Blogpost # 8: The Zombie Survival Greatest Weapons

A lot of evidences show that a zombie apocalypse is probably possible to happen; others stated that it is impossible, since these evidences are not consistent with one another. We can't answer all these questions by just reading some articles alone that's why filmmakers intended to create zombie movies as an additional references, but the result is unintentional. It created a massive effect on our society especially on our imagination. Like for example, others already created and written articles such as how to survive the said apocalypse, and some are building houses, tactics and strategies against the zombie horde.

In an article from badgerherald.com entitled, "How to survive the zombie apocalypse: follow Max Brooks’ common sense tips," written by Allie Johnson, evolves on a person named Max Brooks. He is the author of the novels, The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, that is now adopted into a major blockbuster film.

According to Max Brooks, he created these novels not because he wants to give entertainment to the readers but because he wants answers to his questions. He confessed that he did not expected "The Zombie Survival Guide" to be published because he's just writing it for himself. He added, unlike any other zombie movies and television shows, the book's intention is to create a legitimate individual preparedness guide in the event of a zombie apocalypse. To make it simpler, the book contains much more common sense than any other.

The key to survival, according to the book, is specialization. It is creating an interlocking group in which every person has their own role that increases their chances of survival. This technique is very contradicting to what the Hollywood is commonly trying to tell us to do-- to carry heavy weapons such as machine guns and to drive cars that will eventually run of out gas. However, the book suggests the readers to just carry weapons that could be used in hand to hand combat and use bicycles instead.

On the other hand, in writing "World War Z," Brooks also confessed that he wrote it to know how the government will respond to this kind of situation. He shared in this article his disappointments to the movie because according to him, the movie adaptation just have the same title as his novel but the story between the two is very much different. In the movie, Brad Pitt (played as the protagonist) becomes a hero who saves the world where in reality, Brooks didn't write any of this. In his novel, he portrays zombies as a slow moving creature inherited by disease, not to affect animals to give the idea that humans are not totally doomed.

“I thought ‘okay I’m just going to write for me and write what’s practical,” said Max Brooks.

For me, Max Brooks is such a great writer. Base from the books he wrote and his statements, we can conclude that he is a critical thinker. He is not thinking the way other zombie writers used to think. He is making his own perspective about this undead and he's putting more common sense and logic in case an apocalypse such as zombies will occur.

In addition to this article, another related short article, "Animals would stop the zombie apocalypse before it started," from i09.com written by Annalee Newitz, focuses on the other weapon we can use to fight the zombies which is the nature. It talks about the wildlife's greatest predators and world's most common decomposers.

The article started from the predators specifically the jaguars. Jaguars came from the family of cats and it is the world's fastest animal. Naturalists say that zombies, described as slow moving and mindless creatures, are no match with this animal. Also, its bite delivers 2,000 pounds of pressure per inch and can stun a zombie before it can even bites back. To sum it up, with the jaguar's dangerous killing method and speed makes it a natural predator.

Second thing from nature, still according from the article, are the decomposers. One common thing that people know about decomposers is that, they are basically feed by rotting flesh and dead meat. Zombies, on the other hand, possesses the same characteristics. With their rotting flesh ad smelly odor, they can easily attract insects and decomposers that can consume them in a just a week. One more advantage of these tiny creatures is that, zombies can't fight back. Their size can make them invisible to the zombies.

Annalee Newitz states, "In most zombie apocalypse scenarios, only humans are converted into the shambling undead. And according to one naturalist, that's why zombie takeovers are doomed to fail. In the war between zombies and nature, nature would win."

This is generally true. Believing easily on what zombie movies from the Hollywood automatically concludes us that we're underestimating the power of nature. Our experiments and discoveries maybe taken too far already, but nature still has its unsolved mysteries. Nature's power is beyond our human capabilities. In fact, we humans are part of the nature itself.

The tactics, strategies and plans that most people are doing right now are advantages in case that the apocalypse will really occur. Actually it makes us busy creating new weapons and gadgets to make ourselves invulnerable to the zombies' attack. Are we really creating something to protect the humanity? Or creating something that makes us to superiority? In fact, we don't need to do this. Nature itself is our zombie survival greatest weapon.