How long does it take...

Cianos

...for them to starve? All this talk of barricading oneself away, storing food, escaping to the countryside...how long are we actually talking about before we can freely roam around without fear?

Undead

Cianos wrote: »

...for them to starve? All this talk of barricading oneself away, storing food, escaping to the countryside...how long are we actually talking about before we can freely roam around without fear?

They don't starve, they decompose. Which can take anything from 3 to 5 years.

phill106

Pardon my intruding, but did the zombies not starve in 28 days later?

rgt320q

phill106 wrote: »

Pardon my intruding, but did the zombies not starve in 28 days later?

They weren't zombies. They were still alive but infected with the rage virus, very different to solanum.

SmileyPaul

rightly said
decompisition can be helped along with a fair old beating with a hurl to get rid of any unwanted flesh
and yeah like said above 28 days later= virus
entirely different
I think I'd be happier facing a physically passed ov virus than a zombie-pocalypse
anyone else?

Kess73

Undead wrote: »

They don't starve, they decompose. Which can take anything from 3 to 5 years.

Most likely it would take a much shorter time, as they would be exposed to the elements, and due to this the decomposition time from first stage to the final stage, Skeletonization, would take approx 6 to 18 months, and a little quicker again if there was a hot period of weather or a very wet period during the first week of death.

Redhairedguy

Isn't decomposition hindered and slowed by solanum?

Think I remember reading it in the Survival Handbook....

ScumLord

Redhairedguy wrote: »

Isn't decomposition hindered and slowed by solanum?

Think I remember reading it in the Survival Handbook....

I don't see how it could slow down general ware and tear though. If the body isn't producing new cells then all the joints will eventually stick solid.

Up da Craic

That is Just Sick

rgt320q

Regardless of decomposition rate, solanum still allows for them to be frozen and preserved. If some zombies were to be frozen then there is the risk that they could be thawed out at a later time leading to a fresh outbreak.

Redhairedguy

rgt320q wrote: »

Regardless of decomposition rate, solanum still allows for them to be frozen and preserved. If some zombies were to be frozen then there is the risk that they could be thawed out at a later time leading to a fresh outbreak.

The Polar Icecaps... They're Melting.... :eek::eek::eek::eek:

Beware the Neanderthal zombies!!!!

Kess73

rgt320q wrote: »

Regardless of decomposition rate, solanum still allows for them to be frozen and preserved. If some zombies were to be frozen then there is the risk that they could be thawed out at a later time leading to a fresh outbreak.

Which would be a problem if we were a country that had severe winters, but we are not. The Irish climate supports a high level of decomposition as it has generally mild weather with plenty of rain, and the Zs would also have no shortage of one of the most important things needed for decomposition, and that is oxygen.

The fact that they are moving would only speed up the decomposition as wear and tear would loosen dead tissue/muscle etc., which again brings us back to a period of six to eighteen months for the body to become immoble and unable to be a threat.

Kess73

For me, the biggest threat six or so months down the line is not so much from the Zs, but from gangs of survivors who have basically turned feral, killing anyone they meet and raiding at will. Unlike Z, these guys will be able to work out what buildings look fortified and be able to use weapons in order to take what they want.

Plus they may be a double threat as you may have to kill them twice, once while alive and again if they come back as a Z.


Maybe Cormac Mc Carthy's book, The Road, is the world after Z has gone, and not after a major war/nuclear disaster etc as most guess it to be after.

Siobhaninlove

Kess73 wrote: »

gangs of survivors who have basically turned feral, killing anyone they meet and raiding at will

Why should they do that? Guys, we have to focus on repopulating the planet!!

Genghiz Cohen

Siobhaninlove wrote: »

Why should they do that? Guys, we have to focus on repopulating the planet!!

I like how you think :pac:

Redhairedguy

Kess73 wrote: »

gangs of survivors who have basically turned feral, killing anyone they meet and raiding at will..

I'm imagining these people to be the kind that would have female zombies as sex toys.

Don't know why, sometimes I disturb myself.

Jesus Juice

Id say it would take about 4 years maybe for the brain to rot if they were WWZ type Zs but in 28 days later it only took a couple of weeks cause they were humans(infected with rage) who starved to death.

Kess73

Jesus Juice wrote: »

Id say it would take about 4 years maybe for the brain to rot if they were WWZ type Zs but in 28 days later it only took a couple of weeks cause they were humans(infected with rage) who starved to death.

The human brain would take nowhere near four years to decompose if the corpse it was in is moving around above ground in the Irish climate.

Jesus Juice

Kess73 wrote: »

The human brain would take nowhere near four years to decompose if the corpse it was in is moving around above ground in the Irish climate.

Well we dont know what effect the virus would have on the preservation of the body

Redhairedguy

Unfortunately we're stuck in a 'climate' versus 'chemical hinderance' loop.

Brooks says that the ideal location for maximum zombie decomposition is a tropical climate with a high level of humidity. Plenty of bugs and creatures to take a chomp out of our foes as they stumble past.

Personally I think a Zombie (infected with solanum) in an Irish climate would last much better than in other locations.

On mean, I'd say about 5 years for full decomposition. Degradation of motor function to the point of paralysis, 3-4 years. (This all depends on the fact that their are no 'fresh' zombies in that time period)

Kess73

Redhairedguy wrote: »

Unfortunately we're stuck in a 'climate' versus 'chemical hinderance' loop.

Brooks says that the ideal location for maximum zombie decomposition is a tropical climate with a high level of humidity. Plenty of bugs and creatures to take a chomp out of our foes as they stumble past.

