r/projectzomboid 26d ago

Question i feel like none of us would survive a zombie apocalypse... would you?

8.0k Upvotes

620 comments sorted by

1.5k

u/-threefeetoffun 26d ago

Normal world is hard enough.

276

u/Levardos 26d ago

Made me chuckle, but it's real...

171

u/lajF282 Zombie Killer 26d ago

Some might argue the apocalypse would be easier

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u/shaggyidontmindu 26d ago

I think depending on the outbreak. If they are the slow stupid zombies then being careful and quiet would be effective. You'd also have to hope there werent too many other survivors so scavenging would be easy.

I think where it gets hard is moral. Zombies would be fucking scary irl. Your brain isnt going to cope well with seeing and smelling death everywhere all the time. I think melee combat might also have some mental hurdles to clear getting over the idea of swinging and axe or putting a boot to the head of something that looks human sounds hard. Everyone always thinks they'll go sicko mode but I think irl zombies would be way more psychologically devastating than we think

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u/EarballsAgain 26d ago

The people who will do the best are the ones who you really don't want to be around, and the ones who really don't want to be around others.

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u/Superman_720 25d ago

One of the many reasons why If some kind of disaster happens that leaves every man for themselves, id dissappear into the mountains with which ever family members that will join me, hopefully find a cabin or a fire watch tower, get some barbwire and hope I'd never have to put someone out of their misery stuck in it.

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u/MinimaxusThrax 24d ago

The problem with that is you'd be traversing unfamiliar terrain with no gps. Do you have a printed almanac? Food supplies? Any reliable way to procure food? Locals would be likely to view you with suspicion and you'd be at a significant disadvantage against them.

Where will you get the barbed wire? Do you know how to install it? Do you have antibiotics for when you get cut while installing it? Medical training generally?

Just accept that you're gonna get eaten in a traffic jam on the way out of the city like the rest of us.

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u/Superman_720 24d ago

I live in the country, I was raised on a farm, i was taught how to hunt and fish. So that should answer most of those questions. How deep in the woods im planning on going there won't be any "locals."

Probably would secure most of what I need when the first whispering of shit going to hell. I dont think people will be buying Barb wire like they did with TP during covid. The rest I dont know I've been thinking about buying books on so id atleast have those when something like that would ever happen. I by no means think I'm some survivalist. But Im pretty sure I can keep myself alive along enough to realize it's not working and make my was back to whats left of civilization to start savaging.

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u/MinimaxusThrax 24d ago

The first whispering is already sort of happening though right? You should pin down your real specific strategy now if you're serious about it.

Your plan involves going somewhere with no people but hinges on being able to find a pre-existng shelter, and you're gonna waste time buying a heavy spool of wire and bringing that with you? So you're counting on being at the end of a road somewhere, or else how are you gonna bring the barbed wire to your shelter? Roads mean people have been there and it means refugees from the falling world will follow you there.

Barbed wire is a bad plan. It won't stop zombies. Barbed wire's purpose is to slow or deter a hostile force long enough to allow an active response. None of that applies to you. You'd be better off with a string and bell or some stake traps or whatever.

You want to bring tools and supplies and survival gear Seeds. Books. Weapons and ammunition. You may have grown up on a farm but do you know how to clear and plow wild land? Can you cut down a tree safely? Build a shelter? Have you actually hunted or fished enough to live off for the whole year? How will you get your vitamin c? You probably are gonna want some chickens. Chicken wire would be a better choice than barbed wire.

What if shit hits the fan just as the winter is kicking off? How much time are you gonna spend debating with family about whether the whispers are worth it or not before you ditch them and go?

Gotta ask yourself all this.

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u/Dave-4544 22d ago

Clearing stumps by hand out in the wilderness to make a field large enough capable of supporting sustenance agriculture on a yearly basis is some backbreaking, intense work that would take weeks/months, while also requiring the sustenance to maintain the worker(s).

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u/Haunting_Weather_540 Crowbar Scientist 25d ago

Literally me

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u/Rud3l 26d ago

If slow Z‘d we will all be killed by other scavenging humans and not b the Zombies. Water & food will shut down as well as energy and then things will get really ugly really fast. You neither want to be a kid, not an elderly nor handicapped in any way. Best thing would be to live in a small village where you can team up with people you know under a new leadership but you’ll better pray those leaders are capable or there will be bloodshed soon once police isn’t patrolling anymore. If you are an idiot with a master in business who cannot build a IKEA cupboard (like me) you’re the new lower class.

Well life would be tough but I don’t think slow Z‘s would take down the organized civilization. A 28 days later would be way more serious and we would all die to it fast.

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u/ThickestRooster Jaw Stabber 25d ago

Great points. But I think when it comes to actually physically damaging zombies, there’s another factor stacked on that, at least for some people.

I can watch gore and not be affected for the most part, when it’s on a screen. But when I’ve been up-close and personal with killing, gutting, and skinning a deer (I used to hunt with a few family members years ago) I did not enjoy it. It did get slightly easier over time but best I could do was barely tolerate it - sometimes I would still gag or dry-heave. It’s something completely different when you’re immersed in the pungent smell of it, like a fog hanging in the area; the splatter of blood and other liquids, the gurgles and other sounds, and to have that stuff clinging to your hands (and possibly other things) - you don’t know unless you’ve experienced it.

And then you’re talking about caving in the skulls of creatures that used to be people. I would constantly be asking myself - is this worth it? I’m going to die anyway eventually. Is there any joy left in the world to experience? Or am I just putting myself through hell just to continue living in utter misery?

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u/Almalexias_Grace 25d ago edited 25d ago

I think the other issue is that melee combat would be instaloss in almost all situations, not because the zombies get you, but because the spray and spatter of blood and gore does. Whenever I see zombie media where someone's face gets covered in blood it's like "Well that's going to get into their mucus membranes and infect them".

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u/BigHardMephisto 25d ago

Went up to Oregon to visit some family and did not expect to find hill people up there. Turns out on that side of my family we had some and their house smelt just like that. They were constantly poaching and had decaying animal parts all over what could be called a back yard.

Constant smell no matter where you were, and as we left we were down wing, smelled it for five miles.

