Your Zombie Rules

[SRP76]

Every zombie flick has different rules. Every one of us has a different idea of what zombies "should" do and "should" be like.

So, let's do that here. Lay out your own personal "rules" for your own zombie universe.

[Legion2213]

Slow (able speed up a bit when they spot a meatbag and go into "feeding mode"), but slow at any other time.

Stupid, and I mean stupid...a lower IQ than a cheeseburger, the sort of goons who can barely open a door.

Whatever "voodoo" brought them to life would also slow down their rotting rate, so that they could last for decades.

The same voodoo would somehow give them a sixth sense that allowed them to be aware of humans in their area.

Pretty much GAR zombs, but without Land of the Dead types - No Big Daddies allowed in my "universe"

[SRP76]

My rules keep some Romero aspects, but not all:

#1. ABSOLUTELY NO FREAKIN' RUNNING!!!. That means NO running zombies, period. They shamble. They are uncoordinated. Slow. Sllllloooooowwwww. Stiff-jointed, with atrophied muscle. That leads us to:

#2. They are WEAK. No strength at all. Their deteriorating muscle tissue leads to not being able to grab people and yank them about. They sure as hell won't be bullrushing Fran out of the doorway. They are only "strong" in numbers. The weight of their bodies is all they have for pushing and pulling.

#3. Stupid, stupid, football-bat dumb. Only the motor centers of their brains have been reactivated. They are on cruise control, plain and simple. They can't think, or learn. They're dead.

#4. ORIGIN: NO VIRUS!!! I hate the virus theories, as I've said before. I don't care what is causing it, as long as it isn't a virus. But, for the sake of completeness, I'll go with the magnetic pole reversal phenomenon causing electrical disruption (as I think it was Hellsing that mentioned that, in another thread).

#5. Method of destruction: Burning, or destruction of the brain. Basically, burning them desttroys the brain (as well as everything else), so there's no way a reanimate could survive getting lit up. Other than that, "shoot it in the head". Once the brain is separated from any part of the body, that bodypart stays down. Simply snapping the thing's neck will immobilize it (but don't get your hands near it's mouth; the skull isn't crippled).

#6. RELENTLESS!! These things go away for nobody. If they spot prey, they will continue to slap themselves up against the barricaded door until they rot into a pile of mush. They will NEVER give up. As long as there is nothing else to catch their attention (other prey), they will continue their current actions, to infinity.

#7. One-month lifespan. They are dead, and will rot at a normal rate. That doesn't save you from having to face generation after generation of them for years on end, though.

#8. NO SPIDEY SENSE!! I'm sick of zombies that are psychic. They have to rely on their human senses to spot prey. If they don't see you or hear you, they won't know jack. If anything, being dead will dull their senses, not enhance them.

#9. FEARLESS. They cannot be repelled. They will suicidally march directly into fire; they do not care. You must kill them to stop them, period.

#10. ALL DEAD RISE. End of story. No bites required.

#11. All meat will be eaten. They will chomp Mr. Chips in a heartbeat. Humans are the prime rib of the dead diet, but they will settle for some Ramen rat.

#12. Since there is no virus, these things don't "infect" anybody. The bites are just bites. Problem is, the human mouth is a sewer, and a dead human mouth would carry an arsenal of conventional disease, which would likely kill the bitten very quickly.

#13. NO SOUNDS!! No more damned GROANING! I hate that. These things don't breathe. They will not grunt, whinny, bark, growl, shriek, or any of that mess. They are silent. You'll know they're behind you only when you feel teeth on your neck.

.....that's all for now. I'm sure I'll think of some others, later.

[7734]

1) Slow. No running, sprinting or bursts of energy of any kind. Well, maybe a little excitement when food is around.

2) Unintelligent, but still possessing some sort of cognisant power. IE, they will actively hunt for food in places where they *think* there may be food.

3) Humans only. NO animal zombies.

4) Humans only. NO feeding on anything but humans.

5) All kinds of sounds. They may not breath, but there is all kinds of stuff rotting away inside them. Gases escape through the mouth, making sounds, especially when moving or feeding.

