The different incarnations of the zombie
The Zombie has been established through the zombie pop culture in a number of guises and these guises have changed as the Zombie is revisited by the imagination of illustrators, movie makers and writers.
Wikipedia has a rather complete article on the subject of what a zombie is. Jake over at Zombease has also defined the Zombie by 5 types and his article is a good indication of what we might expect in regards to the enemy when Zompoc arrives. The Zombease list is an excellent article and worth the budding survivors effort to read and consider.
We don’t disagree with the above articles on the subject. In fact we think they are an excellent resource however since we like to do our own thing here at GSA we have to have a discussion on the subject of our own.
A reason for this is the issue we keep running into regarding the question about zombie defecation. It may sound crazy but the question, “Do Zombies defecate” has led to us having a long think on the subject of what a zombie actually is and also the potential for the different types of zombie.
Before we go into types of zombie we need to address two important things, reanimating what we believe to be dead cells and powering the cells.
The first is reanimation of the dead cell. The standard model of the zombie is it is a corpse reanimated. The George Romero Zombie falls into this category and is often considered the progenitor of the modern zombie. Rather than considering the mechanism of reanimation such as virus, bacteria or nano- machines lets first consider if reanimation of dead tissue is theoretically possible.
Human cells require oxygen for the metabolic process of the cell. Once the metabolic process stops and the cell no longer functions it is considered to be dead. Often this cell death will be followed by the dead cell becoming necrotic. Necrosis is the death of cells by way of injury or disease. Some cells will be preprogramed to die in the event of a loss of oxygen but that is a greater discussion than this article.
So if we take metabolic function of the cell which includes the transfer of material to and from the cell as well as reproduction and the simple function of the cell as over then its dead. It is our understanding that small scale experiments have achieved a restarting of the cell. As such some cells could be said to have been reanimated.
The classic dead frog and battery experiment shows that some function of a cell remains active after the actual creature is dead. By placing electrodes into a frogs muscle in particular spots and running a current the frog’s muscle will do the normal work of contracting. Basically zap the frog and the leg tries to jump. This is technically dead tissue given the death of the creature however it still operates.
In this there is no control of the frog from the brain instructing the muscle to contract. The instruction and the stimulus are from an external source. The energy required for a muscle cell to contract is contained within the cell already. The electrical current is the stimulus not the energy source. As such the more times you zap the frog the less reactive the muscle becomes as it consumes the energy store in the muscle. Being dead it does not metabolise new sources of energy to replace the energy source.
Thus it may be possible to restart a cell if it has not deteriorated too much.
Brain cells are a different matter as they involve electrochemical operations in communication and performance. As such jump starting one of those is more complex matter. To date experiments have sought to restart dead brain cells but the complexity of the task has evaded scientists so far.
Magic or Voodoo Zombies
The original Zombie is likely from Western African Voodoo where a dead person was reanimated by a shaman like witch doctor or similar by the use of magic. The zombie in these instances was the puppet of the party who raised them and would do their bidding having no independent will.
The Haitian tradition which would likely have taken its cue from the African population brought over as slaves also involves magic in the reanimation of the dead into a zombie. A variation involves the use of magical potions or even just non-magical mixtures of ingredients to create the zombie.
We call these the magic zombies or voodoo zombies. This name is based on us not being very imaginative at the time of writing.
We also believe that the Mummy is also a form of zombie. In this the classic Egyptian mummy is a reanimated corpse and as such a type of zombie. These are commonly said to be animated by a magic curse cast on the tomb with the mummy acting as the guardian who is raised by the curse when the tomb is interfered with.
The magic zombie is a specific creation and as such is not infectious and does not reproduce or increase its numbers independent of its creator. These are going to be issues where the zombie’s creator and controller targets the budding survivor or they go rouge and start attacking in general. Otherwise these zombies will go about their business of their creators bidding and not be of much concern to the average survivor.
The reanimating zombie disease
Zombie pop culture has developed the idea of the zombie disease. Some form of communicable disease which reanimates dead people into walking dead. In this the person dies and then comes back to life.
