It's Coming: Fear the Walking Dead

[SMS]

Perhaps, but I come back to - what is making everything collapse? There seems to be a practical way to deal with walkers. A mess - yes, lots of dead - yes, everything disintegrating right away - no way. BTW - don't the Georgia survivors seem a lot saavier than the California ones, so far?

I think what's making it collapse is whatever is going on outside this tiny little platoon/company sized area of operations. One little safe zone in what is a massively overpopulated area of Southern California. If one platoon lost control of 2k peeps in one auditorium imagine that scaled up exponentially. The world is ending. A few pneumatic bolt guns ain't gonna fix that lol.

 

[Defnestor]

How long can LA go without regular shipments of food? My understanding is NY shelves would be empty after 8 hours. How many truckers are interested in delivering their load of potatoes rather than just driving home with them, when all hell breaks loose?
Gas station attendants, power facility workers, gas, water, sewage, all arguably staffed by people with less of a sense of duty than, say military or police. If the hospital morgue sits up and starts eating it's way up through the levels, who's left to man the emergency room?

Joe leaves the starbucks on his way to work and gets a minor bite from some homeless looking woman. By noon he's attacked Bill. On the news that night, reports of widespread attacks air. People decide to skip work for a day or two, until it all calms down. In the beginning, fear does more damage than the undead.

 

[mugsy]

I think what's making it collapse is whatever is going on outside this tiny little platoon/company sized area of operations. One little safe zone in what is a massively overpopulated area of Southern California. If one platoon lost control of 2k peeps in one auditorium imagine that scaled up exponentially. The world is ending. A few pneumatic bolt guns ain't gonna fix that lol.

LOL - I hear you. However, it really doesn't make sense - despite all of the paranoid "civilization will fall in a minute" stuff said here. In fact, most civilizations proven very resilient against much greater intelligently designed threats. The zombies or walkers are scary but aren't all that big a threat once you get your act together and organize a bit. There is no intelligent design or response so once you learn how they operate you can easily counter. Countries survive having cities being depopulated by war and this would be no different. I realize the writers are basically following a comic book story-line so expecting too much isn't reasonable. However, I feel the creators of FtWD kind of over sold the series early by saying we'd see how it all began, etc. Well, we aren't we are just seeing a little slice among a less survival-worthy bunch of people than in TWD.

 

[Defnestor]

It'd be a good story if the whole group kicks it. The producers should do a few seasons of one-offs, featuring groups that don't make it.

 

[JB Books]

Like I said earlier, I think some of our dissatisfaction comes from knowing how to deal with zombies (ie. take out their brains) and our frustration that these folks seem some self-absorbed, helpless, and whiny.

What bothers me is that the show seemed to move from rioting and mass panic to empty streets and quiet in a relatively short time-frame. Initially, would expect to see more of an organized response from the police and military. Even if people were ordered to stay in their homes for long periods during the night and day, we should still see some news programs, hear radio broadcasts, see youtube videos, etc. It's like the world went dead very quickly. This sounds foolish...but good fiction makes the unreasonable seem reasonable.

I think the military and police would find out fairly quickly that head shots take out zombies. Enough troops, firepower and ammo should contain the threat. Of course, "turn time" would play a major factor, as well as the speed at which the walkers could move.

Given any kind of choice, I would want to be as far away from the military and large population centers as possible.

I do have a question for you guys.... How far away from major urban areas do you think you'd have to be to be safe(r)? Being "out in the country" near a big town would not be my choice. I'd rather be as far out as possible. Even small towns could be vulnerable to herds, especially if they were located near major highways. How do you think big herds would travel? What motivates them to go in one direction and keep walking as opposed to another? Do they just shuffle around?

I need to know these things.

 

[kennedy]

Minimum 1 hour of normal drive time outside a major city.

 

[Defnestor]

This sounds foolish...but good fiction makes the unreasonable seem reasonable.

And so, padawan, you have discovered the pivotal detail.

 

[mugsy]

What bothers me is that the show seemed to move from rioting and mass panic to empty streets and quiet in a relatively short time-frame. Initially, would expect to see more of an organized response from the police and military. Even if people were ordered to stay in their homes for long periods during the night and day, we should still see some news programs, hear radio broadcasts, see youtube videos, etc. It's like the world went dead very quickly. This sounds foolish...but good fiction makes the unreasonable seem reasonable.

I agree 100% - a golden opportunity was missed in this first season. We have basically moved to where, very shortly, we will be seeing the West Coast, whiny, un-sympathetic version of TWD with characters we would rather see die off and improve the human race's overall chance of reclaiming the earth.

I think it would be worth exploring a series that focuses on what would would happen during a zombie outbreak as socially challenged misfit (thank you Mr Metcalf) gun enthusiasts start sharing info about the spreading plague via a website -- what do you guys think?

 

[71buickfreak]

LOL - I hear you. However, it really doesn't make sense - despite all of the paranoid "civilization will fall in a minute" stuff said here. In fact, most civilizations proven very resilient against much greater intelligently designed threats.

One word- Katrina.

New Orleans devolved into a primal wasteland within a couple of days. Scientists and psychologists have studied these situations, and they always say the same thing- a normal, rational person, when faced with a mass disaster and little to no relief from "authorities", will resort to primal instincts within 2-3 days. The stress, along with struggles for food, shelter, etc, brings out the survival instincts, and all hell will break loose. Some people will band together and help each other. Others will band together and form marauder groups. We saw it during Katrina, live on CNN. It can and will happen. Western society will get the worst of it because we have become accustom to the lifestyle of google, foodmarts, fuel, money, etc. strip away that normalcy, and it will go primal real fast.

It would take several months for things to normalize after a major event (zombies, pandemic, war, asteroid, super volcano, etc), then small groups would manage to take hold with larger groups, forming towns, etc. It would be chaos within a few days and that would last for a long time.

 

[briarcreekguy]

I think that it has been established in TWD, that the Walkers react to sound and movement. One walker hears a sound or sees a movement and heads in that direction, others key off that one and join in and that's how a herd grows. I guess there could be a situation where there is no distinct external stimulus and you could end with a herd just milling around. Think of the scene at the feed lots, that stopped the crew trying to get to DC. In the book, World War Z, they describe a scene where a zombie spends days trying to dig out a critter out of a hole, in the middle of the desert, then finally gives up and wanders off. So assuming that the lore carries over, you might assume that they have some kind of limited short term memory, that keeps them on task, until that memory is over written or just fades away.


How do you think big herds would travel? What motivates them to go in one direction and keep walking as opposed to another? Do they just shuffle around?

I need to know these things.[/QUOTE]