How realistic does a zombie apocalypse or post apocalyptic story has to be?

[BackWoodsJ_ACK]

I've been wanting to write a zombie apocalypse story for a while now so I wanted to how real or at least logical does it have to be.

 

[hauntedwritings]

This is more with regard for every story, rather than specifically for zombie apocalypses.

How real and logical your story should be, depends completely on how much effort and thought you are willing to put into your story, as well as what tone you want to set for the story. Less effort and thought normally tend to be more comedic, while a lot of thought and effort tend to have a more serious tone.

So the right answer, depends on what kind of experience you want to present to the readers.

 

[Ai-chan]

I've been wanting to write a zombie apocalypse story for a while now so I wanted to how real or at least logical does it have to be.

Just don't defy the laws of physics and try to study up on basic psychology, mostly regarding fight-or-flight response.

For example:
1. If a chunk of your neck got bitten off, it doesn't matter how much adrenaline you have, you won't be able to move, let alone fight back.
2. If a fall from a 2-storey building, you don't just walk off safely. Human bones are strong, but not THAT strong.
3. If a human get shot, it hurts a god damn lot! While some people can still move around, it would nigh impossible for them to still be able to swing a baseball bat.
4. If you cut off a creature's achilles tendon, they won't be able to stand, let alone run. So a zombie that is horribly rotting wouldn't be able to run.

As for fight-or-flight response, running away is not always the response a person come to when faced with something terrifying. For some people, they lose control of their body instead. Some would lose control of their bladder, some their knees, some simply lose the ability to think. Not everyone is the same, though if you study psychology, you can mostly tell what kind of people would do what. It's not an exact science, but your guess is as good as anyone's guess.

As for zombie biology, you can bullshit your way through. You don't even have to explain it. Just provide some details and let it go. If your story become popular enough that it becomes a movie, Roanoke Gaming will think up their biology for you instead.

 

[K5Rakitan]

You can always set it in an alternate universe where our laws of physics don't apply.

 

[LordAstrea]

Could go seriously either way. Are you writing Highschool of the Dead or Resident Evil zombie apocalypse? Or somewhat realistic like The Walking Dead or classic Night of the Living Dead?
Cuz dang yo, dem physics in Highschool of the Dead are something else.

 

[BackWoodsJ_ACK]

Could go seriously either way. Are you writing Highschool of the Dead or Resident Evil zombie apocalypse? Or somewhat realistic like The Walking Dead or classic Night of the Living Dead?
Cuz dang yo, dem physics in Highschool of the Dead are something else.

Them physics are crazy alright.

Anyways, what I'm going for would be somewhere in the middle. Not too outrageous like HOTD but almost realistic as the Walking dead.

Well, I say zombie but it's more like infected.

 

[Kilolo]

why do you even think zombie apocalypse needs to be realistic/reasonable.

more than half movie/game i know about zombie apocalypse didn't even explain how the infection could spread worldwide in just overnight.
and do you really think it's that easier to procure guns and bullets than searching for food?

just forget all those realistic bulshit, most zombie apocalypse fans didn't even care.

 

[Kenjona]

I have issues with blanket statements:

Just don't defy the laws of physics and try to study up on basic psychology, mostly regarding fight-or-flight response.

For example:
1. If a chunk of your neck got bitten off, it doesn't matter how much adrenaline you have, you won't be able to move, let alone fight back.

Depends on what part of neck the chunk is removed and how large of said chunk. Spine gone/broken, you will be paralyzed and the shock will probably kill you; Breathing tube, yeah your sucking wind badly but possible to survive, if dealt with quickly enough. Meaty area to left or right below face, you can bleed out to death shock might kill you but you can still move and survive for a bit. Half your neck gone even if it misses spine and tubes, your gonna die more then likely. Humans are weirdly survivable meat bags.

2. If a fall from a 2-storey building, you don't just walk off safely. Human bones are strong, but not THAT strong.

It depends on a lot of different factors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague
Even for how drunk you are could change the outcome: https://www.livescience.com/24979-alcohol-injury-outcome.html
Oh and yes there is a how to on falling from 2 stories. https://www.wikihow.com/Survive-a-Fall-from-a-Two-Story-Window

3. If a human get shot, it hurts a god damn lot! While some people can still move around, it would nigh impossible for them to still be able to swing a baseball bat.