The clincher seems to be the requirement the person actually dies, either from the disease imparted on the person by way of a bite from a zombie such as The Dawn of the Dead. Alternately the reanimation vector is from a disease the person carries which lies dormant until the person dies such as in The Walking Dead. Both require the person dies so that reanimation as a zombie takes place.
In pop culture, unlike the Magic or Voodoo zombie the zombie disease zombie is infectious and the number of zombies will increase.
There is a lot of difference of imagination as to whether the infected zombie eats. The so called Romero Zombie has been shown to consume the flesh of human victims but also to eat insects.
The Walking Dead Zombie has been known to also eat the flesh of victims and in season 2 when looking for a missing girl Rick and Darryl disembowel a zombie to discover it had eaten a woodchuck.
Max Brooks in his book, “The Zombie Survival Guide” states that the zombie will consume the flesh but not digest the flesh.
The World War Z (movie) zombie does not appear to consume the victim such as to prevent the reanimation of the zombie.
It appears however that regardless of whether the zombie eats or does not eat it maintains an energy source. Remember that in order for our muscles to move and do things they require we eat to fuel the energy burned in doing work.
The reanimated zombie seems to have a source of energy beyond the normal digestive and biological functions of the original human host. In this we note that the decapitated heads of zombies appear to maintain the ability to move even when separated from the digestive system and circulatory system of the body.
As such we believe that it is irrelevant whether the reanimated infectious zombie eats or not. There appears to be another energy source of which we are not aware powering the reanimated cells.
It is our belief that the reanimated Zombie must eat and must retain a fairly high level of digestive and operational function so as to have a source of energy on a logical basis to be able to operate. In this we envisage the Zombie as being a restarted dead body with the majority of biological functions operational.
In the Walking Dead season one we see that the brain ceases to function at death and then appears to restart but to only use a small proportion of the brain and then in a very different manner than previously. The area of the brain reactivated is one which controls automatic function such as breathing, heartbeat and digestion. We assume that the other systems also are either controlled form this region or operate autonomously with the basic systems running.
In this the Zombie is an operational biological unit but lacks the other aspects of humanity in that is holds no sentient cognitive function. It is like a lizard brain operating on a level which does not include cognitive problem solving or other higher brain functions.
The non-reanimated infected
These are commonly called the 28days later zombie.
There is a lot of debate as to whether the infected is in fact a zombie. Such a categorisation is going to be dependent on whether a zombie must be reanimated from death to become a zombie or if zombie like behaviours are sufficient.
In 28days later a virus known as Rage Virus escapes from a laboratory by way of infected hosts. The hosts then attack people and in the course of the attack blood transfer leads to infection of the victim. Once infected the person is no longer attacked and goes on to find persons to attack.
This is a manner of transmission similar to the reanimated infectious zombie.
Of interest is the fact that in 28days later the original infection ends when the infected hosts of the virus dies out due to starvation. In this they do not eat their victims.
As such it is seen that the infected maintain at least some of the biological functions of the human host even though it may have damaged or destroyed the brain of the host bringing on the ultraviolent symptomology.
Infection spread
Reanimated zombies and non-reanimated infected share the fact it is a disease that takes over the aspects of the original person and turns them into the zombie or infected. They share the same trait that they either seek to intentionally infect others or they have a drive to do things that infect others as a by-product or the action. The need to eat people leads to those who are bitten but escape being eaten to later become a zombie by virtue of the infection transmission through the bite.
This trait of spreading the infection appears to be uniform regardless of the source.
The single source of the disease is found in the escaped bioweapon scenario with a single infectious person who contracts the disease. This person then goes on to bite or otherwise infect another person. This is called the common source outbreak which then jumps from person to person becoming a propagated outbreak.
The spread of the disease tends to be exponential with 1 zombie bites another person thus creating 2 zombies, these two zombies bite a person each creating 4 zombies, these bite a person each creating 8 then 18, 32, 64, 128, 256 an so on. If each zombie bites 4 people then the rate of spread is 1, 4, 16, 64, 256, 1024, 4096, 16384.
