They don’t decompose, they starve to death. The rage zombie infestation ended by itself after about a month, slow zombies last decades to centuries depending on climate.
They can still only increase their pack’s numbers by one if they win without any serious damage on either side and they’d still get ground to paste if they pick on the wrong lion.
The humans have an n-billion person head start. In a war of attrition, only the zombies are at risk of becoming extinct
Do zombies have sex?
Do zombies dream of undead sheep?
Rage infectees are also a lot easier to kill. Only way to kill the slow zombie is to destroy the brain (taking off the head neutralises the body but leaves a snapping head which can still bite and infect). Rage infectees, shoot them, blow them up, set them on fire etc, they die.
For instance, in 28 Days Later the survivors use petrol bombs against the infected which takes them down in fairly short order. Trying that against a solanum infectee will just result in a zombie that is on fire and setting other things on fire and could take some time to destroy the brain, as previously discussed. The military in 28 Days Later also use their training to good effect, collecting an impressive ditch full of infected corpses using mines and SA80s. In World War Z, conventional military training fails spectacularly at the Battle of Yonkers when infantrymen and artillery, instinctively aiming for centre-of-mass, fail to contain the bulk of an infected New York City.
All true, however considering all the speculation about zombies recently, there is no reason to assume that the military would fail so spectacularly now. I Image they will establish a large perimeter and simply pick off the walkers as they appear. Larger areas could be contained with quickly erected sturdy fencing and barricades. Slow zombies generally do not climb or swim either so they just aimlessly bounce off the edges until they are no longer functional. The exception would be supernatural zombies that seem to go on even when skeletonized. THOSE would be a real nightmare to deal with.
Hmm, I’m not so sure - that training is quite literally drilled into troops, but taking cover and aiming for centre of mass will have 0% effectiveness against the solanum infection. In World War Z they pretty much had to redesign the military from the ground up, mothballing all the expensive toys like fighter jets, reserving tanks to quash secessionists and relearning 18th century rank-and-fire tactics.
Also worth noting that, unlike a rage infectee who is basically a really, really, really pissed off highly infectious human a solanum infectee will never stop. The virus retards agents of carrion. It will continue to bash at your barricades as long as it is able to with all its might. Its moans will call in more, and more. If you aren’t careful zombies can swarm over walls by clambering over the tops of each other, making barricades no sure thing.
Solanum zombies are getting a bit of a bum deal here, I think. As long as you can survive the first few months and subsequent waves of infection with rage then you’re ok. With solanum, the threat never entirely disappears.
The military wouldn’t fail in direct combat, that’s almost impossible. They would because their orders would be to save civilians, not shoot indiscriminately. Once civilians start turning inside the safe zone and munching on each other is when things go to hell, not during direct confrontation against the zombie hordes.
I would be so fucked if the fast zombies came around here. There’s no where to go except fields or the village, and the village would be far from safe with so many little nooks and alleys zombies could spring from. Once you go to the fields you have miles of open farming land and those farmers ain’t growing trees to climb up. Plus if they came here they’d quickly find residents too old to escape and so their numbers would increase really fast.
And there are only guns in farms, so probably next to none in this village. I suppose we could try driving out, but country bumpkins round here only get small lanes to travel on, and if a large vehicle is stationary then there’s no going around unless you can pile through the hedge lining the roads and go cross country in a 4x4. Not many or those beasts, neither.
So voting for the slow zombies, although the trick there would be telling the difference between those and some of my neighbours. At least I could outpace the slow ones for a while. Maybe even make it to the coast, get on board a boat, as they can’t swim, can they?
The coast is about 45 minutes drive or 7 miles across country. Yeah, that’s probably the best bet. If we could make it out there we’d probably have to compete for space, and so that would cause more problems. We’d be facing zombies and escapees at the same time. That’s a dinger.
The rage zombies are only going to live a few weeks, so I’d prefer a solanum apocalypse. I’d whip our ranks into line. People who in their past lives were humble accountants and kindergarten teachers would become unstoppable warriors under my leadership. The human threat would be crushed in my cold, undead, iron hand and the last humans would be rounded up to serve as stock for the brain farms I’d build across the country to feed me and my troops.
Not to mention zombies aren’t known for the soft gentle contemplation they put into deciding where to bite, they just want to rend, tear and eat bodies.
As previously discussed, thankfully I have a fair amount of experience crewing sail boats, and mrAru has a fair amount of experience on power boats [heh] so we would head down to the sub base after raiding a few pharmacies for lantus [thankfully it has the ability to be stored unrefrigerated for long enough for us to get settled onto a boat] and the rest of my non-narcotic cardiac meds [everybody else will be targeting narcotics and antibiotics], needles and alcohol swabs for the lantus, and test strips and a couple extra glucometers [hey, time to upgrade!!!]
Once at the base, we actually have 2 options. Solo is to swipe the largest and best equipped sailboat. There is one still in the water we lust after - obviously an officer owns it - 65 foot, fiberglass hull, all the zippy doodads you could want, power winches, generator and solar, desal, satellite dish, some form of radar, GPS … would be better with a second couple to pitch in, even has room for a third couple. With it, break into the warehouse and grab food supplies, and head out to sea. We figure with fishing gear, and the canned fruits and veggies, a few of the huge square cans of coffee, bug juice mix and my sizable supply of tea bags and forms of splenda, and seasonings we could keep ourselves fed for a fair amount of time. We would head for the southern waters where it is warm enough to be comfortable and stay far enough out so that the zombies can’t get to us and zip in for light resupply as needed until we hear it announced the war is over.
Alternately, we grab a couple unzombied guys and grab either a sea going tug [not our preferred option] or get onto a sub and head out until it is safe. That is preferred. With the nuke power and assorted systems, we could stay safely at sea for a fair amount of time. Only problem would be to deal with officers … many of them are absolute buttheads. Only drawback is small kids and idiotic navy wives with entitlement issues being loud, panic-y and nonproductive. At least I could work in the machinery spaces or the galley.
Rage zombies may die of their wounds more easily but slow zombies are still a lot easier to dispatch, as well as escape and evade.
I used to shoot 10k+ pistol rounds per year, often my target was a post-it note at 25 yards. If the outbreak is local, I think I could survive a few days of rage zombies and get to safety. If it is worldwide, I don’t think I could survive a couple months for them to die out. It’s just a matter of time before I run into a handful of rage zombies while I’m out scavenging an unknown area. Turn a corner and come face to face with 5 of them, dead. Have 10 see me out in the woods, dead. No weapon skills will help in these situations.
Run into slow zombies and you can run down a steep hill, close a door behind you, jump a fence, or simply outrun them and you’ll be ok. Slow zombies may be a longer term problem, but they’re a much easier problem. There are far too many situations where running into rage zombies means death where the same wouldn’t be true if they were slow zombies.
I’d prefer to face the slow zombies personally, but I think humanity would do better against the fast ones. In either case, I live in a big city and have no heavy weaponry in the house, so I doubt I’d survive more than a day or three.