6) Bites kill. Virus or no virus, it's sort of a staple.

7) All dead rise. No end in sight.

8) Constant active search for food. No wasted time among these folks.

9) Strength of zombie directly comparable to strength of its once living counterpart; the zombie of a fisherman will have a powerful grip, the zombie of an athlete would be able to move a little faster, etc.

10) Strength and cognisant power fade in time, but a body may remain reanimated for at least a decade.

11) Did I mention no running zombies?

someone should make The Living Dead vs. The Rage Infected. I might shell out nine of my hard earned dollars for it.

[Mike70]

1-slow- no running. at best a short of shamble when they are after something.

2-dumb as a box of hand-rubbed rocks. no higher (or even mid-level brain functions. no use of tools except for using rocks, etc to smash windows.

3-no intellectual evolution-these are rotting, walking corpses. there will be no remembering skills from life.

4-the process of decay would slow so they would last for maybe 1-2 years.

5-you get bit, you die, you become one.

6-people who die without being bitten simply die. no reanimation.

7- no spider sense. they will be attracted to prey by sound and motion.

8-anything that destroys the basic functioning of the brain-bullets, baseball bats, fire, etc. would stop them permanently.

9-since they are dead and not generating body heat, they would function like cold blooded animals. cold weather would slow them down and freezing temps would immobilize them completely. they would function optimally between 15 and 35 deg celsius.

10- temps above 37 deg celsius (normal human body temp) would accelerate the process of decay.

11-they would attack everything warm blooded. so no mr. chips making the run for the border.

12-individually they are very weak.

13-they cannot be stopped except by violence. nor will they turn away from prey once it is spotted for any reason.

[acealive1]

one rule. THEY ALL drop over and die in a month from decay

[clanglee]

2-dumb as a box of hand-rubbed rocks. .

:lol::lol::lol:

1. Slow with slight bursts of speed when chasing prey

2. Basic tool use (rocks, sticks, can turn a doorknob, etc.)

3. Condition spread through bite and just plain dying.

4. Zeds eat anything, but prefer humans. And condition only affects humans.

Basically old George's Zombies. Just no super smart ones

[SRP76]

Oh, you guys reminded me:

#14. Only people reanimate. It would get WAAAAAAY too complicated if everything on the planet revived. How would a dead mosquito be coordinated enough to fly? How would a dead fish be able to swim? Best not to even allow it.

[acealive1]

Oh, you guys reminded me:

#14. Only people reanimate. It would get WAAAAAAY too complicated if everything on the planet revived. How would a dead mosquito be coordinated enough to fly? How would a dead fish be able to swim? Best not to even allow it.


easy,a bunch of crows did it in resident evil 3

[GutTrix]

1.)They can run as fast as they could before they changed. (I'm a bigger dude so the "running" dead is a hell of alot scarrier to me)

2.)Learning possible in select zombies (alpha), but most have some form of drawing off of old memories.

3.)They only hunt living humans. They do not however "sense" the living.

4.)No fear

5.)They work in numbers, when not hunting they stay together moving as one mass

6.)A bite always kills

7.)Natural death does not mean reanimation

8.)No one knows why the bitten turn

9.)Decay is variable depending on enviroment but usually takes years

10.)Strength depends on the person, however a pair of zombies cannot simply pull a man apart

11.)They are not dead. At least not what I consider "dead". Dead'ish maybe but not dead. I prefer to think of them as changed

12.)Destroy the brain, kill the zombie

13.)I get to say what and when get's watched on my TV (that rule is for my girlfriend.)

[marginbuu]

family should not come back
Animals should not come back.
shooting employers is a must.
living in a the local mall is a need.
yep I am female but I need the SPACE a mall can provide;)
I should be only female survivor amongst Male survivors.

