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[Fniff]

We aren't really dealing with Romero zombies, it seems. I think the desert would have a definite effect on them, but it is possible that animals can be infected.

[scriver]

Well, we have to assume only humans can be zombiefied or else there'll be no chance of surviving whatsoever. Imagine all the billions of rats living around us now going zombie, for example. They can get in anywhere, is too silent to hear and can bite through your clothes regardless of thickness. Oh, and there's literally billions of them. All heading towards you. Or hell, zombie cockroaches. Or flies or mosquitoes. You can't avoid them.

And that's disregarding the biggest source of protein just became uneatable for survivors. So yeah, we have to assume it's human only or at least limited to just a few species.

[penguinofhonor]

Update on bath salts: my brother and his friends were talking about them with reference to this last night. They're the kind of people who I'd expect to do dumb stuff like actually snorting bath salts, though.

[Loud Whispers]

Well, we have to assume only humans can be zombiefied or else there'll be no chance of surviving whatsoever. Imagine all the billions of rats living around us now going zombie, for example. They can get in anywhere, is too silent to hear and can bite through your clothes regardless of thickness. Oh, and there's literally billions of them. All heading towards you. Or hell, zombie cockroaches. Or flies or mosquitoes. You can't avoid them.

And that's disregarding the biggest source of protein just became uneatable for survivors. So yeah, we have to assume it's human only or at least limited to just a few species.

I lol'd

[shadenight123]

i recall resident evil and the zombie elephants though.
well let's consider medium sized mammals, since a rat if eaten would practically leave no head and little to no mobility.
still, cold beats zombies.
or ultra heat beats zombies if rotting process is increased till muscles rot and there's nothing but bones left.

[kaijyuu]

Zombified bacteria. Uh oh.

[scriver]

Hell, flies would be one of the biggest dangers even if they weren't zombiefied themselves. They'd fly around the rotting human zombies all day, or even mature on/in them, getting whatever it is that causes zombiefication all over themselves. Then they end up around you. Perhaps they land on a wound you got, or just on your food. And then you're infected, without ever even knowing what caused it.

[SalmonGod]

That's one of the things that is always overlooked in zombie stories (of the undead variety, anyway).  The greatest danger in that scenario would be massive explosions in disease.  Rotting corpses would be smearing themselves all over everything, and the plagues of carrion insects would be unbelievable.

I know a single zombie story which gives a nod to this - The Monster Trilogy by David Wellington, which I highly recommend.  The last in the series is set like 10 years after the beginning of the outbreak.  It summarizes what life was like in the years since the first two novels, which took place in the beginning of the outbreak.  After everyone who couldn't defend themselves was weeded out, disease and starvation went to work on the rest.  Every break on your skin was potentially life-threatening, and then there was disease from eating rotten or uncooked food.  Botulism from canned goods is mentioned many times.  It's pretty grimdark.  It also has a very fun and least campy explanation for why the dead start getting uppity.

[Sirus]

Zombie Survival Guide, and possibly World War Z, touched on that. It emphasized how bodies should be burned or otherwise disposed of as soon as possible, the importance of keeping wounds covered and clean, and how you should stay out of any cities thanks to the aforementioned carrion animals and diseases.

[penguinofhonor]

ZSG also handwaved that by saying that most microbes couldn't survive on zombie meat.

[kaijyuu]

Which makes no sense unless the zombie agent is an antibacterial substance, capable of breaking down cell walls or somesuch.


Not to mention rotting being impossible without microbes. Proteins might denature over time but wouldn't produce green skin/etc.

[RedWarrior0]

Hm... What happens if zombie microbes get zombified by eating zombified cells?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Which makes no sense unless the zombie agent is an antibacterial substance, capable of breaking down cell walls or somesuch.


Not to mention rotting being impossible without microbes. Proteins might denature over time but wouldn't produce green skin/etc.

I believe that the ZSG states that Solanum is aggressive towards other microbial life, and ZSG Zombies don't rot. They last until the brain is destroyed or they are physically compromised by the elements.

[Sirus]

Which makes no sense unless the zombie agent is an antibacterial substance, capable of breaking down cell walls or somesuch.


Not to mention rotting being impossible without microbes. Proteins might denature over time but wouldn't produce green skin/etc.

I believe that the ZSG states that Solanum is aggressive towards other microbial life, and ZSG Zombies don't rot. They last until the brain is destroyed or they are physically compromised by the elements.

Actually, in the ZSG it states that a very few species of microbes will in fact feed on a zombie. They still decompose...just much, much slower than a normal body

[ChairmanPoo]

Not to mention rotting being impossible without microbes.

This is not true. Autolysis will break down a body pretty fast.