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You don't even need any of that. Just raid a motorcyle dealership and get some nice leathers and boots. BAM! you're good to go. Full suit O armor against the Zeds. Add in a chainsaw, a lever action Winchester 12 gauge, and some cool taglines, and you're the ultimate Zed killing machine.

Remember, despite TV, human bite strength is not good, and thats before you're even dead.

Kevlar would be lighter and give you better freedom of movement than leather, though.

 gorgon wrote:
Kevlar would be lighter and give you better freedom of movement than leather, though.

But you can actually find leathers. In fact I can find them within walking distance of my house. Exactly where do I find kevlar pantaloons again?

I'd start by scrounging at your local Stihl's or Husky dealer. Might find some other good stuff there too. Not sure it'd be the first place to get looted after things go to hell.

Wait...do they have trees in Texas?

Instead of trying to find leather in bulk why not go around to all the Abandoned cars and take the seatbelts. The materials its made out of are really strong and can easily stop a dog bite. If wraped around your legs like so


Either on the inside of your pants or the outside, the zombies won't be able to bite through it.

 gorgon wrote:
I'd start by scrounging at your local Stihl's or Husky dealer. Might find some other good stuff there too. Not sure it'd be the first place to get looted after things go to hell.

Wait...do they have trees in Texas?

Er what? They have those?

And yes East Texas has giant pines, trees fit for giants.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ninjacommando wrote:
Instead of trying to find leather in bulk why not go around to all the Abandoned cars and take the seatbelts. The materials its made out of are really strong and can easily stop a dog bite. If wraped around your legs like so


Either on the inside of your pants or the outside, the zombies won't be able to bite through it.

Could probably just sew them on as well. Honestly now that you think about it, any burlap or good canvass is pretty people bite proof on the puncture front. We're not exactly bears. Crushing with the back molars is pretty good but puncturing not so much.

I'd also proffer you could get the snake sheaths in any academy. Cabellas definitely has them
http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/search.cmd?form_state=searchForm&N=0&fsch=true&Ntk=AllProducts&Ntt=snake+bite&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products

 Frazzled wrote:

 gorgon wrote:
I'd start by scrounging at your local Stihl's or Husky dealer. Might find some other good stuff there too. Not sure it'd be the first place to get looted after things go to hell.

Wait...do they have trees in Texas?

Er what? They have those?

And yes East Texas has giant pines, trees fit for giants.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ninjacommando wrote:
Instead of trying to find leather in bulk why not go around to all the Abandoned cars and take the seatbelts. The materials its made out of are really strong and can easily stop a dog bite. If wraped around your legs like so


Either on the inside of your pants or the outside, the zombies won't be able to bite through it.

Could probably just sew them on as well. Honestly now that you think about it, any burlap or good canvass is pretty people bite proof on the puncture front. We're not exactly bears. Crushing with the back molars is pretty good but puncturing not so much.

I'd also proffer you could get the snake sheaths in any academy. Cabellas definitely has them
http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/search.cmd?form_state=searchForm&N=0&fsch=true&Ntk=AllProducts&Ntt=snake+bite&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products

But they aren't waterproof, are they? I assume that any zombie bite has zombo-virus in the mouth fluid, so even if they only crush you bad enough to tear your skin open under the seat-belt, you'd stand a risk of infection, yeah? Maybe seatbelt armor with latex underneath? Not sure exactly how strong a human bite is/how weak the proposed armor materials are, but you've also got to watch out for zombies that bite harder than people (since they won't stop for fear of injuring themselves) as well as zombies that DO have puncturing implements in their mouths (as a result of broken bones and teeth).

Still, seatbelts are a GREAT stopgap. I never thought of that. (Thanks Frazzled!)

the season premiere was pretty sick, thoroughly looking forward to this coming sunday.

you have to think though, head-to-toe protective clothing might not be an option depending on the weather.

i know i most certainly would want to stay as lightweight as possible for escape purposes and the heat. i'd be sure to cover the common areas of unexpected bites, such as the hands / wrists and the ankles, other than that, stay aware, stay alive!

does anyone remember the "bear suit" from ripley's believe it or not? now THAT would be epic during a zombie apocalypse, granted you couldn't move very fast / far.

 gorgon wrote:
@cadbren: I think the kevlar pants/chaps that lumberjacks wear combined with a good set of tall leather boots might do the job for crawler protection without being overly heavy or bulky. Those shin guards to protect against snake bites would be an improvement too, although possibly harder to find/scrounge. I think a good power tool shop might have the pants.

