"Life is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we CAN imagine."

In his short story 'Night On Mispec Moor', Larry Niven deals brilliantly with this very subject; anyone who hasn't read this tale, I HIGHLY recommend it. A man of the far future, a hardheaded, square-jawed man of reason and science who is on a distant world, finds himself face to face with a George A. Romero nightmare...and discovers a perfect and scientifically valid reason for the walking corpses trying to devour him.

As for the time-course of the spread of the pathogen (always assuming that reanimation IS caused by a pathogen and is not an effect of some bizarre radiation or something), that is something I've always had a problem with in realistic terms; even with modern transportation a pandemic would take weeks or months to spread around the world, which would give health authorities time to isolate and deal with the outbreak...which is why we haven't all died of Ebola. The way it happens in the movies, where the heroine goes to bed with everything normal and wakes up to the Zombie Apocalypse...that is more unbelievable than the walking dead themselves.

>>5023
This is some quality content. Thank you.

Any more opinions, ideas?

>>5023
What if some weird ass once in a million years global happening, like solar flare radiation or whatever, would activate otherwise not active germ, that has only developed in all living things over past few decades? That would go well with global spread problem.

A bacteria doesn't seem probable but a parasite could replicate many of the superficial aspects of a zombie apocalypse. Main difference would be that although they might not feel pain, blood loss, trauma to the heart or lungs and other wounds would still result in death and the "zombies" would need to eat, drink and breath in order to keep going. This is pretty big because they would be easier to kill and it should be possible to simply wait out the apocalypse until most z die of starvation/dehydration.

As for the rapid spreading it relies on people in the medium not knowing about zombies and thus not taking the necessary precautions. Then due to the ease of spreading and short incubation time the problem grows exponentially until its too big to contain. By the time people figure out whats going on there are already zombies everywhere.

What if we are talking non-starving entities, that require food only as extra? As in, they are swell when they have had breakfast - faster gait, even sprint, much more insight; but being hungry slows them and they become easier targets. That could boost the spread, yet ease the aftermath.

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>>5022
>whether a plague, that would cause people to die, and reanimate after, is even possible.
No. However, viruses like rabies infect the brain in such a so a victims 'personality' is gone but the body is still alive.
>I imagine it being a bacteria, that devours brain cells, that makes a person a homo sapiens, and leaves only basic animal instinct to eat.
Basically, rabies...
>Furthermore, the spread of sickness is in question, could it really take over whole world, or even continent, in matter of weeks or so?
A continent in weeks, absolutely. Unless we already have a vaccine, and enough of it. The world in weeks, probably not, it would have to be extremely contagious with a fairly low mortality rate.
>>5028
>What if some weird ass once in a million years global happening, like solar flare radiation or whatever, would activate otherwise not active germ, that has only developed in all living things over past few decades?
If there was, say, a man-made virus, with basically no symptoms, it could be spread very quickly, since no one knows they're infected. If then some 'switch' was flipped, and the infected all suddenly turned 'zombie', there would be streets full of zombies almost instantly. Of course, this would pretty much have to be a man-made, programmable, nano-virus, and that kind of tech is still pretty far off.
>>5029
> Main difference would be that although they might not feel pain, blood loss, trauma to the heart or lungs and other wounds would still result in death and the "zombies" would need to eat, drink and breath in order to keep going.
True. The only exception to this would be the 'Act-of-God' type zombies, actual risen dead. With any type of infection, the 'zombies' still have to follow intake food, water and oxygen. I didn't say 'eat, drink and breath' there because not everything 'eats' and 'drinks' in the way we think of it. Wild cats, for instance, get almost all of their water from their prey.
>>5038
>What if we are talking non-starving entities, that require food only as extra?
Only possible if we're talking about 'Act-of-God' zombies, 'infection' zombies will have to eat and breath to survive.

tl;dr: I've spent way too much time thinking about this...

Alrght, honestly I think the only true possible cause that could happen, is fungus. I'm talking about the kind of fungus that takes over insect's bodies, mind controls them, then grows inside out from them, ala The Last of Us style.

>>5048
>If there was, say, a man-made virus, with basically no symptoms, it could be spread very quickly, since no one knows they're infected. If then some 'switch' was flipped, and the infected all suddenly turned 'zombie', there would be streets full of zombies almost instantly. Of course, this would pretty much have to be a man-made, programmable, nano-virus, and that kind of tech is still pretty far off.

Very unlikely scenario, I know, but still. What I had in mind, was rather reanimation pathogen, which would be activated by global event. That way, several days old corpses would rise from the grave. Dead people are everywhere, and if not killed by one, people still die every day. Accidents happen, and it is probably impossible to stop such a boulder in motion in, lets say, center of Mumbai. Apocalypse would start instantly, everywhere where human deaths are out of hand. Hell, you could even hear undead pounding coffin walls from 6 feet under on a good Sunday evening.

I'm just saying this since it popped in my head, but what if there was a way to go beyond mad and for some reason everyone's just really, really, fucking mad?

>>5830
28 Days Later.