[Zombie_killer]

The walkers are decaying as time goes on.  Some are more decayed than others.   They are clearly decomposing as they would if they were just in their graves (the smell and the episode where they cut one open and you saw the rotten innards)

Does that mean as time goes on that they might just eventually disappear and things would be ok again?

What do you think?

[Major Tom]

 Zombie_killer, on 01 January 2012 - 08:39 PM, said:

The walkers are decaying as time goes on.  Some are more decayed than others.   They are clearly decomposing as they would if they were just in their graves (the smell and the episode where they cut one open and you saw the rotten innards)

Does that mean as time goes on that they might just eventually disappear and things would be ok again?

What do you think?

Nearly all writers of zombie fiction opine that they will rot eventually.

The Z life expectancy varies widely among writers with estimates as low as 1 year, and as high as 50 years.

I don't recall this ever being addressed in the TV series or the comic. Probably safe to say they will last for the duration of the series and the comic. (probably no more than 10 years)

[DeadCave]

Universal law is that all dead things rot away... unless of course they're mummified, frozen or burnt to ashes. Eventually the zombies will rot to skeletons and become harmless. But will "things be okay again?" I don't think so. The changes that have  been made could be severe. How many technical people have died during this plague? Electricians, plumbers, and the like? Police, fire, EMS and more importantly military? There are tens of thousands of people that work year-round to keep this (and in other countries) running and making life easier for all.
I think society will suffer a slide backwards before it can start moving forward again. Lawlessness will abound until citizens re-new the enforcement of the laws and re-establish the justice system so folks can live and rebuild in peace without worry of murder, robbery, rape and other crimes.
It'd be tough to do because think about down south in Mexico right now, major drug-gang war going on... say this apocalypse happened in the middle of said drug war. It's suspended in favor of killing zombies... now zombies have rotted away and guess who is likely to be still standing? Right those guys with all the heavy guns... think they're going to just STAY down there? Or take advantage of the lack of border patrols and law-enforcement and move right in and set up shop, battling for territories...
Food production will be down to zero.. mass food productions I mean. You remove a huge portion of the population and wreak havoc on the infrastructure and you got lots of things that will not be "ok" again.
After the Zombies have gone and rotted away... it's going to get pretty ugly.

[Major Tom]

 DeadCave, on 01 January 2012 - 10:17 PM, said:

After the Zombies have gone and rotted away... it's going to get pretty ugly.

Indeed

Zombie apocalypse is a fantasy, but the possibility of a virus apocalypse is very real and in many ways it is not very different without the zombies.

A virus with a + 90% mortality rate will leave us an a dangerous, kill or be killed environment with rotting corpses everywhere and no way to clean up the mess.

Warlords and outlaws will rule  

Anyone who read or saw the movie, The Road, will see what I mean.

[gracie lou]

The Road was very different, IMO, because everything was dead, not just the humans...

[Zombie_killer]

Yes I guess that's when the real issues come in.  People have always killed each other and been out for themselves for the most part.

I guess law and order would eventually be restored and things would develop again.

I think it'd be the same with an economic collapse or collapse of governments.   Everyone out for themselves and lawlessness abounds.  Humans are really their own worst enemy.

[DeadCave]

 Major Tom, on 01 January 2012 - 11:05 PM, said:

Indeed

Zombie apocalypse is a fantasy, but the possibility of a virus apocalypse is very real and in many ways it is not very different without the zombies.

A virus with a + 90% mortality rate will leave us an a dangerous, kill or be killed environment with rotting corpses everywhere and no way to clean up the mess.

Warlords and outlaws will rule  

Anyone who read or saw the movie, The Road, will see what I mean.

 gracie lou, on 01 January 2012 - 11:20 PM, said:

The Road was very different, IMO, because everything was dead, not just the humans...