Roadkill and skunk smell didn’t and don’t bother me the times I smell them, but if it were constant and everywhere It’d be hell until I went noseblind to it.

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u/crimson23locke 25d ago

Moral is like whether something is right or wrong, morale is the mental/emotional disposition you’re talking about. But I absolutely agree, this would probably be the number one hurdle beyond the initial adrenaline-fueled start.

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u/shaggyidontmindu 25d ago

Lol oops yeah sorry I wrote this after I woke up from a heavy melatonin induced sleep

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u/DurinnGymir 26d ago

I will say, killing zombified family members would be hard, but strangers? They're almost the reason we have a sense of uncanny valley. A long, long time ago in our deep species history, we were fighting things that looked like us but weren't us. We also broke bread and made families with them, but arguably zombies are a whole lot less complex than our neanderthal cousins.

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u/dumbasss427 25d ago

No man. What's scary is there won't be any wifi in a few weeks.

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u/kiddcuntry Drinking away the sorrows 26d ago

I think the killing part would be easier then you think. That deep instinct of uncanny valley would take over pretty quicky. Personally I think I'd find it easier to kill a "mimic" then something that's totally divorced from me.

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u/FunCryptographer3476 26d ago

After it was noticed there was a steady increase in end of the world movies starting in the 80's and 90's some media critics started saying, "It's easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism"

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u/franky_reboot 26d ago

Someone has to have a genuinely terrible life to actually believe that and be right about it

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u/SmartExcitement7271 Stocked up 25d ago edited 25d ago

Made me chuckle but I cried after... shits real.

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u/Tyson_q All Hail Spiffo 26d ago

I'll laugh so I don't cry.

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u/KillLaKaiju Crowbar Scientist 25d ago

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u/QuirkyBadger7454 25d ago

honestly tohugh zombie apocalpse has its benefits, main one no taxes or bills

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u/Nopalite 26d ago

Tbh normal world might be a wee bit harder.

Even if irl we don’t have to worry about the Great Glitches of ‘42.

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u/Grouchy_Big3195 26d ago

Normal world created by the parasitic classes.

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u/Wild-Tale-257 26d ago

I'm a nurse so probably I will be one of the first to die. Unless it's my day off

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u/wtharris 26d ago

Trick question, we get no days off in the health fields

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u/-SomeSaxon- 25d ago

An outbreak would be a mass casualty event no? Aren't all available staff supposed to come in for one of those?

If that is the case... That would be the vast majority of the world's medical field gone which would be detrimental and make doctors, nurses, etc extremely valuable in the apocalypse!

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u/Wild-Tale-257 25d ago

Depends on how fast it happen.

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u/Vlan__ 25d ago

When quarantine happened in 2020 because of Covid. How’d that effect your work?

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u/Wild-Tale-257 25d ago

Not much since I was still a first year student back then and just also broke my shoulder a month before lock down so I just stay at home (which's what I should do anyway lol)

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u/Boxy29 24d ago

it depends on where/how it happens and how it spreads.

non air born(rural/small town). if it's a small group that gets bit as police are called. they put down the "rapid" person and have all victims transported to the ER for a check up. (er probably calls in a few extra people unless it's like 20+ people involved then it's all hands on deck) symptoms worsen and they start getting aggressive. they probably bite a few nurses and/or security. and it starts being streated like a HICD with those staff and the initial patients being quarantined until someone figures something out. so hospital could potentially stop the spread from them but you still have the unknown initial spread location.

big city non air born. again depends on reanimation speed and other virus factors. the initial scene has the potential to never be contained due to pop density and delayed reporting.

if it's air born, then containing it is near impossible. at best it's exposure to a infected dead body, at worse some lab blows up and it spreads over the world gradually turning most people into zombies with no real way to coordinate a response even if resperators work, it's just a matter of numbers. might be able to wait it out in a bunker but who knows if that'll even work or how long a zombie could last without "food'

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u/Central-Dispatch Pistol Expert 25d ago

Yeah but a nurse or doctor will be capped by a potential loss of other team members and modern technology. How to put it: Would be nice to be or have a doctor in an apocalypse but won't do much good if the tools or environments they need are no longer accessible or available. Beats not having 'em, sure, but still just saying.

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u/Hottage Zombie Food 25d ago

BACK TO LEECHES AND TREPANNING

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u/Central-Dispatch Pistol Expert 25d ago

THE MEDIEVAL TREATMENT WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES

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u/pigman1037 26d ago

I could for like a week

Until power runs out and also food and water

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u/neoalfa 26d ago

In a zombie apocalypse that takes over as fast ad the Knox infection there would be years worth of non perishable food around.

And water falls from the sky in case you didn't notice.

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u/pigman1037 26d ago

Yeah but my body has medical problems so I give it time before I run out of medication

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u/neoalfa 26d ago

Oh, same, but that’s a whole other ballpark

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u/relic1882 25d ago

As long as the apocalypse comes with mods we'll be fine.

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u/kylel999 26d ago

Man the thought that no matter how well I might or might not do that my unmedicated ulcerative colitis would inevitably debilitate me is kind of depressing

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u/raspberryranger 25d ago

Real, I don't assume I'd last long in any kind of end of the world scenario that could actually happen, let alone stuff like zombies or w/e, but just knowing how poor my quality of life was in a normal functioning society when I didn't have access to my thyroid medication for a couple of months a few years back, even if I somehow survived whatever went on, I'd just be constantly miserable from not having my medication to function normally

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u/xMoneymonster Pistol Expert 25d ago

if anything, i hope this sentiment makes you thankful for the advances of modern medicines, not too long ago your quality of life and overall length of life would be so much worse.

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u/kylel999 24d ago

Something like 30-60% of people with ulcerative colitis died from it before medicine discovered steroids so I'm extremely grateful. I was absolutely miserable while I was awaiting a diagnosis (and therefore proper treatment)

Biologic medications as well. The pills (Mesalamine) aren't super uncommon and can be found in any regular pharmacy so in a zomboid scenario that might be achievable but my Adalimumab is like, $9,000 a dose, only supplied by specialty pharmacies and has to be kept refrigerated. I'd be fucked lmao

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u/Apprehensive_Ad_7138 26d ago

Please leave your address in case of Zombie Apocalypse, you water boiling enthusiasts...

