What would zombies actually look like

ScumLord

A scene in the last walking dead highlighted the fact hollywood has a defined look for zombies. They end up looking like a month old corpse that's been dragged through a bush in the space of a minute.

Walking dead scene I'm on about:

In the scene with the downed helicopter they come across one dead pilot cut in half, he looks totally normal but dead, 1 minute later he reanimates with new eye colour, a disfigured face and dirty teeth. For the most part I could accept it but for some reason the dirty teeth just crossed the line for me, how'd he get so disheveled in the space of one minute?

I don't think zombies will look anything like the hollywood version. I think for the most part people will get infected through fluids or minor scratches, in real life people won't just stand there screaming waiting for zombies to rip them apart. I think in most cases people will get away mostly intact. For human corpse to do any serious damage to another human it will take time and numbers, plus the other problem is if the zombie does too much damage he'll kill the person before they can get infected.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I think another defining characteristic of any aging zombie would be having their pants around their ankles. As they age the flesh will shrink (the zombie will probably be feeding off it's own flesh as it's only source of energy too) this will ultimately mean their pants will fall down as their waistline contracts.

NegativeCreep

It obviously depends on how long they've been dead :P A zombie that's been dead twenty years would just be a skeleton. A newly dead zombie will just look like us except with a blue or yellowish hue in their complexion :P

Porkchop McGee

The mainstream media ignores the stomach wrenching stink which accompanies rotting human flesh. Michael Jackson too.

ScumLord

Would zombies actually smell bad though? In the zombie survival guide it's mentioned that the zombie disease is toxic to all other living creatures, it's also a fact that decomposition is started by the bacteria in your gut, this leads to bloating which we don't see in zombies. All that would lead me to believe that zombies don't decompose as all the agents of decomposition like bacteria, fungus and insects die when they come into contact with zombies. Decomposition is fairly fast, if it was happening a zombie wouldn't last more than a month.

allibastor

you would be right that they would lose a severe amount of muscle mass and fat stores very fast, if they had to eat flesh surely the virus or what ever would start with the stores in the body itself. they would have sunken eyes, very loose skin everywhere

testicle

ScumLord

allibastor wrote: »

you would be right that they would lose a severe amount of muscle mass and fat stores very fast, if they had to eat flesh surely the virus or what ever would start with the stores in the body itself. they would have sunken eyes, very loose skin everywhere

That would be my take on it, the fact is if the body is dead they can't actually process food. With no heartbeat there's no way to get the nutrients to the muscles so the zombies only source of energy is it's own flesh.

degrassinoel

testicle wrote: »

That's hilarious! lol nice one

Pat Mustard

ScumLord wrote: »

another defining characteristic of any aging zombie would be having their pants around their ankles.

I think that they would be covered in parasites and fungi of various descriptions. Zombies would have pretty much no immune system to combat these parasites.

Zombies would also have a certain number of maggots and larvae attached to them in places where physical activity would not cause them to be brushed off. Top of the head, carried internally, etc.

Zombies wouldn't conciously brush off larvae.

I imagine that zombies would be eaten by rats and other scavengers, to some extent at least. So would the rat population go up due to more available zombies or down due to fewer humans and perhaps less available food? Off topic, but interesting.

Would zombies actually smell bad though?

In the book "World War Z", Max Brooks, author of the Zombie Survival Guide, described the stench from a crowd of zombies, as they approached a mountain pass in India, following some refugees. Granted, those zombies were probably recently reanimated (correct terminology?). However, as the smell is from the excreta of the bacteria consuming zombie tissue, then my guess is that the smell would remain while there was sufficient flesh attached to the zombie to allow bacteria to survive in large quantities.

So skeletal zombies might not smell too bad, but would you count skeletal zombies anymore? Would they lack the power to move due to lack of sufficient muscle?

Pat Mustard

ScumLord wrote: »

Would zombies actually smell bad though? In the zombie survival guide it's mentioned that the zombie disease is toxic to all other living creatures, it's also a fact that decomposition is started by the bacteria in your gut, this leads to bloating which we don't see in zombies. All that would lead me to believe that zombies don't decompose as all the agents of decomposition like bacteria, fungus and insects die when they come into contact with zombies. Decomposition is fairly fast, if it was happening a zombie wouldn't last more than a month.

Sorry, forgot to address your point about this.

I take your point about living beings dying, so rats and other animals would not bother zombies, in all likelihood.

I don't think that the zombies would last more than a few months, unless they had resistance to parasites.

Are you saying that they must be resistant to micro-organisms, by virtue of the fact that they survive longer than a few months?

ScumLord

The Mustard wrote: »

Are you saying that they must be resistant to micro-organisms, by virtue of the fact that they survive longer than a few months?

Yes, if they're not resistant to bacteria they will decompose rapidly. Some of the bacteria that causes decomposition is in you during life helping you digest food. The moment you die that bacteria turns on you and starts breaking down your body.

It's the smell of decomposing flesh that attracts all the other creatures like flies.

archicraft

Are yee guys prepared for an actual res evil type zombie outbreak? :eek:.....I mean are yee tooled up, pump actions & pistols !

degrassinoel

Personally speaking, nope.

I'm one of those types that WANTS to be a zombie

allibastor

archicraft wrote: »

Are yee guys prepared for an actual res evil type zombie outbreak? :eek:.....I mean are yee tooled up, pump actions & pistols !

Not with guns, but i do own a collection of very very sharp swords. i think they would be better.

GeorgeVerne

like my avatar X)

degrassinoel

GeorgeVerne wrote: »

like my avatar X)

is that a power ranger?

GeorgeVerne

degrassinoel wrote: »

is that a power ranger?

lol. no. i was an actor in a zombie apocalypse themed music video. its actually a rap song, which i usually despise, but this one was actually pretty sweet :cool:

heres the link if u wana see it

Mod Edit:posting it once in it's own topic is enough, I've given you an infraction for this post as a warning, and suggest you read the charter before continuing to post the same link in every post. Thanks, DGN