Who will be picked off first?

whaturmuva

What characteristics will be prominent in those who are zombified in the early stages of an outbreak?

batm!ke

Flu-like symptoms?

whaturmuva

I'm more asking what types of people would become infected first. Sorry for the confusion.

batm!ke

whaturmuva wrote: »

I'm more asking what types of people would become infected first. Sorry for the confusion.

Ah right, I would reckon the homeless... and probably a fair amount of lads who don't go to a doc and say "I'll be alright, tis' only a flu" so large groups of males probably would get hit. Then from there probably public service people, Bus Drivers, Taxis, then Nurses, Doctors and Cops?

degrassinoel

thats a fairly broad question with a million different correct answers imo.

I think it would largely depend on where the outbreak first originated, high or low population centre, good and bad luck, type of infection, airbourne, direct contact, immunity, official response times, and mobilisation of defences.

If for instance an outbreak happened in dublin city centre, probably the first person to get bitten would be a security guard or a garda, after that is anyones guess.

If you're going by the zombieland rules, the fatties get it first because they are slower. So basiclly any physical handicap such as obesity or any ailment that slows or stops ambulation would be among the easiest prey for zombies.

Zomg Okay

In my opinion, all the guys who have machine guns, .50cal sniper rifles etc. at the heart of their survival plans.

Hello? It's Ireland.

[edit]

On a serious note, most likely small children, the old and infirm, the handicapped and so on.

ScumLord

The guards will be the first to go, probably followed by the military and other emergency services and they will be sent in to deal with the problem. Doctors and medical staff will be another obvious early casualty.

Fathers and mothers desperate to feed their children will be the next ones to put themselves in dangerous places where they could get infected. I can see riots forming around food aid drops which will lead to infection.

I think the homeless will be ok, they won't be using public services like your average citizen and will have the street smarts and the lack of a sympathetic nature from a hard life on the streets should keep them out of harms way.

If the disease get's into old folks homes everyone inside is doomed. I think children will be shielded from the zombies at first, children are small, fast and easily scared so they won't be motivated to put themselves in harms way as much as their parents would. Adult humans won't be able to turn their backs on children either, as I've already said the burden of raising a child is communal in humans so we all suffer from a protective instinct towards any human child.

Oranage2

Not to come across as too pretentious though it is my intent to come across somewhat, but to quote the works of Charles Darwin:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

I think in a zombie out break a lot will come down to pot luck. A lot will also come down to the situation.

You're out in the open you'll want to be in the best physical condition possible.

If you're stationary in a camp or base than over weight would most likely be you're best bet.

A lot of situations and a lot of merits to different BMIs.


In terms of who's most vulnerable, I'd say we'd be similar to any animal not at the top of the food chain.

Old, then unprotected young, young and females, then finally males in prime.

ScumLord

Oranage2 wrote: »

Old, then unprotected young, young and females, then finally males in prime.

Men though are fighting risk takers. In most cases they'll be the ones putting themselves in harms way, especially if their part of a group and most of us will be part of a group.

Oranage2

Great point Scum.

A lot of male casualties will happen when 'we're' sent out to fight in the zombie war.

Also I predict our biggest enemy will be the living, likely invasions from bandits and other tribes on your camp trying to steal you supplies and other scarce commodities. A lot of male casualties I predict fighting each other.

But if its a mobile camp, I'd still have women as being more vulnerable to death than men. Women's natural 'mothering' instinct will probably make them do dangerous things if they see their or another child being attacked by a zombie.

I haven't looked into this 'mothering' instinct just my theory and maybe a little sexist in todays age. looking at the animal kingdom mother animals are more likely to fight to the death to protect their young than say the father of the species in a lot of cases.

Doc Ruby

Not saying anything bad here, but to be honest in Ireland the best able to survive would probably be the travelling community. They are already mobile, have tightly knit communities, and are well used to using skills that most of the rest of us have forgotten, and surviving in tough situations. Again I'm not saying anything bad about travellers, but more of them are armed than the settled community as well.

ScumLord

Doc Ruby wrote: »

Not saying anything bad here, but to be honest in Ireland the best able to survive would probably be the travelling community. They are already mobile, have tightly knit communities, and are well used to using skills that most of the rest of us have forgotten, and surviving in tough situations. Again I'm not saying anything bad about travellers, but more of them are armed than the settled community as well.

I think travellers have lost a lot of their trade skills, the name tinker was originally applied to them because they where very good at metal work and would have been welcomed into communities as they knew how to fix things. You can still see the metal buckets they used to make around today.

