Poll: Indefinite survival during a zombie apocalypse: Logical?

[Spartan Bannana]

Well if it's that type of Zombie apocalypse, yes, you couldn't ride it out. However, if it was the normal type from the Zombie Survival Guide, you could ride it out.

 

[ygetoff]

after reading the zombie survival guide ( sequel to world war z that I dont see mentioned much here ) in a zombie world your suppost to ride it out wait till the zombies die or die on your island with friends you brought along in the houses you built or some crap

and if the island you bought is far away from society barely any zombies could get there if the walk under the ocean they'll die of pressure anyway

The Zombie Survival Guide is not the sequel to World War Z, the Guide came first.
But it has a whole section devoted to this scenario.
However, the zombie virus is not airborne, nor is there a chance of immunity against it.

Man I love that book

It's the most useful book I've ever read.

 

[ygetoff]

Prior to "Z-day" I'll be living in a Mexican style hacienda, four rectangular walls high windows and a courtyard with thick wooden gate to outside world. Greenhouse on the second floor, solar panels and a wind power water from air generator (basically wind spins turbine, powers refrig panels and creates water from condersation). Large underground water tanks for rainwater and aforementioned generated water.

This is on the outside of a large town (40,000 residents) perhaps a twenty minute drive.

Some sort of hybrid car that uses electric (perhaps rechargeable hydrogen cells) and regular fuel. Along with bicycles etc.

Guns, ammo, food and medical supplies stockpiled. Protective clothing like motor-bike gear, skate pads, helmets with clear visors and wet suits for underneath regular clothing. Melee weapons like crowbars, machetes and hatchets that serve several purposes.

"Z day" occurs, gather family, wife+kids if I have them, plus siblings and parents if nearby. Call previously warned/selected friends. If they can get themselves plus family to my house or nearby they've got a spot in the house.

These friends include a vet and two former (at that point in time) soldiers, one of whom is an excellent mechanic and the other has a portable bullet press and knows how to remake bullets.

Hide for a couple weeks, start raiding nearby properties (being vary careful), salvaging stuff and gathering livestock (we'd already have some chickens, a cow or two). Rescue survivors if safe to do so.

If the zombies are there for the long haul, plant crops in the soil during the day, under the watchful eye of armed sentries. Hunt Kangaroos. Fence off livestock if there's too many to keep in the courtyard. Protecting them would be important but not life risk worthy. Reinforce already high windows and sturdy gate. Razor wire furthermost fences and gates around the farm.

Slaughter and burn any zombies that approach. Only allow appropriately inspected survivors in and only if they can carry their own weight.

If the town greatly depopulates of zombies, say if they hypothetically move to a larger urban centre, raid the town itself.

Eventually start taking the fight to them, setting up traps and murderous shooting galleries on buildings on the outskirts (where we can recover all our casings).

Once zombie numbers have drastically decreased or they die out completely rebuild society ever vigilantly. Planned breeding to reduce consanguinity (aka incest/inbreeding). Teach the kids.

If survivors want to gather around my fort, they're welcome as long as the agree to the feudal semi-communistic nature of the place, with me as their Hetman.

Edit: That said unless the origin was in Australia, it would be hard to spread it here. Worst case scenario our defence force shoots down any plan or ship that approachs our borders. If they actually infect a city, we have large areas of openness to fight them on and spoil if we have to (napalm etc).

I have a feeling you've been planning this for some time. I also have a feeling you don't really have a chance of setting that up, especially since Z-Day is tomorrow.

I don't care if Z-Day is tomorrow, where can I sign up for this? I am a hand-to-hand combat expert.

 

[RufusMcLaser]

umm has anyone forgoten naval battlegroups ie carrier fleets and missile subs subs stay under water for months plus they have nukes purge the land with flame also cariers hold thousands of people each so that can be used as a viable gene pool (zombie viruses work fast and you need a plane to land on a carrier) any before you say the battle groups will be infected when the take shore leave all 1st-2nd world goverments will warn eveyone about the zombies

Agreed. The only problem is, those battle groups need to be resupplied on a regular basis. They'd run out of provisions before the zombies died off (and they go through a lot of provisions [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/logistics.htm]) unless they were operating on skeleton crews. Still, there's a certain amount of hope. The embarked aircraft would be able to forage for certain supplies, and they would have Marines or at least well-armed Sailors in the forage parties. A CVBG seems to stand a better chance for survival than nearly anyone else. Even in the no-warning situations.

