Cracked Cracks the Zombie Apocalypse

[Swindle1984]

... which the book addresses.

The army basically switches over to semi-auto rifles and their users trained to cap one zombie with one bullet per second. It's mentioned that during the re-taking of the US, while zombies were easily the most consistent threat, they were far from the most dangerous. They were well below armed secessionists, random crazies, feral animals, disease/toxins, weather, abandoned booby-traps and unstable structures as far as danger was concerned.

Though realistically speaking I'd expect a good fraction of the army to still be using M16s and simply ordered to pretend it doesn't have a burst setting as we already do. The weapons and billions of rounds of ammunition already exist, as do factories. Any simplified weapon procured for the Hands Across America army would probably be in the same caliber for obvious logistical reasons. The passage describing the new gun was basically the author pimping the M1 rifle as a callback to the ZSG. Like the old Japanese guy describing a dull single bladed shovel that he used as a blunt instrument as similar to a Shaolin spade and that out of shape nerdy Japanese guy decapitating zombies with a found katana it was jarring and IMO detracted from the book.

I wouldn't be surprised if Z-Day hits in real life and nerdy guys with katanas are the first to go. Personally, I put much more stock in my hatchet and collection of knives than I do my katana, and I actually know how to use it more than the average otaku.

In terms of civilian weapons, I think a Ruger Mini-14 would be a prime candidate for zombie killer of the year.

Oh, fuck no. A Ruger Mini-14 is shit. An AR-15 is far more reliable and accurate, and you can get 30-rnd magazines for ten bucks each or less. Good luck finding mags for the Ruger that feed reliably and don't cost an arm and a leg.

Plus the AR has all kinds of convenient features, like collapsible stocks, vertical foregrips, easy mounting of optics, etc. The Ruger only recently got updated to modern standards, and it's still a piece of shit for the price. I'd go with a Kel-tec SU-16 before a Ruger, if only because it uses STANAG magazines.

That said, the Ruger is a step up from the SKS.


The AR-15 will be zombie killer of the year. There are literally millions of them in circulation around the US and they are infinitely customizable, allowing you to swap barrel lengths and calibers practically at will. Second place will go to the Remington 870 and Mossberg 500, which are the most popular and reliable pump-action shotguns out there; dirt cheap, and making headshots with 00 buck is easy. EVERYONE has a shotgun, even if they can't afford/don't like the AR-15.

[Swindle1984]

Weapons wank is always so much worse in the movies than the books, because they have to rely on visuals and someone cocking his M4 and emptying it full auto into a crowd of corpses is going to look better than meticulous, aimed shots or someone taking 10 seconds at long range to make sure his shot is perfectly lined up before firing.

One of the worst parts of becoming a gun enthusiast (as I have recently) is that now you start to see so many more problems in media. The worst part is that so many people BELIEVE Hollywood's interpretation and their zombie survival plans include hijacking military vehicles or raiding bases for ammo. I think in an actual zombie apocalypse casualties would be higher than they should be simply because of all the idiots who try to use Call of Duty as their resource.

Yeah, the problem with being a gun enthusiast is that 99.99% of people don't know shit about guns, but think they know everything. The media and Hollywood not only don't know anything, but will actively lie to make it seem cooler/more palatable (I read an article where a reporter described a cop's pistol as a ".38 service revolver"; I asked why he said that when the officer carried a Glock in .40 S&W and the reporter said he changed it to sound nicer. Anyone who thinks the media tells us facts to keep us informed is an idiot; they're just selling.). And people accept the media and Hollywood as gospel truth when it comes to that sort of thing.

Even the politicians trying to ban guns are utterly ignorant on the subject. "More thrusts per squeeze" and "shoulder thing that goes up", anyone?

So yes, if a zombie apocalypse happened for real, you'd get plenty of people doing stupid shit like dual-wielding, spray-and-praying, and other nonsense they see on tv or picking certain weapons based on video game stats.

