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Author Topic: A practical approach to preparing for the zombie apocalypse  (Read 3509 times)

Soadreqm

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Re: A practical approach to preparing for the zombie apocalypse
« Reply #15 on: November 15, 2010, 02:04:23 pm »

Actually, I'm pretty sure that no matter what the numbers, the zombies are going to lose. Humanity has a weapon of tremendous power, that can hold back the zombies indefinitely. Walls. No matter how many zombies there are, they can't tear a hole into a concrete wall with their bare hands. Unless they also get some serious superpowers from their undeath. In which case it would be more of a vampire apocalypse, really.

Anyway, I think duct taping some power tools into my hands would give me something of an edge. Enough of an edge to defeat the living, holed up in their impenetrable fortresses? Who knows. :o
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Ephemeriis

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Re: A practical approach to preparing for the zombie apocalypse
« Reply #16 on: November 15, 2010, 02:21:54 pm »

Actually, I'm pretty sure that no matter what the numbers, the zombies are going to lose. Humanity has a weapon of tremendous power, that can hold back the zombies indefinitely. Walls. No matter how many zombies there are, they can't tear a hole into a concrete wall with their bare hands.

The thing that I always found creepy about zombies was their persistence.  Sure, the new fast zombies are scary because they'll actually run you down and catch you...  But, like you said, a wall makes a nice obstacle.

But they aren't going anywhere.  They're dead.  They don't need to eat, or drink, or breathe, or sleep, or anything.  They're just going to hang around out there, waiting for you.

Eventually you'll get hungry, or thirsty, or you'll run out of ammo, or you'll forget to lock the doors behind you, or the years will simply weather down your nice cement wall...  And eventually they'll get in.  It's only a matter of time.
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ChairmanPoo

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Re: A practical approach to preparing for the zombie apocalypse
« Reply #17 on: November 15, 2010, 02:24:55 pm »

I think I've said it elsewhere, but I think that a good deal of the appeal of zombie novels is the harmlessness of zombies. Sure, we are informed that many people get killed, but at the end of the day the characters are still facing slow, rotting dudes for whom minor obstacles are insurmountable. And that's when the reader thinks "Shit, I could survive very well in that world", and the supposed horror book turns into an escapist fantasy.
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Soadreqm

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Re: A practical approach to preparing for the zombie apocalypse
« Reply #18 on: November 15, 2010, 03:38:44 pm »

But they aren't going anywhere.  They're dead.  They don't need to eat, or drink, or breathe, or sleep, or anything.  They're just going to hang around out there, waiting for you.

Eventually you'll get hungry, or thirsty, or you'll run out of ammo, or you'll forget to lock the doors behind you, or the years will simply weather down your nice cement wall...  And eventually they'll get in.  It's only a matter of time.

Well, if you plan to stay in your impenetrable fortress for all eternity, you can set up some farms. And water won't become an issue if you have something like an ocean or a river or an aquifer nearby, or maybe just decent rainfall. You shouldn't really NEED much ammunition since most of the zombies are locked outside. And since the zombies provide an infinite energy source, you won't be needing things like fuel.

I think it's kind of sad how rarely the zombie stories have zombies tied to treadmills and forced to generate power for the humans they seek to eat. That would be such a human thing to do. Coal? Burn it to power a steam turbine. Oil? Burn it in an internal combustion engine. A river? Route it through some turbines. Wind? Turbines again. Waves? Tides? Sun? Nuclear fission? There is basically no way that someone isn't going to wring some electricity out of it. And then you have this huge and growing resource of untiring, clinically immortal beasts that require neither rest nor sustenance and cheerfully ignore the second law of thermodynamics, and suddenly all anyone can do is shoot at them and squeal in terror.
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Realmfighter

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Re: A practical approach to preparing for the zombie apocalypse
« Reply #19 on: November 15, 2010, 04:45:21 pm »

Eventually your heart will grow weary, or you'll fall to fast, or your brain gets a clot, or the years will simply weather down your nice rational brain...  And eventually you'll die.  It's only a matter of time.

Fixed for you.
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