Hiding away from the dead!!

[Billythezombie]

Hey im not sure if this topic has already been discussed here (which it probably already has) but Lets say there is a zombie breakout, only a few zombies at first (maybe 20 or so in suburbian areas), would the average person, hiding in their house, be able to close the blinds, shutters, curtains swiftly without the zombie seeing, and would the zombies know you were in a house if they couldn't see you and you were reaaaaallly quiet?

Me and my sister have discussed this...could this be an effective method to temporarilly hide? Or maybe the zombies may be able to sense you "presence" wihtin the house.

[EvilNed]

I always felt that the zombies strongest sense was their hearing. They locate their prey with their hearing and then zoom in with their eyes. Their sense of smell seems to allow them to identify live meat from other meat.

[Billythezombie]

that is true zombies do have very good hearing...but however, they are just dead humans, meaning they only have the abilities of a normal human, is this correct, or am i way off here?

[krakenslayer]

Assuming we're talking about Romero zombies, I agree with Ned about their sense of hearing. Also I think their attention will be drawn to things like lights inside houses.

I'm not sure how much of a part smell plays - since a zombie only uses the structures present in a human body, its sense of smell can be no better than ours. Since a human would probably not be able to tell the difference between the smell of a recently dead person and that of a living person, I doubt a zombie would be so good at telling the difference by the olfactory sense alone. I think they differentiate by a combination of thermo-tactile (is it warm?), visual, olfactory and, if it comes down to it, taste, combined with some basic cognition to help them make sense of all this sensory input.

[Billythezombie]

i definitely agree with this!! hearing would play a major factor in them catching you...but with smell and all that, wouldnt be too much better than our own.

So! do you think, by wearing make up and dressing like a zombie, a very convincing zombie, they would know that you were alive?/

[krakenslayer]

i definitely agree with this!! hearing would play a major factor in them catching you...but with smell and all that, wouldnt be too much better than our own.

So! do you think, by wearing make up and dressing like a zombie, a very convincing zombie, they would know that you were alive?/

It would probably work for a little while - like in Shaun of the Dead. But herd-type behaviour seems to be a big factor in zombie psychology, so you'd only have to brush against one zombie and for it to feel the warmth of your skin, and you'd have them all coming down on you.

The original script for Dawn had a scene where a zombie goes to bite another corpse's arm but recoils on feeling the cold flesh. If that happened to you, you're screwed.

[Billythezombie]

ahh yeah true sooner or later they would see past your charade and then...well...your dead..

[capncnut]

I'm not sure how much of a part smell plays - since a zombie only uses the structures present in a human body, its sense of smell can be no better than ours.
I would say smell plays no part in it. The only time I can smell another human is when they fart - I assume it's the same for a zombie. :D

Sight is basically the main sense it uses. But all this talk of zombies noticing lights being turned off and stuff - there are zombies in Romero's films that don't even take notice when people run beside them. I would say it's down to the individual zombie. If he/she was a clueless bastard in life, the chances are they are a clueless bastard in death.

[Billythezombie]

That is true...however...what if a zombie's eyes had rotted away? Then...well..that would be a highly ineffective zombie! No human flesh for that poor zombie.

[Trin]

Back to the original post, isn't this essentially what the black surivival group in Diary was doing? They didn't have any swarm of zombies outside their warehouse. They came in and out quickly and kept any signs of their occupation of the building masked.

Zombies seem to have an instinct to roam toward other zombies. For example, we see more and more zombies showing up around Samuel's farm, the Dawn mall, the gates in Day, the hoard approaching the city in Land. Not all of those could've seen or heard the others. They were drawn to them somehow.

Yet the humans in the mansion in Diary had no zombies approaching their hideout whatsoever.

Then there were the zombies in the pool. Being underwater apparently completely fouled their senses as they were content to stand motionless even though there were humans nearby.

[Billythezombie]

you are very right trin! Hmmm that leads me to think..that if you had a house that was in a rural area, and not many zombies occupied this area, then you could perhaps hide your whereabouts pretty easily, and do things that wouldnt cause attention to you. A rural farmhouse of some sorts away from mobs of zombies would be ideal.

that leads me to another question..when a zombie outbreak happens, what would be the best plan, either search for a place that has more survivors, such as larger cities and suburbs..or run away to some rural area/farmland? Keeping in mind that more people means more protection and possibly more supplies..and rural areas offer little supplies (such as canned goods) and less protection from zombies.