Your comments about the governor got me thinking about how they contrast with a certain antagonist in the comic book right now. I think people have labeled him "another governor," but that's not really true.

I'm kinda backing off on speculating too much about the virus. Frankly, I'm not sure if it'll be fully explained, and maybe that makes sense. They don't have an epidemiologist in the group, and it's probably unrealistic that they'd figure it all out anyway.

You know, I don't think a person with a healthy set of teeth could bite through anything heavier than light cloth. While the bite could still do damage, even through lighter types of denim or leather, the tearing away of chunks of flesh is not realistic, we don't have the sharp teeth of carnivores that allow animals like dogs to rip people apart. Maybe some saliva soaks through the fabric, but heavier denim and leather would stop even this. I think a pair or two of long boot socks with jeans over the top would probably suffice. This is against a healthy set of teeth too. How long would teeth last in a rotting corpse before they started to fall out from decay, biting stuff, being knocked out through falls and crashes? Ater two years of this treatment I'd think most of the zombies would have incredibly poor teeth and weak jaws from years of muscle wastage. in fact the zombies should be getting weaker overall as they waste away with few new victims to replace their threat. Maybe that's why communities can start to rebuild again, because the zombies simply aren't the threat they used to be.

This has been covered a bit way back in the thread. Basically Zombies are often stronger than a living person because they've lost that part of them that prevents a person from using their body in a self destructive way. A person simply can't fling their arm with enough strength to blow out all it's muscles and shatter all their bones just to bash a door. Their brain won't let them, zombies have no such compunctions.

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
This has been covered a bit way back in the thread. Basically Zombies are often stronger than a living person because they've lost that part of them that prevents a person from using their body in a self destructive way. A person simply can't fling their arm with enough strength to blow out all it's muscles and shatter all their bones just to bash a door. Their brain won't let them, zombies have no such compunctions.

It's not about strength, our teeth aren't sharp enough to cut through fibres like denim and leather, that's why we invented knives. The clamping action of the jaw could cause severe injury but it wouldn't cause the person to join the undead. As you point out, zombies put all their effort into something so they're likely to become severely damaged the longer they're active. After two years or so, most of them would be emaciated and also be weakened by crippling injuries.

Yes, eventually all Zombies will rot away but it's longer than 2 years. Zombies don't rot away at a normal rate. It takes like 7 years or something like that and even then it would only be the day zero zombies.

The problem for most of the survivors now isn't the zombies anyways it's the humans. Something like over 90% of the characters on this show that have been killed we're killed by humans not zombies.

The biggest problem I had with the premier is:

who sets up camp in a liquor store, yet doesn't drink any of it? Are the zombies restocking the shelves or something?

Man, I think that last episode was the most gruesome one yet.

Well,

cadbren wrote:

 gorgon wrote:
@cadbren: I think the kevlar pants/chaps that lumberjacks wear combined with a good set of tall leather boots might do the job for crawler protection without being overly heavy or bulky. Those shin guards to protect against snake bites would be an improvement too, although possibly harder to find/scrounge. I think a good power tool shop might have the pants.

Your comments about the governor got me thinking about how they contrast with a certain antagonist in the comic book right now. I think people have labeled him "another governor," but that's not really true.

I'm kinda backing off on speculating too much about the virus. Frankly, I'm not sure if it'll be fully explained, and maybe that makes sense. They don't have an epidemiologist in the group, and it's probably unrealistic that they'd figure it all out anyway.

You know, I don't think a person with a healthy set of teeth could bite through anything heavier than light cloth. While the bite could still do damage, even through lighter types of denim or leather, the tearing away of chunks of flesh is not realistic, we don't have the sharp teeth of carnivores that allow animals like dogs to rip people apart. Maybe some saliva soaks through the fabric, but heavier denim and leather would stop even this. I think a pair or two of long boot socks with jeans over the top would probably suffice. This is against a healthy set of teeth too. How long would teeth last in a rotting corpse before they started to fall out from decay, biting stuff, being knocked out through falls and crashes? Ater two years of this treatment I'd think most of the zombies would have incredibly poor teeth and weak jaws from years of muscle wastage. in fact the zombies should be getting weaker overall as they waste away with few new victims to replace their threat. Maybe that's why communities can start to rebuild again, because the zombies simply aren't the threat they used to be.

