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Zombie Survival Skills
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Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain
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Christen
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 01:10PM)
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Oct 17, 2007 05:47AM
I was just wondering...what do you all think is the best way to "kill" a zombie? Obviously there are good ways to stop them from coming at you, but what would be your number one weapon or method for annihilation?
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I'd think arrows in the head would be the best--take the brain offline and you wouldn't have the racket of gunfire. I'm surprised more Zombie movies don't have their characters take a more medival approach, including armor.
Don't they use a chain mail variant for shark suits? That probably would be the way to go. And I'm realizing that we should probably specify: fast moving zombies or slow moving ones?
The question is, what is QUICKENING the zombie, or is the zombie even fully DEAD?
If the zombie is classic Haitian, there's a chance it's actually a person still alive who's been driven insane and convinced he or she is a mindless and/or homicidal automaton. Damage to the brain or spine will do the job on this for sure.
If the zombie is alive thanks to SPIRITUAL quickening of the flesh, I don't believe ANY amount of damage to the brain or spine will end the zombie's movement. You can chop it into bit, but it won't die. It is wholly and completely INFUSED with unnatural energy that maintains its kinetic energy, its neural spasms, its approximation of life. Cut it into pieces and dispose of it. If there are MANY, just get the hell out of there. You don't want to have something decapitated or cut in half wandering around on the ground to bite your ankles.
If the zombie is, as Max Brooks posits in the _Zombie Survival Guide_, quickened with an unknown virus that moves the brain and makes the flesh unpalatable to normal rotting bugs and processes, KNOCK THAT HEAD OFF. In your SPARE TIME, establish whether the BRAIN separated from the SPINE is still active. DO NOT take time in the thick of things to determine this. NEVER do science experiments in the moment. ASSUME zombies must be DESTROYED COMPLETELY if they're near you, and RUN FROM if they're in the distance. When you and your group get your zombie-killing legs under you, then you can decide how best to dispatch zombies. The best thing about them, as I've said before, is their predilections are WONDERFULLY predictable. They'll take your bait, they'll fall into stupid traps, they'll walk into certain destruction. That's a hell of an advantage, people.
Stay safe.
If the zombie is classic Haitian, there's a chance it's actually a person still alive who's been driven insane and convinced he or she is a mindless and/or homicidal automaton. Damage to the brain or spine will do the job on this for sure.
If the zombie is alive thanks to SPIRITUAL quickening of the flesh, I don't believe ANY amount of damage to the brain or spine will end the zombie's movement. You can chop it into bit, but it won't die. It is wholly and completely INFUSED with unnatural energy that maintains its kinetic energy, its neural spasms, its approximation of life. Cut it into pieces and dispose of it. If there are MANY, just get the hell out of there. You don't want to have something decapitated or cut in half wandering around on the ground to bite your ankles.
If the zombie is, as Max Brooks posits in the _Zombie Survival Guide_, quickened with an unknown virus that moves the brain and makes the flesh unpalatable to normal rotting bugs and processes, KNOCK THAT HEAD OFF. In your SPARE TIME, establish whether the BRAIN separated from the SPINE is still active. DO NOT take time in the thick of things to determine this. NEVER do science experiments in the moment. ASSUME zombies must be DESTROYED COMPLETELY if they're near you, and RUN FROM if they're in the distance. When you and your group get your zombie-killing legs under you, then you can decide how best to dispatch zombies. The best thing about them, as I've said before, is their predilections are WONDERFULLY predictable. They'll take your bait, they'll fall into stupid traps, they'll walk into certain destruction. That's a hell of an advantage, people.
Stay safe.
END NOTE: I don't believe zombies possess enough muscle memory or neurological memory to use even basic tools. George Romero's _Land of the Dead_ is factually inaccurate, but a frightening FANTASY. If, thanks to some zombie virus unbeknownst to us, this fantasy comes true, treat the zombies not as mindless automatons but dangerous, immortal enemy soldiers. Approach them and run from them as if they may be able to use basic weapons and tools and basic tactics, like ducking or going after WEAK members of your party, not ARMED ones. DO NOT under any circumstances assume the zombies are still people who can be trusted or interacted with. You are free to RUN from them if you feel squeamish or afraid of their possibly retaining any level of humanity, but NEVER put their undead lives above your own or other undead in importance. Never attempt to befriend them in ANY situation except if they are in total isolation and completely ALONE and unable to acquire undead reinforcements.
If _I Am Legend_ taught us anything, it's that it will NOT be possible in the future to safely live alongside a new mutation of humanity or a new undead race of humans in any way. They are the enemy at every moment. Your animal brutality, survival instinct, and reasoning ability are what will allow you to survive Mother Earth's newest predator--not compassion for a new and unreliable "race." Don't let the propaganda of science fiction stories about misunderstood alien races mislead you into death or the deaths of your trusted crew.
In a Class 4 zombie outbreak, If you don't UNDERSTAND the thing coming at you, KILL IT.
In a Class 4 zombie outbreak, If you don't UNDERSTAND the thing coming at you, KILL IT.
The shark suit idea is a stroke of genius! My sister is studying Marine Biology and was very happy to hear that she may be well suited for a zombie uprising.Not to be the buzz kill, but when reading and watching anything in the zombie genre, I always think of one thing--all of these killing techniques sound good in theory, but how many heads would you have to blow off or bodies would you chop up before life would no longer be worth living?
It would be awful to be forced to decpitate, dismember, mutilate, and gun down dozens, hundreds, thousands of monsters who resemble rotting human beings. Sometimes they'll even be the rotting versions of people you liked or loved when they weren't trying to gnaw your limbs off and gobble your insides out like the Devil's Pinata.
But it's US or THEM in those moments. In another thread, I said HOPE of a life where killing zombies ISN'T your primary daily and nightly occupation is the SAVIOR of people in the long run. Somebody in your group--or the whole group collaboratively--has to come up with a plan that sounds like it brings that dream to fruition.
But it's US or THEM in those moments. In another thread, I said HOPE of a life where killing zombies ISN'T your primary daily and nightly occupation is the SAVIOR of people in the long run. Somebody in your group--or the whole group collaboratively--has to come up with a plan that sounds like it brings that dream to fruition.