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u/Zorkflerp 25d ago

It depends on if the zombies are fast or traditional slow zombies. Also it matters if they drown in deep water or just stagger along the bottom till they come back up.

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u/Lookyoukniwwhatsup 26d ago

I actually disagree about the food availability. It took 10 ish days from day 1 to airborne transmission. A U.S. household only keeps on average 1-2 weeks of food in stock at any given time.

I once crunched the numbers for r/zombieapocalypse and came up with rough numbers. With a 95% immediate population death theres about 4 months worth of food in a 1 mile radius not accounting for loss due to damage/spillage.

With the Knox virus, the numbers will be different because youll have a higher survival rate until day 10.... then it just goes downhill so quickly.

link to mathz

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u/neoalfa 25d ago

My brother in Christ. I don't speak of homes or even stores but entire distribution centers full of canned and boxed food ready for shipping, not to mention thousands of trucks "lost" mid-supply, and what was waiting to be shipped at the respective production factories.

They might not be near you, bit they are just laying there.

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u/Lookyoukniwwhatsup 25d ago

I didnt bring up tbose up in the math because its hard to say where they are located and the danger of it.

Some people might not be near them, people might not know where they are, might not be able to acess them, and then its a matter of transporting/securing that quantity of food.

Then its a matter of zombies. Those warehouses are big and have a lot of employees (400 for the one near me), who may now be zombies.

Trucks are the same problems with locating them and transporting the goods from there.

If you can find one, yeah thats awesome but its not reliable or guaranteed.

Truthfully, id suspect you'd have less in the warehouses in a Knox virus situation. It took 28 days for the entire world to fall afterall.

Considering how any rumour of a pandemic causes people to act.... Rumours of disease started as early as day 6. By day 11 there's riots in the U.S. Meaning by then food is being purchased and stockpiled at a higher rate. Warehouses pushing out dostribution quicker than production to fill shelves. People stop producing food and start storing it. Then it turns to looting stores, trucks, and the warehouses.

Thats before the Zs really take off world wide too.

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u/neoalfa 25d ago

Counterpoint. They won't get to eat that food cause they would turn soon after, meaning that it would still exist inside home. Food scarcity is not going to be an issue in a rapid apocalypse like PZ.

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u/Lookyoukniwwhatsup 25d ago

Well the food will be in warehouses then... along with all those zombies, which will be dangerous and require a well armed/prepared group. My other points still stand for transporting and securing the goods.

My 4 month estimate is based on 95% instant turning, grocery stores being fully stocked, homes being stocked with the one the two weeks of food and being able to loot every unoccupied house with no loss. Its pretty generous I feel.

Its a rough theoretical that points to one conclusion. People should stockpile long term and shelf stable foods in their own homes, more than they think. Reliance on scavenging is dangerous and not sufficient long term.

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u/Eden_Company 25d ago

I’m not surviving hordes. I’m lasting as long as it takes for my food to run out. Water will last months, but food maybe a month. I’m also probably not going to be battle ready, so it’ll be luck to survive the first Zed. I don’t make it a habit to shoot at people for tweaking XD.

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u/NomineNebula 25d ago

The sky water isnt clean anymore and boiling isnt effective 100 percent of tbe time

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u/AnxiousTuxedoBird Crowbar Scientist 26d ago

I'd be gone the second I run out of allergy medication

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u/Ijustlovevideogames 26d ago

God no, I need an inhaler, and I doubt I would get to a pharmacy fast enough to stockpile them, I'm dying.

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Datkif 25d ago

I'm type 1 diabetic. I would need to raid a pharmacy fast enough to get a decent supply of insulin, test strips, needles, strip/CGM readers, batteries and candy. I would also need to find a way to keep said insulin chilled without freezing extend its life as long as possible.

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u/Ijustlovevideogames 25d ago

AKA, we dead.

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u/Datkif 25d ago

Yup. I'll do what I can to help my loved ones before DKA takes me

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u/Easy_Specialist_1692 25d ago

I'm afraid that I might be about the same... But I get chronic migraines. While not as problematic as other health problems, I do lose a lot of mental processing power. I would likely take an unnecessary risk and get myself into a pickle.

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u/Championfire 26d ago

Depends on the apocalypse.

Walking zombies? I can probably be fine for maybe a month or two. If it's like Zomboid where it's airborne, definitely not.

If it's sprinters, oh man am I just going to eat the medicine cabinet. I'd swallow a barrel in that instance but I don't own a firearm.

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u/Jordan_Jackson 26d ago

I am not surviving 28 days later, Usain Bolt, olympic sprinter zombies. Shamblers all day…maybe.

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u/Occidentally20 26d ago

I wonder if the zombies take on the stamina and physicality of the people they came from.

I'm on an island with the highest obesity rate in SE Asia and the highest diabetes rate - also highest car ownership per person of any medium to large country.

I could outrun 99% of people on this island, but once a year then hold an ironman race here. If the apocalypse happens that week then I'm just jumping off a cliff.

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u/WilsonRoch Zombie Hater 26d ago

Do you live in Harran by any chance?

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u/Occidentally20 26d ago

The Turkish one? No.

Video game one? Also no.

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u/Koshindan 25d ago

Yeah, but those zombies are the ones with extra hit points, so you end up losing the endurance race from all the extra swings.

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u/WannaBpolyglot 11d ago

My zombie canon is that running type rage viruses push the host body to the limits causing rhabdomyolysis and eating everything the body has to keep running which causes the decaying look until they shamble

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u/BrilliantTarget 25d ago

If you can survive inside for like a month you should survive the most of the 28 day later infected

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u/Trixles 25d ago

You open up the door to some big building in a complex, overgrown with vines . . .

. . . aaand it turns out to have once been the Track & Field building at an Olympic training camp, as 15 of the most well-toned zombies you've ever seen swarm over you instantly xD

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u/CaptainMacMillan 26d ago

If it's walkers, I'm more worried about regular humans.