Partially true, depends on where shot, what by, physical trauma caused by said shot, who was shot and what they have in their system (including lots of just plain old adrenalin).
For example 1: https://www.medicinenet.com/surviving_a_gunshot_wound_to_the_head/views.htm
Example 2: Read a little more then halfway down on why police officers shoot so many times; https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_ae82835c-0212-5e50-a175-85601a1ed8bb.html
Example 3 Your General run of the mill Bad asses: https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/6-heroes-who-kept-going-after-insane-injuries/

4. If you cut off a creature's achilles tendon, they won't be able to stand, let alone run. So a zombie that is horribly rotting wouldn't be able to run.

Nope they just have a really hard time doing it, but depending on the creature it can still move and even stand. Just not well on that foot. Achilles tendons are used to push the leg and foot to move around and help balance you, not necessarily hold you up, without it you have a peg leg with a lose foot attachment.

Zombies: unless it is like the living rabies variant like in Black tide rising: https://www.goodreads.com/series/110176-black-tide-rising
They are already dead and are being animated by something else that continues to move muscles on something that should be dead, so loping off body parts or cutting Achilles tendons, just means they come at you walking, hopping, or crawling. But you covered all that in the "you can bullshit your way through" below.

As for fight-or-flight response, running away is not always the response a person come to when faced with something terrifying. For some people, they lose control of their body instead. Some would lose control of their bladder, some their knees, some simply lose the ability to think. Not everyone is the same, though if you study psychology, you can mostly tell what kind of people would do what. It's not an exact science, but your guess is as good as anyone's guess.

Indeed.

As for zombie biology, you can bullshit your way through. You don't even have to explain it. Just provide some details and let it go. If your story become popular enough that it becomes a movie, Roanoke Gaming will think up their biology for you instead.

Yep.

 

[Deleted member 45782]

Could go seriously either way. Are you writing Highschool of the Dead or Resident Evil zombie apocalypse? Or somewhat realistic like The Walking Dead or classic Night of the Living Dead?
Cuz dang yo, dem physics in Highschool of the Dead are something else.

idk about hs of the dead but even the walking dead.. they are splattered in walkers zom zom blood all the time and how do they not get infected by it unless they get sick/bitten/die...

I think zombie apocalypse stories don't have be so realistic cause it really has lot of unrealistic factors in it anyways. I think mainly most important is just make sure to write and develop the characters and maybe make their actions at least a bit believable as in it makes sense why they did what they did. Don't go too crazy as in everyone is all revived and hurray there are now unicorns, but ...anything is also possible in the realm of walking dead corpses genre.

 

[Ai-chan]

I have issues with blanket statements:


Depends on what part of neck the chunk is removed and how large of said chunk. Spine gone/broken, you will be paralyzed and the shock will probably kill you; Breathing tube, yeah your sucking wind badly but possible to survive, if dealt with quickly enough. Meaty area to left or right below face, you can bleed out to death shock might kill you but you can still move and survive for a bit. Half your neck gone even if it misses spine and tubes, your gonna die more then likely. Humans are weirdly survivable meat bags.


It depends on a lot of different factors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague
Even for how drunk you are could change the outcome: https://www.livescience.com/24979-alcohol-injury-outcome.html
Oh and yes there is a how to on falling from 2 stories. https://www.wikihow.com/Survive-a-Fall-from-a-Two-Story-Window


Partially true, depends on where shot, what by, physical trauma caused by said shot, who was shot and what they have in their system (including lots of just plain old adrenalin).
For example 1: https://www.medicinenet.com/surviving_a_gunshot_wound_to_the_head/views.htm
Example 2: Read a little more then halfway down on why police officers shoot so many times; https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_ae82835c-0212-5e50-a175-85601a1ed8bb.html
Example 3 Your General run of the mill Bad asses: https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/6-heroes-who-kept-going-after-insane-injuries/


Nope they just have a really hard time doing it, but depending on the creature it can still move and even stand. Just not well on that foot. Achilles tendons are used to push the leg and foot to move around and help balance you, not necessarily hold you up, without it you have a peg leg with a lose foot attachment.

Zombies: unless it is like the living rabies variant like in Black tide rising: https://www.goodreads.com/series/110176-black-tide-rising
They are already dead and are being animated by something else that continues to move muscles on something that should be dead, so loping off body parts or cutting Achilles tendons, just means they come at you walking, hopping, or crawling. But you covered all that in the "you can bullshit your way through" below.


