Tannhauser ([info]spyinthehaus) wrote,
@ 2008-11-03 08:08:00
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Zombie catastrophe. What do you do - static, defensible position or stay mobile?

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[info]infov0re
2008-11-03 02:26 pm UTC (link)
After much discussion last night, it turns out that this question really revolves around the type of zombies. For instance: fast or slow? Watching Dead Set, we decided the best place to hole up would be a canal barge, simply because the zombies can't swim and they don't have much momentum in a jump.

That would not apply to fast zombies who could swim, or slow zombies, I don't think.

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[info]slightlyfoxed
2008-11-03 02:40 pm UTC (link)
Another really good reason to have a narrow boat (NB need to have mechanism ensuring neither end of boat drifts towards the bank when tethered mid-canal).

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[info]gloriamunty
2008-11-03 02:42 pm UTC (link)
See but, that was what I liked about the Dawn Of The Dead remake. Because they get to the boat, but then you see in the last flashes how hellish that turns out to be.

I like large, static, defensible position. I liked the mall.

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[info]spyinthehaus
2008-11-03 09:38 pm UTC (link)
Which I mentioned by email but yes - the big unasked question is "is there anywhere to go", of course. Oddly, the IMDB synopsis suggests that there is doubt as to whether or not the boat crew at the end of DotD survive, simply because we don't actually see them die, which is maybe a suggestion that people are quite eager for some species of happy ending (and get quite cross when they don't get one).

Even fast zombies don't seem to be very much cop at climbing or swimming - 28 Days Later, rabies, hydrophobia - so the idea of finding an island wasn't a terrible one, in that sense - although any island that had the means to support life would probably have a population and thus be problematic. As the mall showed, it's hard to maintain a quarantine when the vector can be an apparently normal person with a minor injury.

I think I may be freaking myself out again.

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[info]braisedbywolves
2008-11-03 05:59 pm UTC (link)
But how many zombies do you need to fill a canal?

Edited at 2008-11-03 05:59 pm UTC

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[info]spyinthehaus
2008-11-03 09:39 pm UTC (link)
Point. Maybe sail it out to the mouth of the Blackwater or similar?

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[info]ed_fortune
2008-11-03 02:38 pm UTC (link)
Static defensible position, roaming for supplies as needed. Hope the military isn't boned at the start.

The main problem is getting out of the cities in time, as few places in the city will be safe, due to weight of population.

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[info]spyinthehaus
2008-11-03 09:43 pm UTC (link)
True - although a chum pointed out the other day that if there are more people alive today than have lived before, and if corpses are only viable zombie material for, say, five years, the living would have the dead outnumbered, especially in high-density modern cities where people don't tend to be buried any more.

Having said which, those numbers would tip quite quickly, one imagines, especially in densely-populated areas with limited infrastructure.

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[info]blahflowers
2008-11-03 02:39 pm UTC (link)
Probably comes down to speed. If they are fast zombies, probably best to find a defensible position with occasional outside sorties, slow zombies give you the freedom to keep moving.

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[info]ciphergoth
2008-11-03 02:41 pm UTC (link)
If we're talking classic Romero zombies, static defensible position I think.

Fast zombies have the advantage that you only have to defend for a week or so, then they all die of starvation...

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[info]spyinthehaus
2008-11-03 09:47 pm UTC (link)
Only infected ones, alas - Dawn of the Dead and others have properly dead fast zombies, which is definitely cheating.

The Romero zombies... hmm. I think the problem with slow and stupid zombies is that you get overconfident and they get in, and eat you. Although the Tom Savini remake of Night of the Living Dead had Patricia Tallman realising that you could just run through the zombies, as long as they weren't too tightly packed, and push them over, whereas the people holed up in the house got pushed back into smaller and smaller boltholes, where greater speed and agility were of less and less use. Of course, that presupposes, again, that there is somewhere to run _to_.

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[info]eskimolimon
2008-11-03 03:25 pm UTC (link)
I love how everyone has clearly pondered this question prior to you asking it!

I'd stay mobile, I think, depending on who I was with and what resources we had. If I found a medieval castle in good shape I'd be tempted to stay there, though.

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[info]spyinthehaus
2008-11-03 09:48 pm UTC (link)
I love how everyone has clearly pondered this question prior to you asking it!


I genuinely think that I have spent more time considering how to deal with zombies than how to deal with stagflation.

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[info]invisible_al
2008-11-03 03:34 pm UTC (link)
Well mobile to get out of the city to a defensible position in the countryside, with lower population density, less zombies and more chance of living off the land.

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[info]von_doom
2008-11-03 03:47 pm UTC (link)
What is this, 2003?

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[info]spyinthehaus
2008-11-03 09:48 pm UTC (link)
Oh, Americans.Dead Set is out on DVD today - if you have a region-free DVD player, go for it.

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[info]von_doom
2008-11-03 10:20 pm UTC (link)
Stop living in the past, man.

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[info]von_doom
2008-11-03 10:32 pm UTC (link)
http://stuffgeekslove.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/zombies/

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[info]fridgemagnet
2008-11-03 03:58 pm UTC (link)
Find a mall and dig in with other survivors until the barricades eventually fall, then die. Wander around for a bit killing the living until revived. Wander around for another three years, alternating between alive and undead, and eventually concentrate on building up an outfit of rare and mismatching clothing.

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[info]spyinthehaus
2008-11-03 09:49 pm UTC (link)
Complain about lack of new content.

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[info]braisedbywolves
2008-11-03 05:58 pm UTC (link)
Definitely static defensible position, but that will probably mean getting the hell out of town due to population density.

Have you seen the Zombie Survival Guide and/or World War Z by Max Brooks? The former is a good light well-"researched" read, and the latter is a collection of accounts of survivors of the war, very convincing and in places properly terrifying.

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[info]davidbarnett
2008-11-03 06:13 pm UTC (link)
The Lake District. Up a mountain that takes a bit of a climb to get to. Zombies can't do ropework, surely.

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[info]prayinmantis
2008-11-04 03:36 am UTC (link)
static. def.

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