That is true... t'was nuclear war that created the conditions of "The Road", the effects of nuclear winter. Hopefully the powers that be won't go deciding to use nukes to clean out cities and just wait a while letting the dead rot away and the cities can be fit to live in again after they're cleaned out, and the corpses/skeletons buried or otherwise disposed of.
Yet the lawlessness of "The Road" would be evident in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse just the same. Nobody is around to make arrests and detain suspects. People will be free to do whatever until society reforms (pardon the pun) and they enact their own sense of law and order and justice.
Also possible that surviving military forces will assume authority to maintain order.
It's one of the many unknowns that would occur in the aftermath of such losses.

[Quinnmallory]

I think the Zs would be their own worst enemy in that not only are they continuously rotting, but that by walking around and being in a more or less constant state of motion, they're placing stress upon joints and ligaments that aren't being replenished with new cells, etc. That would accelerate the rate of decay of those parts of the body. So even if the Z continued living, their extremities would fail sooner, rending them less of a threat.

[torimori]

I'd assume that the geeks would eventually decay, especially if they were already on their way out, or

Spoiler

if they had been in the grave for a time...comic readers know what I mean

Someone like Hannah (Bike Walker) would most certainly decay a lot faster what with all the exposed insides trailing behind her.

[Merle Dixon]

i know in 28 weeks later after about 4-5 months without food the zombies rotted away. but i would think 10-30 years would be the expectancy of zombies

[BigEd]

Rigor mortis sets in during within 36 hours after death.
Bloating in 48 hours, flies, insects and maggots would be everywhere.
Liquid begins seeping from oraphus for 4 to 10 days.
Corpse turns black and insect activity will consume the body in 10 to 20 days.
The body begins to dry out after 20-50 days, and beetles begin consuming any hard or dry tissue.
After 60 days to a year all that is left is bone.

Process is accelerated in wet environments or when scavengers are involved.
Dry or cold environments the process will slow down or be stopped by freezing.

[RV9866]

BigEd,

Your post (which I assume is bang-on and factual) raises more questions about the timeline.

The CDC at Atlanta had a lot of blackened corpses and flies, which means those bodies were dead for 10-20 days. Not sure if that groves with Jenner's testimony.

Another thing .  . .

How long does blood stay . . . well . . . red?

Rick saw pools of it when he emerged from the coma in the hospital. The devoured nurse sure looked red to me.


In season two, T-Dog looks in the back seat of a car and sees the infant seat covered in chuncks of what looks to me to be fresh flesh and blood.

Depending on how long it takes for blood to dry up and turn brown, we migt able to tie the timeline down a bit tighter.

[Tron]

 Merle Dixon, on 02 January 2012 - 01:43 AM, said:

i know in 28 weeks later after about 4-5 months without food the zombies rotted away. but i would think 10-30 years would be the expectancy of zombies

i dont think those were zombies, just humans infected w the rage virus .. they were still alive, n starved, thats why they died 28 days later ..

[gracie lou]

 DeadCave, on 02 January 2012 - 01:33 AM, said:

That is true... t'was nuclear war that created the conditions of "The Road", the effects of nuclear winter. Hopefully the powers that be won't go deciding to use nukes to clean out cities and just wait a while letting the dead rot away and the cities can be fit to live in again after they're cleaned out, and the corpses/skeletons buried or otherwise disposed of.
Yet the lawlessness of "The Road" would be evident in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse just the same. Nobody is around to make arrests and detain suspects. People will be free to do whatever until society reforms (pardon the pun) and they enact their own sense of law and order and justice.
Also possible that surviving military forces will assume authority to maintain order.
It's one of the many unknowns that would occur in the aftermath of such losses.

I just don't think the living conditions would be as dire as in The Road because there are still animals and vegetation to eat in a zombie apocalypse. Plus, at least you have a common enemy with your fellow living humans - that would help band people together. There definitely would be a degree of lawlessness, I'm not denying that, but I don't think it would be near the level of danger that the protagonist (don't think he ever had a name) faced in The Road.

[DeadCave]

 gracie lou, on 02 January 2012 - 04:59 PM, said:

I just don't think the living conditions would be as dire as in The Road because there are still animals and vegetation to eat in a zombie apocalypse. Plus, at least you have a common enemy with your fellow living humans - that would help band people together. There definitely would be a degree of lawlessness, I'm not denying that, but I don't think it would be near the level of danger that the protagonist (don't think he ever had a name) faced in The Road.

