Zombie Apocalypse Challenge

[gillan1220]

Jun 13, 2021 14:38:17 GMT ukron said:

Something I never truly understand, in most zombie movies or video games, is the total lack of quick understanding of how zombies are "working": it would take only some minutes for a civilian to understand that the head is the "absolute" target (Shaun of the Dead is a clear instance).

Most zombie media take place where zombie pop-culture does not exist so that's why the characters are clueless.

[ukron]

Even at this point that's dubious, i guess that a lot of people will react fast enough to understand that hitting head is the "to do" thing, zombie pop-culture or not.

[belushitd]

It might be instructive to read John Ringo's Under a Graveyard Sky. He's thought through a large chunk of what is discussed in this thread, and done so well enough that there's 4 books in the main series, and at least two or three anthologies of short stories written by Ringo and others.

There's, admittedly, a bit of handwavium involved in the origin, but he does a pretty good job of making it plausible. Only issue is that the virus in question does unpleasant things to the brain, so I'm not sure it strictly qualifies as Zombies, depending on how nitpicky you wish to be.

Belushi TD

[ukron]

Interestingly enough, few have really talk or developp original ways to create zombie: for instance i find the viral hypothesis often too exagerated ( a viral disease is often linked to various reaction by immune system and people tend to react differently) when on the other hand Prion is a good way for some zombie (little known by scientists and public, symptoms are mostly linked to Brain and neural functions, no cure and highly letal).

[kunkmiester]

This was one of the threads that got me to join up here.

My original zombie I thought up was actually two things--a lab escaped weaponized rabies, and a bioengineered bioenergy bacteria. The engineered rabies was intended to create panic in cities, but would be easy to contain after release since outside of the initial aerosol it's only transmitted by a bite. The other one was a bit more handwaved, the idea was a bacteria modified to produce sugar powered by cosmic microwave background or something. When it gets loose, it produced the fuel for life without need for input. Combine the two, and poof. You get bit and while the rabies is killing your frontal lobe, the bacteria is colonizing your body and producing the energy to keep it going.

Second idea kills all the birds with one stone: aliens with a poetic sense of justice decide humanity is not worth keeping around in its current form and decide to destroy civilization with horror. A single engineered organism, initial spread is nanites sprays over cities before people realize what they're doing, can be spread by any biting insect and other mammals can serve as reserviors.

The second would also have some Resident Evil vibes, as the disease would be designed so that attempts to deal with it trigger mutations that make things worse, including people not loosing intellect when becoming zombies, and it starting to affect other species. The negation is another opposing race that anciently seeded earth with werebeings, so as things descend towards Gears of War it's not completely helpless, though the earth becomes uninhabitable.

Fun?