[deadpunk]

Hey im not sure if this topic has already been discussed here (which it probably already has) but Lets say there is a zombie breakout, only a few zombies at first (maybe 20 or so in suburbian areas), would the average person, hiding in their house, be able to close the blinds, shutters, curtains swiftly without the zombie seeing, and would the zombies know you were in a house if they couldn't see you and you were reaaaaallly quiet?

Me and my sister have discussed this...could this be an effective method to temporarilly hide? Or maybe the zombies may be able to sense you "presence" wihtin the house.

I have always equated Zombies to function more like vultures. They are just drawn to their quarry by some base instinct. To theorize that a zombie uses an olfactory sense to hunt implies that organs other than the brain have survived reanimation. It further implies that the brain is still capable of producing thought.





So! do you think, by wearing make up and dressing like a zombie, a very convincing zombie, they would know that you were alive?/

I've often wondered if the dead wouldn't simply ignore a seriously mentally retarded person? M-O-O-N spells, they can't see me! ;) Seriously though... I've seen some MR individuals that move like a true Romero shambler.



that leads me to another question..when a zombie outbreak happens, what would be the best plan, either search for a place that has more survivors, such as larger cities and suburbs..or run away to some rural area/farmland? Keeping in mind that more people means more protection and possibly more supplies..and rural areas offer little supplies (such as canned goods) and less protection from zombies.

This is purely a matter of personal tastes.

I think that, initially, the less densely populated the area you headed towards, the less zombies you would likely encounter. From a long term stance, this will allow you more time to properly dig-in and secure an area you intend to claim. So, I would move towards the mountains, find a fairly sturdy house with a fireplace, and throw up as many defenses as I could manage.

[rongravy]

that leads me to another question..when a zombie outbreak happens, what would be the best plan, either search for a place that has more survivors, such as larger cities and suburbs..or run away to some rural area/farmland? Keeping in mind that more people means more protection and possibly more supplies..and rural areas offer little supplies (such as canned goods) and less protection from zombies.

I say get as many supplies as you can on the way outta town. Less chance to get offed by overzealous or panicked shooters as well as zombies.
Let someone else sort it all out.

[Billythezombie]

that is very true, i like your thinking. But gathering supplies in such a short period of time (with zombies clawring at your doors and windows, yeah packing up canned goods and other various supplies would be...tricky. Also, the average person dosent have access to large amounts of canned or lasting food supplies. And also, the thought of this would probably escape your mind in moments of madness and fear.

[Philly_SWAT]

Back to the original post, isn't this essentially what the black surivival group in Diary was doing? They didn't have any swarm of zombies outside their warehouse. They came in and out quickly and kept any signs of their occupation of the building masked.

Zombies seem to have an instinct to roam toward other zombies. For example, we see more and more zombies showing up around Samuel's farm, the Dawn mall, the gates in Day, the hoard approaching the city in Land. Not all of those could've seen or heard the others. They were drawn to them somehow.

Yet the humans in the mansion in Diary had no zombies approaching their hideout whatsoever.

Then there were the zombies in the pool. Being underwater apparently completely fouled their senses as they were content to stand motionless even though there were humans nearby.

Great thought Trin. When thinking of the zeds, "They're us, that's all", most living humans tend to follow the crowd like Orwellian sheep. If you saw a big group of people over by the fence, it is likely you would think "I wonder what's going on over there? Maybe I'll go have a look". Same with zeds, makes perfect sense. Actually this could be an interesting topic for fooling/getting away from some zeds. Create the right distraction and perhaps they will all LEAVE where you are at. Interesting.

Also, I thought one reason why they were being motionless in the pool (other than it making a good visual) was that they weren't smart enough to figure out how to get out.

[Billythezombie]

Philly SWAT you are correct! Zombies do seem very mindless, and if you created the perfect attraction, well...then your good to go! Sort of like in land of the dead, they used the fireworks. I bet even the simplest of things would get their attention, giving you a good chance to run away.