Heck, I can't even take my AK-47 (AKM, actually, but most people don't understand the difference.) clone to the range without getting constant "Is that a machine gun? Aren't those illegal?" No, and no. And machine guns are legal in 35 states, and only two legally owned machine guns have been used in crime since regulation in 1934, both by dirty cops (one used an MP5 to murder his supervisor and girlfriend, another used a MAC-10 to murder an informant that was going to rat him out.). Illegal machines guns make up less than 1% of firearms used in crime, and so-called "assault weapons" (which is not the actual definition of an assault weapon), or semi-automatic magazine-fed guns, that are supposedly sooooo evil and dangerous, make up less than 15% of guns confiscated by police. So even if it were a machine gun, it's not a fucking issue. Get over it.

[D.Turtle]

You call yourself a gun enthusiast and call a MP5 and a MAC-10 machine guns?

Congratulations on belonging to the 99.99%.

Though the 99.99% is still wrong, because most people don't know much about guns and simply don't give a fuck. Its only people who call themselves gun enthusiasts while not knowing much at all who are, well, idiots.

[[R_H]]

You call yourself a gun enthusiast and call a MP5 and a MAC-10 machine guns?

Congratulations on belonging to the 99.99%.

Though the 99.99% is still wrong, because most people don't know much about guns and simply don't give a fuck. Its only people who call themselves gun enthusiasts while not knowing much at all who are, well, idiots.

The National Firearms Act defines a machine gun as any firearm which can fire more than once per trigger pull (ie automatic fire or burst fire).

[adam_grif]

The National Firearms Act defines a machine gun as any firearm which can fire more than once per trigger pull (ie automatic fire or burst fire).

That's the legal definition in the United States, not a technical definition. The ones he mentioned are submachineguns; machineguns are automatic weapons designed for sustained fire that utilize rifle rounds. SMGs are automatic weapons that utilize handgun rounds.

[[R_H]]

That's the legal definition in the United States, not a technical definition. The ones he mentioned are submachineguns; machineguns are automatic weapons designed for sustained fire that utilize rifle rounds. SMGs are automatic weapons that utilize handgun rounds.

Heck, I can't even take my AK-47 (AKM, actually, but most people don't understand the difference.) clone to the range without getting constant "Is that a machine gun? Aren't those illegal?" No, and no. And machine guns are legal in 35 states, and only two legally owned machine guns have been used in crime since regulation in 1934, both by dirty cops (one used an MP5 to murder his supervisor and girlfriend, another used a MAC-10 to murder an informant that was going to rat him out.).

Does the bolding help clear things up for you and Turtle? He's referring to the legal definition.

The National Firearms Act of 1934, 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b)

The term “machinegun” means any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.

[chitoryu12]

Oh, fuck no. A Ruger Mini-14 is shit. An AR-15 is far more reliable and accurate, and you can get 30-rnd magazines for ten bucks each or less. Good luck finding mags for the Ruger that feed reliably and don't cost an arm and a leg.

Plus the AR has all kinds of convenient features, like collapsible stocks, vertical foregrips, easy mounting of optics, etc. The Ruger only recently got updated to modern standards, and it's still a piece of shit for the price. I'd go with a Kel-tec SU-16 before a Ruger, if only because it uses STANAG magazines.

That said, the Ruger is a step up from the SKS.


The AR-15 will be zombie killer of the year. There are literally millions of them in circulation around the US and they are infinitely customizable, allowing you to swap barrel lengths and calibers practically at will. Second place will go to the Remington 870 and Mossberg 500, which are the most popular and reliable pump-action shotguns out there; dirt cheap, and making headshots with 00 buck is easy. EVERYONE has a shotgun, even if they can't afford/don't like the AR-15.

For me, I'm going for cost. A Mini-14 is roughly equal to a lower-quality AR-15 in price at around $800, and an SKS is much cheaper. If you want sniping, you can always buy a Mosin-Nagant. Those are beyond dirt cheap and rugged as hell. My buying is all about cost, so I'll buy a Hi-Point C9 and an SKS first and start saving up for more expensive items.

So yes, if a zombie apocalypse happened for real, you'd get plenty of people doing stupid shit like dual-wielding, spray-and-praying, and other nonsense they see on tv or picking certain weapons based on video game stats.