As can be seen from the numbers above the spread of the disease with limited or no immunity in the population and no way of avoiding the hordes global infection would be expected.
Where the disease is latent in the population and a person dies and becomes a zombie the infection rate increases. Given the normal rate of death daily on the planet this creates multiple sources of the single source.
Rather than having the zombie infection radiate out from a single point you have multiple start points. This would make creating any physical barrier to the spread of the disease difficult where it is a latent disease.
The transmission method of the disease or infection will have an impact on the strategies for survival.
The infected zombie regardless of reanimation or not and regardless of being a transmissible disease only or a latent disease is also going to be a source of more disease.
Bacterial source, viral source or even algae and fungal sources all reproduce in the host to make more disease. Thus there is not much limit to the spread in regards to a finite volume of the disease.
Chemical and radioactive zombies
These have a lot in common with the viral cousins in their activities and actions. They may act to kill and or eat people. They differ in regards to communicability of the disease. In this there is a finite amount of the chemical and radiation to go around.
Where the chemical or radiation is a single source then this also limits the spread of the outbreak. Destruction and disposal of the originally infected people can act to end the outbreak as it is limited in its dispersal unless the chemical or radiation is also dispersed.
How to kill a zombie
Zombie enthusiasts and pop culture is as divided on how to kill a zombie as they are about whether they defecate.
It merely semantics but killing a reanimated zombie is technically impossible as they are already dead. The better way of thinking about killing a zombie is to consider disabling the zombie. Another term is to neutralise the threat posed by the zombie.
The threat posed is of course the zombie is trying to kill you. Given that in many instances the reanimated zombie head continues to function after decapitation we can assume for the reanimated zombie that the brain is the area controlling the zombie and where the most successful manner of putting one down will be found.
In general the consensus is serious damage to the brain is the best method of removing the threat. What part of the brain, the level of damage required and the best method to deliver the damage, well that’s going to be argued until the zombies come home.
In order to damage the brain the survivor is going to have to achieve first a head shot and secondly an impact with enough force to cause damage to the brain.
The skull of a normal human is quite strong and is designed to offer protection to the brain contained within. The force required to fracture a skull is fairly high given the material the skull is made from and the shape of the skull. For a normal human a fractured skull is a serious matter. The shock of the force required to fracture the skull affects the brain by way of causing hematoma including swelling and bleeding. This can be fatal to a normal brain.
Whether this is enough to impair the function of the zombie brain is not clearly known. We believe that the simple fracture of the skull and the associated force imparted to the brain will not be enough to kill the zombie. Penetration of the skull and direct damage to the brain itself is likely the more effective manner of permanently putting the zombie down.
If the area of the brain in use by the zombie is the area that controls automatic function then a simple stab through the eye into the cerebral cortex (the area of the brain associated with the so called higher brain functions) is unlikely to be effective in dropping the zombie.
These areas do contain the processing areas of the brain for the purpose of sight and other sensory inputs. Hitting the cerebellum and or the brain stem is possibly the most effective area to hit as these control the automatic functions of the body.
These prime targets are located at the lower end of the back of the head. This makes them a difficult target to hit.
Hitting the skull hard enough does have the potential to send shock through the whole brain thus causing damage to the desired region of the brain. A head shot with a fire arm is likely to impart the sort of damage required even if it isn’t directly into the cerebellum.
Rather than considering the immediate kill during combat we think it may be simpler to disable the zombie prior to attempting a kill. This means the zombie can be brought down and rendered non-dangerous so as to be finalised at leisure.
Decapitation or destruction of the spinal column near the base of the skull could render the zombie inert. The cutting of hamstrings and tendons is overlooked as a way to remove the zombie strings so to speak.
The zombie that has had its hamstring cut is not able to walk or run. Thus a slash with a sword to the back of the knee or ankle could buy the survivor time to escape as the walker then becomes a crawler. Remember crawlers are as dangerous as walkers except they are not running after you.