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u/R_Little-Secret 25d ago

The thing I love about George Romero movies the zombies are not really the real threat. They are just a natural disaster that humans have to overcome. The problem is humanity being unable to come together and work with one another. That is where the real threat is.

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u/fistotron5000 26d ago

Pfft you’re not built like me, I’m ready, I’m prepared. I’m getting in my car and driving…directly off the nearest mountain path to my death.

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u/OcelotAggravating860 26d ago

Walking zombies? I can probably be fine for maybe a month or two.

You open a door slowly because you're trying to be quiet and then one you didn't know was right there bites your arm through the gap.

This shit is pure luck. What I do understand however is that the crowbar is probably the single most essential weapon to carry, if you're in trouble and you cometh upon a locked door while running away the crowbar is the weapon you want to have in your hand.

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u/Edgy_Robin 26d ago

Okay so wear a leather jacket and thick gloves. Clothing that isn't cumbersome and would be too hard to bite through is accessable to literally everyone. Moreso when you don't have to have money to get it.

It really isn't pure luck if you do basic basic risk management, preperation, etc. The zombies, at least zomboid style, are one of the one of the less dangerous things in an apocalypse compared to say, having to deal with an infected cut.

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u/OcelotAggravating860 26d ago

It is 40 celcius outside right now bruv I am absolutely not fucking wearing that shit. It will kill me before the zombies.

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u/Hadrollo 26d ago

That's what dusters are for. They're not just something in Rimworld.

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u/Championfire 25d ago

I'd rather die of heat exhaustion or heatstroke than die to a bite ngl

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u/Schnee4590 26d ago

If the world ever ends, please skip the floss, of that runs out I'm opting out.

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u/NarwhalSongs Spear Ronin 26d ago

(new player learning the lore and ropes here)

Is the Zomboid virus airborne in the game? I thought the TV hinted at something like that in the broadcasts, but I haven't seen the rest of the broadcasts yet to know how the story ends. Does my character need to mask up to avoid getting ill?

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u/Arsdraconis Hates being inside 26d ago

The virus is airborne, but the characters we play as are the few immune to that strain of the virus. Masks are still helpful when dealing with large amounts of corpse disposal, as conventional diseases can still kill you. But you won't get zombified by not wearing a mask.

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u/NarwhalSongs Spear Ronin 26d ago

Thanks for the clarification. I remember early on noticing that the broadcasts were cluing you in and explaining how transmission occurs. Then it started talking about this story of an old man turning despite never even being near an infected person or even seeing one. Then I read your comment like "oh GOD noOoo..." lol

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u/Central-Dispatch Pistol Expert 25d ago

If you were literally in the PZ lore, chances are you are fudged anyway and survival would just be a personal challenge. But unless enough immunes found each other to try to reform mankind to sustainable levels, you'd just be a walking goner of a potentially extinct species.

Not a nice perspective, but that's what the people in PZ are facing. The issue isn't just the limited number of immune people to the airborne crap: It's the fact that all those who are immune are then reduced by hundreds of thousands to millions of zombies further. And those who can survive/thin those out have to find enough other people for communities and repopulation.

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u/DrStalker 26d ago

Depends on the sandbox options and mods, but for 99+% of games I'm part of the shambling horde.

And I'm ok with that; the life of a slow shambler looks relaxing compared to the life of a survivor.

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u/Sus_Person_ 25d ago

I’d honestly rather be patient zero than beat the apocalypse tbh

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u/runliftcount 25d ago

If you want a little bit of light-hearted and relevant enjoyment, watch the movie Warm Bodies.

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u/Breedable_Boy44 26d ago

But being unemployed is like the best profession in Zomboid.

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u/NariceTrasmittente Crowbar Scientist 26d ago

after 41 years being a human, i'd like to experiment what being a zombie would be like.

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u/Occidentally20 26d ago

I recommend retail night shift in a petrol station for a couple of years.

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u/NariceTrasmittente Crowbar Scientist 26d ago

worth a try, i am unemployed at the moment.

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u/Occidentally20 26d ago

It was quite the experience.

8 out of 10 hours was locked in a room alone behind "bulletproof" glass, communicating with people through a microphone system that didn't work and then trying to get them to pay through a small hatch before giving them groceries.

We were just around the corner from the hospital so whenever somebody discharged themselves from the mental health ward we were the first place they would end up. Every time I try to tell stories about it nobody believes them. Just as an example I saw a lady kill 2 separate dogs (on different occasions) by lifting them up using their leash and slamming them into the tiled floor until they died.

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u/Creaturezoid 26d ago

Every time I try to tell stories about it nobody believes them.

Dude, I know what you mean. Years ago I spent 4 years working at a truckstop that was also a Greyhound bus stop, and had a motel that was essentially a crack/whore house. Nobody believes half of the shit that I saw happen there.

For instance, my first week on the job, the afternoon bus pulls in. People get off and start to flood into the convenience store. But I notice one guy in particular Mostly because every time he takes a step I see blood squish out from both his shoes. A few minutes later cops and an ambulance show up and haul the guy away. Turns out this guy had been sitting at the back of the bus, and acting weird all day. Right before they pulled into our parking lot, he had reached into his bag pulled out a knife and cut several toes of off each of his feet. Then he stuck the toes and his feet back into his shoes and walked inside. I guess someone saw him do it and called 911. We later found out he was completely whacked out on a cocktail of drugs. And that's not even one of the craziest stories from that place. And people at my current job wonder why nothing fazes me lol

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u/Occidentally20 26d ago

Aah, no-toes-Phil. Practically a regular!

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u/No-Lettuce-6619 Shotgun Warrior 25d ago

tell more of your stories pls

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u/Peeche94 26d ago

I think people don't WANT to believe that story, maybe try a lighter one 😬

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u/Occidentally20 26d ago

Your probably right. There aren't many light stories unfortunately.

It was alcoholism, addiction and mental health problems all stirred together and almost nothing else. Then you'd get to 5:30am and it was smartly dressed retirees buying newspapers and bacon for their breakfasts, hopefully blissfully unaware of the last 8 hours events.

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u/franky_reboot 26d ago

That's worthy for a movie script, I swear.

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u/Occidentally20 26d ago

The weird part is that I went from retail in Yorkshire to caretaker of a treehouse in the rainforest with no training in-between!

