Making the dead... DEAD!

[Ragnarr]

When I get bored at work (which is most days), my mind will drift to the zombie apocolypse that we all know is sure to come some fine day. The "catch" to any well written zombie flick for me is what I'd do in situations that the characters find themselves in. Then my mind gets to work trying to think outside the box with innovative or imaginative ways to make the dead... DEAD dead. Situation scenario #1: "Dawn of the Dead" remake/Zack Snyder; zombies run like track stars I'm not exactly certain if the characters deduced that their gunfire was attracting more and more zombies, but at least they were aware that they had a finite amount of ammunition and woefully so. So how should they have pwned the zombies to thin out their numbers while not depleting their ammo. High atop the shopping mall roof, the character ties a rope long enough to reach the ground two stories below to a cinderblock. Get the zombie horde below to gather around at the foot of the wall's base. Aim your cinderblock best that you can then make a whistling bomb dropping sound as you let your cinderblock drop onto one of their heads. Pull your cinderblock back to the top of the mall roof and repeat... and repeat. Height + Rope + Cinderblock + Muscle + Gravity = DEAD dead zombies Situation Scenario #2: "Night of the Living Dead", original or remakes, Romero; zombies are shamblers Again, in a zombie apocolypse, height is your friend. Making a stand in the basement or main floor of the house are secondary to attaining a higher elevation such as the house's second floor. Like the ancient Battle of Thermopylae where the "300" stood against the Persians, the pass of Thermopylae would be the house's stairwell. The only way for the ghouls to reach you was by using the staircase. Block the staircase at the top landing so the the zombie horde can bring their noggins within reach of your waiting clubs and hammers, but are blocked by your clever make shift barrier at the top of the staircase. Zombies + Staircase + Barrier + Clubs = DEAD dead zombies So, more ideas?

[Neil]

Dawn: I always wondered why in the Snyder remake they didn't employ some petrol bombs. Night: Yes, you're right! For all the windows they blocked up, they surely could have just blocked up that single staircase! Christ with all the effort they went to, they probably could have ripped the stairs out completely.

[Wyldwraith]

Molotovs are a terrible idea for zombie disposal, The human body is like 3/4ths water, and it takes a HOT fire a LONG TIME to cremate a body. All smashing a molotov against a zombie would do would be to make its odor even more gaggingly horrific and make them even uglier. Plus, as Max Brooks pointed out, flaming zombies could well set your hideout on fire. Personally, a long length of rebar and a barricade to prevent zombies from reaching me would be all I need to eliminate them until my stamina gave out. Thrust rebar at/into head until you pierce brain, repeat ad nauseum. As far as the cinderblock-on-a-rope, I was one of the first proponents of that method on this site

[rongravy]

Is rebar even pointy at the end, or is it easily sharpened to a point? I thought the end was dull... I saw them using it on TWD, and I find it hard to believe you can just thrust that through someone's head like it was a hot knife in butter. I'd think if it were even possible, your arm would be wore out pretty quickly.

[Publius]

Is rebar even pointy at the end, or is it easily sharpened to a point? I thought the end was dull... I saw them using it on TWD, and I find it hard to believe you can just thrust that through someone's head like it was a hot knife in butter. I'd think if it were even possible, your arm would be wore out pretty quickly. Shouldn't be too hard to grind or file to a point. But I'd probably use a hammer to drive it in rather than just thrusting by hand. - - - Updated - - - Molotovs are a terrible idea for zombie disposal, The human body is like 3/4ths water, and it takes a HOT fire a LONG TIME to cremate a body. All smashing a molotov against a zombie would do would be to make its odor even more gaggingly horrific and make them even uglier. Plus, as Max Brooks pointed out, flaming zombies could well set your hideout on fire. After a while the zombies might start to get dehydrated. With the right amount of body fact and flammable clothing, molotov cocktails could be effective. The point about fire hazard is a good one though. You wouldn't want to use that technique from the inside of a frame house, but it might be worth a try against zombies on the outside of a concrete or cinder-block wall.

[Morto Vivente]

Scenario: Wide Open Space with a street party of zombies (Carpark in Dawn '78,Yawn '04 or the Farm Finale in TWD). TO MAKE THE DEAD DEAD. Two suitable vehicles + a sufficient amount of heavy fishing line or the like, + 2 industrial strength spring loaded cogs/reels used for shutters or other self-winding mechanisms. Assemble cogs onto the front of the vehicles at an optimum height for decapataion (around 5 feet, WARNING: midget zombies maybe a problem). Stretch the line between the two vehicles. The spring loaded reels will compensate for any variations in the distance between the vehicles once they are in motion, and therefore avoid snapping the line. One driver follows the other's lead. Head for the horde.

