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Deodorized
11-30-2008, 02:44 AM
This post was originally part of another site, where a user asked a multitude of questions regarding zombies. I have copied and pasted the questions here, so you have reference.

"1.) As the infected do not eat their victims or each other and are unable to prepare food, they die of starvation. However, they do not apparently suffer from dehydration. After even one day, their bodies should show signs of dehydration from exertion, daily acitivity, and excretion.

2.) Do they excrete waste material? As they do not continue to eat, do they continue to digest and excrete waste material already in the body? Do the kidneys and liver continue to filter virus clogged blood and create urine? Do they sweat to cool off?

3.) Do they breathe? As they are still alive, it should be assumed so, but shots have been so far away that any evidence of respiration is not visible and infected who have specifically died of asphyxiation or drowning have not been shown. Do they use aerobic or anarobic respiration?

4.) Do they sleep? A functional human requires sleep to refresh the mind and repair muscle damage, without it, hysteria and eventual death ensue, but it does not appear necessary in the infected. Does the virus negate this otherwise necessary function?

5.) Why don't they get tired? They often run very long distances to follow and catch up to prey, but they don't need to rest to breathe (?) or to repair muscle damage.

6.) How do they recognize themselves and others as infected vs. uninfected? As portrayed in 28 Weeks Later, they can obviously tell who among them is infected, but how? Do they use sight, smell, sound, taste, touch, or some other sense to tell? In a specific instance in 28 Weeks Later, a soldier guarding children leaves the compound through a door, after being infected he returns and proceeds to attack the children through a translucent, soundproof structure, probably using sight, but was it movement or visual recognition?

7.) Do they have memory? As using the reference above, the soldier returns to the room holding the children. Did he accidentally stumble into the same room, see them, and begin attacking? Sense them from a distance? Or somehow remember where they were?

8.) As seen in 28 Days Later, the 'Rage Virus' is obviously transferable from chimps to humans, but which, if any other animals, can be infected either accidentally or purposefully by blood borne contact?

9.) How long does the virus last after death of the infected? Rats and other scavenger animals were eating their remains with no outwardly visible symptoms and probably were not harboring the live virus.

10.) There are many different forms of heterochromia, the genetic predisposition to being a carrier, but there are many forms, several genetic and others acquired. Which genetic form is shown in the movie? and do any other kinds of heterochromia yield any other resistance?
*wiki article my assumption is Simple Heterochromia without visual impairment"


Look at my next post for the in-depth answers.

Deodorized
11-30-2008, 02:45 AM
1.) They do not suffer from Dehydration because there is no blood flow in their veins. They do not get overheated, so that basically negates almost every use for water in the system.

2.) ((This answer is a bit graphic.)) Zombies do not digest, as every cell in their body is dead, ((Apart from the Virus)), and the enzymes that normally help digest food are dead as well. Therefore, everything eaten will sit in their stomach for as long as they exist. In some more extreme cases, a Zombie will continue to eat to the point the stomach can no longer contain any more, and the stomach will rupture, or
more gruesomely, the undigested food will burst out the ****, and then continue eating. ((Sick image. I know.))

3.) Zombies do in fact breathe, but they do not require air to function. You can tell this because of the moans you would hear coming from them when they are in "Hunt Mode". If the Zombie found itself incapable of breathing, it would not stop functioning, as the Virus has found a way to negate all needs for air. ((It's been debated whether a Zombie is a more advanced form of Humans, as the Virus enhances all 5 senses to a near superhuman level, and negates the use of nearly all resources a Human needs to survive.)) To my knowledge, they use Aerobic Respiration.

4.) Zombies do not sleep. Neither do they repair muscle damage, suffer from hysteria, or even suffer from fatigue. A Zombie will keep coming at you until it's arms literally fall off from lack of muscle repair. ((This would be extremely rare, but it is possible.)) The virus, yet again, negates the need for a necessary human function.

5.) You've stumped me. I really don't have an answer for why, I just know that they don't get tired. Muscle damage was explained in number 4. Breathing was explained in 3. The only reason I can think they don't get tired, is because they do not feel anything. The only thing the Zombies feel is the primal instinct to feed.

6.) The dead rely on the senses of smell and hearing as their most dominant senses. This being said, the Virus ((Once fully taking over a Human body system)) releases a Pheremone that helps other Zombies distinguish the living from those infected. However, they can and will rely on other senses if the sense of smell fails. ((Nose/Ears could fall off.. They are decaying after all.))

7.) The dead do not have memories. Say, your mother was bitten, and she turns. She is no longer your mother, she's yet another undead, shambling corpse walking the post-apocalyptic Earth. She will not stop and think you are her offspring, she will not remember all the times you spent together, she will focus on one thing and one thing only. The need to feed.
That being said, 28 Days/Weeks Later, you have to remember, aren't real zombies. They are infected with the Rage Virus, and are more intent on inflicting harm than to feeding. ((Watch the scene with the mother of the children getting killed, it will become clear. The infected concentrates more on killing than feeding/infecting.))

8.) As said by Max Brooks, the undead do not feed on anything but Human flesh. That means that there will never be a Zombie Dog. Even if, say a Vulture, eats off an infected corpse, the Vulture will die, and remain dead. Undead tissue has a fatal Neurotoxin that will kill the brain if eaten, and not reanimate it.

9.) The virus takes about 20 hours to kill the individual infected, and about 4 hours to reanimate the corpse. The Virus will remain active as long as the brain isn't horribly damaged, and the Spinal Cord is attached to the Cerebellum. Again, reanimated animals are not possible.

10.) It is not known whether there is someone out there with resistance to the Virus. You have to remember, it is a Virus, and the medical technology of today has absolutely no way to kill a Virus, and even trying to create a Vaccine will result in the individual turning into a Zombie. ((Even the most minute amount of the Virus induced into the Human body will result in death, and reanimation.))

Hope I helped.

I'd like to add some more information that wasn't asked in your post.

Zombies do not reproduce. They have no living reproductive cells. In the case of a pregnant woman becoming infected, upon death, the child will die, and remain dead, and remain in the mothers stomach, decomposing, even as she turns into a Zombie.

Zombies do not bleed. They have no heartbeat, thus they have no blood pressure. The only way a Zombie will bleed is if it got cut somewhere on the leg, as all the blood is weighed down by gravity and would escape through the wound.

Deodorized
11-30-2008, 03:07 AM
I wrote the second post, a user on another forum site asked a multitude of questions about zombies.

I am, and always will be fascinated with zombies, so I helped spread knowledge.
I posted it here so I could guide a user to it off the game, as the site where it's posted requires log-in to access.

OmegaLemming
12-01-2008, 08:27 AM
Wild.

You must have had to watch a lot of different zombie movies to get this info.

Btw I'm pretty sure zombies are anaerobic, since in Land of the Dead they walk right into and out of the water. (Not sure how many people actually remember that scene :p)

I think the key things to know about zombies is the only thing really functioning is their muscles and partially their brains. They really don't need their organs, since some zombies have missing organs, etc.

A real question to ask is, where DO zombies get their energy? In cases of radiation I guess it would be from the energy stored in their now mutated cells.

Very.. unique thread XD