Maybe they have a really good zombie dental plan?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Frazzled wrote:


Maybe they have a really good zombie dental plan?

is the zombie virus now just Zombie plaque, do we fix this problem by making sure everyone brushes their teeth 24/7 so when they turn they have nice clean teeth? cause in WWZ the virus wasn't in the blood of the infected... it was in the teeth.

Regarding the rats...

Isn't there a crazy girl who thinks the walkers are just sick people like Herschel and his family used to? I recall one of the children saying something like that.

 gorgon wrote:
Well,

Spoiler:

The traitor was a surprise, but not really, if that makes sense. The Governor would probably try to infiltrate the place, and Mr. New-Guy-Who-Just-Wants-To-Earn-Your-Trust is the obvious choice. Could be a red herring setting up some shocking new twist that will change everything(!). But if it was real life, yeah, he'd be the guy.

So it's another superbug. Meh. On Talking Dead, the producer(?) explained they got the idea from some pandemic 100 or so years ago. Personally, I think it's highly contrived that they're struggling with some obscure superflu from the past instead of something far more common and likely. But I guess they need the drop-over-dead-in-a-day factor. *shrug*

I still say this is headed toward something not dissimilar to the comic, with the governor forcing the group to leave the prison. The defenses are shaky, the food situation looks less sustainable all the time, and now the place is crawling with germs. They're teetering now, AND also have an enemy operative inside ready to do something big at the right moment.

I also fear that Judith's days are very numbered. But I'm hoping they diverge from the comic on that point and keep her around just because she serves as a symbol of hope for the future. It's also an interesting difference if they continue the storyline with Rick trying to be a dad to a young 'un alongside all the insanity.

What traitor are you talking about?

They said it was inspired by the 1918 Spanish flu which was the most deadly epidemic of all time. That being said I'm not sure it actually caused your eyes to explode and death in less than a day. However, its only inspired by it so its like the 1918 flu but worse.

You think with glenn and maggie sleeping in the tower they would hear someone walking around and look to see who it is. Being in a guard tower outside you would think that is their duty to watch the fense at night. But NOPE lets let our guards down and never look outside.

Actaully the biggest thing that bothers me this season is that they have 6 Cheval de frise for the front gate but then didn;t make more to put around the entire fense area to kill the walker/ prevent them from touching the fence.

The idea of someone luring them to the prison makes sense though the walkers were somehow finding the prison before they even met the govenor. Maybe they make a lot of noise or the generators are noisy. I can't think of a good reason the walkers keep appearing at the prison or where they keep coming from.
It's a bit like the biting, we have poor hearing over long distances. If we heard a gunshot, the chances of knowing in which direction it came from are bad, yet the walkers are always able to follow sound to its source like dogs.
Depending on the nature of the zombie virus, I think the living would do a lot better in a real zombie outbreak than the stories suggest.

cadbren wrote:
The idea of someone luring them to the prison makes sense though the walkers were somehow finding the prison before they even met the govenor. Maybe they make a lot of noise or the generators are noisy. I can't think of a good reason the walkers keep appearing at the prison or where they keep coming from.
It's a bit like the biting, we have poor hearing over long distances. If we heard a gunshot, the chances of knowing in which direction it came from are bad, yet the walkers are always able to follow sound to its source like dogs.
Depending on the nature of the zombie virus, I think the living would do a lot better in a real zombie outbreak than the stories suggest.

They'd probably do awesome, because the zombies are like...dead.
A more realistic scenario, a super fast rabies type thing would be different. On the other hand people rabies victims don't live that long.

 Frazzled wrote:

They'd probably do awesome, because the zombies are like...dead.

They prefer to be called undead, death's hard enough as it is without vitality slurs.

A more realistic scenario, a super fast rabies type thing would be different. On the other hand people rabies victims don't live that long.

Hmm, sounds like a good plot for a movie. It's a fast acting virus so they could call it 28 hours later or something. It could start off with a guy waking up in hospital and finding the world's gone to hell, sort of like how 'The Walking Dead' starts (and a couple of others).

 gorgon wrote:
Well,

Spoiler:

The traitor was a surprise, but not really, if that makes sense. The Governor would probably try to infiltrate the place, and Mr. New-Guy-Who-Just-Wants-To-Earn-Your-Trust is the obvious choice. Could be a red herring setting up some shocking new twist that will change everything(!). But if it was real life, yeah, he'd be the guy.