I think some will have a much better chance of survival, being on the outside of society will be an advantage to them. I could even see them being the main trade group after the collapse as they'll know how to source things for people.

kieranfitz

I can see supermarket managers going quickly, they're bound to do something stupid like run z day special offers

doctor evil

Those who don't know the area they are in (tourists and the like) would be pretty vulnerable. The disabled and those in old person homes would go quick.

bb1234567

Those curious people who go to investigate strange noises in the middle of the night will always be the first to go in a zombie apocalypse.

ChaseThisLight

Have any of you seen the movie Contagion? Not a zombie movie, but it deals with a virus that spreads very rapidly - and public transport was one of the biggest ways for it to be spread at the start; people who were on planes, trains, buses with even one infected person.

Of course the medical community would be at high risk as well, as they are the ones who would then be dealing with the sick.

I also agree the elderly, the sick and the very young would be at higher risk; in most cases these types are unable to look after themselves, so if their caregivers were gone, they'd be helpless.

Oranage2 mentioned mothers protecting their children, and as a mother, I would do whatever it takes to make sure my children survive - but I also know a lot of fathers who would do the same. They're your children, it's an instinct as a parent.

captainkrusty

i know this is a light hearted thread but if there was any sort of new disease outbreak not necessacairly a zombie outbreak. it would follow the basic patterns of any disease. the most vulnerable would be the young,old,sick and anyone with an imuno-difficency disease. the most likely to survive would be healthy adults.

Tarkus

Based on horror movies since we have nothing else to go on, I'd think young, well endowed, scantily clad lasses.

The ones who'll hear a noise in the basement & go look, hear a scratching at the door & open it, etc., etc., etc.

Doc Ruby

captainkrusty wrote: »

i know this is a light hearted thread but if there was any sort of new disease outbreak not necessacairly a zombie outbreak. it would follow the basic patterns of any disease. the most vulnerable would be the young,old,sick and anyone with an imuno-difficency disease. the most likely to survive would be healthy adults.

H1N1 specifically targeted the strong, fit, and healthy over the old, weak, and sick through a cytokine storm.

Mick7_62

Fatties

HavingCrack

Mick7_62 wrote: »

Fatties

Not neccessarily-only if caught in the open in which case everyone's chances of survival will be very low regardless of weight.

If a fattie is locked up in a secure location with enough supplies to last until the initial outbreak is over the weight won't be an issue.

southcentralts

Do you really think that most people in the city would be prepared to survive in a world where the paper in their pockets is not even all that good to write on, which is all it is good for now.

Sure we have all seen Bear Grylls or Ray Mears starting a fire and other basic survival skills, but 99% of us have never tried to put these into practice, and would be completely reliant on the lighter in our pockets and unknown hunting skills, and it is not a good idea having to venture into populated area for food, and even then loading up the car with food is not sufficient for more than short term survival.

I live on a farm and still imagine great difficulty, trying to survive without the local shop, plenty of beef but no butcher, and possibly worst of all we stopped growing our own potatoes years ago. In the post zombie/virus world we would have no spuds!, and I doubt many would.

On the discovery channel there was a show outlining how long services would continue to operate after humans abandon them, I am not sure on the figures so I will not make up any, I will just say that everything which connects us to the world, will fail without us to maintain them, water, power, communications, all have a limited unassisted operational time frame.

In this country the power will run for a while from Ardnacrusha / wind farm's which probably has automated systems which can manage to deal with supply and demand issues (more supply than demand) but would have difficulty dealing with breakdowns, just as the water pressure would be great for a long time in the tap but again over time small leaks grow and new leaks form, until the pressure is gone. I do not know how our communications would work, or fail, maybe there is some emergency plan for our country, but so far but it does seem like an incident, requiring a town or city to be evacuated, would be spread quicker by Facebook then by our government.

- I am a newbie here so forgive me if this was a long post, cannot judge size in the small box

southcentralts

it was a bit long, I also got a bit focused on long term survival, but unless I was in town at the moment of outbreak, I would have more to worry about from the city slickers arriving en mass, with their ties wrapped around their heads carrying a bow and arrow a la rambo, so you look them in the eye and say "well, you made it this far....but....there are no spuds!"

ScumLord

southcentralts wrote: »

In the post zombie/virus world we would have no spuds!, and I doubt many would.

Don't worry, there's no need for everybody to start a blind panic. There will of course be spuds throughout Ireland. Irish spuds are unique to the Irish pallet so they have to be grown here, they're even exported into the UK as Irish can't get Irish spuds over there.