[panic]

1. The outbreak is caused by an infectious agent.
2. You need to be infected to rise; die of other causes and you stay dead.
3. Zombie rate of speed is based on level of decay; freshly risen zeds can run, a few days later they're staggering, after that they shamble.
4. Zombies also lose strength over time.
5. Zombies only use the most basic of implements such as bludgeons.
6. Zombies are attracted to movement, noise, and smell.
7. Zombies are deterred by fire.
8. Zombies can only be destroyed by destroying the brain.
9. Any bite or deep exposure to infectious fluids can potentially result in infection; ALL bites result in infection, death, and reanimation.
10. Zombies keep going forever until destroyed, albeit more and more slowly.
11. Only humans are affected.
12. Zombies only attack humans.
13. There is no cure.
14. Zombies may have the most basic of memories about their former lives, but they are purely REACTIVE creatures; they have no capacity for planning or anticipation.
15. Zombies do NOT evolve.

/p

[AcesandEights]

This is a great, non-combative format for discussing one's preferences! Good post! I also need time to think and list my rules out before I reply in earnest.

[Legion2213]

shooting employers is a must.


Politicians and tax men, gotta shoot those as well...they are pre-infected and must be destroyed immediately in any zombie outbreak scenario. :D

[acealive1]

Politicians and tax men, gotta shoot those as well...they are pre-infected and must be destroyed immediately in any zombie outbreak scenario. :D


*shoots bush* "another one for the fire" :elol::elol:

[Wyldwraith]

1) Slow, slower than snail **** in January. They Shamble and have awful balance.

2) Uncoordinated: If you don't get grabbed/bitten doing it, a forceful shove with index and middle finger will put a zombie over on its butt. Zombies take about as long as turtles on their backs to get up again.

3) Stupid: Dumb enough to shamble directly into a flaming ditch full of other burning zombies if a human can be seen through the flames.

4) NO TOOL USE. Zombies can't puzzle out Rock = Good for window-breaking.

5) See #3, Relentless: Like the other guy said, if they know you're in there and nothing easier comes along they'll keep mashing themselves against the impenetrable steel fire door until collapsing into mush.

6) HIGHLY limited "psychic" food-detection. Zombies do NOT home in ala Resident Evil 3. They can however somehow detect a person hiding inside a house if they're already right outside it. This CAN lead to zombie-daisy-chaining. Where one zombie's racket of beating on the windows draws another zombie's attention, the 2nd zombie drawing a third's attention by its movement as it shambles off towards the 1st.

7) Weak! Healthy 12yr olds can break free of a zombie's grip if they dont just freak out and basically allow it to start eating them. Only way a zombie knocks down a door is if the press of a LOT of bodies does it.

8) Virus origin. Average person doesn't know this and may never know this..but scientists working in bunkers will discover this around the end of Month 6. A select few survivors MAY hear government broadcasts announcing this.

9) All flesh must be eaten. Prefer human flesh, rats will do.

10) No zombie animals, ever.

11) Destroy the brain you destroy the zombie, otherwise it keeps coming. Spinal cord damage WILL render the body paralyzed from point of damaged area downwards.

12) Zombie decay is somewhat slowed. Outside of arctic/near-arctic areas the dead rot to mush in around 18 months.

13) All dead rise, the bitten just do it faster.

14) Reanimation after death is WILDLY variable, ranging from a few seconds to a few hours.

15) Death by zombie bite infections also wildly variable. Might keel over from a 110 degree fever in 60 mins, might last 2-3 days with a horribly festering/rotting wound.

16) No Cure, ever.

17) Humanity not totally extinguished. 90% dead/reanimated. Rest are Nomads or Fiddler's Greening it. Last remnants of the military make an intelligent stand in an area where the geography is overwhelmingly in the favor of defense vs zombies.

18) Zombies never, EVER evolve.
----------------------

That's about all I can think of at the moment.

[Legion2213]

1) Slow, slower than snail **** in January. They Shamble and have awful balance.

2) Uncoordinated: If you don't get grabbed/bitten doing it, a forceful shove with index and middle finger will put a zombie over on its butt. Zombies take about as long as turtles on their backs to get up again.

3) Stupid: Dumb enough to shamble directly into a flaming ditch full of other burning zombies if a human can be seen through the flames.

4) NO TOOL USE. Zombies can't puzzle out Rock = Good for window-breaking.

