Romans vs. Zombies)

[wake_the_dragon]

I was also mostly playing Devil's Advocate. Which I probably should have said before...