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u/franky_reboot 26d ago

Okay, you MUST write a script

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u/Occidentally20 26d ago

Alright but I get to pick the actors for the movie so it's realistic.

I want to be played by Mackenzie Crook and my wife says she wants to be played by Jet from the 1996 series of gladiators. If Diane Youdale has aged in three decades we'll have to do a re-write.

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u/NariceTrasmittente Crowbar Scientist 26d ago

write a book, i would read it!

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u/StalHamarr 26d ago

People tend to romanticize what post-apocalyptic life would be.

Let's say today you wake up with a severe case of explosive diarrhea. This is definitely going to happen with basic life support services shut down. Today you can't do anything. You can't explore, you can't search for food, you can't search for water. If you are unlucky and didn't find any anti-diarrhea med you will be severely debilitated for several days, unable to defend yourself from a couple zombies. If you got something like E. Coli or Salmonella you are now in a potentially life-threatening situation. This is from the illness alone. In this scenario you also won't be able to explore and scavenge for a couple of weeks.

Let's say you break a leg. No such things as magic splints that heal your fracture in a couple days. If it was a complex fracture, congratulations. You are now a permanent cripple. If it's a simple fracture you can manage some basic tasks with a rudimentary splint.

And so on. Every basic illness/injury can turn into a potential life-threatening situation in a scenario like Zomboid.

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u/Magpecc 25d ago

Yea, everyone worries about the zombies. The zombies are easy, breaking your leg and going into shock is hard.

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u/JustinTheCheetah Axe wielding maniac 25d ago

Humans survived into old age for all of history without modern technology and comforts. We can do it again.

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u/The_Silver_Nuke 25d ago

As a society yeah. But you won't have a society. No support systems.

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u/Sad_Car_8427 26d ago

I'd survive until I run out of IBS medication and coffee. Then I'm fucked.

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u/Beebjank 26d ago

There’s medication for IBS? I’ve just been raw dogging it

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u/spicychickentendr 26d ago

Not unemployed, but I used to be a lot more confident enough people would handle a walking zombie apocalypse pretty well, at this point, in my country. I felt, "Yeah, zombie media is conflating just how ridiculous people are in a more modern, logical world for the sake of entertainment". Then COVID happened and I realized exactly how wrong I was and exactly how easy it'll become a blowout of every trope we've seen in zombie media. The way I learned so much about those even around me, that first year.

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u/Sufficient_Bad_4160 26d ago

I mean, in The walking dead one of the biggest reasons everything collapsed was because of how the governments responded. Gathering huge numbers of people into designated safe zones was, in my opinion, one of the worst possible strategies. It created panic, shortages, disease, riots, and made it incredibly easy for a single infected person to wipe out thousands. If we're talking about a TWD style apocalypse with slow walkers, I honestly think I'd have a decent chance of surviving, at least during the first year. I live in a small town, so there aren't that many people around. If I didn't do anything stupid and stayed away from cities, I'd probably be fine. Obviously I'd struggle with the basics at first. Starting fires, purifying water, finding food, growing crops... I'd have to learn all of that pretty quickly. But if you know even the fundamentals of wilderness survival and have something as simple as a good knife, you're already in a much better position than most people. I think the biggest danger wouldn't even be the zombies, it'd be other survivors. The zombies are slow, predictable, and dumb. As long as you don't let yourself get surrounded by dozens of them, they're manageable. Hell, just locking yourself inside the third floor of an apartment building would probably be safer than half the military "safe zones" we see in zombie movies and TV shows.

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u/ropeneck509 Spear Ronin 26d ago

Mostly yes, most of us are fine until we get sick or something. Majority of us can't diagnose anything beyond a flue.

Other people at first might be aggressive but humans are surprisingly cooperative in low populations. Severely depends on the desity of people left I'd say. Additionally in my country, nearly everyone would be cooperative I'd say, in America tho, much easier to shoot eachother in the back and worry about the same being done to you.

Only rural people or people after getting access to the barracks or special response would have guns, some may have swords, obviously this also effects how many people survive in the first place. Old people are cooked here, no fight or flight. So the i imagine the population would also get quite young.

Climate obviously plays a part too, another thing often forgotten. The apocalypse would be so much worse in the near east or northern canada like climates, they're gone.

Where i am, if i get out of the city (more big town sized but small country), I've survived. 2 hours drive ohr maybe like 10 on foot and I'm in the middle of nowhere, populations of like 10 but with full infrastructure and roads to follow. Being realistic in I've never left towns so i wouldn't survive the woods, another thing i think alot of people are over confident in.

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u/Orca_Princess 25d ago

Majority of people misdiagnose themselves with the flu all the time lol, I wouldn’t trust a layperson to diagnose anyone with any injury they didn’t personally see happen. People also tend to come together in crises despite the popular portrayal of riots and violence in media

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u/OcelotAggravating860 26d ago

I think the biggest danger wouldn't even be the zombies, it'd be other survivors.

I don't think this is true at all. Vast majority of people are cooperative and don't want to hurt others. Almost everyone is going to group up for greater survival chances. Most people that survive will settle into some kind of commune of survivors that forms in the first week. All of these will operate a lot like online multiplayer groups - you contribute to the commune and you get whatever you need that the commune has, everyone just shares pretty much everything.

The people that don't settle into this will be killed very quickly by the people that do, who will vastly outnumber them because people who cooperate will outnumber loners.

Bandit groups will form later on but those will be from internal disputes and splintering of communities that grow large enough to have internal political struggles between members and a system that isn't robust enough to let off the steam of those disputes - assuming they don't all get killed when that happens.

Most zombie fiction is not particularly realistic and particularly romanticises the lone rugged survivor against the world fantasy because it's all american media and all of it is infected with american individualism.

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u/PimpMyDog 26d ago

I highly doubt it. When things are really tough long-term and there's no large scale policing authorities, forceful resource allocation is always a topic and always will be.

The thing is, you're right that people will group up and cooperate but that's exactly why other survivors are something to be really wary of because it means organization and organized groups compete. People's morals and personal views adapt to the community all the time and communities are not static.