So it's another superbug. Meh. On Talking Dead, the producer(?) explained they got the idea from some pandemic 100 or so years ago. Personally, I think it's highly contrived that they're struggling with some obscure superflu from the past instead of something far more common and likely. But I guess they need the drop-over-dead-in-a-day factor. *shrug*

I still say this is headed toward something not dissimilar to the comic, with the governor forcing the group to leave the prison. The defenses are shaky, the food situation looks less sustainable all the time, and now the place is crawling with germs. They're teetering now, AND also have an enemy operative inside ready to do something big at the right moment.

I also fear that Judith's days are very numbered. But I'm hoping they diverge from the comic on that point and keep her around just because she serves as a symbol of hope for the future. It's also an interesting difference if they continue the storyline with Rick trying to be a dad to a young 'un alongside all the insanity.

cadbren wrote:
The idea of someone luring them to the prison makes sense though the walkers were somehow finding the prison before they even met the govenor. Maybe they make a lot of noise or the generators are noisy. I can't think of a good reason the walkers keep appearing at the prison or where they keep coming from.
It's a bit like the biting, we have poor hearing over long distances. If we heard a gunshot, the chances of knowing in which direction it came from are bad, yet the walkers are always able to follow sound to its source like dogs.
Depending on the nature of the zombie virus, I think the living would do a lot better in a real zombie outbreak than the stories suggest.

I felt that way during episode 1. I mean, sure, I guess the population of Atlanta is slowly dumping into the surrounding country. But it seems unreasonable to me why so many should be coming to the prison from miles around. As far as we can tell, they're being very careful about not firing guns -- perhaps to save ammo as much as anything, but the point remains. Their trips on horseback or in cars may be luring some. But they've shown shot after shot of that constant flow, and I don't remember seeing that in the previous season, even when they were firing guns like crazy.

Regarding gunshots, my hunting experience has been that it can be hard to tell the exact direction of a single gunshot. Multiple gunshots are a different matter, however.

@KamikazeCanuck:




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ninjacommando wrote:
You think with glenn and maggie sleeping in the tower they would hear someone walking around and look to see who it is. Being in a guard tower outside you would think that is their duty to watch the fense at night. But NOPE lets let our guards down and never look outside.

Actaully the biggest thing that bothers me this season is that they have 6 Cheval de frise for the front gate but then didn;t make more to put around the entire fense area to kill the walker/ prevent them from touching the fence.

I think a running theme this season is that they've gotten quite lax (exhausted is probably closer to the mark) and lost some of their edge. Rick doesn't carry a gun, Carl doesn't wear the hat, Glenn and Maggie sleep during the night, and there's no one up standing watch inside the prison blocks just in case. People do sometimes suddenly die in the middle of the night. Even if that risk is very small, they should always have someone standing watch in each block to prevent exactly what happened.

Regarding the defenses, they probably have something like a mile of fence to protect and not enough manpower. Not only would building the defenses be hard work, you'd need a team of fighters to keep the zombies off them while they work. They could probably get tricky and block off areas with trucks, etc. But it'd be a hugely labor-intensive operation.

I like the truck barricade idea actually.

You'd probably still want kill teams with spears in the truck beds, and kill teams inside the truck ring to protect against crawlers. And backups for both when they get tired (at the rate the zombies are arriving, that wouldn't take long).

It'd be an awfully labor-intensive operation, and it doesn't seem like they're overflowing with able-bodied men.

 gorgon wrote:
I think a running theme this season is that they've gotten quite lax (exhausted is probably closer to the mark) and lost some of their edge. Rick doesn't carry a gun, Carl doesn't wear the hat, Glenn and Maggie sleep during the night, and there's no one up standing watch inside the prison blocks just in case. People do sometimes suddenly die in the middle of the night. Even if that risk is very small, they should always have someone standing watch in each block to prevent exactly what happened.

Rick and Carl don't wear guns because Rick intentionally stopped carrying his gun. He was going crazy and wanted to stop both himself from going crazy and his sonfrom turning into a murder machine. The latest episode makes this pretty clear. Of course, he gets the gun back as well.

My only bone to pick is that there should be people out on the fence every day poking zombies in the head.

And the rats are pretty clearly the crazy little girl.