[Trin]

Also, I thought one reason why they were being motionless in the pool (other than it making a good visual) was that they weren't smart enough to figure out how to get out.
The pool thing is really more troubling than that. They weren't just stuck there due to their inability to get out. They were motionless. By all signs unaware of the humans. Or of themselves for that matter.

Compare that to the zombies in the pen in Day. They weren't smart enough to figure out how to get out either but that didn't stop them from crowding against the walls trying to fruitlessly reach for the humans. Or the ones in Dawn month after month pressed against the doors clawing at them.

The zombies in the pool were just ... docile. Unaware. Unmoving. They weren't even swishing their hands around going wtf.

It was a great visual but it smacks in the face of all prior zombie behavior. Even Land had them oriented and capable underwater.

[Wyldwraith]

That was just the point I was gonna make,
About Big Daddy's army acting like Navy Seal-zombies, versus the might-as-well-be-corpses zombies in the Diary pool. One or the other has to be wrong, and I choose for it to be Land because nothing has ever offended me so much in a Romero flick as the idea of reanimated corpses negotiating a fast-running river that's over their heads and has zero visibility/nothing to orient yourself by.

Do you know that HUMANS who've fallen into deep water and somehow ended up a good distance down at night have drowned, or nearly drowned before being rescued? The survivors for the most part tell a similar story. It wasn't that they weren't able to swim and hold their breath for the first 30-45 seconds. They just couldn't find "Up".

Think about that for a second, assumption free. You're 15-20 feet down in turbulent water full of silt or what have you, on a pitch dark night with no lights above or anywhere near where you went in.

*Some* people are buoyant enough that if they relax they might get a clue from which way they moved via buoyancy, but say you're in soaked street clothes and sneakers/boots. Not buoyant now, so where is "Up". You have a 1-in-4 chance not to be dead at that point.

Now apply this to even trained divers with scuba gear, let's say thirty of them. Their goal is to enter the deepest point of the river and head down til their feet touch bottom, then without the aid of any means of orienting themselves except reasoning power, at least twenty need to come up on the far bank with none of the twenty to the left or right more than 15-18 feet from the middle of the group emerging from the water.

I don't believe that would be possible for anyone but SEALS, let alone reanimated instinct-driven corpses. So I'm gonna go with the Diary premise that being underwater basically turns a zombie off due to the lack of sensory input to motivate it to move. Can't hear prey, probably can't see prey, certainly can't smell or touch it....so they just stand there like the zombies standing stock-still in Big Daddy's town.

[Trin]

I'm right there with you on the Big Daddy river thing. That is my all time #1 gripe about any Dead movie. You knew the zombies were gonna get into the city. That's a given. What you didn't know was how. I wanted some really clever and fiendish twist by which the city would be invaded. Something I could believe. One that had me going, "Yeah, that makes total sense and I would've never seen it coming."

What I got was a big dose of WTF?!? So agreed 100% on Land's deep sea divers.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. A better plot would've had the Green surrounded by a hundred thousand zombies pressed against the walls and fences (like it shoulda been). Cholo takes Dead Reckoning. He threatens to blow up the city walls and fences if he doesn't get all the food, ammo, and gasoline. Kaufman blows him off. Cholo fires the rockets. The walls come down. Zombie pie fight ensues... Oh wait, scratch pie fight. Been done before. The zombies get in, eat everyone. Riley escapes.

I don't agree with the Diary version either though. I refuse to choose between the two because I consider Diary's version of underwater zombies flawed as well.

In my mind a zombie that falls underwater flails around confused about what is going on. Zombies who don't see or smell humans don't just shut down. They stumble around "doing what they did in life." So why would water change that? Let the underwater zombies stumble around and look stupidly at their hands and fall over like toddlers as they try to navigate the near weightlessness of water. But stand there motionless? Doesn't make sense.

[Eyebiter]

This time of year can you really go weeks on end without making any noise trying to stay warm, cook meals, wash clothes, walk around inside the house? Not to mention going without any type of electric light for the duration?

Conventional wisdom states one can only turtle up for so long before you run low on SOMETHING that requires you to leave the house. Could be food, water, medicine, or any one of a thousand things. Also keep in mind the longer you wait to go on that first supply run in a Zombie PAW, the more zombies there will be. At some point your going encounter the undead.