Every one with a bit of a vegetable patch grows spuds as they're incredibly easy to grow and have high yield. The Chinese are even encouraging the local Chinese farmers to switch from rice to spuds because potatoes are just better.

kieranfitz

MMMMMM spuds. Spuds spuds spuds.

degrassinoel

I cant eat most veg, including taters. haha, its gonna be a rough one for me.
Unless i find a well secure dairy!

southcentralts

I can appreciate that we can grow potatoes easily enough but if you pick some up on the way out of town, you will be more likely to cook and eat them then to plant and grow them. But I personally know of only one local farmer who is growing potatoes in my locality, and he is growing a full veg patch and will offer us a selection every once in a while, he would not be able to feed the local community and the closest potato farm that I know of is over 10 miles away. So if the worst were to happen, I would have difficulty getting spuds, I agree that veg patches are probably a lot more common then I know of, but they will require searching for, as they will not be on goggle maps or satnav and when encountering one do you just take what you need, The countryside will likely have a higher survivor rate, and the farmer wont take laser or visa, and is probably better armed then you are.

Farms really are the ideal survivor destination, as most farms have already some measures of perimeter fortification, currently to keep cattle or sheep from entering or escaping, both of which have frightening skill at moving through ditches which would stop the most agile zombie in their tracks(I mean the old school walkers, not the virus runners as in 28 days later).

ScumLord

southcentralts wrote: »

Farms really are the ideal survivor destination, as most farms have already some measures of perimeter fortification, currently to keep cattle or sheep from entering or escaping, both of which have frightening skill at moving through ditches which would stop the most agile zombie in their tracks(I mean the old school walkers, not the virus runners as in 28 days later).

A farm is an ideal location, like you say it has probably enough perimeter protection to hold up zombies for a while, more than likely has the ability to store fuel on site for work vehicles. Even if a farm is industrialised towards a particular product IE: milk, or growing, it's not going to be that hard to branch out into other food stuffs.

The obvious problem is going to be the thousands of people flowing out of the cities. These people are going to want the food on farms. I the early days I don't think organised raiding gangs will be the problem, I think people will just start showing up and once their mob swells to a certain size their capable of unstoppable destruction.

This could wipe out many farms in the east and south around Irelands two biggest cities. Any easy access farm will be on the path of this desperate mob and they will be unstoppable.
As we've seen in the London riots when people get into that mob behaviour their morals go out the window.

southcentralts

I think I have taken this thread a little off topic in the realms of long term survival, for which there are other threads for that discussion.

For a zombie outbreak the main factor is its origin.
1. Zombie awakening - The already dead arise and attack the living, killing them, and I do not know how accurate I am here but I believe the people die and are reawakened as a zombie, scratch or a bite will inflict a death sentence through some infection but any regular death will also result in a zombie. I am taking this from a radio announcement in night of the living dead which only states that the dead are coming back to life and attacking the living, and the implication from then on is that death results in a zombie. This is a deathly scenario as the affects are global. Good luck if you are a mortician, or medical examiner, guaranteed to be the last to expect it and the first to realize it.

2. Viral infection outbreak - infection passed through bite or scratch, usually originates in one location spreading worldwide. Not sure this scenario is as viable today with decades of planning for quarantine procedures, unless it is released on purpose at global population centers simultaneously. If one of these movies was made in the fifties in america, could they have gotten away with not creating a cure in the end?

Cannot think of any others at the moment, but welcome any discussion or correction on the first one.

So who will be picked off first, sadly it is those prone towards healing the sick and injured, paramedics, doctors and nurses who will be the first to go as a result of not expecting zombies, but who would.

southcentralts

Absolutely right about mob mentality scumlord, you should check out Derren Brown's experiments series, where in one episode the audience was masked and asked to make group decisions about the events of one persons evening, the masks essentially removed their individuality allowing them to make negative choices with an increasing percentage. Wont spoil the end, but it does show how the group will make a different choice to what an individual will.

In one decision, the subject will enter a shop and either - be rewarded as 100,000th customer or be arrested for shoplifting, and if you ask a person to choose they will not want to appear cruel and will choose the reward, but as a group the negative option is selected, does this imply that our darker side can emerge more easily as part of a group? And what was really interesting was the fact that these decisions did not appear through any internal incitement from a member of the group which would occur within a mob, the sheeple effect, he said it but I am going along with it. Everyone still had their individual choice, but were suffering from group mentality.

storker

ScumLord wrote: »

Don't worry, there's no need for everybody to start a blind panic. There will of course be spuds throughout Ireland. Irish spuds are unique to the Irish pallet so they have to be grown here, they're even exported into the UK as Irish can't get Irish spuds over there.

Every one with a bit of a vegetable patch grows spuds as they're incredibly easy to grow and have high yield. The Chinese are even encouraging the local Chinese farmers to switch from rice to spuds because potatoes are just better.

Perfect, and parents can can subdivide their potato patch among their kids, who will in turn subdivide...oh, wait...

Stork