Traps and ambushes

[rightwing401]

I figure, why do we humans always have to be on the run? Why can't we at times take the fight to the living dead, or at least cut out some of their numbers.

I once wrote a story about two hunter like guys using a recorded tape of a woman's screams to lure zombies out into an open field where they could snipe them with ease.

I'd like to know any other ideas that some of you could think of that a character might be able to hit back at the living dead once and a while.

[Relic]

A wall of flesh, maybe? Human sacrifices -- though they're living -- tied to a wall so zombies would come to feed, and then you'd have them. Inhuman, but effective. Think of that poor goat in the original Jurassic Park.

[rightwing401]

Here's another idea. How about a series of large television screens that play child oriented programs. Since zombies are very much dumber than children, flashing lights might just distract them. I notice from time to time that whenever a television is on, everyone around it (even myself) can't help but look at the screen. I figure this almost instinct like nature would play out with the living dead as well, making them easy to pick off as they are glued to what is on the screen.

[paulannett]

You could rig up speakers (playing a song of your choice!) in a densely populated area and wait til it reaches full capacity and then simply fire bomb them to Hell? It's a little less twisted than human sacrifice and wasts less bullets.


A trench, 15 metres deep, with barbed wire blocking your side. Let those suckers come to you. Once again, when full capicity is reached, burn them. You could have spikes to impale them, barbed wire to entangle them, or a concrete bottom to crack a few skulls?


And yeah, you guessed it, I see fire as a great mass disposal method!:mad:

[wyvern1096]

Barbed wire would work wonders. Simply snipe them when they get snagged. I doubt zombies could figure out how to extract themselves once entangled. It is also very easy to set up.

[mista_mo]

what about like you know, pits and stuff? maybe with sharpened wooden sticks jammed in the bottom of it. Ummm....

yea...dunno what else really..kinda tired so yea.

[wyvern1096]

Rope traps on trees would work against small numbers of zombies. The zed steps into a rope loop and is picked up by the ankle, maybe sounding a bell or some such.

[rightwing401]

Rope traps seem very good, the only trouble would be finding suitable branches and rope to hold several hundred pounds of dead weight. Don't get me wrong, I do like the idea a lot.

Here's another one I was contemplating. In a suburban area, where houses are very close to each other and generally have lots of trees in between them, this trap might be plausable. Initially have an escape route preplanned (preferably via a hole through the attic to reach the roof, and a series of ladders/ropes to leap frog from tree to tree or house to house, until pre-selected safe zone is reached). Have several bottles, or cans if possible, of gasoline (which should be easily accessable) ready. Let the zombies know that you're there. Wait until you have a lot of them, or until the structure of the house's defenses begin to give, and begin to pour lines of gasoline around the floors, first covering the major entrances as they will be the most dangerous places to prep. If a two story house, lead the trail upstairs.

When the dead break in, retreat to the attic, where they can't reach you. When enough of them have entered the house, use a highly reliable source of flame (blowtorch or molitov cocktail) and drop on a large ignition spot below your vantage point. With how fast the fire would spread, it's bound to get a fair number of the living dead before any of them had even a hope of retreating from the house.

How many this complex trap would get is questionable. If it would be anything like the mass I saw in night'90, you could probably nail at least fifty of the buggers with this scheme. No bullets wasted. If properly planned, minimal risk. Probably not the best plan ever, but if society fell apart, what else are you going to spend your time doing, except busting heads, running, and eating?

[zombieparanoia]

I always thought maybe a trap with a turnstile that loads them into an area and then they can be destroyed by fire like in the attached image or just make the turnstile revolve them through the bars by not giving them room enough to exit the turnstile.

[Legion2213]

There was a story in the fiction section years ago....a bunch of folks had created some sort of maze out of trucks and buses in the city, it basically funneled the G's into a river (I believe the type of maze they used has an actual scientific name, but I can't remember it).

As for other traps, if you had a great location and a ****-ton of ammo, you could just draw them to you with a megaphone and blast 'em as come...simple, but effective. :)

Edit: I think traps would be really useful if you wanted to clear out a little village with only a few thousand resident zombies, it might take you a few months to do it, it but it would make survival a Hell of a lot easier if you pulled it off and culled all stenches in your area.

[IRA_LCPL]

Easy done and easy set up lur them into a large building such as a movie theater or shopping mall using Metal music on loud speakers (Metallica enter sandman would do wounders) then when its full to capacity have a hidden outside man back a truck up to the doors and block em then blow the gas line Gremlins style.... Just quick and off the top of my head I do like the Pungi stick ad Burmese tiger trap idea somone else mentioned I think the one that said Concertino (rolled) Barbed wire would be the best if you combinedt the two though.

Hell I got a better one for those back in the old countries. when I was a young teen of about 15 on the weekends we would manage to get our hands on some booze and go out to the country and get pissed in the old castls and abbys and round towers. they all have very steep and narrow steps going up the inside walls Just have a man sand on the Ramparts playing a set of highland pipes as loud as posible (and wear ear protection as needed) then wait as the come to the walls either snipe em or let em inside hit em with gas and nail bombs and the ones that get up the stairs just jab em with a sharpened shovel in the head. I think it would do wanders.