Also, I wish the laws of physics, chemistry, etc. that apply to us applied to the zombies. It would make this a lot easier to plan around.

 

[RufusMcLaser]

I don't care if Z-Day is tomorrow, where can I sign up for this? I am a hand-to-hand combat expert.

Likewise. If I can't get to a CVBG, I'd like to apply. I have plenty of applicable skills, and I've always wanted to see Australia. A compound full of Ozzies sounds like a fun place to be in the zompocalypse.

 

[Flap Jack452]

Evantually the zombie's flesh will rot. If you have managed to survive up til that point then you should be home clear, only coming across a stray zombie every once in a while. Commence earth repopulation

 

[Flap Jack452]

f anyone noticed, this is the plot of L4D.

L4D had a plot?

 

[Flap Jack452]

(thus obviously haven't read the movie)

hehe, wow ive posted a lot on this thread...

 

[Audemas]

Read the book "The Zombie Survival Guide" by Max Brooks. He lists some reasons why humans could survive, one of which can answer the question : Could we outlast the zombies?
The answer is a fantastic yes. If all that left are immune humans, we can look at it from a logical standpoint. Zombies are usually beat up, ripped apart DEAD humans than can walk around, requiring no air, no sleep or nourishment from what we can tell aside from other humans brains(I am of course, basing this off the idea of normal zombies, not specialized zombies as featured in "28 Days Later" where really they're still alive just driven mad). This being said, as I've never seen a zombie dying of hunger, Mr. Brooks provides an interesting answer. Zombies, never receiving nourishment, and always exerting themselves to maximum levels in the pursuit of flesh, will eventually deteriorate their muscles, and run themselves into the ground. Humans actually wear and tear their muscles all the time, but we eat, drink and sleep the microscopic cuts away, which zombies don't seem to do. I believe it possible to outlive our zombie counterparts, we just need to survive long enough for them to destroy themselves.

Thank you IpostIn8-bit, you have saved me some time.

 

[Akas]

I've read the survival guide, but I just have one question: why not try to live off the coast? If you could gather a couple of people together (with water purifiers and hand-crank generators) and sail up and down the coast, fishing and stopping in coastal towns for supplies/ammos/guns/etc. Sure there might be problems (like finding ways to keep from running aground or drifting too far out), but with a skilled navigator it would be a lot easier than trying to build a fortress or something of the like. Too many zombies walking around in the water that they start to pile up? Just move to a different location. You could even sail around the perimeter of your country.

 

[Kukakkau]

in the original post you said "1% becomes immune to contact and airborne stain" the contact would still physically harm you though and leave you kinda...mauled

 

[Flap Jack452]

in the original post you said "1% becomes immune to contact and airborne stain" the contact would still physically harm you though and leave you kinda...mauled

Yeah but you become a zombie, which is what he meant by being immune to the physical virus

 

[Ravenbom]

It'd be hard to organize the random 1% that are immune. They'd be all spread out in geographically separate places.

Why is the 1% immunity random?

I don't know, that's the numbers we got in the first post of this subject.
As for why I think it would be random, well, out of the whole world, that's just too small a percentage of the population, especially with the rate of globalization that we have now, with people spread across the world, to have that small percentage of immunity to be anything other than random.

If it makes you feel better, its probably not entirely random. It would be restricted to healthy people, most likely 18-35, with no preexisting immuno-deficiencies.

Actually, immunity would probably come about through a mixture of genes and other factors such as previous exposure to diseases. These factors are not random, so immunity would be concentrated within certain areas, such as small towns where people share similar genes and have been exposed to the same environmental factors. It is likely that entire families would be immune. Which families are immune is also not random, but is impossible for us to know ahead of time.

I agree, there would normally be factors such as exposure to previous pathogens and genes at play. BUT, I really can't say that a virus that makes people in walking corpses has any basis in reality, so therefore I really don't believe that any exposure to past pathogens would build the proper immunity. The closest thing I can think of is leprosy, which is a bacteria, not a virus, and Hanson's disease is treatable by antibiotics. The thread started with a virus, so a bacteria would not give you immunity.