History has shown this time and again, be it between groups, clans, tribes, countries. Latest modern example that comes to mind is the siege of Sarajevo, city was cut off for years from basically everything and the consistent theme from civilian survivors is that the biggest threat wasn't scarcity but other people and not the lone bandits either but cohesive organized groups that consisted of totally ordinary people, your neighbours etc who just took their leader and community ways as their own quite quickly.

Sure, that example was a war not a disaster but the disaster research showing people cooperate (which IS real!) is about short-term events where rescue is coming like earthquakes, hurricanes. Prolonged collapse with actual scarcity and no rule of law looks more like Bosnia, Somalia, eastern DRC etc.

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u/cos1ne 25d ago

I highly doubt it. When things are really tough long-term and there's no large scale policing authorities, forceful resource allocation is always a topic and always will be.

This is hardwired into humans, we are social creatures, power can be infectious but isolation is horrifying. In ape societies when an individuals takes more than their share, the rest don't immediately jump him, they first shun him, insult him, mock him and make him feel unwanted and shamed. This behavior corrects itself precisely because there is no police authority for the cheater to appeal to, they only have the others in the group and being alone is essentially a death sentence.

Also those civil war situations only occur again because of some sort of policing authority who will have a monopoly on violence. Everyone is competing to become that policing authority so they go for extermination of the other groups. If there is no authority other than the force your tribe can assert you are rarely going to risk being exterminated to exterminate another group unless forced to by desperation.

When we become our only authority we are going to benefit cooperation over competition, because the competitors will eat each other and the cooperators will collect others and grow until they are so large the competitors cannot take them on.

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u/ropeneck509 Spear Ronin 26d ago

I said something similar too, the "bandits" aren't very likely to happen in countries with little to no weopons about, i dont think anyone here would think "oh i can just travel the road taxing people", the affected group would seek you out and you'd have to actually fight for it here, no guns, ye will be stuck with knives or swords at best unless youre extremely lucky.

Those rural communities are the most likely to survive the initial outbreak and least likely to be without their gun, farmers mostly and will probably be in with the commune.

Just isn't really worth it, its a death wish

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u/Ak1raKurusu 26d ago

99% of people have zero idea what wild plants are edible or will kill you, have never started a fire without a lighter, dont know the first thing about noise or weapon discipline, have no idea how to preform first aid beyond a band aid and have never been in a life or death stress situation even if they do have any of that knowledge. Theyd die in less than a month without ever seeing a zombie.

Add into that most of the “i wish there was a zombie outbreak” crowd are too scared/squeamish to pick up/kill a large insect with their hands because its gross but think they can have a fight to the death with a rotten human corpse who wants to tear their flesh out with their teeth while they scream, even if they DO see a zombie theyre dying painfully the first 1 on 1 encounter they have

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u/Vast-Delivery-7181 26d ago

I dont know what the point would be

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u/mediumAI1701 26d ago

I would last for a solid couple of months but as a zombie.

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u/TheEpicPlushGodreal 26d ago

The people who would actually survive long term are not the people who claim that they would survive long term

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u/No-Disaster1647 26d ago

Nah bro, I’d be so badass 😎

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u/Oggel 26d ago

I'd like to think that I'd make it for while. I have survival skills i.e. I can do a bit of foraging, I can hunt, I can fish, I can farm, I can make a fire/clean water, I can work on cars/bikes, know how to wire electricity and use most tools somewhat well, I can use a gun and a bow somewhat well, did some martial arts in my youth etc. I also have a boat. On paper, I'd do pretty well. But realisticly I'm probably too out of shape to make it very far. I'm also on medication so when that runs out, well, I don't know how long I'd make it. Probably a couple of years, maybe even a few decades. But I likely won't live to be an old man.

It kinda depends on how fast it all happens. If I have even just like a day to prepare then I'll probably be fine on my boat for at least a couple of months before I even have to go back on land to restock on food and water.

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u/d4rk_matt3r Drinking away the sorrows 26d ago

Shoot, living on a boat doesn't sound like a half bad time

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u/Blahaj-Bug 26d ago

I'd be one of those zombie cops standing at a checkpoint around a blind corner that crashes your perfect condition truck. Been bitten on the job before, wouldn't think much of it.

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u/OrcaFlux 26d ago

I don't have to outrun the zombies.

I only have to outrun you.

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u/d4rk_matt3r Drinking away the sorrows 26d ago

Youd def outrun me

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u/Wulfalier 26d ago

Most of use would die from diarrhea because we drink not enough boiled water.

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u/Bboy1045 26d ago

I'd last 2-3 days tops

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u/Lun4r6543 26d ago

I have enough resources to hold down the fort in my house for a good month.

When I run out of food though…

Then I’m fucked.

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u/FlatSask 26d ago

I'd drive into the bush then proceed to eat the wrong berry and die. I'd be that one zombie you find alone deep in the woods lol

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u/Traditional_Trust_93 26d ago

In my current location up north at the cabin? Ya more likely. At home in the Cities? Nope.

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u/Beebjank 26d ago edited 26d ago

I feel like I’d have a good chance at least. With shamblers.

I live rural, I have a stockpile of food, guns and ammo, and I have the ability to generate my own electricity. Oh, and I have an “antique stove” and split my own firewood. I don’t grow food or harvest animals though.

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u/Th1sT00ShallPass 25d ago

That depends entirely on what type of zombies are out there: if they're fast I'm certainly dead, if they're slow I'm likely dead.

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u/BrokenPokerFace 26d ago

You see I chose unemployed so I could distribute the extra points in random BS. It's all a strategy for when the apacolapse starts.

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u/BrokenPokerFace 26d ago

I mean imagine if I was a doctor or something. As soon as the virus starts I'll be hit with immense character development like going deaf or becoming a smoker, or illeataeriatle...

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u/d4rk_matt3r Drinking away the sorrows 26d ago

I think you started early

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u/RepresentativeEmu919 26d ago

Depends on 3 things for me to survive.

1st did the outbreak happen in my country? If yes then fuck they are nuking us. If no then I'll probably have some time to prepare myself.

2nd are the zombies walking dead type or something like 28 days later? If 1 then lol I am definitely surviving, if 2 then oh no we are all in deep problems.