Personally I think a Zombie (infected with solanum) in an Irish climate would last much better than in other locations.

On mean, I'd say about 5 years for full decomposition. Degradation of motor function to the point of paralysis, 3-4 years. (This all depends on the fact that their are no 'fresh' zombies in that time period)

I really do not understand the whole arguement about decomposition. If you took a fully embalmed body and just left it above ground, it would last nowhere near as long as five years, and that is a corpse that does not move, so no wear and tear. So even if a solanum infected zombie can have it's decomposition slowed down as much as an embalmed one, which I would highly doubt, it would not last out in the open over a period of four or five years.

Plus if solanum were to have similar properties to embalming chemicals, then it would in turn affect the motor functions.


Brooks stated that solanum was a virus that worked it's way through the bloodstream until it reached the brain where it replicated the frontal lobe, so going by his own version, it can have no preservative function or abilities, plus having such would counter it's ability as an effective virus.


Going to have to strongly disagree with anyone who suggests a moving corpse exposed to the Irish climate 24/7 will stay intact for up to five years.

Redhairedguy

Kess73 wrote: »

Going to have to strongly disagree with anyone who suggests a moving corpse exposed to the Irish climate 24/7 will stay intact for up to five years.

Noted and I appreciate your argument.

I base my comments on such sources as Romero's 'Day of the Dead', any literature written about our shambling friends such as Max Brook's Handbook or the 'Walking Dead'

I guess we'll have to wait til Z day to find out.

Kess73

Redhairedguy wrote: »

Noted and I appreciate your argument.

I base my comments on such sources as Romero's 'Day of the Dead', any literature written about our shambling friends such as Max Brook's Handbook or the 'Walking Dead'

I guess we'll have to wait til Z day to find out.

I base mine on having worked in both a mortuary enviroment and the body collection and embalming side of undertaking in the past. I have been out on body collections where a body has been maybe four or five months before being found, and it literally comes to pieces when being removed.


If we are to use real world science in a countrywide scenario, then the original Zs will start breaking down to the point where they cannot move in a six to eighteen month period, of course there is always the risk of fresh break outs

Redhairedguy

Kess73 wrote: »

I base mine on having worked in both a mortuary enviroment and the body collection and embalming side of undertaking in the past. I have been out on body collections where a body has been maybe four or five months before being found, and it literally comes to pieces when being removed.

Wow... Schooled!

You'll be a handy one to have around in post-apocalyptic zombieland.

Okay.. 6-18 months. That sounds very survivable.

Cianos

Is there any correlation with feeding and longer decomposition time? Does the Z get any nutritional benefit whatsoever from eating humans, to allow them to remain a threat for longer, or does a fed zombie have as much expectancy as a Z unsuccessful in attacking humans? Given all other things are equal (similar age, weight and fitness before turning)

ScumLord

Cianos wrote: »

Is there any correlation with feeding and longer decomposition time? Does the Z get any nutritional benefit whatsoever from eating humans, to allow them to remain a threat for longer, or does a fed zombie have as much expectancy as a Z unsuccessful in attacking humans? Given all other things are equal (similar age, weight and fitness before turning)

Good question. With the body shut down in Zombies maybe they do get nourishment from eating people.

Kess73

Decomposition would not be slowed by the intake of fresh meat. Real science and Brooks/Romero science both seem to agree on this.


The main flaw with the 6 to 18 month timetable is that every Z will not be infected at the same time, but I think it is safe to assume that at least 50% of all infected on an Island as small as Ireland would happen in the first week.

I still think that for those who have survived six months plus after the main outbreak would face a greater danger at that point from living foes rather than dead ones. Again this is based on the Zs being shufflers and not sprinters. Sprinters change timescales dramatically, as there would not be the same luxury of thinking and building at a slower pace, and it would restrict travel in any area where there was a large population as sprinters would cover ground faster and be able to intercept people.

On the plus side, given a sprinter's quicker movements, the wear and tear on their decomposing bodies would be much faster than that of a shuffler.


I still hold to a theory that there would be different speed Zs, based on how soon into being a Z they are, and the condition of the body just before it died.

I am of the school of thought that they are a bit faster when they first re- animate, but then rigor mortis kicks in and their faster body movements coupled with the effects of rigor mortis would create enough damage at a muscular and bone level that the body would be soon reduced to being the traditional shuffler, the whole process of going from sprinter to shuffler taking maybe 5 to 72 hours from the time of death.

Kess73

Here is a link that breaks down the decomposition process in an easy to understand manner.


Note how long it takes the pig to get to the stage where it is pretty much just bone, and this is without the extra wear and tear that movement would cause.


http://www.deathonline.net/decomposition/decomposition/index.htm

ScumLord

Kess73 wrote: »

http://www.deathonline.net/decomposition/decomposition/index.htm

Great link. Going by that a zombie would be next to useless after 10 days. The Zvirus would have allot of work to do trying to slow decay.

EDIT: Just thinking about it there a moving zombie could slow the decay. If a zombie is upright and moving the digestive juices might just make their way out the anal canal rather than burst through the intestines slowing down decomposition, the moving zombie might not be as easy for flys to lay eggs on either.

Keogg

Redhairedguy wrote: »

The Polar Icecaps... They're Melting.... :eek::eek::eek::eek:

Beware the Neanderthal zombies!!!!

Aw crap, we're proper screwed now aren't we?
Its ok though, they'll hit Russia/Scandanavia/Canada first... Let them deal with it!!

Keogg

I suppose the rate of decomposition would definitely depend of whether we're talking fast zombies or slow zombies. Thats the bigger question here...