I'm on the Zombie Survival & Defense Wiki, and among the zombie survival sites (usually "zombies" is just used as a more interesting stand-in for standard disaster/apocalypse preparation) there are morons called "mall ninjas", after a user on a discussion board named Gecko45 who claimed to be a mall security guard and black ops operative who carried around a G36 while doing mall security. The mall ninjas are mostly kiddies who claim that the Desert Eagle, AA-12, and M2 are the best guns you can get for anything. Never mind that even if they found a place to get their hands on them, they'd cost thousands for the gun and enough ammo for more than one range visit.

Sadly, media and Hollywood have ruined peoples' image of guns and both scared the layman away from wanting to be around them and know more about them and encouraged the layman to act like an idiot. I remember someone describing a mall ninja at a gun range, him and all his buddies dressed in fatigues from a surplus store, who rented a Mossberg 500 Cruiser and bashed his teeth out with the recoil. No doubt he was inspired by a movie or video game.

[DudeGuyMan]

Then how the hell could these creatures have brought about the end of civilization?

Think about it. If we replaced the word "zombie" with another word that won't arouse people's penises and compel them to stroke their cocks (sorry, I just got off from watching pornoes), would people still rave about them being such a threat? How do some slow-ass stupid shits that spread through biting end up ruining countries and shit?

If you replaced the word "zombie" with "mongoloid" and have the "mongoloids" create more "mongoloid" by biting people, so that people who get bit by these "mongoloids" turn into more "mongoloids", and if I made a movie about Dawn of the Mongoloids or shit, Night of the Drooling Mongoloids, whatever, would people seriously buy into the whole "mongoloid" apocalypse and would we have "mongoloid" survivalists and DudeGuyMan justifying how in my awesome bestseller book, a bunch of cockups allow the "mongoloids" to beat the universe?

Because, shit, I think the only thing that makes "zombies" so "awesome" for these "fans" and other "people" is that the "zombies" are "walking" "corpses" that "walk", and apparently the notion of some dead things rising up and doing whatever gets people off, which might be some weirdo metaphor for necrophilia or something. Would my "mongoloids" have this much popular culture fanbase appeal? Would this TVTrope be as awesome? Would "mongoloids" have as much widespread psychosexual connotations amongst fan bases of dorks as "zombies" have? This will be the ultimate SDN versus, quantify the sex appeal of walking decompositionating corpses with rabies and compare it to the sex appeal of the mentally handicapped. Assuming your face is a spherical mass of iron and is vaporized in between frames. What can we infer from that?

Seriously. If I replaced "zombie" with "mongoloid", no one would wank their dicks off to these randome altarante realty hippotheticel scenareos - they'd think it was fucking stupid, and rightly so! Butt replace "mongoloid" with "dead corpses" and apparently the end of the world/civilization/whatever becomes somehow more plausible, even though dead corpses are no better than "mongoloids" and at least the "mongoloids" are smart enough to have their own special olympics (while zombies are fucking dumber).

What a crock of shit.

Jesus, at least the "mongoloids" would have the disguise of being mentally handicapped whereas walking corpses have no such benefit. Imagine, the "mongoloid" apocalypse begins in a special school, where a "mongoloid" is put in with other retarded children. Then it spreads the infection and they start biting each other and the teachers. Then when the parents come to bring the "mongoloid" children home, they also bite them and shit. Then suddenly the "mongoloids" have risen to take over the world! OH NO!

It will be a Smarmageddon.

You just managed to say "This fantasy story is unrealistic! You just accept it because you enjoy it!" in six paragraphs and change. It was entertaining though, so you get a pass.

You are of course completely correct. Zombies as described aren't really a threat to anyone. We just accept the premise of them fucking up the world because it makes a more entertaining story than "Zombies chased a couple guys ineffectually and then wandered into traffic and died, the end."

The only two notions I have greeted with anything remotely resembling debate are...

1) Zombies are written as invincible in that book, with the requirement to destroy their brain foolishly making them largely immune to heavy weapons!

