 Originally Posted by shootemindehead
With the sheer weight of numbers coming up those stairs, it would only have been a matter of time before the boys were doomed. If there weren't so many zombies around, the stairs could be an option. But the volume means that even if you kill a huge number that come up, the ones behind will eventually push through or scramble over to get (exhausted and terrified) you. Maybe they could have survived on the stairs for a while, but the eventually of the horde getting to them seems obvious to me. Plus they've limited ammo and I think only Glenn has a knife as a melee weapon. That's not enough and far too much of a risk.
Would you prefer to have to deal with the entire full front of the zombie horde coming at you all at once, as it happened to Nicholas and Glenn by staying on ground level, or would you prefer to deal with a few of them at a time, as it would happen on the stairs? I think the choice is obvious. Also keep in mind the zombie low IQ. People could rather easily squeeze through a blockade made out of a mattress, some barrels and pallets. Just moving the mattress a bit to the side they could have squeezed their way to the stairs. Zombies would basically be stumped here for a while. We have seen even more clumsy barriers stump them. The person who blocked the bottom of the stairs was trying to prevent zombies from making their way up, not people. His barrier is therefore hardly people-proof, but it would stump the zombies, who are not intelligent enough for planning strategy and use of their hands for anything other than grabbing and clawing at their prey. Zombies do not have the necessary level of intelligence to seek the easiest way through a barrier. Unlike people, they will not try to think first: "What can we remove to make it easier to pass through?". They will just try to push their way through, purely brute force, they understand nothing else. So that barrier would in fact be a benefit for Nicholas and Glenn. It would slow down the zombie flow into the stairs, which is not even wide enough to let many zombies through all at once. They could easily afford the luxury of catching their breath and start to look for ways into the building or to its roof, even if the upstairs door was blocked and locked. And any zombies that managed to make it through the barrier and to the stairs meanwhile can be dealt with. Both of them have guns and knives.
But, again, I have to point out that the luxury of mapping out all the possibilities is absent from the situation that Glenn and Nicholas find themselves in. The boys have a matter of seconds to choose where they are going to go and in that small amount of time, hopping over the fence and away certainly looks to be the better option.
In any case, the writing is set up to show the fence as the "way out" for Glenn and Nicholas. Michone's group pretty much scrambles over the same obstacle, so the viewer is led to believe that Glenn etc will do the same maneuver.
Either way, all the bets were only off when Nicholas shot himself. There are still options open to them up until then.
Michonne's group did not have the stairs option, they had to go over the fence, there was no other choice. Also, their fence was smaller, had bigger gaps and thus easier to climb, and also had no barbed wire. Glenn and Nicholas had another choice. And look at the length of that alley they were going through looking for exits. They had plenty of time to get a good idea of where they were going to end up at: a fence with barbed wire.
Nicholas opted out because he lost it. I don't think they were necessarily "screwed". The situation was bad for sure, but it wasn't game over. I think he'd been getting closer and closer to the edge all the way through that episode anyway. He'd been wracked with guilt and "collapsing from stress". His suicide was the culmination of a number of factors...not to mention script. 
By the time Nicholas kills himself the only option left is to try to jump to the barbed wire fence behind them, climb up and somehow make it to the roof of the nearby building from there. Their chances of making it were quite bleak.
True, there's a whole load of "mights" involved.
Still, out of all of the "options" available at the time, hopping onto the bin and over the fence looked to be the best one.
The only "plan" way getting away from the zombie horde and scaling the fence looked to be the best option to put distance between them and said horde. Only when we see that there are zombies on the other side of the fence, does that option look bad. By that time, the opportunity to clear the palettes and other crap, try the stairs and hope the door at the top isn't looked, is gone.
But, as I said, if Glenn and Nicholas had actually climbed onto the bin and over the fence, in much the same way as Michone's group climbed over the fence, and got away, nobody would even be talking about the stairs.