The Zombie has been established through the zombie pop culture in a number of guises and these guises have changed as the Zombie is revisited by the imagination of illustrators, movie makers and writers.
Wikipedia has a rather complete article on the subject of what a zombie is. Jake over at Zombease has also defined the Zombie by 5 types and his article is a good indication of what we might expect in regards to the enemy when Zompoc arrives. The Zombease list is an excellent article and worth the budding survivors effort to read and consider.
We don’t disagree with the above articles on the subject. In fact we think they are an excellent resource however since we like to do our own thing here at GSA we have to have a discussion on the subject of our own.
A reason for this is the issue we keep running into regarding the question about zombie defecation. It may sound crazy but the question, “Do Zombies defecate” has led to us having a long think on the subject of what a zombie actually is and also the potential for the different types of zombie.
Before we go into types of zombie we need to address two important things, reanimating what we believe to be dead cells and powering the cells.
The first is reanimation of the dead cell. The standard model of the zombie is it is a corpse reanimated. The George Romero Zombie falls into this category and is often considered the progenitor of the modern zombie. Rather than considering the mechanism of reanimation such as virus, bacteria or nano- machines lets first consider if reanimation of dead tissue is theoretically possible.
Human cells require oxygen for the metabolic process of the cell. Once the metabolic process stops and the cell no longer functions it is considered to be dead. Often this cell death will be followed by the dead cell becoming necrotic. Necrosis is the death of cells by way of injury or disease. Some cells will be preprogramed to die in the event of a loss of oxygen but that is a greater discussion than this article.
So if we take metabolic function of the cell which includes the transfer of material to and from the cell as well as reproduction and the simple function of the cell as over then its dead. It is our understanding that small scale experiments have achieved a restarting of the cell. As such some cells could be said to have been reanimated.
The classic dead frog and battery experiment shows that some function of a cell remains active after the actual creature is dead. By placing electrodes into a frogs muscle in particular spots and running a current the frog’s muscle will do the normal work of contracting. Basically zap the frog and the leg tries to jump. This is technically dead tissue given the death of the creature however it still operates.
In this there is no control of the frog from the brain instructing the muscle to contract. The instruction and the stimulus are from an external source. The energy required for a muscle cell to contract is contained within the cell already. The electrical current is the stimulus not the energy source. As such the more times you zap the frog the less reactive the muscle becomes as it consumes the energy store in the muscle. Being dead it does not metabolise new sources of energy to replace the energy source.
Thus it may be possible to restart a cell if it has not deteriorated too much.
Brain cells are a different matter as they involve electrochemical operations in communication and performance. As such jump starting one of those is more complex matter. To date experiments have sought to restart dead brain cells but the complexity of the task has evaded scientists so far.
Magic or Voodoo Zombies
The original Zombie is likely from Western African Voodoo where a dead person was reanimated by a shaman like witch doctor or similar by the use of magic. The zombie in these instances was the puppet of the party who raised them and would do their bidding having no independent will.
The Haitian tradition which would likely have taken its cue from the African population brought over as slaves also involves magic in the reanimation of the dead into a zombie. A variation involves the use of magical potions or even just non-magical mixtures of ingredients to create the zombie.
We call these the magic zombies or voodoo zombies. This name is based on us not being very imaginative at the time of writing.
We also believe that the Mummy is also a form of zombie. In this the classic Egyptian mummy is a reanimated corpse and as such a type of zombie. These are commonly said to be animated by a magic curse cast on the tomb with the mummy acting as the guardian who is raised by the curse when the tomb is interfered with.
The magic zombie is a specific creation and as such is not infectious and does not reproduce or increase its numbers independent of its creator. These are going to be issues where the zombie’s creator and controller targets the budding survivor or they go rouge and start attacking in general. Otherwise these zombies will go about their business of their creators bidding and not be of much concern to the average survivor.
The reanimating zombie disease
Zombie pop culture has developed the idea of the zombie disease. Some form of communicable disease which reanimates dead people into walking dead. In this the person dies and then comes back to life.