5) See #3, Relentless: Like the other guy said, if they know you're in there and nothing easier comes along they'll keep mashing themselves against the impenetrable steel fire door until collapsing into mush.

6) HIGHLY limited "psychic" food-detection. Zombies do NOT home in ala Resident Evil 3. They can however somehow detect a person hiding inside a house if they're already right outside it. This CAN lead to zombie-daisy-chaining. Where one zombie's racket of beating on the windows draws another zombie's attention, the 2nd zombie drawing a third's attention by its movement as it shambles off towards the 1st.

7) Weak! Healthy 12yr olds can break free of a zombie's grip if they dont just freak out and basically allow it to start eating them. Only way a zombie knocks down a door is if the press of a LOT of bodies does it.

8) Virus origin. Average person doesn't know this and may never know this..but scientists working in bunkers will discover this around the end of Month 6. A select few survivors MAY hear government broadcasts announcing this.

9) All flesh must be eaten. Prefer human flesh, rats will do.

10) No zombie animals, ever.

11) Destroy the brain you destroy the zombie, otherwise it keeps coming. Spinal cord damage WILL render the body paralyzed from point of damaged area downwards.

12) Zombie decay is somewhat slowed. Outside of arctic/near-arctic areas the dead rot to mush in around 18 months.

13) All dead rise, the bitten just do it faster.

14) Reanimation after death is WILDLY variable, ranging from a few seconds to a few hours.

15) Death by zombie bite infections also wildly variable. Might keel over from a 110 degree fever in 60 mins, might last 2-3 days with a horribly festering/rotting wound.

16) No Cure, ever.

17) Humanity not totally extinguished. 90% dead/reanimated. Rest are Nomads or Fiddler's Greening it. Last remnants of the military make an intelligent stand in an area where the geography is overwhelmingly in the favor of defense vs zombies.

18) Zombies never, EVER evolve.
----------------------

That's about all I can think of at the moment.


Amen!

Nice set of zombie rules.

[Zombie Snack]

Great Post....

1. Speed, the fresh zombies would be quick and agile and of normal strength, but after 4-5 days they would start to slow down and become less agile and a bit weaker,and then after a month or 2 they would be slow, slow shamblers.

2. Instinct, The zombies would only act on insinct, no learning, evolving, or plotting by the dead, the more athleic, mentaly and physicaly gifted in life, the more ability of a zombie to compleet tasks, like walking, climbing, pursuing the living.

3. Bite or natural death, YOU ARE GOING TO COME BACK!!! all dead rise. There is no way to win, no matter what you do in the end YOU LOOSE.

4. Decay has been greatly slowed, in warmer climates a zombie could take up to a year to rot away, in the cooler areas decay times could range from 3-5 years.

5. Why do the dead walk? No known cause, Virus? Chemical? Judgement? There is no cure.

6. Kill a zombie by destroying the brain or removing the head from the torso.
Zombies are "afraid" of fire.

7. Once they spot prey, they will never ever stop pursuing, unless they are drawn to new prey.

8. Human zombies only.

[Mutineer]

My zombies have a fresh factor

The fresher, the faster. Some of them are sprinting after you and some are rambling corpses, depending on how long they've been dead

Kill the brain, they die

No talking zombies

No learning zombies

If you're bitten, you're turning in an hour or two

If you die after being bitten, you turn immediately

My zombies eat you; not just brains or guts, they are cannibals

Funny most of these rules everyone is posting goes against Romero's ruining of the franchise

[Wyldwraith]

Well,
The overwhelming trend is obvious. Although some of us differ on Origin and Speed, most of us seem to favor "classic" zombies, with none of the stupid bells and whistles that were lamely added later on down the line.

I would like to emphasize though that in my zombie rules humanity isn't exterminated, just nearly so before adapting to survival in a world dominated by the walking dead. Humanity is a resilient critter IMO, and our strength has always been in our adaptability. Plus I find no enjoyment in viewing/reading an absolutely certain no-win-scenario. Grim is good and apocalyptic is better, but no-win(s) is just boring. To me all fiction is somehow based on the Man Vs theme. That's my objection to Brian Keene's otherwise very well-written books The Rising and City of the Dead. His premise is so completely a no-win I could find nothing to pique my interest other than the timing/details of each death. That isn't enough to maintain my interest for 400+ pages.