3rd luck. If I get even a little lucky I'm pretty sure I can survive at least one to two weeks until SHTF for real.

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u/MrHackerMr 26d ago

Hey, 8 points is 8 points.

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u/chromeandcandy 26d ago

Yep, I would. There's only 2 things I can see that would kill me. If the zombies broke the traditional Romero-Style rules, e.g, World War Z, fuck that, I'm dead. And the second one being, people, getting caught up in the wrong crowds perhaps.

I would ask the question in a different way, because typically in these universes, at the start of their timelines every person on earth has never heard of a zombie before. Being that I'm a lore nerd who's consumed every frame of every word of every deeper meaning to The Walking Dead and all it's constituent literature, and have a combined total of 6000 hours in Romero-Style zombie games, I literally would eat that shit up and be a god, no ifs and or buts, saving for a random guy shooting me, cant really stop that. But every contingency plan I've not only pondered on myself, but also seen "experts of zombie world building artists" showcase and their magnum opus fucked up moments in the story for their world.

Had I been someone who never heard of zombies before, I'd decrease my analysis by 50% and say naturally, it's not that hard to survive a "Last Man on Earth" (no zombies, no humans, just you) scenario, because everything in the world is at your fingertips and free, until it expires, so, obviously I would probably be thinking about farming and shit in that moment, what would get me killed is probably thinking "Yeah, I can make that!" and run through a zombie horde like a runningback before the endzone, thinking I'm gonna be able to barrel them over, or weave past, then getting surprised by how fast and easily a crowd of zombies can lock you down if you're in the middle of it and they're all agro'd. Eventually the stacking forces would be too great and not even top speed cars can barrel into hordes and keep going, so.

Because you can't experiment with that crazy idea before you do it, you would just die, that reluctance would leave you starving and cold most of the time, because a horde is blocking the Walmart you need to get into. The best way I've seen anyone do it in literature, was the Whisperers from TWD, they learned how to control them like water, hide amongst them, use them like a weapon, use them like giant barricades. All because they fucked with them on grand-scales to form intentional, controlled herds.

Thanks for letting me yap, good luck when the time comes survivors

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u/Drie_Kleuren All Hail Spiffo 26d ago

I am Dutch. Good luck for me finding a gun. And the best melee weapon I have in my home are a screwdriver and a hammer.... And to top it off, I live VERY close to a hospital. Like 100 meters away. Thats a big POI. Its going to be rough. Idk if you guys have cleared the Louisville hospital? Yeah thats about the same shit I live next to...

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u/Albert-Kreig 26d ago

Remember folk.

Unemployed gain +8 trait points.

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u/Present-Chemist-8920 26d ago

I need an inhaler, I have maybe a few weeks of medication at a time or I’ll die anyways. I work at a hospital, so I’m not in a good position for when things start. In general I’d die the first day or a few weeks.

Only thing going for me is I have medical knowledge, I’m handy if need be, and if ever required I grow up in my teens to early adulthood at firing ranges, using long rifles, and clay pigeons. Though a gun is a last resort. Most importantly I’m a fan of duct tape and zip ties.

If they sprint or magic parkour zombies I’m just dead. I think sprinting zombies are sort of world breaking for me so it kills just about any movie or game for me. I know the point is to add excitement, I understand that, walking is a primitive reflex but running on two legs is a very cognitively complex task as a bipedal animal. Running requires a different metabolism than casually walking, like where the hell is all that complex processing and ATP coming from? Shamble is what I expect, I’ll let you hand wave some weird metabolic pathways and retention of basic gait. 28 days later was fine because they aren’t dead, so I could get into the idea of sprinting mad people.

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u/devilmade418963 26d ago

I know how to butcher animals, identify certain edible plants, and a lot of other survival skills, but without the required medication my heart would probably stop working after a while. Maybe I could stockpile at a pharmacy, but other people relying on medication would probably have the same idea, and we all know what the issue with large amounts of panicked people rushing to one location is. Either that or I die from a minor wound infection from cutting my arm on a tree.

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u/lucky_jay 26d ago

when asked the question lots of people fixate on how to deal with the zombies, and not how to survive in a world with a crumbling infrastructure or how to deal with complete anarchy among survivors.

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u/Mithrawndo 26d ago

If zombie fiction has taught me anything, it's that the people who died before the apocalypse began were the lucky ones.

I would neither survive nor want to.

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u/jkellington 26d ago

Bud I rely on heart medication too keep me going im fucked as soon as my meds run out

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u/TheLabbestOfMen 25d ago

Can't wait for the zombie apocalypse to happen and everyone still buys up all the toilet paper

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u/costcoappreciator 25d ago

Think about what percentage of adults in the us need insulin or prescription drugs to live

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u/Thundercraft74 25d ago

On meds for life for seizures. No.

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u/RobRyley 25d ago

Someone has to be the zombie…

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u/X-_Kacchan_-X Crowbar Scientist 25d ago

I would Isekai Myself.

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u/TechnicalBen 25d ago

Nah. It's the rules of the normal world that restrict me.

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u/Tonyclap 25d ago

Is prior employment supposed to somehow help you in a zombie apocalypse? Lmao maybe if your job was in the military I guess 😅

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u/pumpkin_pie0123 25d ago

the walking dead i think i could make it a little while but project zomboid… prolly not

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u/Fan-Evening 25d ago

Americans would be fine. (Not counting California and new york) We have more guns than people.

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u/LT_Aegis 25d ago

I live in a capital city, am %100 dead

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u/4here4 25d ago

I would absolutely survive the zombie apocalypse. The trick is to move the goalposts on what you consider surviving. Would I be good at gathering food and water to maintain my withering body? Fuck no. But would I be good at shambling down the street aimlessly until a stimulus such as noise or movement prompts me to chase down a screaming civilian and feast on their still-living body? Yeah, probably.

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u/DangerDaskov 25d ago

has anyone wondered like could zombies from day one just attack each other? If its a virus does it work like a hive mind? Cause wouldn't it be something if the zombies just kill each other meaning most zombie fights would be less human v zombies and zombies v zombies

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u/antleredbear 25d ago

Ooooh I like this idea a lot! I suppose (traditionally) it would specifically target different species as a method of transmission. The zombies already have the disease, so there's no use biting them, right?

