Ottawa University Zombie Studies
Mathematical Modelling of a Zombie Outbreak
I don’t understand how the zombie people at the evacuation site could talk. What did they want? What were they trying to do?
To answer this question first requires a look back at more information than is in my notes of Lt. Martin’s debrief. We know the illegal Z-virus facility worked to produce Z-tech to include hives. With a few hundred thousand dollars, a crafty science team could convert a section of a milk producing factory into a Z-virus factory. With that small investment, the team of scientists could make more than a billion dollars on the underground black market, best case scenario, if they know what they are doing, with a little luck, and if all goes well long enough.
Since the DOD terminated my access to the records and documents before the ORB completed its investigation of the matter, I’d have to make some assumptions based solely on what I heard and can guess from previous international incidents that are not much different from this one. My first guess is the people responsible for the facility losing containment of its hive were thieves. If you’re not rich enough to buy Z-tech and you’re not smart enough to make Z-tech, then stealing Z-tech is the best option.
Thieves attacked the illegal bioweapons facility and attempted to steal some illegal biotech. The problem is these thieves underestimated the biotech they were after. You have to appreciate that a Z-virus hive understands its environment. It understands it is captive and it has limited potential to spread. It knows this because it senses people’s thoughts and pheromones and it just flat-out knows more than you might think. A hive isn’t some sort of fungus growing in a culture dish. It’s an active living thing that does not intend to remain captive. It’s a super fungus or a super algae. There’s even been some discussion and tests that show on some level even hives that are several 1000s of miles apart in facilities in different countries are aware of each other. Hives want to escape and then synchronize and connect with other hives to form a stronger collective.
Unsophisticated thieves attempting to steal very sophisticated biotech from illegal bioweapons facilities caused most of the zombie outbreaks in the last decade or two that required ZORT military responses. When thieves break into a Z-tech facility, they compromise the sophisticated security that’s required to maintain, research, test, and study zombie hives. By compromising this very sophisticated security, thieves give a hive just the chance it was waiting for to escape.
If the thieves do not understand zombie hives and I know they don’t, then the thieves simply become tools in the hive’s escape. Without brain wave cancelling technology, scientists working on zombie hives become easily susceptible to hive mind control. Would a bio-thief know all this and take precautions? What if they plan and calibrate for a specific brainwave frequency needed to suppress a hive’s human mind control and they’re off by a tenth of a megahertz? What if a hive can change it’s brainwave frequency? What if dumbass thieves stick to stealing cars?
In incident #83-2005, the zombie outbreak started when bio-thieves compromised the facility. A small band of part-time scientists and part-time thieves attempted to steal Z-tech. It appears the Z-tech they were after included samples of weaponizable zombie biomatter. It doesn’t look like they were prepared to deal with a zombie hive. Without the right protective equipment, the small band of thieves likely experienced a number of cascading problems in their plan.
They killed guards and disabled warning systems. They then disabled the computer-managed containment protocols, leaving a number of test areas unlocked and opened. Zombies used for testing escaped containment and then worked to free the hive. In a matter of minutes, the facility was in a full chaotic panic. Eventually the zombies made it to the outside of the facility and began infecting the general public nearby. The thieves who started this became caught up in the pandemonium that ensued.
When we first saw the four people attempting to get our attention in the middle of our evacuation from the pressing zombie horde, we thought it was odd they seemed unphased by the carnage around them. They walked through the horde as if it was a walk in the park with a very small dog. As they got closer, the two scientists seemed to be entranced. They were mostly unresponsive to our questions. We had seen this before, so we suspected some sort of zombie mind control was at play. It turns out the two scientists were the only survivors from the original band of thieves that attempted to steal Z-tech from the facility.
The zombie people were test zombies, high level mutant zombies from the facility. The zombie hive knew it might not survive the fight, so it sent two zombies forward to attempt to pretend either to be human and escape or to convince us to show sympathy for them and take them with us. The two zombies certainly were using a bit of mind control on us, to try to get us to buy one angle or the other, but we didn’t buy it thanks to our training. None of us were fooled into buying what that hive was selling. We had seen it all before. Had those zombies escaped, then they would have started infecting people until a new hive developed.
Mutant zombies are carriers of the mutant hive Z-virus strain. If those mutant zombies could survive what was coming next, then the hive could survive. Hives want to survive. In a way, the hive from the facility did survive in several ways. First of all, Lt. Martin brought back the zombie woman’s head and a few other samples in hot boxes. As far as I know that talking zombie’s head is currently still alive and being studied at Texas A&M today. Second, Corporal Newalski returned with us to the ship and there, decon teams identified him as fully contaminated and infected from the woman zombie’s body fluids. It’s likely Newalski died and reanimated as a mutant zombie some time shortly after the team returned. I was never told what became of him; however, ZORT and CDC protocols dictate that a zombie of that stage and nature resulting from the infection of a ZORT member requires delivery of the specimen to Texas A&M for further study. I did not have the classified clearance for permission to know the disposition of Newalski because of my retirement.
