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http://www.gunsandammo.com/2011/11/03/k ... bie-types/Research has shown that mankind is not completely prepared for the zombie apocalypse, so in order to better prepare you and your family, here’s a list of ten zombie facts you might not have thought about.
1. You can’t drown them.
They’re dead, right? So drowning them, or trying to, is a waste of time. I don’t know if they would simply walk along the bottom of a lake, river or moat, and lurch up the other side, but being underwater isn’t going to be a solution. Besides, who wants to risk a lake full of zombie carp?
2. They can still react.
Not think, really, but they can see, hear, and until the rot reaches their nasal cavities, smell. So, you can’t hide yourself and your location by simply stretching a tarp over an otherwise open window or doorway. You have to do better than that. They’re dead, not inert.
3. It’s not just infection.
Before the surge in zombie research, there was one commonly accepted origin of zombies: voodoo. So, the next time you are thinking of booking a cruise that stops in ports where voodoo is a commonly accepted practice, think again.
4. There are no pack zombies.
With no real social order, zombies don’t travel in packs. However, what catches the eye of one zombie is likely to ensnare the attention of the next one along, too. So, where there’s one, there are probably more. They just aren’t there together.
5. Endo or exo?
That is, are zombies endothermic or exothermic? For those who slept through the tech classes in school, do they generate heat? Simple answer: No, they’re undead. Well, most are. The viral zombies, the fast-movers who are amped-up corpses, have to be exothermic. But the shufflers are endothermic. So, in a cold snap, the shufflers are going to shuffle slower and slower until they freeze. Of course, at the next thaw… Meanwhile, the fast-movers will move a bit slower, but still move quickly.
6. They’re zombies, not terminators.
While a zombie can “terminate” you, they aren’t unstoppable death-dealing machines. Keep that in mind while you’re being “stalked” by a shuffler, or you spot a fast-mover reacting to your presence. Stay calm, and keep in mind the next fact:
7. The head is the goal, but there are ways to get there.
Since zombies don’t have firearms, they have to reach you to infect you. That means that if you remove the means of locomotion, you can run or reload. So, with a stout enough cartridge you can take a pelvic or thigh bone shot, drop them to the ground, and finish them off as they pull themselves towards you — they aren’t going to stop, remember?
8. Fire is bad.
Yes, unlike drowning, fire will kill a zombie, but that’s the meager good news. The bad news is, it won’t notice being on fire — they’re dead, how many times do I have to repeat that? — so it will simply spread the fire everywhere they shamble. Put down that Molotov cocktail.
9. The idea of zombies.
They entered our awareness, with that word, in 1929, in a novel. That same year, the stock market crashed, and the Great Depression began. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide that one.
10. Not all undead are zombies.
Fans of Buffy will be aware of that. There is more deadness walking the earth than just zombies. Vampires are dead. Mummies are dead. A lot of 401Ks are dead, and I know of at least one dead Plymouth Fury that still moves. They all need something different to kill them, and if you get it wrong, you’re toast. Or a zombie/vampire/movie of the week star.
There you go; ten things you might not have known, forgotten, or just didn’t care about. Get back to reading the CDC reports on viral outbreaks, and avoiding people with really hacking coughs.
Prepare. Be Zombie Aware.You have to know your zombie types, not because you treat them any differently — head shots rule, always keep that in mind — but the different types will inform how you act when you leave the secret hidden bunker. I’ve listed research and documentary films that will aid you in your fight against the zombies.
1. Voodoo: The original, the “no problem, mon” zombie was a product of the witch doctor. Using powerful drugs and hypnotic suggestion, a person’s will could be stripped away and becoming a tool of the doctor. The drugs were so strong that the zombie could only move slowly with great effort. Theoretically, the condition could be reversed, but it depended on knowing what drugs were used (See: Live and Let Die, 1973).
2. Radiation: Radiation causes two types of zombies. The first was uncovered in the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, where we see the now-common shuffling, decaying, flesh-eating zombies who have some tool use. We learn how to kill them, and also of importance, that fire disposes of them permanently. A second class of radiation zombies was described in Night of the Comet (1984), and these zombies, while dead and decaying, are still sentient and able to converse, and move more quickly than the shufflers
When the researchers came back to cover the Night of the Living Dead territory again in a 1990 documentary of the same name — confusing, but hey, that’s zombie research for you — we watched Patricia Tallman disposing of various zombies, finding far enough into their undeadness that they cannot use tools.
The British researched the slow, shuffling stupid zombie in Shaun of the Dead (2004), where we find that a cricket bat is a fine disposal tool, although I still worry about transmission of the zombie effect from splatter.
3. Scientists: Basically, it goes something like this: “Hey Bob, this is one ferocious hamster you’ve infected with this mutated virus. What say we see what it does to something bigger.” Then the infected guard/attack dog bites them, and like the stupid morons they are, they go to a hospital and don’t tell anyone what they have. While some are slow, shuffling, stupid and awkward, some are not. More on those in a bit.
Viral zombies are particularly dangerous. Where the zombies have to catch and bite you to infect you, their slow speed makes that relatively easy. But viral zombieism can be spread much more easily.
Scientists also reanimate the dead — see the excellent Re-Animator (1985) as reference — giving us even more reasons to make sure that all wearers of white lab coats receive adult supervision at all times.
4. Viral: The viral zombie is most often the fast mover, a very animate, albeit still quite stupid, undead creature. They can move quickly and are strong enough to climb obstacles that would give a parkour enthusiast reason to pause. This speed is also a weakness. Where the shufflers can be killed only by cracking the skull — thus exposing their brains to oxygen, the one thing that stops its function — the viral fast-mover can be killed simply by running out of energy — us — to eat. Shoot a shuffler through the body, and it keeps going until it rots to nothing. Shoot a viral fast-mover, and it will eventually stop, but not until it has chased you into the next county.
Viral fast-movers can be killed most quickly with headshots, or separating the head from the body. But if you have the means, you can settle for busting them up and leaving the A.O. For more information on this, consult Zombieland (2009) and 28 Days Later (2002).
5. Supernatural: Everyone knows that there is no such thing as a supernatural zombie, as there are no supernatural forces. Let’s get real here.