[paulannett]

.....

[wyvern1096]

Luring some into an old mine shaft and sealing would work for smaller numbers. In parts of the west there are plenty of old mines still standing open. Interesting to explore when you're young and stupid...

[IRA_LCPL]

But someof those old shafts have vents and sink holes and other exits.

[wyvern1096]

But someof those old shafts have vents and sink holes and other exits.


Not all of them. Many of the old ones have been around long enough for passages to collapse, we're talking 70 or more years old. Modern mining operations seal this kind of stuff when they are done. Besides, the protagonist thinking he or she has gotten rid of them and having them slouch out of a vent several days later could be interesting.

[dannoofthedead]

i've actually been debating this one a bit, though it doesn't help fight the LD as much. Zombie Mines. Plant the freshly bitten, still living infected in graves barely 2-3ft deep and wait for reanimation. As other living (marauders, bandits, etc) come through the things claw up through the ground and go after them.

[wyvern1096]

That ^^^^^ is twisted. I like it.:evil:

[IRA_LCPL]

Wh dont you just take some gutter spikes and nail Zombies to trees walls and Fences that should discourage any marauders seeing that tey would have to climb your outter defences that had dozens of Zs atatched then theres the whole psychological aspect of it.

[dannoofthedead]

Another good one using the Z's as booby traps. set a few up in trees suspended by their ankles. Set a trip wire in the woods just before the zed trees so that when some poor unfortunate bastard walks by, the wire snaps and down come the zombies. If for nothing else other than the visual effect of a corpse swinging towards your face.

So far a booby traps for ghouls I'm kinds stumped. Land mines, while great against living targets are only gonna' slow down a zombie. They're designed to maim and kil by blowing away appendages which only helps against the undead if you can manage to trip one and make him land on his head on the mine.

Maybe a big pit with spikes in it. You wouldn't even have to cover it really since most of 'em are dumb as hell.

Now that I've gone back and read some of the other suggestions I see PaulAnnett already suggested the pit.

Maybe if you had enough diesel you could dig a trench around your compound and light it. A good source of warmth in the winter and they won't try to cross it as they seem to avoid fire when possible. (I refer to the flaming recliner in the original NOTLD)

And the pyromaniac in me just keeps talking today. In a more urban area, provided you have access to it, lure them into a coridoor or alley and flood it with napalm.

[wyvern1096]

So far a booby traps for ghouls I'm kinds stumped. Land mines, while great against living targets are only gonna' slow down a zombie. They're designed to maim and kil by blowing away appendages which only helps against the undead if you can manage to trip one and make him land on his head on the mine.

Maybe a big pit with spikes in it. You wouldn't even have to cover it really since most of 'em are dumb as hell.

What about what my stepdad called a Bouncing Betty? You trip it and it pops up at head level somewhere else.

Another from the minds of the VC. Malay whip. Tie back a sapling or bamboo with spikes driven through it. When released the spikes pin the victim against a nearby tree. It wouldn't kill the ghoul but they'd be immobilized.

[IRA_LCPL]

Betty's only pop up about three feet or waist high right next to you they like most mines are designed to wound. Injure one you takeout three cause 2 have to carry one away theprincipal there.
But you could use fertalizer and anti-armor/tank IEDs like Iraqi insurgents the way most solders die from them is the concution of being right thee can liquify your brain same as an Acetelene explosion.

[mista_mo]

this thread has alot of good ideas. Time to go out into the public and apply them.

[Khardis]

Everyone of them you kill wastes your ammo, everyone of you they kill becomes one of them. Its hopeless.

[zombieparanoia]

What about nets of car tires tied together? Laid out flat to cover large areas like parking lots, the zombies would never be able to navigate them without breaking their ankles and legs and then their arms trying to drag themselves. They lose a lot of threat factor when they're crawling after you. The more zombies you had walking through a big "net" at once the less likely they would be able to navigate it at all and they'd start trampling each other while trying to cross.

[paulannett]

What about nets of car tires tied together? Laid out flat to cover large areas like parking lots, the zombies would never be able to navigate them without breaking their ankles and legs and then their arms trying to drag themselves. They lose a lot of threat factor when they're crawling after you. The more zombies you had walking through a big "net" at once the less likely they would be able to navigate it at all and they'd start trampling each other while trying to cross.

Good idea! :thumbsup:

[Wooley]

An idea I've hatched awhile back-dig a antitank ditch or moat-at least neck deep and probably a meter wide-around your position-town, building, farm, using scavenged construction equipment.

As the walkers stumble towards your location, they fall into the ditch, and your roving patrols come across them, stuck there, and using such tools as a pipe with a sharpened timber spike on the end which is stabbed through their eye, or, even better, a captive bolt gun like No Country of Old Men, eliminate the beasts.

Bodies are removed from the trench, and cremated or buried.

Another idea-drive a snow plow around while playing load music to attract them.
Ever seen a deer after it gets hit by a semi truck? Hell yeah.