Would a zombie blow up in the desert???

[TheWalkingDude]

Seeing the freezing thread made me wonder, would a zombie bloat and blow up in the heat of a desert like fresh roadkill along the road on a hot summer day????? I dont know about anyone else but i think they would .:shifty:

[Angry312]

They would, to an extent. Bloating is caused by a surfeit of gases in the body escaping slower than their exit points are wide enough to permit; the body would bloat, but it'd be little different in a hotter climate, unless it was also fairly humid (see also: the Southern US, jungles, Hawaii, et cetera).

I'll add my timeline o' death up here; its on one thread or another I wrote...

To quote the timeline:
I have a personal theory I'll posit for this, which I'll arbitrarily place in an arid (desert-like) environment (for no particular reason):
Hour zero: guy drops off over from bite's effect/negative chi/tofu poisoning.
Hour one: blood pools on the lowest edges of the body, 'bruising' the skin.
Hour two: anerobic bacteria become active, beginning the body's 'rot'.
Hour three: body is now into rigor, stiffening beyond mobility.
Hour four: insect have taken hold of the corpse by this point; battle for food.
Hour five: bodies now beginning to bloat slightly; this will worsen over time.
... we can skip the highlights, and move on to...
Hour seventy-two: body exits rigor.

If it goes mobile immediately, it doesn't skip rigor. I'll qualify it with:

"After a body has died, the chemical reaction producing these energy molecules is unable to proceed because of a lack of oxygen. The cells no longer have the energy to pump calcium out of the cell and so the calcium concentration rises, forcing the muscles to remain in a contracted state. This state of muscle stiffening is known as rigor mortis and it remains until the muscle proteins start to decompose." -- http://www.deathonline.net/decomposi...gor_mortis.htm

Whatever reanimates the bodies must be able to stop rigor from hitting; I don't remember anything in the Romeroverse mentioning boo-radley about there being a 72 hour waiting period on undeath. So, we're either accepting that rigor is ignored indefinitely (which means either the bodies are no longer moving according to human physiology or the tissues are inherently immune). In either case, that revivification stuff has to be fairly potent; perhaps it is one of the reasons they seek the living for food -- calcium.
***************************
The above timeline is for a dry, heated environment; if you want to add in factors for advanced putrefication, let 'er roll, sailor.

This is the advanced set, from the good people at:
Deathonline.net
They have an absolutely stellar dead pig demonstration I recommend for any writer who wants to properly stage the scenes for corpses in a variety of conditions and circumstance.

"Bacteria break down tissues and cells, releasing fluids into body cavities. They often respire in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically) and produce various gases including hydrogen sulphide, methane, cadaverine and putrescine as by-products. People might find these gases foul smelling, but they are very attractive to a variety of insects.

The build up of gas resulting from the intense activity of the multiplying bacteria, creates pressure within the body. This pressure inflates the body and forces fluids out of cells and blood vessels and into the body cavity."

This would be the 'bloating' stage, as it were; this is from days #4 to #10, thereabouts.

:evil:Angry312; "Your milage and dead pig may vary." :evil:

[Chakobsa]

Great info, Angry. Has anyone ever considered that as the corpse revived there would be some collosal postmortem farting going on as gases shifted within the body?:lol: . this could also account for the moaning as gases would pass over the vocal chords and out of the mouth as well as exiting via the"rusty Sherrif's badge":D .

[Marie]

I always wondered about the various fluids pooling after death. Would a walking zombie be able to walk at more than a shamble if at all with several pints of blood and God knows what else pooled in his lower extremities?

Just a thought....

M_

[Angry312]

Good question.
My theory is that the body would develop lesions, which would leak the blood out of the body, which would probably dessicate the tissues, leading to the furtherance of the lovely pallor of the dead folks.

Between gases exitting the body, blood leaking out of the legs and their constant state semi-decay, I think the zombies would be pretty well funky by smell; anyone who gets ambushed by one would have to be unable to detect that level of foulness.

:evil: Angry312; "... leaky dead people. Great image ..." :evil:

[Eyebiter]

After two or three days don't forget flies and other critters. Each walking corpse would be a freeform bacteria farm.

Far as the desert, don't forget the drying effect of a hot climate. How long until the living dead are immobilized by the dessication process? A few weeks?

[TheWalkingDude]

a gassy zombie lol