Do you think you'd survive the first 48 hours?

ScumLord wrote: »

You'll have days to deal with the problem.

What happens when we assume?

ScumLord wrote: »

...Even if it was possible it would be a completely self limiting thing for a virus to do, with instantaneous transformation or even if it happens within a day the virus just won't be able to spread. It would get stopped pretty much where it started....

Thats if its a natural virus. If it was man-made (like Rage) or an alien virus, it could behave very differently. Its not as if we are dealing with a known virus. There are zombie-like viruses out there, but its not the known stuff that will cause the Zombie Apocalypse (imho), but rather a new and different virus.

degrassinoel wrote: »

or a wizard!

...or voodoo!

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Thats if its a natural virus. If it was man-made (like Rage) or an alien virus, it could behave very differently.

Not really, if it's a virus it's going to work a particular way, you have to remember to a virus your body is a continent, it can't travel from one end to the other and do the work it needs to do in hours, it is a physical process limited by physical and chemical processes.

I'll have to look into it again but I'm pretty sure a virus can't even begin it's work proper for the first three days inside a body.

There is a very real physical limitation that would prevent a virus working that fast. I think if you want something instant you'd need to look to something like a bacteria that could produce some sort of venom/chemical drug. The venom will give you fast acting behaviour changes and the bacteria will do the important work of taking over the host.

A virus is probably to destructive and specific to zombify things, bacteria is much more complicated and as we know is good at manufacturing and converting things into other things.

Paddy Cow wrote: »

A 28 Days Later type virus only takes 20 seconds to infect someone.

Yes, but that was a movie, in the real world 20 seconds is so far beyond the realms of possibility that it's really not worth worrying about.

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

If you are wrong ...... ;-)

Unless the laws of physics change I'm not wrong.

Sorry for being pedantic but I'm just that kind of bollox.

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

The creation of Zeds would need a physics and biology change.

Except for that fungus that makes zombie ants...
or that worm that makes zombie snails.
Or toxoplasmosis which makes mice and rats attracted to cat urine so that they can get eaten so its life cycle can complete inside the cats stomach...

Kess73 wrote: »

Of course there is the response time of the emergency services/government etc to take into account. A fast acting virus might need a minimum of three days, but how quickly would a nationwide reaction to anything be? Plus what are the chances of something being reported or seen as some sort of flu outbreak.

The problem is officials wouldn't be able to treat infected as zombies until it's much too late. They won't be able to go around shooting people in the head without public outcry, police would more than likely have trouble carrying out acts like that. I expect most governments will prolong the act of disposing of the zombies until it becomes critical but even then that wouldn't be the real danger from a zombie outbreak, stopping international trade is what will ultimately bring down the modern world.

In the beginning the big problem won't be zombies, in the first few weeks it will be the collapse of society and international trade that kills the most people. The planet can't support 7 billion humans without global food production and trade routes. Once that shuts down expect your shops to be empty and people rioting over food. We don't know starvation in the west, civilization will disappear overnight when people are hungry, the animal side will take over and there will be a chaos like the world has never witnessed before. Of course all this will help the final spread of the zombie disease.

You'll have cities littered with corpses, a proportion of them will be zombies. If zombies lay inactive until they get some sort of stimulus they could hide amongst the dead (which will be absolutely everywhere) like an ambush predator.

Paddy Cow wrote: »

A fast acting virus is unbelievable but zombies are?

A fast acting virus would have to break the laws of physics, a zombie disease would just need to find the right conditions to happen.

The raises the bar abit....

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Who's to say it will be a virus?

I think it's likely a virus may be to specific to bring about all the characteristics of a zombie. That's why I mentioned a bacteria that could produce a venom earlier. Bacteria can be just as infectious as a virus.

Lets just think what else could change the chemistry of a persons brain in seconds. Chemical simulates are all around us and act extremely quickly. Lets say the rage "virus" wasn't a virus but a drug that damaged the brain permanently. If that drug was in air or water supply, it is feasible that change would happen almost immediately.

A chemical could bring about a change instantly and while it could affect a large group of people it would have to be constantly administered to maintain those effects. The body would also need to be functioning to utilize the chemical so it wouldn't produce dead zombies, they could be killed as easily as a normal person and would probably die from exposure or recklessness.

popolive wrote: »

I have enough food at home to last for months but not water. Water would be the problem. if the water is not cut off I would close and lock my front door, all internal doors , barricade myself in, draw the curtains, possibly crawl into the attic space, keep calm, make as little noise as possible, draw as little attention as possible and wait it out for months just being calm and conserving energy while listening to a small radio for helpful instructions from what remains of government. I may draw rainwater from a borehole in the roof tiles. If a zombie or threat can make it into my attic space I will break through the roof with a bag of supplies and keep to high ground since zombies don't tend to climb. With plenty of paracord and a hammock I will hang off the side of a building secured to a chimney stack for example if I have to. The longer I stay alive, calm and using as little energy as possible while remaining as calm as possible then the greater my chances of being alive when it blows over. Eventually the zombies will die off I presume.

Sounds like a holiday!!

ScumLord wrote: »

The problem is officials wouldn't be able to treat infected as zombies until it's much too late. They won't be able to go around shooting people in the head without public outcry, police would more than likely have trouble carrying out acts like that. I expect most governments will prolong the act of disposing of the zombies until it becomes critical but even then that wouldn't be the real danger from a zombie outbreak, stopping international trade is what will ultimately bring down the modern world.

In the beginning the big problem won't be zombies, in the first few weeks it will be the collapse of society and international trade that kills the most people. The planet can't support 7 billion humans without global food production and trade routes. Once that shuts down expect your shops to be empty and people rioting over food. We don't know starvation in the west, civilization will disappear overnight when people are hungry, the animal side will take over and there will be a chaos like the world has never witnessed before. Of course all this will help the final spread of the zombie disease.

You'll have cities littered with corpses, a proportion of them will be zombies. If zombies lay inactive until they get some sort of stimulus they could hide amongst the dead (which will be absolutely everywhere) like an ambush predator.


.

Which is what I am getting at. The response time of the state would aid in the spread of the infection as it would most likely be seen as some strain of flu. So by the time we actually got to the stage where we had mr and mrs Z shuffling about, the country would be in a bit of a mess anyway.

But regardless the most important thing in terms of being able to survive the first 48 hours after the Zeds start to surface has to be location.


And location becomes an even bigger factor if we were to spread the net a bit wider to include the possiblity of an outbreak of something that was a bit quicker on two legs than a regular shuffler. Although my own take is that if the infected or undead (depending on what decided to pop up) had more pace and mobility than a basic shuffler, then it would be an endgame scenario.

The one type of infected that really would be a pain in the butt would be the zeds that were in the Morningstar strain trilogy by the late Z A Recht. They start off as infected humans so retain the kind of pace/mobilty that a regular human would have, but once "killed" (as long as it was not by a clean headshot) they come back as the more traditional shuffling undead.