Antagonists such as those found in "The Road" were the cannibals or groups of cannibals. No, probably wouldn't have to worry about them, because of the abundance of wild-life that would spring up within a year or two and eventually resume their pre-white settlers populations in America within 10 years. Those could be hunted for meat. Particularly deer/elk/antelope, buffalo and cattle which would go unchecked and become wild or feral, thus dangerous. Horses too, since there would be no culling of the wild herds like they do these days.
Another concern would be predatory animals will migrate back down eventually to their pre-settler ranges and also re-populate. Nature abhors a vaccum and thus the balance between predators and prey would be restored in a short time.
There are the exotic animals in zoos and other animal parks/farms that survivors would need to be concerned about as well. Tigers, lions, leopards, and other big cats. Bears and wolves. All of these would resume their ranges or begin to mark out hunting territories and evolve to hunt what is similar but not their natural prey. People will have to worry about those as well.
A good portion of those enclosed animals would die off from starvation but a few would very likely escape out of desperation born of hunger and be free to roam around and establish territorial hunting grounds.
So literally it'll be a brave new world.

Edited by DeadCave, 02 January 2012 - 05:39 PM.

[Major Tom]

The Road was a bad example because it was an environmental apocalypse in addition to a human apocalypse. It was just the first thing that popped into my mind. It is still a good example of how low we can sink.

DC mentioned above that the reason for the apocalypse in The Road was nuclear winter. I have not read the book but on another forum there was a lengthy thread on what happened to cause the disaster.

Did the book or movie ever say that a war caused the destruction?

The opinions in the thread I referred to, suggested nukes or meteor impact as the cause. As I recall, the film was never completely clear on the cause. Nuclear Winter can occur as a result of either.

Edited by Major Tom, 02 January 2012 - 07:43 PM.

[gracie lou]

 Major Tom, on 02 January 2012 - 07:42 PM, said:

The Road was a bad example because it was an environmental apocalypse in addition to a human apocalypse. It was just the first thing that popped into my mind. It is still a good example of how low we can sink.

DC mentioned above that the reason for the apocalypse in The Road was nuclear winter. I have not read the book but on another forum there was a lengthy thread on what happened to cause the disaster.

Did the book or movie ever say that a war caused the destruction?

The opinions in the thread I referred to, suggested nukes or meteor impact as the cause. As I recall, the film was never completely clear on the cause. Nuclear Winter can occur as a result of either.

I would have to dig out my book to be certain, but I think the cause was never explicitly stated. I always just assumed that it was the result of a nuclear war, but meteors never crossed my mind...

[Major Tom]

 gracie lou, on 02 January 2012 - 08:30 PM, said:

I would have to dig out my book to be certain, but I think the cause was never explicitly stated. I always just assumed that it was the result of a nuclear war, but meteors never crossed my mind...

One 2-3 kilometer meteor falling anywhere on Earth would create the damage described.

The meteor proponents believed since there was no mention of radiation poisoning, a meteor or massive volcanic event was more likely.

[Merle Dixon]

 torimori, on 02 January 2012 - 01:41 AM, said:

I'd assume that the geeks would eventually decay, especially if they were already on their way out, or

Spoiler

if they had been in the grave for a time...comic readers know what I mean

Someone like Hannah (Bike Walker) would most certainly decay a lot faster what with all the exposed insides trailing behind her.

well (you know who) was in the ground for like 7-8 months and he wasnt that bad. so i say if a zombie was above ground, and walking it would take over 5+ years for them to decay as bad as (you know who). also

Spoiler

in the comic when rick joined with abraham. there was a zombie in the town who was starving and he couldnt get up and barley grabbed the girls leg. so i think he was decaying

[BigEd]

 RV9866, on 02 January 2012 - 02:14 PM, said:

BigEd,

Your post (which I assume is bang-on and factual) raises more questions about the timeline.

The CDC at Atlanta had a lot of blackened corpses and flies, which means those bodies were dead for 10-20 days. Not sure if that groves with Jenner's testimony.

Another thing .  . .