How do others feel about that? Do you enjoy the idea of Zombies-as-end of the world or do you like the Survival Horror theme?

[SRP76]

They're all "the end of the world", with various stragglers trying to live through it. That's the only way it can be.

There is no way to keep the world as it is, with hordes of the walking dead existing.

[Legion2213]

Well,
The overwhelming trend is obvious. Although some of us differ on Origin and Speed, most of us seem to favor "classic" zombies, with none of the stupid bells and whistles that were lamely added later on down the line.

I would like to emphasize though that in my zombie rules humanity isn't exterminated, just nearly so before adapting to survival in a world dominated by the walking dead. Humanity is a resilient critter IMO, and our strength has always been in our adaptability. Plus I find no enjoyment in viewing/reading an absolutely certain no-win-scenario. Grim is good and apocalyptic is better, but no-win(s) is just boring. To me all fiction is somehow based on the Man Vs theme. That's my objection to Brian Keene's otherwise very well-written books The Rising and City of the Dead. His premise is so completely a no-win I could find nothing to pique my interest other than the timing/details of each death. That isn't enough to maintain my interest for 400+ pages.

How do others feel about that? Do you enjoy the idea of Zombies-as-end of the world or do you like the Survival Horror theme?

I like zombies as the end of modern civilisation, that does not mean the total extinction of mankind though. I think humanity has the ability to survive anything that does not take out the planet...we are like rats and cockroaches...born survivors.

[Wyldwraith]

Exactly Legion,
Thats what I meant. The dead rising is obviously the end of modern civilization. By "no-win scenario" I meant a premise where it was 100% certain that humanity would become extinct.

Example: (SPOILER WARNING!!!): In Brian Keene's two books the Origin is a bunch of "demons" are loosed on earth from a cosmic holding cell God stuck them in. They hijack the corpses of dead people (or even animals) and are completely sentient, suffer no further decay and if you destroy the brain of the body they're inhabiting they just get sent to the "end of the line" for demons waiting to get out of the cosmic holding cell.

There's this one important demon that comes back like 6x because he can skip to the head of the line for instance.

Anyways, it mentions that once THIS groups of demons kills all the humans then the next group are loosed upon the earth to wipe out all the remaining animal life, before the final group show up to actually burn the world to gray cigarette ash. It makes it clear there is absolutely no way to close the dimensional rift and that the number of demon personalities number in the trillions. That if somehow Humanity bounced back and defeated the corpse-riding branch by say, disposing of every corpse on earth the moment the person died the demons would just skip ahead and let the third group incinerate Earth.

For the life of me I can't understand why anyone would enjoy reading through a scenario so doggedly no-win. I read them (guess that gives me my answer) just to see how thoroughly a no-win he had created. Its a good scam I guess. I read them and hated them thoroughly, but by then they'd already gotten 7.40$ from me (Was cheap enough to read the 2nd sitting in Barnes and Nobles)

-----------------------

I far prefer my zombie movies/fiction to have the undead destroy civilization and kill like 90% of the people, but then showcase how the other 10% are managing to survive. The struggles they go through etc.

What about that?

[DjfunkmasterG]

1.) After re-animation, which would be almost immediate, the zombies can be as agile as they were before death. So running is allowed, although a more uncoordinated style of running. See my Trapped Teaser for what I mean. After a month running would not be a viable options as they would know begin to decay.

2.) Dumb as hell. preferably an IQ of 5 or less. They learn to work in groups (greater strength in numbers), however, they will not be picking up a gun and knowing to shoot humans... they could pick it up and have it accidently discharge and it be-fuddles them.

3.) Cause of the zombie uprising - Virus, or bioweapon. No cure

4.) Decay factor. once the body has re-animated the decay rate is extreme minimum to zero for first 30 days, then slows 1000% of normal rate for a period of 1-2 years. The rate would increase 100% in speed each year after that- zombies can last 5-10 years.

