Carrier Group:Zombies

Tidbits of information related to the zombies.

The Virus

Zombie virus infection causes a fever that lasts for a few days and then appears to go away. But during the fever stage it infects the nervous system and then goes dormant. And upon the death of the host, at the moment when brain death occurs, the virus reactivates. Reactivating the central nervous system and taking control of it. Thus reanimating the dead person.

At this stage, every survivor can be assumed to have been exposed to the virus.

The reanimated have the barest minimum of metabolic activity and no higher brain functions. They exist to further spread the virus and to increase the number of reanimated. By attacking the living and the healthy. Zombie bite causes a particularly virulent infection that is dangerous even with hospital care, and likely to be fatal without it. Zombies attempt to savage their victims to death and even eat parts of them, for the zombies still have a minimal, although terribly slow metabolism and still need energy to remain mobile, generally entering periods of immobile dormancy when fresh targets are not available. But they never completely eat their victims, leaving enough for the freshly dead to reanimate.

Their minimal metabolism makes zombies sluggish in movement, except for a brief period shortly following the reanimation. However, it also makes them very difficult to put down. Tissue damage, even to otherwise vital organs, only hinders them. Only their infected neural system is truly vulnerable. Especially the brain. If the brain is damaged, the virus loses control over the reanimated body.

Zombie Fighting 101

Headshots are naturally the most efficient way to put down zombies. Crippling the limbs can also make them less of a threat. Zombies may just about ignore tissue damage, but even they cannot keep walking with broken legs.

There is a reason why guns may not always be the optimal choice against zombies. Zombies do not see quite as well as they did when alive, but they react to noises. And gunfire can carry quite a distance. Shooting zombies may not be a problem if you are in an isolated location or have a silenced firearm, but otherwise gunning down a few zombies will cause every other zombie within hearing distance to begin shambling over to see what is for dinner. This may not be a problem either if you are just planning to get in, grab something and get out, but otherwise it can create a no win situation where new zombies keep appearing just as soon as you gun down the previous ones.

Therefore, melee weapons are not just back up weapons in case the ammo runs out. Sure, you risk getting bitten if you enter into melee, but most zombies are slow and lack genuine fighting skill. So if there is not an overwhelming number of them, a fit and skilled person can whack down a number of zombies without causing loud noise that would draw in more. This is also why bows and crossbows are coming back in fashion. They are silent, and as an added bonus, it may be possible to recover used ammunition