Depending on what type of zombie you’re facing, fire’s use ranges, although fire is still mankind’s greatest tool against the undead, used to sanitize and destroy zombie bodies. In facing zombies from George Romero movies, fire’s use is at it’s peak, since Romero Zombies are afraid of fire, giving you an extra way of defending yourself. Return of the Living Dead Zombies may or may not fear fire depending on the individual, but since the cause of reanimation is a chemical, attempting to burn a RotLD Zombie in anything short of a modern crematory oven will cause the chemical to rise into the atmosphere and rain down somewhere else, starting a whole new undead plague. Viral Zombies, those reanimated by such retroviruses like the T-Virus or Solanum, do not even seem to notice fire at all, and trying to use fire to scare one off will likely get you eaten ‘’and’’ burned alive. However, fire is invaluable in disposing dead zombies and sanitizing any viruses they may carry. There are several things you’ll want to know before you decide to go torch the undead. First, any zombie set on fire isn’t going to instantly turn into ash. It may take as much as half an hour for the fire to kill the brain, during which time you’ll have to deal with a shambling torch that sets fire to everything it touches. Second, fire has no ally. Using fire irresponsibly and recklessly is liable to start a house fire or wildfire, which may turn into a greater threat to your survival than the undead. Third, fire consumes oxygen to burn, which means using it in a confined space with poor ventilation will quickly suffocate the fire and you (this is the primary purpose of the flamethrower by the way), leaving the zombies free to chow down on your corpse unmolested. This article details fire’s use on Viral zombies.
[edit] Torch
[edit] Blowtorch
A handheld propane torch. They lack the heat necessary to puncture a human skull, and the flame is only a few inches long. Better used to set fire to something else.
[edit] Molotov Cocktails
A type of homemade incendiary weapon, usually consisting of petrol contained in a glass bottle with a cloth wick protruding out of the top. They are safer to manufacture than pipe bombs, though they are dangerous to handle when lit. Although easy to use and create, Molotov cocktails are rather ineffective against zombies, due to the fact that they take a fairly long time to kill a zombie, and until that time you’ll have to deal with a zombie that sets everything it touches ablaze. Also, if thrown directly at a zombie, it’s likely to bounce off harmlessly without breaking, depending on what kind of bottle you use. Be very careful about where you throw these fireballs-in-a-bottle, as you are likely to set fire to whatever structure you are taking refuge in. However, Molotov cocktails can be useful in the safe disposal of infected corpses or infected zombies.
[edit] Flamethrowers
“Burn baby burn”
Though it would seem like an awesome idea to use these portable fire-breathing dragons to turn a whole horde of G’s into a wailing funeral pyre, flamethrowers are not particularly effective weapons when it comes to combating zombies. Firstly, being explosive and flammable, flamethrowers are dangerous to your safety as well as the safety of those around you. Although fuel is easy to come by, the combustibility of the fuel makes it dangerous to handle. Secondly, fire is not an effective way to kill zombies. Flamethrowers were designed as a part terror/part vacuum weapon, intended to suffocate enemy combatants trying to hide in caves by burning up all their oxygen, or terrify them with the prospect of being burned alive. Although fire will eventually incinerate the zombie, by this time it will probably have already attacked you, setting you on fire in the process. Shooting a zombie will only turn it into a shuffling, fuel-soaked torch, and while it’s busy cooking it will set fire to everything it touches, which is not a good idea if you’re trying to barricade yourself in your house. Third, flamethrowers have a relatively short range compared to guns, and are therefore only effective at the ranges where it would be more effective to use a handgun or a melee weapon. Fourth, the US military stopped making flamethrowers shortly after World War II, and retired them from service after Vietnam. Finally, what made flamethrowers so effective was the fear and pain they inflict upon the enemy. Since zombies feel neither pain nor fear, the effectiveness of a flamethrower is reduced almost to the point of uselessness. Fifth, the flamethrower weighs over seventy pounds, so do you really want to lug that around everywhere you go? Bottom line, flamethrowers are not effective when it comes to combating the undead, only disposing of them. Better used against huge, tightly-packed swarms you are fleeing from.
