AMC's The Walking Dead

[21]

I would think a second or third floor of a secure building would be the best refuge. They can't climb the outside of walls, and you've got a good sniper to just sit and pick them off as you have opportunities. If you're in a non populous area, eventually you could get the zombie count down to manageable. Trying to do that in a major metro area would be pissing on a brush fire, though.

Didn't they all make it up to the rooftop where the Deliverance brother was chained to the pipe? I think these zombies are mobile.

 

[bigpern23]

It's a damn shame it's going to take that long before it comes back ... they'll be lucky to retain 2 million viewers.

 

[outofplace]

Nerds

Says the guy who was torn between the Steelers game and this last week.

It was meant as a joke, KY. I may be the nerdiest nerd around here between this, sci-fi and comic books.

 

[Armchair_QB]

I would think a second or third floor of a secure building would be the best refuge. They can't climb the outside of walls, and you've got a good sniper to just sit and pick them off as you have opportunities. If you're in a non populous area, eventually you could get the zombie count down to manageable. Trying to do that in a major metro area would be pissing on a brush fire, though.

Didn't they all make it up to the rooftop where the Deliverance brother was chained to the pipe? I think these zombies are mobile.

Yep. But I think his point is that if you can keep them out of the building or rig the stairs so they couldn't use them you'd be fine.

 

[93Devil]

A building does not work because you need fresh water and food. An island could give you that.

I don't think these things have the ability to walk through mud, like you would find at the bottom of a lake or a river. Plus, a river would have current, but the current could bring floating zombies to you.

 

[RickStain]

Now it just depends on what kind of outbreak you are talking about.

Class 3 or lower, going to an island is probably overkill. The danger of trying to get to a boat and an island isn't worth it versus waiting it out in a secure, multi-level building.

But once you get to a class 4 outbreak, then yes, a nice island would be great. If not that, you need to get to somewhere equally remote.

 

[93Devil]

Walking-Dead type outbreak, which is a world-is-ending type of event.

 

[Shoeless Joe]

I would think a second or third floor of a secure building would be the best refuge. They can't climb the outside of walls, and you've got a good sniper to just sit and pick them off as you have opportunities. If you're in a non populous area, eventually you could get the zombie count down to manageable. Trying to do that in a major metro area would be pissing on a brush fire, though.

Didn't they all make it up to the rooftop where the Deliverance brother was chained to the pipe? I think these zombies are mobile.

Yep. But I think his point is that if you can keep them out of the building or rig the stairs so they couldn't use them you'd be fine.

Yeah, yeah, I was talking about somewhere unlike a department store that had big glass walls they could crash through. It would have to be somewhere you could secure.

I also didn't mean to permanently barricade yourself in. You'd still need to go out and forage for food/water/ammo when the opportunity presented itself.

That's why I said this would be a good way to stay safe in a location that was a small town where the number of zombies would be relatively low as compared to a city where you'd have to deal with tens of thousands all the time.

The island scenario is good, but I figure a nice building would be easier to come by than a viable island, at least in most places. If you lived near the coast, you'd be hooked up.

 

[CentralIllinoisan]

Some Photoshop fun, starring my son Jake.

 

[TrooperBari]

The only thing that bothers me is how these things could have taken over the world to begin with. They aren't exactly fast and understanding that it may have taken a week or so for people to figure out that they die and come back to life and can only be killed by being hit in the brain, wouldn't mankind be able to kill them faster than they could come to life?

The flashback at the start of the episode where the National Guard/troops kill the humans in the hospital with automatic weapons and then get over run by zombies seems highly unlikely.

Not only would it take people awhile to figure out that "HOLY shirt, PEOPLE ARE RISING FROM THE DEAD," they wouldn't necessarily know that they need to pierce the brain to kill them (I guess you have to assume that the people in worlds infested with zombies were not familiar with the concept of zombies until they actually existed). As noted in 'Zombieland' the careless people who don't "double-tap" the dead are likely to become a meal.

Agreed. You have to bear in mind that modern medicine has never encountered anything like a zombie outbreak, so the first time could also be the last. People who suggest there are, in fact, zombies will be dismissed as nerds, fantasists, alarmists or mentally ill because such things are unprecedented.

As I said earlier in the thread, it takes a lot less to turn a human into a zombie than a zombie into a fully fledged corpse.

 

[TrooperBari]

I'm not sure we'll ever get the answer as to how the outbreak started and how we got to this point with so many zombies. It seems no matter the answers given, they always fall short of expectations.

I believe Jenner said in the finale that the global outbreak was 60-something days in. Although, an origin or ground zero is never given.

Does there need to be a reason? I don't say that to be snarky. It's just that why zombies suddenly exist almost seems secondary compared to the human drama that takes place in the middle of the outbreak. The original "Night of the Living Dead" only mentioned a theory in passing (something about radioactive contamination from space). Unless the production is catering to hardcore zombiephiles or the cause is something average people can relate to/control (such as additives or preservatives in food), it might be best just to avoid the issue altogether.

Has a movie or series proposed, and actually came up with, a cure for zombies other than destroying the brain? I can't think of one. There was something along those lines in the alternate endings to "28 Days Later," but the director panned it as being unworkable.

 

[TrooperBari]

I would take a zombie hostage or cage it. Try to make my way to an island of some sort that should be zombie free, leaving the caged zombie on mainland I would check the zombie to see about once every few months to see if it had died.

I'm guessing zombies cannot cross bodies of water.

Maybe live on a boat and anchor it close to a shore?

They can walk along the bottom nearly indefinitely. The Zombie Survival Guide says this is a viable option, though one that people frequently overestimate, but you *must* have someone who watches your anchor line 24/7, because a zombie at the bottom of the water can climb up the line.

If we're talking lakes or rivers, absolutely. Crossing oceans could be extremely difficult, though, what with all the predators and the extreme pressures in the depths of the ocean.

I imagine places like Hawaii or Guam wouldn't be too bad provided they caught on early. They each have a significant military presence and could easily be locked down -- no flights or ships in or out -- to limit the contagion, a la Israel in "World War Z." The trick would be providing food and water for 1.3 million people at short notice (there's only so much poi to go around, unfortunately) and keeping order.