5.) They eat any warm blooded creature. Cats, Dog, Humans, whatever. They eat everything, not just the brain.

6.) No zombie animals... Only humas would come back from bites, or death.

7.) They don't hunt... they more or less walk around until food is insight. Once food is insight they go after it. If they are outside a fortified building trying to get inside they won't give up and just walk away, they will claw and attempt to gain access forever. This means you entry and exit from this building will need to be very careful so you aren't detected. If other zombies come into the area and notice they trying to get into the building... they will not join them because they don't know there is food in there, they will just keep walking aimlessly.

8.) Destroying a zombie - Bullet to the brain, or anything that destroys the brain. If you chop the head off, the body goes limp, the head stays alive. Brain trauma must be severe. If you thunk them in the head and they don't die from the blunt force trauma... they become twitchers... not very functional but will lay there and twitch until put out of their misery.

9.) 10 years have passed and the original zombies still alive will have died off from rot... however, the virus that reanimates will forever be present so even if society is rebuilt another zombie uprising can happen at anytime or place.

[bassman]

My zombies? Romero's. No other.

[MikePizzoff]

-They are about as slow as your average 85 year old.

-They must be shot in the head, or take some sort of extreme trauma to the head, to be killed/stopped.

-They are about as smart as a 15 month old child.

-They don't crave brains; they just crave the human, overall.

-They aren't able to adapt over time and learn how to use weapons or build traps. That's just friggin lame.

-Depending how bad you are bitten will decide how long it takes for you to turn over. You also don't have to be bitten to come back as a zombie; dying in just about any matter will result in re-animation.

[hadrian0117]

...2.)Learning possible in select zombies (alpha), but most have some form of drawing off of old memories...

In order for zombies to be any kind of threat they'd have to remember at least some basic skills from their lives. Walking is a skill that must be learned. As are chewing and swallowing. I'd allow about 5-10% to have some very basic tool-using skills like using stuff as crude bludgeons or stabbing things.

[Yojimbo]

This thread kicks much ass!

I will be back with my rules after I tweak them. This thread is too cool to go in half-assed.

[Mike70]

it is interesting how many of us have included cold weather in our rules. to me this makes perfect sense. these things are dead, are not generating their own body heat and are slowly rotting away. so i think it naturally follows that cold weather would slow down, even stop by freezing these things since they are not generating body heat.


i ask the folks who have not included cold weather disabilities in your rules- why not?

no i am not trying to trash anybody's parade here.

[SRP76]

it is interesting how many of us have included cold weather in our rules. to me this makes perfect sense. these things are dead, are not generating their own body heat and are slowly rotting away. so i think it naturally follows that cold weather would slow down, even stop by freezing these things since they are not generating body heat.


i ask the folks who have not included cold weather disabilities in your rules- why not?

no i am not trying to trash anybody's parade here.

The cold weather isn't as relevant as people think. To freeze a zombie, it would have to be below 32 degrees for an extended period of time. Just a few hours doesn't cut it. It would literaaly have to be freezing for a couple of days, in a row.

And that's not taking into account the fact that these things are mobile. It is harder to freeze a moving object than it is to freeze a roast that's just lying there. That's why it takes a river a LOT longer to freeze than a pond.

[Mike70]

The cold weather isn't as relevant as people think. To freeze a zombie, it would have to be below 32 degrees for an extended period of time. Just a few hours doesn't cut it. It would literaaly have to be freezing for a couple of days, in a row.

And that's not taking into account the fact that these things are mobile. It is harder to freeze a moving object than it is to freeze a roast that's just lying there. That's why it takes a river a LOT longer to freeze than a pond.

never said it would only take a few hours.

i don't know if you have ever lived anywhere besides florida but in places like alaska, canada, russia, scandanavia- hell most places above and below 40 degrees lat (that aren't warmed by the gulf stream) it does get below freezing for long, long periods of time. there are many places in both the north and south of the planet where it gets mean cold for extended periods. hell even where i live in ohio the weather is hardly balmy for most of dec., jan. and feb.

these things might be able to move but they have no body heat and no circulation. they are just lumps of mobile flesh.

where i used to live in upstate new york (watertown-43 degrees north lat) it was ugly cold in the winter. there were many a january and feb where there would be only a few days a month where it got above 0 degrees fahrenheit. anything without body heat would freeze like a rock up there.

