Shamblers

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Permalink Reply by Laz on October 19, 2010 at 11:22am

Very cool.

I suppose some of the 'fact' of zombies such as only being able to be killed via destruction of the brain and the reanimation could be considered folklore by survivors.

Eg the destruction of the brain could be explained by the fact people shot/stabbed them in panic and they seemingly took no damage until their brain was destroyed. This could be simply the people panicing and in fact the torso damage was having an effect but the zombie just didnt show any visable signs.

Reanimation could also be something like when the runner suffers enough damage they fall into a coma and only 'reanimate' when the dormant part of the virus take over. It looks like they are coming back from the dead but are actually only waking back up in a brain damaged state?

Permalink Reply by Jericho Syndrome on October 19, 2010 at 11:47am

ok i think i got most of it...so the Campion a adaptive virus? one that takes different stages before its final takeover of the dead brain and doing so by adapting to its host?

and i always figured people aim for the head since the brain naturally controls the body....

Permalink Reply by Slick Joshua on October 19, 2010 at 12:54pm

Campion could be adaptive, or a secondary infection triggers the zombification.

How dead does the reanimation of zombies run? Do the recent dead reanimate regardless of an infected attack? That is the way it was in Night of the Living Dead.

If a group of infected bite and kill and chow down on a person, does the partially eaten corpse get up at a later time?

There are two ways to do this. Tell me what you want the antagonist to do and I will write up something to explain it. Alternatively, we come up with a mechanism and then see what weaknesses and powers the antagonist has.

I am in favor of a communicable disease. But, it becomes more difficult for those burried 6feet underground to come back.

Are you famiar with Luigi Galvani? This is a no bullshit scientist on whos work Mary Shelley based Dr Frankenstein. If you push a whole bunch of direct current through a corpse of a recently (Time in hours) dead animal, one can get the muscles to contract. Basically, even though the person is "dead" there is still chemical energy in the cells. This energy will be consumed and the corpse will stop responding. The trick is to find away to restart the metabolism of the cells.

http://www.lateralscience.co.uk/reanim/galvreanim2.html

Do not worry guys, I will get there. It will be tight and scientifically sound to 90% of the people. But, 5% will just not believe, because they do not want to "play". They refuse to suspend disbelief. They do not know why it can not happen, but because it never has happened, "it cant'". The other 5% or less will pick up on something and poke holes in the story line. Of these, most will be willing to "play along" and suspend disbelief.

Hey, people love the sounds of starfighter battles in deep space. But, nearly everyone knows that sound can not travel through a vacuum. So, they suspend disbelief and play along.

Permalink Reply by Laz on October 19, 2010 at 1:10pm

If you can use your knowledge to explain the antagonist that would be great.

What specifics would you need in addition to what we've already put down in the group?

In terms of would runners reanimate regardless of damage, I would say yes, very simliar to NOTLG. Obviously if the brain is totally destroyed or a corpse is burnt to nothing then reanimation wouldnt take place

I think secondary infection is probably not the direction to take in terms of keeping to the timeline

Permalink Reply by Slick Joshua on October 19, 2010 at 3:05pm

Ok, got it.

If a human is biten, they become a runner.
Runners reaimate when killed.

If a human is biten and then eaten, does what is left become a runner or a shambler?

If a mundane (non-runner) exhibiting no influenza/rabies symptoms dies do they become runners? Shamblers? That was how it was in NotLD.

Does someone who died five years ago (well before the epidemic) become a runner or a shambler now? That was how it was in NotLD.

Not trying to be a dick, just trying to get it right.)

Permalink Reply by Laz on October 19, 2010 at 5:59pm

No no you're not being a dick what-so-ever lol, I know it's a very detailed problem lol

-if a human is bitten and then eaten, providing the human dies as a result, he would become a shambler. If he survives the wound then he would heal to be a runner. Death is pretty much the pivot/crossover point.

-pre infection deaths would stay dead. Same as if a post-infection person dies of natural causes. You only become a zombie if you are infected with the virus via bodily fluid transfer or if you were one of the original flu-type infected people.

So, say people on an isolated island/eskimos never came into contact with the initial flu-virus, and have never come into contact with runners/shamblers, would die of natural causes and stay dead.

It's safe to say the the initial airbourne flu-virus which started the ball rolling, was very local and pretty much ended by the time the camps were set up. Obviously there is the possibility that the virus suvived somewhere else, which can explain possible outbreaks in other countries.

I think I made sense there lol

Permalink Reply by Laz on October 19, 2010 at 2:26pm

I just realised, I think we already have all the zombie behaviour and traits sorted with the rabies/influenza hybrid.

The only thing we need to work out is the 'reanimation'.

So something (bacteria?) which becomes active in anaerobic conditions. These conditions would already be responsible for the slow movement due to brain damage right? We already have the violence and communicable infection from Rabies/influenza.

Do we even need to go down the route of looking for a third disease? If the symbiotic relationship ends with the death of a runner, we only really need something which can provide or restart this relationship.

So what does the influenza/rabies hybrid need? Does active transport need to be present etc? We may only need the third element of the infection to:

-become active in anaerobic conditions
-provide or restart the conditions which the rabies/influenza virus needs to survive.

So some kind of adapted mitochondira maybe? Does this angle make sense to science?

Permalink Reply by Slick Joshua on October 19, 2010 at 6:18pm

yes it maks sense. That was where I was heading, but just wanted to be sure about the non-infected dead.

Think about how poorly your hands work when they get really really cold. Maybe we can get shambler because the virus makes the runner go cold blooded to save energy. As warm blooded we "waste" a lot of energy keeping warm. gotta double check, but I think rabies burns out the cortex leaving the "reptile" brain intact. This also reduces the amount of oxygen required.

I am also exploring the idea of anaerobic bacteria. There are some that cause disease such as clostridium = gangreen. Botchulism food poisoing. Death drops o2 levels goes anaerobic giving conditions that this other organism can thrive. Just gotta come up with a way to reanimate. But, once that occurs influenze/rabies is still there.

Permalink Reply by Laz on October 19, 2010 at 7:23pm

Nice that sounds like definitely the way to go. This is straightening out to be pretty damn awesome.

If a bacteria can't be found, we can simply say an adapted bacteria similar to 'so and so' becomes active etc..