World War Z

[Terrifel]

How many hunters, male or female, kill deer with “a bash to the head?”

[Lemur866]

Zombies are tougher to kill than a human physically, but have the weakness that once you understand zombie behavior they are totally predictable. So one blind guy with a shovel can kill any number of zombies if he knows what he’s doing, but a battalion of conventionally armed soldiers get overrun because they don’t.

[susan]

Arlington, Va.: Forgive me for being blunt, but is it sufficient to shoot them in the head?

Max Brooks: Or just hit them in the head hard enough to crack the skull.

–Washington Post

[RandMcnally]

@Lemur866

At that point, zombie extermination is just an especially nasty and dangerous job, like cleaning a sewer.

I don’t think it’s that simple. Remember how that one soldier was talking about how no matter where they went they had a shrink near by. How so many seemingly stong willed people just snapped under the pressure. My favorite (worst?) story was when he talked about the guy who ended up finding his home again, and then he shot himself.

It is possible to be cold about it, like the park ranger. To her, it was just a job. I guess the effect of it lessons with time.
I guess the reason why I like this book so much is because I can see all of the actions taking place. I can see how some people’ll just lay down one day and not wake up. Or how some’ll start thinking they’re zombies.

I did feel sorry for the people who were left by the government to fend for themselves, and when the government came to reclaim the land some of those fending for themselves didn’t want to give it up. Honestly, I can’t blame them.

[Hostile_Dialect]

@iamthewalrus(:3=

There should have been a more steady transition between people in San Diego living an essentially suburban existence and the interstate system becoming a mass of millions of zombies.

Anyone who has tried to get from La Jolla to Chula Vista on the 5 at the end of the workday knows that the San Diego interstate system already is a mass of millions of zombies.

@Rubystreak

Unless you have firearms, you have to close melee with them.

There’s always the fire method; though fire isn’t as useful in the Brooks universe as in the Romero universe, the protagonist in Night of the Living Dead (IIRC) held the zombies at bay for a good while by setting a couch on fire between the zombies and the house. And he didn’t even know fire repelled zombies–he was just grasping at straws.

I don’t remember if zombies were actually repelled by fire in the Guide, though I do remember that it would only kill them if and when their entire body burned to ash. That doesn’t make it a viable defense option inside your home–they’d set the house on fire before any of them died–but it’s something to think about.

[Push_You_Down]

@fetus

I don’t remember if zombies were actually repelled by fire in the Guide, though I do remember that it would only kill them if and when their entire body burned to ash. That doesn’t make it a viable defense option inside your home–they’d set the house on fire before any of them died–but it’s something to think about.

I think the guide says fire is the WORST possible way to dry to dispatch a zombie. You light one on fire it doesn’t care it doesn’t feel pain. IT will still come after you. And in the process set anything else flamable around on fire.