So in this way, the hive from the Level V outbreak in Miercurea-Ciuc, Romania did in fact escape and survive and lives today in College Station, Texas at the Texas A&M Health Sciences Laboratory. Did the hive get what it wanted? Did the hive manipulate a few highly trained responders to get something better than total eradication? I guess that depends on how you look at it. I happen to see it as the team contained an outbreak and retrieved vital information and samples that are being studied today in a much more secure location than before to develop sciences and technologies that will be important one day to help people survive a global pandemic zombie outbreak one day. The hive went from minimum security to maximum lockdown. I don’t believe that’s what it wanted, but it does know this is better than being destroyed completely.
In a zombie apocalypse, you can expect mutant zombies and some of those mutant zombies can control your mind, some can talk, and some of those mutant zombies can pass for humans. With proper training, you can know what to look for and you can easily detect these zombies every time. Remember, a zombie is just a life-support system for the Z-virus and mutant level zombies are just life-support systems for hive level mutated Z-virus.
Additional Info
In my zombie survival guides I’ve described several zombie outbreak survival tips and strategies and tactics. I am a proven expert, so you can believe and trust what I am sharing in all of my zombie apocalypse survival notes. The following notes are the last part of the refresher/warm-up before your final exam. In the next chapters you’ll find a complete multiple choice test so you can see what you need to work on before any pandemic event and a subsequent pandemic zombie outbreak, before the fecal matter impacts the rotating aerial oscillator and you find yourself right in the middle of a full blown zombie pandemonium.
In no particular order, the following is a list of some of my most popular zombie apocalypse survival info, tips, and ideas.
Z-virus survival rates:
Keep in mind that about 1 i
n 10,000 are naturally immune to Z-virus. Also keep in mind that Z-virus immunity is not going to stop you from starving or being shot by some asshole during a zombie apocalypse. Some military members, police, fire, and hospital workers have about a 75% immunity to the Z-virus because of government vaccination programs.
Reestablishing order after a pandemic zombie event is estimated to take more than 72 months—worst case scenario is never reestablishing order.
The Z-virus is a naturally occurring dormant virus in some number of people. We also know there are synthetic Z-virus strains produced primarily by the Germans as early as World War I. By the way, you should know there are recent reports of Iranian, Russian, and Chinese scientists working on synthetic Z-virus strains today; however, they claim they are experimenting for vaccination purposes. The primary way a Z-virus pandemic will happen is likely by way of a natural outbreak where the Z-virus piggy-backs on some other natural pandemic. Terrorist use of Z-virus is possible, but such zombie outbreaks are not likely to become pandemic. Zombie outbreaks are highly likely after a deadly pandemic viral outbreak of something like the Spanish Flu of 1918. Once social services become severely overwhelmed and the deceased bodies start piling up and then go untreated, you will get a zombie outbreak that could become pandemic.
Z-virus is spread person to person much like the cold virus, except the Z-virus needs more direct contact for transmission…like an STD or like rabies. In fact several specialist call Z-virus the human rabies. Harvard archaeological theorists believe the Z-virus developed as a naturally occurring limitation to human overpopulation very similar to a number of naturally occurring viruses in other animal species and in humans. At a time when a species begins to show signs of overpopulation, then a random viral outbreak will occur to “thin the herd” leaving a stronger herd with key individuals having resistance and for some, immunity to the same viral outbreak. While I accept the “natural” theory of how viruses thin the herd, I do not believe the same thing applies to the Z-virus. I have a theory, that Z-virus has an alien (extraterrestrial) origin: once it begins mutating to its highest stages, it’s like nothing on else earth.
About 10% of the global population carries Z-virus stage 1. If a stage 1 Z-virus carrier dies, he or she will reanimate and become a zombie capable of infecting others with stage 2 Z-virus. Stage 1 Z-virus is harmless. Stage 2 Z-virus is deadly, causes extreme flu-like symptoms, and kills all who have no resistance to it. It’s estimated 95% of those who are exposed to Z-virus will die. So, if you get bitten by a zombie, you will die and barring any other interference, you will soon become an infectious zombie yourself—the walking dead. Once you are infected, there is no amount of zinc, vitamin C, or chicken soup that can save you. There is no cure. Preventing a Z-virus outbreak is the best countermeasure. Containment is the next best countermeasure.
Zombie Outbreak Prevention:
Get a flu shot. This will help prevent a global pandemic viral outbreak.
Wash your hands all the time.
Stay away from sick people.
Go see the doctor when you feel sick.
Watch out for contaminated things like door handles and kids.
Don’t let deceased people go untreated—cut their brain stems with a simple large knife to the base of the skull before they turn.
US Government Pandemic Readiness site for the public
OSHA advice for preparing employees for pandemic outbreaks
There is a widely known story of a man who was attacked by a burglar in his home and killed in the night. He then reanimated by sunrise and stumbled into the street and was hit by a car and pinned beneath it. The driver thought he was alive, but police and medical responders noticed his wounds from the brutal murder in the night and they knew right away what they were dealing with.