Indeed.

Yep.

About the neck bitten off thing. Ai-chan said fight back, not survive. You can survive a lot of things, but can you fight back when a good chunk of neck is gone? Let's say a quarter on the left side is gone, that is a lot of flesh. You've lost the left jugular vein, the left carotid artery and the sternomastoid muscle. Sternomastoid muscle is what's keeping your neck straight and twistable, not your spine. So losing sternomastoid muscle means your neck is now pretty much flopping around with only your right side more or less keeping it in place. Sure you can say that since the spine is not affected, there is theoretically still impulse signals all around the body but people often forget that without enough blood going to the brain there is no real control. The act of swinging your right hand would be just you flinging your hand around with no real damage inflicted, it's like you're already a zombie before turning into one.

Sure, you do not need the achilles tendon to stand, but you do need it to run. You liken it to peg legs, now that is a problem, because peg leg is just a block of wood. Even if you liken it to modern prosthetics, it's not the same thing. Modern prosthetics is designed to not be a burden to the user and the feet, if any, usually there is no feet, would be designed so that it doesn't drag under the legs. Now running prosthetics is something else entirely.

For the pricier ones, there is a mechanism where the achilles tendon is situated that allows a wider range of motion, and thus allows the user to run, otherwise you'd depend entirely on your knees and the contraction of your thighs. It's near impossible to run without that. If you don't believe Ai-chan, try to put hard plates around your ankle, bandage it as tightly as you can. Then run. This doesn't simulate a cut off achilles tendon, but it does simulate an unusable achilles tendon.

Below is a picture of a running prosthetic.

Now notice that it has no moving parts down there. It does not have any moving parts down there because it depends entirely on the upper legs and the springy motion of the contraption.

Now look at the following picture of the achilles tendon.

You said if achilles tendon is cut, the person can still run? No, they won't. Strictly speaking, can a person whose achilles tendon is cut stand? Yes. Can they walk? Yes. Can they shamble in an imitation of running? Yes. Can they run like a healthy person? No. While achilles tendon rupture is a common condition and people do run even with ruptured tendon, that's rarely involving a complete cut of the tendon.

Without the achilles tendon, you would have little control over the movement of your feet. Can you still walk even without the tendon holding you up? Yes, because there are a few other muscles that are used for walking. But Ai-chan was talking about actually running, zombies chasing people, and that's not gonna happen without a working achilles tendon.

 

[LordAstrea]

Anyways, what I'm going for would be somewhere in the middle. Not too outrageous like HOTD but almost realistic as the Walking dead.

*not sure if slight spoilers*
A good one maybe to look at would be a series sort of like The Remaining. It focuses on more realism with the zombies actually gaining some other instincts like hunting in packs. Those that were physically fit functioned better. Some of them try to eat regular food when they figure out sustenance is in packaging like cans. You could say they are more like the infected from 28 Days Later, but without the total mindless rage.
I'm actually a sucker for zombies that are more alive and change. Not necessarily crazy like Resident Evil or Left 4 Dead

 

[witch_sorrowful]

I would like to go back to the original question and answer : None whatsoever.

Just put a spin on it. Zombies in a spaceship? Zombies in a horrifying music festival that turns into a Battle Royal? Just think about what sort of story you want around the Zombies. Or perhaps you want to broker sympathies to the organisms that make a Zombie?

As most people have mentioned, do maintain rules of writing. Set up you world, and break as little of rules as possible.

But apart from that, most Zombies serve a purpose for the main character in the story. Design your main character first, and then modify the Zombies to act however you wish. You want them to be the fodder that gets shot? You want them to be the foil that drives the protagonist insane? You them to be an excuse for the protag to find friends? Or do you just want your protag to be Girl McCool slashing through zombies like she was splashing water on a beach?

So, I'm just saying, the Zombies are just a plot device.

 

[gaylolis]

plants vs zombies made me unable to look at zombie apocalypse the same way again.

so the first thing i will do after apocalypse is playing arknights in my garden.