How long does blood stay . . . well . . . red?

Rick saw pools of it when he emerged from the coma in the hospital. The devoured nurse sure looked red to me.


In season two, T-Dog looks in the back seat of a car and sees the infant seat covered in chuncks of what looks to me to be fresh flesh and blood.

Depending on how long it takes for blood to dry up and turn brown, we migt able to tie the timeline down a bit tighter.

Blood outside the body coagulates and turns black within a few hours. It is something that horror shows have been getting wrong for years. You have to use the failsafe "Willing suspension of disbelief" theory to alot of factors in a zombie flick. In reality a walking corpse would fall apart fast, and be covered in flies. The eyes would be eaten by maggots quickly. You can also smell a rotting corpse within a hundred yards easy, so sniffing out something dead can be easily accomplished.

Things that bug me the most about the show are directoral and continuity issues. The series director seems to be having a difficult time portraying the timeline. Alot of fans are trying to grasp what happened when, even a subtle "cookie" like someones birthday would be helpful. This is especially true now since there are no new episodes for a month and the fans discussing details. Red blood smears, puddles, and trails are reality wrong. I believe the director is just making sure people see it is blood. (But this messes with the timeline.)

Firearms that are not reloaded really bugs me. And Shane and Otis's scene where the walkers rip Otis to pieces, just did not have that desperate "Their going to catch us!" feel to it. Kirkman had to explain it on a interview before I believed it. (Even though I voted that Shane & Otis could have escaped on another thread.)

[DoctorManhattan89]

Even if the walkers didn't decay to the point of for lack of a better word dying again they would still become so frail and weakened that they'd probably pose little threat eventually.  What would normally take a couple of hits to kill one would only take one or two.  Their bones would become so enfeebled that they wouldn't be that hard to put down anymore.  My main worry would remain and always be other people.  The walkers are just an obstical, the real problem would be dealing with complete and utter chaos, before and after the apocalypse.

[DeadCave]

Isn't it fortunate that we can suspend belief for a little while during these shows/movies. It probably is the appeal that makes them fun to watch. The horror of something taking longer than usual to rot away after it's dead and capable of hurting/killing you is the appeal of the modern-day zombie. The fact that they are more scarier in large groups, which makes them virtually unstoppable.
How fortunate also that writers will eventually adhere to reality and know that a good thing cannot last. Yet if everyone is infected and will rise irregardless then yeah, it does leave possibilities wide open.

[Babs Bladdyblah]

 DeadCave, on 03 January 2012 - 03:26 AM, said:

Isn't it fortunate that we can suspend belief for a little while during these shows/movies. It probably is the appeal that makes them fun to watch. The horror of something taking longer than usual to rot away after it's dead and capable of hurting/killing you is the appeal of the modern-day zombie. The fact that they are more scarier in large groups, which makes them virtually unstoppable.
How fortunate also that writers will eventually adhere to reality and know that a good thing cannot last. Yet if everyone is infected and will rise irregardless then yeah, it does leave possibilities wide open.

Speaking of suspended belief, I was wondering what yours and others thoughts were on the fact that whenever they make a run to the pharmacy, they always come back with what they need. Surely, there are others, and I would have figured by now, especially in the smaller towns, the stores would be wiped out.

[DeadCave]

 Babs Bladdyblah, on 03 January 2012 - 04:17 AM, said:

Speaking of suspended belief, I was wondering what yours and others thoughts were on the fact that whenever they make a run to the pharmacy, they always come back with what they need. Surely, there are others, and I would have figured by now, especially in the smaller towns, the stores would be wiped out.

Agreed but you and the rest of us need to remember one VITAL ... very important fact about all of it...





it's in the script!

[Living Dead Grrrl]

 TheLCM, on 02 January 2012 - 03:14 PM, said:

i dont think those were zombies, just humans infected w the rage virus .. they were still alive, n starved, thats why they died 28 days later ..

Thank you. I'm sick of correcting people about how they're not actually ZOMBIES in 28Days/Weeks. Come on people it aint that hard to understand.

As for the topic question I've already thrown in my thoughts in the other older topics just like this one...