2) The story should have been about the army blowing up zombies with ludicrous overkill via expensive high-tech weapons! Because once we accept the premise that civilization and industry are on the ropes, that's totally an efficient way to kill them!

And even then it was pretty mild debate.

[Joe Momma]

As far as Brook's zombies are concerned, a brisk walk is enough to outrun any plausible zombie threat (unless you're completely surrounded).

Then how the hell could these creatures have brought about the end of civilization?

They didn't.

First, civilization didn't end. While some countries had to temporarily cede territory and suffered considerable economic and logistic difficulties, they didn't collapse and eventually turned things around. Others that took the proper steps early didn't even have those problems (Israel) and in some cases came out well ahead of their pre-war status by exploiting the situation (Cuba).

Second, the zombies were not the only problem, and not even the most serious one in many cases. There are plenty of examples given earlier in this thread, but here's another one for the hell of it. China's greatest problem was arguably not the zombies at all but rather the civil war that erupted when the populace tired of the government's inept and increasingly counter-productive responses to the situation. After that was resolved, cleaning out the zombies was practically an after-thought.

I will admit a certain bias, however. Living in an area with a shitload of teabagger assholes, I'm sadly finding the idea of a retard apocalypse much more realistic. So your comparison makes it easier for me to suspend my disbelief with zombie uprisings.*

[Shroom Man 777]

You just managed to say "This fantasy story is unrealistic! You just accept it because you enjoy it!" in six paragraphs and change. It was entertaining though, so you get a pass.

Then what's with everyone else's attempts at trying to make a plausible whatever for zombie apocalypsing or whatever? That's basically like people trying to scientifically explain these randome altarnate realty scenarios where, say, the USA gets teleported into the Middle Earth or whatever. Bah.

"Zombies taking over the world" is a plot device. The best way to make it happen is to just make it happen, no fuss, no botched lame attempt at trying to make a "realistic" chain of zombie infection. Making up all sorts of details (that end up getting argued to death by internet whatevers) just lessens its effectivity.

I mean, the best way they do postapocalypse movies is to not explain how the world ended, or just do cheap stock-footage reels like Mad Max or something. Just like how the best woo-woo piece of sci-fi gadgetry, like lightsabers or whatever, don't get any explanation at all. Whereas phasers or whatever technobabble whatevers just get laughed at for being lame and having no trigger guards or whatever.

Trying to make fantasy stories more realistic, in some cases, makes them even more unrealistic.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

As far as Brook's zombies are concerned, a brisk walk is enough to outrun any plausible zombie threat (unless you're completely surrounded).

Then how the hell could these creatures have brought about the end of civilization?

<snip>

Hell if I know. I don't even try to address that, and am just as happy to mock it as anyone else. All I'm dealing with is taking a zombie-infested, post-human-supremacy world as a given and seeing what happens from there.

If you ever hit a writer's block on Doom Patrol, however, I would love to see a mongoloid-apocalypse fic.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Meanwhile, a zombie-apocalypse that I thought actually worked pretty well occurred in 'The Dead', a short novel by Mark Rogers.

Basically the Catholic apocalypse occurs. God essentially says, "Fuck Earth" and gives it to demons. Within the period of a day:

1) The sun loses a very noticeable portion of its radiant energy, resulting in wintry conditions all over the world.
2) Most technology stops functioning. Anything larger/more complex than a car simply refuses to start, and even cars have only about a one in four chance of starting, and a high probability of stalling out under any intense driving. Radio and TV are gone utterly, any weapons heavier than the average rifle stop functioning.
3) Sudden infestations of black maggots that consume steel appear all over the world.
4) All corpses in nearly any state of preservation raise from the dead, pretty much at once, with massively increased strength, human intelligence, and the ability to keep fighting until they're completely dismembered.

Basically any military resistance is effectively overwhelmed within a twenty-four period and the world is reduced to small pockets of survivors being systemically flushed out of hiding and run to ground by intelligent, rather badass zombies.