[SRP76]

Only the outside dead would freeze, as well. Every zombie that's strolling around the mall, the gocery strore, the post office, the local McDonald's...ALL would be toasty and deadly.

And from what we've seen in movies (and given the random-wandering/seeking nature of the fictional dead), a huge number of them blunder (and sometimes bash their way) indoors. Probably only half of the dead population of anyplace will be staying outside for any length of time.

And when you freeze half of 1,000,000....you won't even notice. You'll be more concerned with the 500,000 dead that you still have to deal with.

[Legion2213]

And from what we've seen in movies (and given the random-wandering/seeking nature of the fictional dead), a huge number of them blunder (and sometimes bash their way) indoors. Probably only half of the dead population of anyplace will be staying outside for any length of time.


Remember the first scene in "Day"?

Seemed like the zombies were all just sitting around until they heard Miguel's whiney voice.

Maybe they stop moving when they think that there is no prey around, as for the mall scenes in Dawn, it was very early into the outbreak, maybe the wandering around thing was just a part of the "new zombie" process.

[SRP76]

Remember the first scene in "Day"?

Seemed like the zombies were all just sitting around until they heard Miguel's whiney voice.



Yes. A very large portion were actually shown coming from indoors, and I'm sure they weren't the only ones.

They cut out a lot of that scene. For instance, the part where they get to the helicopter, see Miguel, and say, "Aww, man, it's just this dumbass", and turn around to leave never made it into the final cut.

[Legion2213]

Yes. A very large portion were actually shown coming from indoors, and I'm sure they weren't the only ones.

They cut out a lot of that scene. For instance, the part where they get to the helicopter, see Miguel, and say, "Aww, man, it's just this dumbass", and turn around to leave never made it into the final cut.


Miguel - Can you feel the love? :D

[Mike70]

Only the outside dead would freeze, as well. Every zombie that's strolling around the mall, the gocery strore, the post office, the local McDonald's...ALL would be toasty and deadly.

And from what we've seen in movies (and given the random-wandering/seeking nature of the fictional dead), a huge number of them blunder (and sometimes bash their way) indoors. Probably only half of the dead population of anyplace will be staying outside for any length of time.

And when you freeze half of 1,000,000....you won't even notice. You'll be more concerned with the 500,000 dead that you still have to deal with.

granted many would be indoors. but how bout when the power is off? i will also grant you the fact that in many places, esp in canada where much of the power is hydro, the electricity would probably stay on for a long time-but not forever. there are lots of places-like edmonton, calgary, stockholm, etc. where even indoors (without power) the temp is going to be cold as a frost giant's ballsack.

[mista_mo]

cause- gene manipulation/virus. Highly infectious.

speed- upon first reserecting, the zombies are slow, un-cordinated (think of a child first learning how to walk) and at their most vunerable. after 13-28 hours in a state of rigor mortis, they regain movement function (the virus acts as a less efficient substitute for ATP, allowing for muscle function approximately 59-44 hours earlier then usual). They are still an un-corordinated mess however, as the infecteds brain isn't able to discern the nerve messages as well as normal peoples brains can. This results in a slower, odd looking gait. They can run at speeds based on what they could achieve in life (based on body size, mass, type, injuries etc. The virus cannot repair damaged muscles and nerves, so if someone was missing their quadricep muscles, don't expect them to be able to extend that leg). The speeds they are able to run at as a maximum are approximatley 50% slower then what an average human can run.

strength- approximatley what the infected had when alive. Since zombies aren't afraid of injuring themselves, they are capable of one time feats of above natural strength (what I mean is being able to grapple a larger opponent and heave them off the ground or something like that). This one time strength is based on over all muscle mass, muscle damage, nerve damage, and age. A child zombie wouldn't be able to push down a grown man based on strength alone, but a large, strong man who had died in a reletively intact state could do so, but would suffer from muscle damage (such as rips and tears, resulting in the creature being unable to do that feat again, and in some cases, unable to do much with that muscle ever again)
as a baseline however, they have approximately 10-75% of their strength as they did when they were alive for old zombies, that have been alive since the start, to fresh victims respectfully.