 

[Kenjona]

About the neck bitten off thing. Ai-chan said fight back, not survive. You can survive a lot of things, but can you fight back when a good chunk of neck is gone? Let's say a quarter on the left side is gone, that is a lot of flesh. You've lost the left jugular vein, the left carotid artery and the sternomastoid muscle. Sternomastoid muscle is what's keeping your neck straight and twistable, not your spine. So losing sternomastoid muscle means your neck is now pretty much flopping around with only your right side more or less keeping it in place. Sure you can say that since the spine is not affected, there is theoretically still impulse signals all around the body but people often forget that without enough blood going to the brain there is no real control. The act of swinging your right hand would be just you flinging your hand around with no real damage inflicted, it's like you're already a zombie before turning into one.

Sure, you do not need the achilles tendon to stand, but you do need it to run. You liken it to peg legs, now that is a problem, because peg leg is just a block of wood. Even if you liken it to modern prosthetics, it's not the same thing. Modern prosthetics is designed to not be a burden to the user and the feet, if any, usually there is no feet, would be designed so that it doesn't drag under the legs. Now running prosthetics is something else entirely.

For the pricier ones, there is a mechanism where the achilles tendon is situated that allows a wider range of motion, and thus allows the user to run, otherwise you'd depend entirely on your knees and the contraction of your thighs. It's near impossible to run without that. If you don't believe Ai-chan, try to put hard plates around your ankle, bandage it as tightly as you can. Then run. This doesn't simulate a cut off achilles tendon, but it does simulate an unusable achilles tendon.

Below is a picture of a running prosthetic.

Now notice that it has no moving parts down there. It does not have any moving parts down there because it depends entirely on the upper legs and the springy motion of the contraption.

Now look at the following picture of the achilles tendon.

You said if achilles tendon is cut, the person can still run? No, they won't. Strictly speaking, can a person whose achilles tendon is cut stand? Yes. Can they walk? Yes. Can they shamble in an imitation of running? Yes. Can they run like a healthy person? No. While achilles tendon rupture is a common condition and people do run even with ruptured tendon, that's rarely involving a complete cut of the tendon.

Without the achilles tendon, you would have little control over the movement of your feet. Can you still walk even without the tendon holding you up? Yes, because there are a few other muscles that are used for walking. But Ai-chan was talking about actually running, zombies chasing people, and that's not gonna happen without a working achilles tendon.

A link to Quora, as I am not enough of an expert in this, just general knowledge of the subject from my anecdotal memory of people I knew in the past and do not want to come off as a know it all using "well I knew a person who".

Can someone run with a cut Achilles tendon? I am not talking about healing it first or after healing it, but if they have to run to get out of a fire or danger, can they run. - Quora

 

[Businesssn]

Depends on the zombies you use, where the mc or mc’s are, and the research on how long the power, water, etc will last in the place they are.

How are the side characters personality. weak, insane, etc

Just depends on what you want

plants vs zombies made me unable to look at zombie apocalypse the same way again.

so the first thing i will do after apocalypse is playing arknights in my garden.

Wha5s arknight

 

[Deleted member 45782]

Depends on the zombies you use, where the mc or mc’s are, and the research on how long the power, water, etc will last in the place they are.

How are the side characters personality. weak, insane, etc

Just depends on what you want

Wha5s arknight

 

[CheertheDead]

I've been wanting to write a zombie apocalypse story for a while now so I wanted to how real or at least logical does it have to be.

That depends on what is your targeted audiences. Do u want to create a zombie fiction for people that love realism or those that don’t?

 

[xluferx]

You can explain how the military was defeated by slow moving targets unless they aren't really slow and stupid.
I mean I can genuinely see the military being defeated by enemies from left4dead or 28 days later

 

[Sylverius]

I've been wanting to write a zombie apocalypse story for a while now so I wanted to how real or at least logical does it have to be.

so, in my opinion, I agree with @Ai-chan's suggestion. If you want to make it realistic, make it REALISTIC. Don't pull out some AssPull tactic because depending on the ass pull, it won't end well.

Making things realistic, such as the feeling of shock or guilt on killing someone important in their life that had become a zombie must be heavy. Don't try to put the rain tactic on the sad times though. Another thing is that you gotta have a reason as to why there are zombies in the first place, unless you leave it open-ended.

so the first thing i will do after apocalypse is playing arknights in my garden.

Ah yes, a man/woman/LGBT of culture

 

[erintesden]

Well. To be "realistic", zombie apocalypse just cant happen at all.

Simply because dead people naturally rots. So if you just trap yourself in a place with enough food for a couple of weeks, the zombie will just rot and rot away until they get so feeble they wont even be able to walk and be a threat anymore.