[Shroom Man 777]

Balls, said Lieutenant Shroom. *fires JDAMRAAMLRSLBM9F117/11* and blows Catholicism up to pieces*

Anyway, da, zombie apocalypses don't work if you do it in a "realistic" sense because if you go for having the zombies ruling the universe, that's just impossible unless they're the Catholic zombies you mentioned. And a really "realistic" zombie apocalypse would just have Lieutenants going "Balls" and blowing the shit out of the zombies and that would be boring.

The zombie apocalypse works best in the context of survivors just, y'know, surviving. Its basically a disaster movie, survivors surviving. Except unlike a lame magnitude 50 earthquake or a volcano sprouting in the middle of LA, the disaster is personified in reanimated flesh-eating corpses.

Shep's idea:

I was looking on Amazon, and found an interesting idea:

Mad Scientists in LA are experimenting with forces of nature etc etc. They unleash a HORRER on the world....

...at the same time the "Big One" strikes Los Angeles.

I really did not investigate the book any further than that initial blurb, but it has merit in that you could have a larger disaster divert attention and manpower away and let the zombies grab a foothold long enough to make life serious for whoever before the military comes and wipes them out; instead of every SWAT team in the region dealing with them as an afterthought.

Actually has merit.

Imagine, a zombie-like waterborne disease. Now imagine that happening in a Hurricane Katrina situation. Now THAT would be awesome. Not a zombie apocalypse world wide, but a shitty local situation in a shitty city that's cut off and isolated, with survivors fending for themselves for days on end. Now, with more zombies!

SUPER DOME OF THE LIVING DEAD!

THAT would be an effing genius movie!

* JDAMRAAMLRSLBM9F117/11: A GPS-guided smart bomb air-to-air missile launched from a rocket artillery submarine launched ballistic missile with Berreta handgun stealth fighter convenience store *shows GRAPHS*

[Junghalli]

Anyway, da, zombie apocalypses don't work if you do it in a "realistic" sense because if you go for having the zombies ruling the universe, that's just impossible unless they're the Catholic zombies you mentioned.

Eh, there's a fairly easy way to do it. The zombie plague is a highly contagious infection with a long asymptomatic incubation period. Most of the human race is already infected before anybody starts showing any symptoms. Maybe have some small percentage of the human race be naturally immune to it; the conventional zombie apocalypse scenario would probably work best with that assumption.

Hey, the nice thing about that is zombie bites might be unpredictable - if you were naturally immune you'd be OK, but if you'd just never been exposed to the infection it'd turn you into a zombie. That'd be an unusual twist to the scenario. Of course the disease being super-contagious is a little problematic for this (since bites shouldn't be required to pass the infection) but maybe it's less contagious once you actually reach the zombie stage for some reason.

[Imperial528]

You could have a portion of the survivors either immune to only the airborne stage by default or by somehow surviving it, perhaps by way of a stronger than average immune system or by luck of having another sickness at the time which hampered the progress of the zombie disease.

[RecklessPrudence]

Shep's idea:
*snip*
Actually has merit.

Imagine, a zombie-like waterborne disease. Now imagine that happening in a Hurricane Katrina situation. Now THAT would be awesome. Not a zombie apocalypse world wide, but a shitty local situation in a shitty city that's cut off and isolated, with survivors fending for themselves for days on end. Now, with more zombies!

You mean like this? (sorry, they're in the middle of a site upgrade, and the actual page is missing the footnote)

On-topic... well, I'm not quite sure what the topic is at the moment, there seem to be at least two different discussions happening at the moment. The zombie apocalypse seems pretty well chewed-over ( ) here, and quite a few interesting scenarios have been proposed in this thread.

Me, I like Zixinious' one way back on the first page, with the long incubation period, not being reliant on bites, and anyone could suddenly snap and be a frothing madman without the "self-preservation" limits on strength, speed, and endurance. I think that society would at least be very different, even if it didn't collapse. How would you deal with the fact that at any moment, anyone from that arsehole on the bus with the loud music to your favourite grandma might suddenly try to kill everyone around them? How would situations with one adult/carer and numerous children/invalids be regarded (school, homes, etc.)? What about someone living alone? Worse than shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre, how would shouting "Zombie!" (or whatever term is coined) be? Would there be weapon caches everywhere? How much of the person survives? Would they be shouting "kill me" in their brief moments of lucidity? Would they be going after the weapon caches so they can kill more effectively? If the weapon caches have to be instantly available to anyone, in case of emergency, how would you secure them so people aren't just looting the guns for crimes?