Viruses replicate using your RNA or your DNA, and one other way, I forget, so there's not necessarily family immunity, immunity might not be carried on familial gene sequences. There are not families that are immune to HIV/AIDS, or even the common cold as far as we know. If there's any immunity, it's probably based off of a random mutation.
Mutations happen all the time in the cells in our bodies, but most of our DNA is junk DNA, or non coding DNA, so mutations don't matter most of the time. Also, because most of our DNA is non coding DNA, it is less likely that immunity is carried on inherited DNA.

But we've had no specifics on immunity, because there are many multiple factors that we do not know, it is effectively random.

 

[PirateKing]

Stock up on ammo, and eat the zombies you kill, after cooking them as to destroy any nasty little surprises. Also being on giant island is an advantage, kill al the zombies there, rebuild society, train a powerful army. If you need more zombie jerky, get in the boat, go to the mainland, and kill more zombies to stock your reserves of meat.

...

Wouldn't the virus be contained in the meat?

Aren't the 1% alive because they were immune?

Well, yes, but I can't imagine eating rotting flesh being good for you, immunity or not.

Not true, there's a man who eats rotten meat, been free from all ailments, so guess it's healthier than McDonald's.

Isn't that like...cannibalism? I mean, they were once people.
Kind of a scenario of becoming a monster while hunting monsters.

 

[Silver]

Have you... have you SEEN a zombie movie? We're not talking 28 Days Later rabies people here, we're talking the LIVING DEAD. You know, shambling corpses: unfeeling, unthinking, undying. They don't need anything to survive, they defy biology. People are gonna die? So after everyone succumbs to infections, who's gonna build the walls? Keep watch? How can you find time to you sleep when you're the only one watching the gates? If people are dying, you're not surviving, you're just being picked off one by one.

Clean water is, in fact, hard to find these days with all the water pollution. You certainly couldn't take it straight from the stream. You'd need to boil it, which means a fire or other heat source which you couldn't have inside whatever shelter you've got(unless it was a hotplate or something, but you'd have to POWER IT) and purify it.

Also, the farms? For one thing, how did you get out there from your shelter, especially unfollowed? And how would you keep the farms secure from zombies? And don't say "build a fence", that would take too long and you'd be overrun within a week. You won't have the people or the know-how to operate it. You just assume everything's easy.

Another important point: the chaos. You think this would happen quietly? Rioting, looting, random killing. It'd be bloody and chaotic and you'd be hard pressed to find a free shelter, especially one with everything you need.

Yes, I have, and zombie movies are completely irrelevant to how it'd work in real life. If zombies can defy natural laws and physics, I can fly and shoot fireballs, so I still win.

And yes, it is pretty easy running a farm, if you don't need to maximize it's output. A fence is very quick to build if you know what you're doing and have 10 or more people working on it. A week is plenty of time.

Besides, then there's the whole mindless thing. A dog could outsmart a zombie. That's the biggest advantage.

Do you actually have any reasonable arguments for why it wouldn't work, except "they die in the movies", and that you say it's impossible?

 

[Rentsy]

Let's assume that the zombies don't die. You can't just outlast them for a few months.

What the survivors will need to do is create the infrastructure to MAKE things. Grow their own food. In the book, "I am Legend", the guy survives by scavenging supplies from warehouses and stores. That's not going to work, especially not for a large population of survivors. Self-sustainability will need to be a priority for the survivors, who will be without most of the infrastructure modern life is so dependant on.

On the plus side, if 1% survive, everyone has to kill 100 zombies, and then presto, problem solved.

 

[theultimateend]

Before this gets started, let me say this is a purely hypothetical question.

In the event of a zombie invasion, would it be possible to survive indefinitely against such odds?

To explain, let's say there are roughly 6 billion people in the world. 75% are turned by airborne, 24% turned by bite or devoured. 1% survives immune to both contact and airborne strain.

Even escaping to a deserted island or building some sort of super fortress wouldn't succeed (see Land of the Dead), because the zombies would eventually overrun it. Either that, or supplies would run out, and the survivors would die from hunger or disease. There's also the question of reproduction.

What I'm saying is that, logically, it would be impossible to "ride out" a zombie apocalypse. You'd either turn or be eaten, or die of starvation and disease.

Considering WE have survived US I have to say there is nothing that will ever completely kill humans.

I'm willing to say that billions will die someday because of something crazy, probably smaller than your eye can see, but Zombies will never exterminate mankind .

If you can survive humans you can survive just about any ridiculous murdering machine.