[edit] Dousing with Fuel
This is very tricky to do, since you first need to find a way to soak the zombie or zombies in question with enough fuel to get the job done without getting grabbed, a way to ignite the fuel, and a way to get far enough away to avoid getting burned alive. Only recommended in defensive moats and the Pied Piper Strategy.
[edit] Exploding Propane Tank
In theory, tossing a tank full of combustible fuel into a mob of ghouls and shooting it like in the movie ‘’JAWS’’ would be an excellent way to incinerate the whole hoard. It’s actually far more difficult to do in practice. Your average propane tank is designed to withstand a ridiculous amount of abuse. Handguns, shotguns, automatic weapons, even high-powered hunting rifles will do little more than dent the tank, let alone turn it into an instant firebomb. It takes at least an armor-piercing round just to puncture the damned thing, an even then you still need a way to ignite the escaping gas (trying to spark a bullet of the tank just isn’t gonna cut it). Unless you have a minigun firing armor-melting SABOT rounds, it’s better to just leave the propane to cooking.
- With the Propane tank, if you were going to use this as a last resort or a means of escape like in the remake of Dawn of the Dead (2004 film), make sure you attach a flare or anything that will stay lit in order to ignite the gas once it escapes. The above is right, a single regular bullet will not make a propane/gas tank blow up just from a single shot alone.
edit Laser Weapons
“He’s dead Jim”
Yes, thanks to Ronald Regan’s “Star Wars” initiative, we now have Particle Beam Weapons, or laser cannons for the layman’s usage. And it would seem as if they would be the perfect weapons in the war against the living dead: from a safe distance you could easily vaporize thousands of zombies in mere moments, just like War of the Worlds. Unfortunately, they’re incredibly inefficient, requiring vast amounts of power relative to rate at which they kill zombies, and they require large, oftern stationary equipment. You are never going to be able to afford one. Unless you’re dealing with advanced artillery-scale lasers that can take out a city block, truck-mounted lasers just aren’t that efficient and against a river of undead, you’ll get overwhelmed. Here are at least two noteworthy Particle weapons from World War Z:
[edit] THEL
THEL, or Tactical High Energy Laser is a weaponized deuterium fluoride laser developed in a joint research project of Israel and the U.S. The size of a WWII-era searchlight, it is designed to shoot down aircraft and missiles from unfriendly nations. THEL is the closest mankind has come to the Death Star’s superlaser from Star Wars. When used on one or several zombies, it will have an awesome effect that you’ll have see to believe. On high setting, it will vaporize the flesh right off a G, leaving a skeleton that shatters to dust a moment later, all of which takes 2-3 seconds. As cool to watch as this is, there are a ton of problems. First is the price tag, this thing is massively expensive, so don’t just rush out to buy one at Wal-Mart. Second, they require a massive source of power. You’ll usually find these on army bases, on Hummers with a convoy of generator humvees, or mounted on the nose of a special retrofitted 747. Third, being deuterium fluoride based, it uses very highly toxic chemicals. And finally, it takes several seconds for the thing to cool down before acquiring new targets, while a skilled marksman can put down a dozen Gs in the same amount of time. So unless you can get zombies to stand still in a nice straight line, don’t expect to win the zombie apocalypse with this oversized phaser. It made for an awesome movie, Fire of the Gods, but as a zombie killer, it’s a dud. However, the film helped save it for it’s original purposes during the Road to New York: clearing out minefields set by ignorant folk during the U.S. retreat. The mines did little good against zombies, and many which lay unmarked and untriggered posed a hazard for U.S. troops. Israel also used it for it’s original purpose: even with swarms of zombies devouring the Earth, terrorists still found the time and resources to launch rockets into Israel.
[edit] Solid State Laser
Essentially the same kind of laser used in industrial metal cutting, just imagine what it could do to a zombie’s head! However, it requires a large amount of power and large equipment to operate, which makes it impractical to use on even a single zombie, let alone a hoard.
[edit] Other Laser Weapons
Theoretically, the technology used to create THEL could be adapted and miniaturized to create a handheld laser weapon, or a “ray gun” of sorts. If made, the ray gun might be able to eliminate the zombie threat completely while nullifying the necessity for headshots. However, research on portable laser weapons has been slow so far, so you shouldn’t expect to see any lying around anytime soon. Still, there is always the possibility for a breakthrough that can make the vaunted laser blaster a reality.