I think that could make for some interesting reading.

[Junghalli]

Another nice idea that occurred to me - it'd suck if you could be immune but still be a highly contagious healthy carrier. Even if that was actually quite rare it'd be a neat way to inject more drama - people who survived by virtue of being isolated would have a very good reason to want to keep any other humans away.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

My own book-in-the-making has something like that. A vast majority of the population is already infected, it's just the disease shows no symptoms until a certain trigger hits... which I think in this case is the maximum end of the solar cycle... then over the period of two to four weeks over three quarters of the human race falls sick, vomits up their insides and starts looking for fleshy bits to chew on. During this several-week period, people who were susceptible but not yet gone might get bitten by those who transitioned a little faster, thus fueling the myth that bites are actually what spread the disease.

[MKSheppard]

Most of the human race is already infected before anybody starts showing any symptoms.

What if the zombie virus is actually part of the overall human DNA? This means that virtually all of the human race is infected with the zombie virus from the start, and it was only something new, like random woobabble like passing meteorite that set it off.

The reason why everyone hasn't become a zombie yet is because the human immune system can normally suppress it. But when the immune system gets distracted through sickness, drug use, or malnutrition; then zombification is likely.

This enables the "overwhelm emergency providers and government" bit; since it can then appear at a lot of locations at once -- crack houses, hospitals, housewives who cut themselves with a knife covered in chicken juices (salmonella ahoy)

Plus, because the zombification is health based; you could theoretically 'unzombify' someone with a cocktail of antibiotics. Of course, someone who was zombie for six hours is going to be gone when he's unzombied -- too many brain cells will have died during that period; but someone who was only a zombie for 30-120 minutes could probably be saved, with only minor IQ loss.

Also, it helps get rid of the fucking idiots who think that they'll just hole up in the middle of nowhere and eat time expired foods they have stockpiled. Food Poisioning = ZOMBIE TIME!

[adam_grif]

The reason why everyone hasn't become a zombie yet is because the human immune system can normally suppress it. But when the immune system gets distracted through sickness, drug use, or malnutrition; then zombification is likely.

Anybody with AIDS would become a zombie, so its hard to explain why it hasn't already shown up unless you're making this alternate history.

A hospital with its unusually high concentration of immune compromised individuals would be the logical start point of any large scale outbreak, although I have to admit that "ATTACK OF THE GAY ZOMBIES" has a certain 1980's exploitation movie appeal to it.

[MKSheppard]

Anybody with AIDS would become a zombie, so its hard to explain why it hasn't already shown up unless you're making this alternate history.

I did mention and it was only something new, like random woobabble like passing meteorite that set it off..

I know; it's weak and reaching.

although I have to admit that "ATTACK OF THE GAY ZOMBIES" has a certain 1980's exploitation movie appeal to it.

*snicker*

[Oni Koneko Damien]

What if the zombie virus is actually part of the overall human DNA? This means that virtually all of the human race is infected with the zombie virus from the start, and it was only something new, like random woobabble like passing meteorite that set it off.

The reason why everyone hasn't become a zombie yet is because the human immune system can normally suppress it. But when the immune system gets distracted through sickness, drug use, or malnutrition; then zombification is likely.

The only problem I have with the 'random genetic fuckup' scenario is that a random fuckup set off by a passing meteorite that just happens to turn everyone into staggering, flesh-eating moaners, for me, stretches credibility about as much as zombies being able to overwhelm a trained military force.