That jumping on the dumpster was not their original idea can be plainly seen by the fact that Glenn and Nicholas go straight for the fence first and totally ignore the dumpster. Getting on the dumpster was just their last desperate resource to try to avoid the zombie mob. And since it is not a very tall object the zombies can actually reach their feet/ankles, so it was hardly an ideal place to be. It's only a matter of time before either some zombies somehow manage to climb up (we have seen them climb up before, even though heights usually stump them) or, more probable, some of them manage to get a firm grasp of your clothes and start pulling you down by sheer force. Also, unlike the zombies, you are subject to exhaustion. They can be there standing up for hours, days and even weeks waiting for you. You can't. Sooner or later you are going to be very tired and finally collapse.
They have to clear the stairs first and that'll take time, which they don't have, plus it's leading up to a blocked door (which ore than likely is locked). The camera shoots to the stairs specifically to show that it's blocked. That was done for a reason. That path is full of resistance.
If you have moved a mattress similar to the one that was blocking the stairs you know that pushing it to the side would not take that long. The way that staircase was blocked even one person alone could have managed to make it through in time by simply moving the mattress a bit to the right. Behind the mattress you can see enough room to squeeze through and make it to the stairs. And if you have enough time before the zombies arrive, move the mattress back in place from the other side. That will make it even more difficult for the dumb zombies to figure out how to get through. That barrier would in fact be an advantage for the two escaping humans: easy enough for people to get through, but difficult enough to stump the zombies.
Usually, when chipboard is put over an entrance like that, it means the building has been locked up and not in use. I think it's safe to assume that the owner probably locked up his place to keep people out while he rode out the situation somewhere else. To me, with a few seconds to spare to make a life and death decision, running up a flight of stairs to hope that the door behind the chipboard isn't locked simply wouldn't be on the cards. There's far too many what ifs going on there, for that to be a logical "escape".
Sure, the window could be smashed, but nobody knows where that leads to or what's behind it either. Plus that takes time, there's the danger of glass, and possibly a drop to god knows what. Not to mention that the zombies following could climb through the same window.
In order to minimize the danger of the glass, first try to smash it real good. They had pallets available. Bang the glass panels very well and clear any dangerous shards.
The zombies could not have made it through the window. Why? Because it is above floor level and even if they manage to make it up the stairs, zombies in this series do not seem to be able to jump. Even though the window is close to the stairs, it is not right next to it. There is a gap between the stairs and the window. Hardly an obstacle for a human, who can simply jump or reach across, but certainly a barrier for a dumb zombie (remember how the zombies were stumped by the gap between the smashed window and the roofed walkway at the vet school?)
Again, we've had the luxury of seeing and debating all of the options at our leisure. Glenn and Nicholas didn't. They had to decide very quickly and their primary goal was getting away from the horde following them. Hopping over the fence instead of trapping yourself on the stairs looks to be the better way to escape. It's only when we see that there are zombies on the other side of the fence that the option of the stairs begins to look like an option at all. Hand on heart, if I was in the same situation, I'd have tried the fence too.
They had no time. That's the problem and their decisions are formed by the lack of that, fear, exhaustion and the want to put as much distance between themselves and the flesh eating horde that's after them. But Nicholas led Glenn down the wrong path, after saying he knew where to go and then compounded things by deciding to kill himself.
They were far from done on top of the dumpster. They had as much chance of riding out the situation on top of the dumpster as they did at the top of the stairs.
Look at how long that alley they went through is. They had plenty of time to see what waits ahead. They had two buildings with stairs leading up. It should have crossed their minds that they could be a possible escape route quite before they had reached the end of the alley. Even after Glenn fully realizes what a dead-end the end of the alley was, they still had time to head for the stairs and push the mattress to the side and attempt to get to the stairs. The zombies were still behind that building.
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Originally Posted by slayerized
That would be awesome! Or even a Steel and Rickles pair of walkers!
Quite difficult, seeing as all of them were torn to shreds by the zombies. The most we could see would maybe be their zombified heads. But how could they find their way out of the bunker, though? 
Bub is perfectly possible since he was a zombie, so no one tore him to pieces. Also, since he seems smarter than the average zombie it is also possible that he somehow found a way out of the bunker.
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There's just something about how they can't be reasoned with and they'll just keep on coming at you no matter what that really creeps me out ... The Wolves are extremely dangerous, but you can actually talk to them (like Morgan did 5x16), and you could even manage to trick them or confuse them etc. With walkers there's none of that - if they're on to you they'll just keep on coming! 
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