The clincher seems to be the requirement the person actually dies, either from the disease imparted on the person by way of a bite from a zombie such as The Dawn of the Dead. Alternately the reanimation vector is from a disease the person carries which lies dormant until the person dies such as in The Walking Dead. Both require the person dies so that reanimation as a zombie takes place.
In pop culture, unlike the Magic or Voodoo zombie the zombie disease zombie is infectious and the number of zombies will increase.
There is a lot of difference of imagination as to whether the infected zombie eats. The so called Romero Zombie has been shown to consume the flesh of human victims but also to eat insects.
The Walking Dead Zombie has been known to also eat the flesh of victims and in season 2 when looking for a missing girl Rick and Darryl disembowel a zombie to discover it had eaten a woodchuck.
Max Brooks in his book, “The Zombie Survival Guide” states that the zombie will consume the flesh but not digest the flesh.
The World War Z (movie) zombie does not appear to consume the victim such as to prevent the reanimation of the zombie.
It appears however that regardless of whether the zombie eats or does not eat it maintains an energy source. Remember that in order for our muscles to move and do things they require we eat to fuel the energy burned in doing work.
The reanimated zombie seems to have a source of energy beyond the normal digestive and biological functions of the original human host. In this we note that the decapitated heads of zombies appear to maintain the ability to move even when separated from the digestive system and circulatory system of the body.
As such we believe that it is irrelevant whether the reanimated infectious zombie eats or not. There appears to be another energy source of which we are not aware powering the reanimated cells.
It is our belief that the reanimated Zombie must eat and must retain a fairly high level of digestive and operational function so as to have a source of energy on a logical basis to be able to operate. In this we envisage the Zombie as being a restarted dead body with the majority of biological functions operational.
In the Walking Dead season one we see that the brain ceases to function at death and then appears to restart but to only use a small proportion of the brain and then in a very different manner than previously. The area of the brain reactivated is one which controls automatic function such as breathing, heartbeat and digestion. We assume that the other systems also are either controlled form this region or operate autonomously with the basic systems running.
In this the Zombie is an operational biological unit but lacks the other aspects of humanity in that is holds no sentient cognitive function. It is like a lizard brain operating on a level which does not include cognitive problem solving or other higher brain functions.
The non-reanimated infected
These are commonly called the 28days later zombie.
There is a lot of debate as to whether the infected is in fact a zombie. Such a categorisation is going to be dependent on whether a zombie must be reanimated from death to become a zombie or if zombie like behaviours are sufficient.
In 28days later a virus known as Rage Virus escapes from a laboratory by way of infected hosts. The hosts then attack people and in the course of the attack blood transfer leads to infection of the victim. Once infected the person is no longer attacked and goes on to find persons to attack.
This is a manner of transmission similar to the reanimated infectious zombie.
Of interest is the fact that in 28days later the original infection ends when the infected hosts of the virus dies out due to starvation. In this they do not eat their victims.
As such it is seen that the infected maintain at least some of the biological functions of the human host even though it may have damaged or destroyed the brain of the host bringing on the ultraviolent symptomology.
Infection spread
Reanimated zombies and non-reanimated infected share the fact it is a disease that takes over the aspects of the original person and turns them into the zombie or infected. They share the same trait that they either seek to intentionally infect others or they have a drive to do things that infect others as a by-product or the action. The need to eat people leads to those who are bitten but escape being eaten to later become a zombie by virtue of the infection transmission through the bite.
This trait of spreading the infection appears to be uniform regardless of the source.
The single source of the disease is found in the escaped bioweapon scenario with a single infectious person who contracts the disease. This person then goes on to bite or otherwise infect another person. This is called the common source outbreak which then jumps from person to person becoming a propagated outbreak.
The spread of the disease tends to be exponential with 1 zombie bites another person thus creating 2 zombies, these two zombies bite a person each creating 4 zombies, these bite a person each creating 8 then 18, 32, 64, 128, 256 an so on. If each zombie bites 4 people then the rate of spread is 1, 4, 16, 64, 256, 1024, 4096, 16384.