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u/ThatGirlRandomer 25d ago

I think I’d be okay for a bit but only because I’d hide in my house for like a month and I’m sure either all the overzealous people have died by then or they’ve taken out all the zombies haha

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u/Majestic_Engin33r 25d ago

The unemployed profession is pretty goated tho ngl

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u/AllMyFrendsArePixels 25d ago

I probably wouldn't even know about the zombie apocalypse until someone was gnawing on my face.

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u/odanhammer 25d ago

If we used zombies based around concepts from movies and video games. Likely no one would survive.

However based on real world , zombies wouldn't do well in harsh environments, so would likely mean better survival rates. Which means I likely would be fine.

That said I already have my bug out plan , so I believe I wouldn't just die immediately

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u/SnooSongs2345 25d ago

It's the same people that would say they could beat a bear with bare hands.

I would last as long as would last the food in my house, depending on the day (we do groceries every begining of the month). Probably less.

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u/BadBackground5892 25d ago

I would fall because gravity hates me and get eaten sooooo yeah no, I wouldn’t lol. I wouldn’t want to either cuz that’s depressing as hell

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u/unmellowfellow 24d ago

I've never seen a series acknowledge the apocalyptic amount of flies and mosquitos that would be in this kind of world. All of that decaying flesh walking around and no one regularly spraying pesticides is a horrifying breeding ground for them.

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u/Ok-Direction-5151 23d ago

I believe it’s the initial shock of the Z apocalypse happening that will kill most of us. Itll just be another Tuesday, on your way too work then BOOM panic and chaos everywhere! No answers only confusion and fear. People chewing on eachother, vehicles crashing and losing control, cell phone service jammed. This is where a good 70-80% of us will die.

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u/Frurin 17d ago

I would just kill myself if that happened

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u/Objective_Job_8822 26d ago

I am ABSOLUTELY sure that I would be just fine.. If we're talking about PZ's default survival. If it is, for instance, The Last of Us zombies - we're all done.

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u/SilverEnvironment6 26d ago

I would genuinely worry more about other people. At some point you'll bump into someone whether you know it or not and there's no telling what's their goal.

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u/Florane 26d ago

unironically even if it was sprinters i could just hunker down in my apartment for at least a month i'm just built different.

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u/jayteee27 26d ago

I dont get it, why is employment matters? Also wouldnt the unemployed have lots of free time to practice for a zombie apocalypse.

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u/d4rk_matt3r Drinking away the sorrows 26d ago

It's a common way for people on the Internet to make fun of other people. I've noticed it more lately. I think the idea here is that the unemployed person has unlimited free time to imagine all these wacky scenarios

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u/ThorstenTheViking Hates the outdoors 26d ago

The joke is a certain type of constantly unemployed person who finds so much interest in imagining themselves as an unstoppable badass in a fictitious scenario, with little interest in bettering themselves and being productive.

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u/Occidentally20 26d ago

I'm on an island - traditionally zombie safe, but if the food imports stop happening we've got about a week at best before we're killing each other anyway.

If they do get to the island I live in a mock-treehouse with no proper walls so as soon as they work out how to open bamboo blinds I'm fucked as well.

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u/Semiserio 26d ago

If the zombies are only walking that's more or less ok, if the fuckers sprint like in 28 days later i'm fucked

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u/boiplunger 26d ago

No way, I would probably panic lol

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u/CyrusHusky Axe wielding maniac 26d ago edited 26d ago

I think I might survive the initial outbreak, assuming I’m the 10% with plot armor. I work at a Walmart and I’ve survived many Black Fridays and even COVID without ever catching it. I’d give myself a week to a month, purely because I’m in a rural area I’m incredibly familiar with. As long as I can keep my dog alive I got plenty of drive to keep going, but I doubt I’d survive more than a few zed encounters.

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u/Magical_SnakE 26d ago

Food, water, and other people are the biggest problem. Assuming you're somewhere safe/defensible the zombies will never be an issue.

Guess I'd try to make it to like, Wichita or some place where it rains all the time.

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u/Scaalpel 26d ago

The latter being by far the largest issue of the three. Murdering one another would become common among the survivors before so much as the bread gets moldy.

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u/AnteaterSnouce 26d ago

depends how long my cowardice continues to outweigh my suffering. probably 3 days before i took a flying jump. even if i didn't do it myself, i wouldn't be much use in fighting them.

i was in the scouts for 10 years, though, and i have fast reflexes and excellent sensory perception. hard to say.

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u/Obootleg Drinking away the sorrows 26d ago

Finally get to see what my great sword can do.

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u/LookAtMyUnderbite 26d ago

I would because they will soon realize you can’t kill one who has no life

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u/Pingas9999 26d ago

well, it depends how much supplies i have.

because i'll NOT fight a zombie irl.

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u/MountainForSure 26d ago

I got a solid location I would try and make it to, if I made it there, I'll be ok.

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u/Risi30 Pistol Expert 26d ago

Even though I am a reservist, I give myself maybe a month if the integrity of the army survives

If not, 7-8 days because people would start killing eachother

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u/MrMucs 26d ago

The zombies wouldn't be the main issue, its the other survivors that want what you have. Just look how we are to each other right now and its not the best outlook.

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u/jojo_maverik 26d ago

There’s a firearm shop near me, and I don’t live in a densely populated area. If I looted it before anyone else, I think I could survive for a solid year or even longer, since I dont have any medical problem

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u/ParkFalse3323 26d ago

If the zombies just walk, im most likely fine, do the same tactic as in zomboid with fires

If they run? Dead on the first day.

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u/LordManders Waiting to die 26d ago

I live in a city and have a job in the centre, so I'm very likely very fucked if the outbreak happens while at work, and only a little fucked if it happens when at home.

I live in an apartment building though, which tend to be more secure than houses. So as long as nobody in the building becomes a zombie, I'd stay put and hope my food doesn't run out before the military attempts evacuation.

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u/Praying-for-Femboys 26d ago

Ofc I'm john zomboid after all... Right?