In Dawn 78 if your careful zombies are slow enough you can outrun them or hide until you can safely return home. Biggest threat is if one follows you home, eventually they will mass until your surrounded by thousands of walking dead. More you shoot the more that will be attracted to the noise. At some point you should be prepared to flee if discovered.

In a Dawn 04 world if you leave the house on foot in a zombie infested urban area, then God be with you. At least it will be a quick death. Even in a large vehicle hope you have a good enough supply of fuel and the transport is fast enough to outrun sprinting legions of the dead.

[Philly_SWAT]

The zombies in the pool were just ... docile. Unaware. Unmoving. They weren't even swishing their hands around going wtf.

It was a great visual but it smacks in the face of all prior zombie behavior. Even Land had them oriented and capable underwater.



I don't believe that would be possible for anyone but SEALS, let alone reanimated instinct-driven corpses. So I'm gonna go with the Diary premise that being underwater basically turns a zombie off due to the lack of sensory input to motivate it to move. Can't hear prey, probably can't see prey, certainly can't smell or touch it....so they just stand there like the zombies standing stock-still in Big Daddy's town.
While I understand what both us you are saying, I submit that there is much about zombie behavior that we do not know. For example, in the beginning of Day, we are shown an abandoned city. No zeds, or the living, anywhere. None near the Edison Theater, none near the First National Bank, none near the Federal Building, none anywhere. Then after just a few minutes of Miguel yelling "HELLOOO", there are zombies everywhere. Where were they 2 minutes ago? What were they doing? That zombie that comes up in the ticket booth at the theater..why was he crouching down before Miguel started yelling? We dont know what any of them were doing, but they were apparently both out of sight and non-moving, very similar to the zeds in the pool. The zeds in Land that walked across the bottom of the river (as crazy as that may be, although it is crazy in-and-of itself that the dead can re-animate) had a specific purpose, to get to the other side. The zeds in the pool had no specific purpose, similar to the zed in the theater ticket booth, prior to hearing Miguel.

[rongravy]

Then after just a few minutes of Miguel yelling "HELLOOO", there are zombies everywhere. Where were they 2 minutes ago? What were they doing?
Secretly all practicing their Thriller routine together.
They wanted to get it down pat before unveiling it...
Just one out of sync ruins the whole darn thing.
"HELLOOO":lol:


that is very true, i like your thinking. But gathering supplies in such a short period of time (with zombies clawring at your doors and windows, yeah packing up canned goods and other various supplies would be...tricky. Also, the average person dosent have access to large amounts of canned or lasting food supplies. And also, the thought of this would probably escape your mind in moments of madness and fear.
As long as I could get past the shock of what was going down, I'd hopefully be ok.
Canned goods? There's an ALDI's down the street that is normally empty of people anyway, and lots of little Mexican stores. Back the truck up to an easily broken window or door, grab and dash away. Watching for any of the bad guys of course.
As long as they are slow, and I believe they would be due to their condition, getting out via the automatic garage door opener in my SUV seems pretty doable. As easy as squashing a few in said minivan.
This also isn't that heavily a populated area, so unless I'm oblivious to the world that day, I'm gonna get a heads up on TV or the net.
Lots of pawn shops loaded with guns around here too...
Head out to the boonies and live off the land. Make trips in occasionally on the outskirts to raid for supplies and thin them out a little as needed.
But like you said, it is hard to get over your reality being flipped like that. I hope I'd have the strength.
Because I'm a damn fine shot.

[Billythezombie]

Ahhh that may be easy for you Rongravy, however, in my town, they're arent too many shops nearby me..well theirs one that may have canned goods 15 mintues up the road, however, unlike nearly every family, my family dosent have a car..so its gonna be really tough for me if a zombie outbreak happens! lol..and in australia..no one really has guns for their disposal...their may be some, but the people that have guns are only farmers and druggos/criminals. It is nearly impossible for the average person to aquire a gun. And the closet gun shop is about 4 hours on foot or more...and im not gonna take that chance!
But yes, in a zombie outbreak i too wish i had the strength to carry on..and get out of my fetul position in the corner. Don't we all wish that?