Hard News: Sharing the Wealth
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Rich Lock, in reply to
The viral spreading of the undead infection has never been convincing. The most dangerous viruses are the ones with a long infectious period before you show any signs.
Anti zombie combat is also quite easy. Only with massive weight of numbers are they any threat at all, and even then, finding a simple defensive line will enable even the most lightly armed defense to inflict 100% casualties.
For containment, there's the difficulty of recognising an outbreak for what it is in time to set up effective quarantine lines - 'yeah, they're walking dead. Of course they are. GTF out of my office'.
World War Z deals with both these points quite well, although it's zombieism has a long enough incubation to allow the infected to move undetected within the large numbers of refugees before they succumb. It also makes the point that a lot of modern weapons are designed to incapacitate or injure humans, and have a psychological element to them that doesn't affect the walking dead.
It is being made into a film, but I'm not all that hopeful it'll translate well from page to screen.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
The most dangerous viruses are the ones with a long infectious period before you show any signs. Zombieism strikes me as easily containable.
Indeed. I keep wondering how they’ve managed to fuck it up that badly in the Walking Dead universe. Surely New Zealand and other Pacific islands are still okay? Perhaps the NZ-hosted root server is what keeps the internet going for the rest of the world. Not very confident about China though. That’s probably wall-to-wall walkers.
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It also makes the point that a lot of modern weapons are designed to incapacitate or injure humans, and have a psychological element to them that doesn't affect the walking dead.
Yes, no one expects a zombie wave. Having said that, massive waves of armed combatants in WW1 were effectively cut down using weak old machine guns. Since the undead do not tool up, and will go straight toward any sounds of combat, any line of people with modern automatic weapons should be able to kite them into kill zones and just keep hosing away until they run out. Even just using batons, a group of people lined up should be able to beat down any horde advancing on them - ancient infantry battles were like this and even small weaponry, tactical and strategic advantages were often decisive. It's not fiction that the 300 defended a pass against hundreds of times their numbers at Sparta. Any alley way in which desperate living humans faced an undead horde would end up piled high with corpses.
I'd back the living against the undead, even more than I'd back humans against animals.
True, but the influenza virus doesn't chase you around the city on two legs, so it's swings and roundabouts.
Being chased, you have a chance to evade, and even to kill the chaser. Sneezed at by a friend or loved one, no chance.
Not very confident about China though. That’s probably wall-to-wall walkers.
Yeah, Kung Fu walkers at that. Their style is strong.
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