Intelligence- The virus works by destroying large sections of the hosts brain that aren't imperitive to survival. As such, they lack creative thought, reasoning ability, artistic ability, and emotion. They are purely engines of death used to spread the virus around, and to ensure the infection of others. The brain is now only a vessel which houses the greatest concentration of the virus (which as said before is responsible for the destruction of areas of the human brain) and allows the zombie to function at baseline levels. They can however, use simple objects for killing purposes, and open doors if given significant time and insentive.

senses- as befits a carrier, the host's senses become far superior to what they were while alive. Smell, hearing, sight, and touch are all markedly improved, while taste is all but unknown. However, these senses are also reliant on their external point of entry (nose and olfactory cells for smell, eyes for sight, ears for hearing) and if these are removed they lose that sense, or if just damaged, they can become impaired.
The undead are also able to distinguish humans from other zombies based on these senses.

how to kill- the brain is the hub of the virus, and jsut as in real life, the hub of the body, without the brain to recieve signals from the nerves, they will be unable to function. So, it is naturally the brain that must be targetted for destruction. These are persistant creatures, and will walk through a hail of automatic fire in order to reach their prey target. destroy the brain, or sever the head from the body and you will incapacitate them.

overall- fearless creatures with no regard for their own safety, only the primordial need to feed and spread the virus they carry inside of them. once prey is found they will track it until they lose track of it, they kill it, or they themselves are killed.


there, thats off the top of my head for what i want for my zombies....pretty standard stuff, and alot of it required some reviewing of some biology (it isn't perfect by any means, but i plan on fleshing it out and making it slightly better). spelling errors are a given, so be gentle.

[SoCalLoco]

01.) Freshness and decay determine speed. A newly revived zombie with little or no tissue damage will be faster than a mangled, rotted one. Zombie strength and speed slows as they decay. They stiffen up when rigor mortis sets in.

02.) All unburied dead become zombies, bitten or not.

03.) Destroy the brain, kill the zombie. Beat 'em or burn 'em.

04.) Zombies do NOT evolve, but do organize. They hunt for human flesh in packs/herds. They have no memories of their past lives and aren't smart by human standards. But they can use tools and objects as blungeons, and use teamwork while hunting.

05.) The cause of the plague remains a mystery. God's judgement? Voodoo?
The Venus probe? 245-Trioxin? Radiation? Biological agent? Nobody knows.

[SRP76]

After reading a couple of books, I've got another big rule:

#15) NO "bitter dead man retains intelligence and controls the dead" crap! I HATE that garbage!

It seems every novel has to have someone/thing "controlling" the zombies. This puppetmaster invariably has some kind of stupid grudge against people, and "leads his undead army against the living". This is an angle that needs to be dropped, immediately.

Zombies should be independent and mindless; no "collective mind" and all that. They are zombies, not the Borg.

[clanglee]

I dunno, it worked kinda nicely in Slither.

[Wyldwraith]

Slither was good in many ways,
I got SO tired of hearing all the infested people whining for that pricks wife though. They shoulda all been linked, not been Xeroxes of him.

[SRP76]

*BUMP*

This doesn't fit with "zombie physiology", but more along the lines of "zombie story" rule. It came to me while reading another thread about something else:

- If your survivors are alone, they are ALONE!!!

In other words, if your focus is on one group of people in an area that is DEAD, wiped out, empty of all inhabitants, you DO NOT have half a dozen people start showing up out of nowhere. "Oh, we were here for three weeks, you just never noticed us in a deserted city". NO! None of that.

[blind2d]

Yep, that about sums it up!