As can be seen from the numbers above the spread of the disease with limited or no immunity in the population and no way of avoiding the hordes global infection would be expected.
Where the disease is latent in the population and a person dies and becomes a zombie the infection rate increases. Given the normal rate of death daily on the planet this creates multiple sources of the single source.
Rather than having the zombie infection radiate out from a single point you have multiple start points. This would make creating any physical barrier to the spread of the disease difficult where it is a latent disease.
The transmission method of the disease or infection will have an impact on the strategies for survival.
The infected zombie regardless of reanimation or not and regardless of being a transmissible disease only or a latent disease is also going to be a source of more disease.
Bacterial source, viral source or even algae and fungal sources all reproduce in the host to make more disease. Thus there is not much limit to the spread in regards to a finite volume of the disease.
Chemical and radioactive zombies
These have a lot in common with the viral cousins in their activities and actions. They may act to kill and or eat people. They differ in regards to communicability of the disease. In this there is a finite amount of the chemical and radiation to go around.
Where the chemical or radiation is a single source then this also limits the spread of the outbreak. Destruction and disposal of the originally infected people can act to end the outbreak as it is limited in its dispersal unless the chemical or radiation is also dispersed.
How to kill a zombie
Zombie enthusiasts and pop culture is as divided on how to kill a zombie as they are about whether they defecate.
It merely semantics but killing a reanimated zombie is technically impossible as they are already dead. The better way of thinking about killing a zombie is to consider disabling the zombie. Another term is to neutralise the threat posed by the zombie.
The threat posed is of course the zombie is trying to kill you. Given that in many instances the reanimated zombie head continues to function after decapitation we can assume for the reanimated zombie that the brain is the area controlling the zombie and where the most successful manner of putting one down will be found.
In general the consensus is serious damage to the brain is the best method of removing the threat. What part of the brain, the level of damage required and the best method to deliver the damage, well that’s going to be argued until the zombies come home.
In order to damage the brain the survivor is going to have to achieve first a head shot and secondly an impact with enough force to cause damage to the brain.
The skull of a normal human is quite strong and is designed to offer protection to the brain contained within. The force required to fracture a skull is fairly high given the material the skull is made from and the shape of the skull. For a normal human a fractured skull is a serious matter. The shock of the force required to fracture the skull affects the brain by way of causing hematoma including swelling and bleeding. This can be fatal to a normal brain.
Whether this is enough to impair the function of the zombie brain is not clearly known. We believe that the simple fracture of the skull and the associated force imparted to the brain will not be enough to kill the zombie. Penetration of the skull and direct damage to the brain itself is likely the more effective manner of permanently putting the zombie down.
If the area of the brain in use by the zombie is the area that controls automatic function then a simple stab through the eye into the cerebral cortex (the area of the brain associated with the so called higher brain functions) is unlikely to be effective in dropping the zombie.
These areas do contain the processing areas of the brain for the purpose of sight and other sensory inputs. Hitting the cerebellum and or the brain stem is possibly the most effective area to hit as these control the automatic functions of the body.
These prime targets are located at the lower end of the back of the head. This makes them a difficult target to hit.
Hitting the skull hard enough does have the potential to send shock through the whole brain thus causing damage to the desired region of the brain. A head shot with a fire arm is likely to impart the sort of damage required even if it isn’t directly into the cerebellum.
Rather than considering the immediate kill during combat we think it may be simpler to disable the zombie prior to attempting a kill. This means the zombie can be brought down and rendered non-dangerous so as to be finalised at leisure.
Decapitation or destruction of the spinal column near the base of the skull could render the zombie inert. The cutting of hamstrings and tendons is overlooked as a way to remove the zombie strings so to speak.
The zombie that has had its hamstring cut is not able to walk or run. Thus a slash with a sword to the back of the knee or ankle could buy the survivor time to escape as the walker then becomes a crawler. Remember crawlers are as dangerous as walkers except they are not running after you.