I think its safe to say that
movies, video games and books have made the zombie-apocalypse look like
something that might be interesting, or bring a great amount of excitement into
the world. We always witness an individual or group of survivors having an
incredible, heart-pounding adventure filled with action and lust. It’s become a
‘tale’ that is almost idolized by those living boring, slow and uninteresting
lives. But this ‘tale’ has always left out the grim reality of what would actually
happen.
Lets take
for instance just the loss of refrigeration, electricity, gas, and running
water. Without electricity or gas you wont be able to cook any food, and
without refrigeration all perishable food will be gone. The only things left to
eat will be chips, crackers, snacks and canned food, not the best diet. Without
running water you would have to collect rain water or boil lake or river water,
which means you would need to build and light a fire. And who knows if you have
time to boil water when herds of zombies are always closing in on you.
The other
underestimate is the number of zombies that would be roaming around. We see the
large herds in movies, video games and books, but the size in real life would
be overwhelming. Lets take Burlington for instance. Burlington’s population,
not including Shelburne, Colchester or Winooski, is roughly 42,500. Lets say
half the people flee, which is being generous, and 85% turn to zombies. 42,500/2=21,250 21,250 x .85= 18,062 Zombies!!!
That is a significant amount of zombies just wandering
around Burlington. It is also very likely that a large amount of zombies from
the outskirts and urban areas around here migrate into Burlington at first.
There is
also another very overlooked terror of the zombie-apocalypse. It is more or
less safe to say that this virus, disease or whatever you call it would be very
similar to rabies. Meaning it could be spread to almost any animal. There would
be zombie dogs, zombie mice, zombie bats and birds. I personally would be more
terrified of the birds than the human zombies. They would be faster, quieter,
harder to see and its not like I’m going to carry a tennis racket everywhere I
go. Raiders and other humans would also pose a giant threat, when there are no
rules, laws or justice. What I’m trying to say is that human zombies would
probably be the worst of our fears in this apocalyptic world. But would I sign
up to be a part of a action-packed, chainsaw-ripping, blood-spewing, bone-crushing
zombie-apocalypse war? Hell yeah I would.
Ahhh! That's a lot of Zombies. I hasn't ever though about the math of a Zombie apocalypse before, actually looking at the theoretical numbers definitely puts the "realities " of a zombie apocalypse into perspective.
I agree with Rachael: I had never thought about the raw math before; that sure is a lot of zombies. This post also reminds me of something I've been thinking about since starting "This is not a Test"--Sloane is seen as being weird or unusual for not caring about survival, but she kind of has a point. What's the purpose of surviving if you know that there are 18,062 zombies (or more!) waiting just outside to get you? What's the chance of all of those people somehow getting cured? Is there really any reason to expending all your energy for survival?
If I were stuck in a Zombie Apocalypse, I would think that being in Burlington would be a plus, despite the numbers. First, the amount of Zombies are way less than if you were in a larger city. Then, you have to think about the spill over from outlying areas. The closest major city is Montreal, which is an hour and 30 minutes away. Now, considering that it is improbable that having a zombie passport is necessary to cross the border, that is still quite a bit away for a large city. The rest of the cities anywhere near Burlington are quite small. So, your amount of zombies is still pretty small scale in the grand scheme of things (if we have animal zombies, this factor would change, but for this argument's sake, we will nullify that). With that in mind, there is a body of water to our west, which with a boat, we would be able to traverse easily to get away from zombies (again, no zombie animals, so Zombie sea monster Champ does not apply). To our east, we have mountain terrain, where we can definitely get the higher ground, and in military tactics, the higher ground is super important in surviving an onslaught. So, I would say we are much better off here in Burlington during a Zombie apocalypse than we would be in a substantial amount of places in the world. (plus, Stephen King used Vermont as a safe haven in several of his novels, so that's an added plus)
I too often think about the fact that most characters presented in the zombie genre seem to have this revamped sense of living. I wonder if that sense of survival would be lost depending on how long one would be fighting off zombies. For instance when it first happens you might be filled with and adrenaline to do anything possible to survive but does this ever fade? Without laws and any societal structure would the world that world even be worth surviving in?
As cities go, Burlington wouldn't be the worst for the zombocalypse, I'd hope. When examining the zombie rules, one of the important ones is cardio. Burlington has frequently been ranked as one of the healthiest cities in the nation, so it might be easier for our general population to outrun zombies. Of course, the possibility remains that we'd have a lot more fast, super flexible yoga zombies, or even some ski bunny zombies. I mean, I guess I should amend my statement to say Burlington in the summer would be ok for the zombocalypse. I cannot imagine running up the main street hill on a day when it's covered in ice to escape the zombie hoard. They'd probably just have to wait at the bottom of the unsalted roads.
I agree with Alessandra that it makes a HUGE difference for Burlington whether the Z apocalypse happened in summer or winter, mostly in regards to food. We have a relatively strong agricultural base, so if it was warm enough, with a bit of luck you could make it out of the city(another good aspect of Burlington, with a plan you could avoid getting cornered pretty easily) and probably keep yourself alive scavenging unoccupied farms. You might even be able to take one of those farms over if you have some crop-capable friends. Basically, I think there are enough resources here that even with social collapse, It would be awhile before the average Burlington resident got desperate enough to turn on their neighbors.
However, In winter, the vast majority of food could only come from scavenging stores, creating much more limited supplies and forcing people to stay closer to the city to feed themselves. with more people concentrated around less food (and thus closer to more zombies)I think things would get much worse much faster.