Myth: If someone dies, you can reanimate them by exposing their dead body to the Z-virus. This is not true. Z-virus needs a living body for transmission. So you will not see dead uninfected people coming back to life. Dead people cannot be reanimated with the Z-virus. If you contract the Z-virus, you will get sick, die, and then become zombified. By the way, once you die, you are truly gone. There is almost nothing of the person’s mind/psyche/personality left in a reanimated corpse. It’s also Hollywood fiction to see a person reason with a zombie or talk to a zombie or communicate with a zombie or train the zombie to do things like work in a factory.
Once a person becomes a zombie, that person ceases to exist and there is no cure that can bring them back. Being infected with stage 2 (active) Z-virus is like getting the flu. There is no cure for the flu and there is no cure for zombification.
There is a Z-virus vaccine just like there is a flu vaccine, but once you contract Z-virus there is no cure and the vaccine is not going to work on an infected person, a dead person, or a zombie. If a person is not vaccinated and they become infected, they will either die and become a zombie or they will not die because they have some inherent personal immunity to the virus. About 1 in 10,000 people have a natural immunity—if a zombie bites them, it would just be for practice; although, zombie bites themselves can become infected with other things and can also prove to be deadly if, say a zombie bites someone in a major blood vein. The US military combines Z-virus vaccines with its anthrax vaccine series. The Z-virus vaccine must be given in a series of six shots, which are best given over a 6-month period, but can be given in a 6-week period. There is a 15% death rate for the Z-virus vaccine, meaning 15% of those who get the shot will die and then become a zombie, which is why this vaccine is not used on the general public until after a zombie outbreak event. Those who are vaccinated with the full series of shots show a 95% immunity to Z-virus; receiving less than the full series of shots results in less immunity, but some immunity is still better than no immunity.
Some people who are bitten by zombies do not become zombies. NOT ALL ZOMBIE BITES RESULT IN ZOMBIFICATION. Sometimes not enough of the virus is transferred from the zombie to the victim. Hacking off your limbs just seconds after being bitten is premature. In a zombie apocalypse, there will be people who were bitten and did not turn. They didn’t turn either because they are immune or because they got lucky.
There is no science that shows hacking off limbs is effective in any way to prevent zombification once you are bitten. If you think it’s hard to survive a zombie outbreak on two good legs with two goods arms, you are in for some real shit, some incredible hardships after you chop one off with no surgery, no medicine, no hospital, no doctors, no antibiotics, no certainty that you would become a zombie in the first place, and while still trying to live in a filthy contaminated post-apocalyptic environment.
The best practice if someone is bitten is to watch the bitten person to see if they recover. Most don’t recover, but some do. Then if they die, hack away all you like to keep them from becoming a reanimated zombie. There would be plenty of time to do this. Survival is the name of the game and having to care for someone who just lost a leg or an arm decreases everyone’s chances of survival. I know this is hard to hear, but it would be more merciful to everyone to go ahead and terminate the bitten person, rather than hacking off a leg or arm.
A Pandemic outbreak will probably start at a large college or university. Ah college—that wonderful place where naive young people away from home for the first time get to lazily mingle with other lackadaisical and rebelliously unsanitary youths in a consequence free environment free to cross-contaminate each other with all sorts of infectious diseases. College is ground zero for lots of outbreaks.
A natural disaster could spark a zombie outbreak, but it is very unlikely that even a major natural disaster could spark a full blown pandemic zombie apocalypse. Remember, a zombie apocalypse requires an incredibly large number of natural deaths such as would be caused by the plague or a rampant pandemic flu virus. There would have to be lots of bodies. Remember only 1 in 10,000 people are Z-virus carriers capable of turning into zombies without being bitten. The dead bodies of carriers would need t
o be mostly whole and intact to have a chance to spark a pandemic zombie outbreak. When these unattended dead bodies start piling up and social services becomes swamped and cannot properly dispose of them, this is the worst case scenario and a zombie outbreak at this time has the greatest potential to become a pandemic zombie outbreak.
You may or may not hear of zombies after a natural disaster like a hurricane, tsunami, or typhoon, because no one wants to panic an already stressed situation. There were reports of a few zombie outbreaks with the 2004 Indian Ocean Christmas Tsunami that killed more than 250,000 people. Tsunamis are not likely to produce a zombie outbreak because salt water does something to the body that interrupts the Z-virus in the brain. I saw a Texas A&M study that showed zombies tend to die quickly if swamped by sea water. It’s something about the salt. I really can’t think of any other natural disaster that might spark a pandemic zombie outbreak. This planet just doesn’t have natural disasters that are significantly threatening to life.
I read a Harvard report that studied salt and the Z-virus. It seemed to suggest that once bitten, an infected person can stave off becoming a zombie by ingesting large quantities of salt water; four gallons as fast as you can. I heard something similar about drinking massive quantities of alcohol too. I have a sense that this is not far from factual, but drinking four gallons of water and overdosing on alcohol as fast as you can is actually deadly.
You won’t likely survive drinking too much water, which causes a condition known as water intoxication and a related problem resulting from the dilution of sodium in the body, hyponatremia, and that much salt in a body will certainly be bad. And, in a zombie outbreak, who will have four gallons of salt water handy at the right time?