[krakenslayer]

After a while the zombies might start to get dehydrated. With the right amount of body fact and flammable clothing, molotov cocktails could be effective. The point about fire hazard is a good one though. You wouldn't want to use that technique from the inside of a frame house, but it might be worth a try against zombies on the outside of a concrete or cinder-block wall. It all depends on how the zombies would actually react to it, but the fact that - as long as we follow Night-Dawn-Day-Land rules - the dead are both dazzled by and morbidly afraid of fire, could be a boon here. If you watch the movies - Night and Dawn in particular - they recoil from the heat in horror. Hit them with a petrol bomb and they might even fall to the ground paralyzed or thrashing in terror. Maybe. Or maybe they'll run blindly into you and set you on fire. Like I say, all depends on how they would actually react. We don't know enough about their behaviour to know. Its also possible that, if their body temperature is closer to that of a corpse than a living person, the relative temperature difference between the flame and their flesh being that much higher, even standing close to a naked flame would feel to them like being on fire. Therefore you wouldn't need to actually hit them for the bombs to be effective: just use a few at carefully spread out distances around your shelter to make them back off and keep the horde from getting too dense. They do this to an extent in Night. Nor do we have to totally cremate the body for the petrol bomb to be effective. Many of the fatal effects of a fire on a human would be equally crippling or deadly to a zombie: for example, fats in the body boil and muscles contract and fuse into a foetal position, and brain tissue swells, causing the skull to crack along the suture lines. This is before we get into the amount of built-up of flammable gases in the body from either the decomposition of tissues (if they are truly decomposing) or the breakdown of foods and consumed flesh in the gut.

[Ragnarr]

. As far as the cinderblock-on-a-rope, I was one of the first proponents of that method on this site Dammit! Everytime I believe I've thought of something new that no one else has thought of before, either a search on Google B-slaps me or... Wyldwraith kicks me in the gibblies with his dusty apocolype zombie-killing boot! Get outta my head Wyld! OUT! OUT! - - - Updated - - - Scenario: Wide Open Space with a street party of zombies (Carpark in Dawn '78,Yawn '04 or the Farm Finale in TWD). TO MAKE THE DEAD DEAD. Two suitable vehicles + a sufficient amount of heavy fishing line or the like, + 2 industrial strength spring loaded cogs/reels used for shutters or other self-winding mechanisms. Assemble cogs onto the front of the vehicles at an optimum height for decapataion (around 5 feet, WARNING: midget zombies maybe a problem). Stretch the line between the two vehicles. The spring loaded reels will compensate for any variations in the distance between the vehicles once they are in motion, and therefore avoid snapping the line. One driver follows the other's lead. Head for the horde. Awesome! I'd reckon each driver should expect a serious pull of the steering wheel towards the head-confetti festivities and be ready to compensate, but awesome with extra awesome sauce!

[Morto Vivente]

If I was trapped in a mall filled to the brim with household and D.I.Y. items but surrounded by the undead I'd want this guy around. As a next door neighbour though...Hmmm, not so much. Vorsprung Durch Technik ! Oberfranken Steak Knife Massacre Anti-Zombie Maul

[Ragnarr]

It all depends on how the zombies would actually react to it, but the fact that - as long as we follow Night-Dawn-Day-Land rules - the dead are both dazzled by and morbidly afraid of fire, could be a boon here. If you watch the movies - Night and Dawn in particular - they recoil from the heat in horror. Hit them with a petrol bomb and they might even fall to the ground paralyzed or thrashing in terror. Maybe. Or maybe they'll run blindly into you and set you on fire. Like I say, all depends on how they would actually react. We don't know enough about their behaviour to know. Its also possible that, if their body temperature is closer to that of a corpse than a living person, the relative temperature difference between the flame and their flesh being that much higher, even standing close to a naked flame would feel to them like being on fire. Therefore you wouldn't need to actually hit them for the bombs to be effective: just use a few at carefully spread out distances around your shelter to make them back off and keep the horde from getting too dense. They do this to an extent in Night. Nor do we have to totally cremate the body for the petrol bomb to be effective. Many of the fatal effects of a fire on a human would be equally crippling or deadly to a zombie: for example, fats in the body boil and muscles contract and fuse into a foetal position, and brain tissue swells, causing the skull to crack along the suture lines. This is before we get into the amount of built-up of flammable gases in the body from either the decomposition of tissues (if they are truly decomposing) or the breakdown of foods and consumed flesh in the gut. Ewwww... Very awesome, but ewwww lol!

[Morto Vivente]

@Ragnarr.....Looks like Nicotero and co are going to create something new in season 4 of TWD for making the dead...Dead. http://www.examiner.com/article/the-...ils-on-walkers

[Ragnarr]

I wonder if TWD's writing staff reads HPotD. They should if they don't already.