With my idea, the 'disease' is actually a purpose-made weapon. Basically a small probe, an alien AI came to earth undetected, spent a few years in orbit scanning signals and determining exactly what potential this planet had, who was in charge here and what we were capable of. It then sent a number of microscopic bots down to take a series of tissue and blood samples to work with, and developed a nifty little biological weapon to make us consume ourselves in one fell swoop. A few gas-bombs of this substance detonated at the right points in the atmosphere ensured maximum coverage of the agent, and a built-in trigger for a coming solar event guaranteed maximum overwhelming surprise when the weapon goes off.

I'm actually thinking that the mass-zombification is actually only the first step in this AI's plan. Basically the 'weapon' takes over the human body, but as time goes on it starts making extensive modifications to human physiology. The 'zombies' start to change more and more, the weapon creeps into their brains and implants a few upgrades, and eventually the growing network of fleshbags, under the direction of the AI, begins to construct a portal/wormhole to its creators' homeworld. It turns out this is their method of planet/system hopping: Send out tiny AI drones to scan for suitable planets, determine capabilities of life on those planets and start a chain of events with the goal of subverting that life into creating portals for this race to go through and properly colonize these planets.

[chitoryu12]

I found a book called Night of the Living Trekkies, about zombies taking over Houston during a Star Trek convention and following the Afghan war veteran hotel manager as he tried to escape the hotel. The way this book did the zombie plague was an alien organism transferred to a NASA probe from a meteor shower. The organism would take over a human's brain either through biting or inhalation of the material from the rocks trapped in the probe's collectors, with a large eye appearing on the person't body (usually where they were bitten). They had a hive mind connected to a single consciousness, so they could slightly coordinate their actions, at the very least learning where a new food source was. They also gained energy through photosynthesis of electromagnetic radiation from ultraviolet to microwaves. Along with the standard headshots and decapitation, destroying the eye, disconnecting it from the body, or hitting them with a taser would also kill them. Tasing a person before they could be fully zombified can also act as an impromptu "cure" and kill the virus before it spreads.

While some of the infected were able to hear the hive mind's consciousness and plans and communicate them before full infection, a fraction retained their human mind and became stronger and faster or got biological weapons, like tentacle whips, as replacements for lost limbs. One of them also had redundant sensory and vital organs. Otherwise they would act as carriers. The two seen in the book were more than willing to help the alien organism in return for becoming superhuman, though one was driven homicidally insane in the process.
Spoiler

One of the carriers (intentionally transporting the plague with infected rats) was the reason the plague was able to spread despite the government destroying the research facility in the beginning of the book, though it's implied that it was confined to Houston and the city was nuked before the carrier could kill the main characters and escape to continue spreading the plague.

[Vendetta]

Another nice idea that occurred to me - it'd suck if you could be immune but still be a highly contagious healthy carrier. Even if that was actually quite rare it'd be a neat way to inject more drama - people who survived by virtue of being isolated would have a very good reason to want to keep any other humans away.

Feed used this. The underlying infection is airborne, fast mutating, and extremely contagious. Every mammal in the world was infected in short order, but most cases of infection never go live, and so most infected live totally normal lives until death, at which point they're just cremated. Contact with the live form of the virus is enough to cause the infection to go live though, which kills and reanimates any host with a body mass of 40lb or more (some smaller mammals can survive viral acceleration, so all of a sudden vermin become a significantly more interesting problem)

The book is actually one of the most interesting zombie fictions I've read, since it's set long after the Zombie Apocalypse, which wasn't much of an apocalypse barring the first week or so when no-one actually believed that there were really zombies, and the fact that it's set in a post-zombie society with all the biocontrol and quarantine processes that implies is just part of the background to another story.

[Rye]

Anybody with AIDS would become a zombie, so its hard to explain why it hasn't already shown up unless you're making this alternate history.

I did mention and it was only something new, like random woobabble like passing meteorite that set it off..

I know; it's weak and reaching.

It's not too bad; most of our genetic code is unused junk from when we were sea cucumbers and plankton. There doesn't have to be an immune response to it, it can just be deactivated until the meteorite or chemical (perhaps a new hydrocarbon formation in an oil deposit, as was one of my original ideas for the dissemination of the virus) activates it.

Also, antibiotics won't do dick to a virus.