Let’s face it that at this stage, a zombie apocalypse only sounds like a really good movie plot. You can enjoy it for a few hours then go back home and sleep soundly. At most, the idea of flesh eating undead people may give you a few chills in the middle of the night.

It's not a silly study, it's backed by numbers
We thought like that too, until we came across a study that has claimed that in the event of a real world Zombie attack, the undead will take only a 100 days to wipe off the humans. A bit shocking considering humanity prides itself on the immense progress that has been made from the time we were thumb-twiddling hunters. All that gadgetry, fancy high tech weapons, bio-warfare tools will fail in front of the undead. Mock it, ignore it but the study done by students from University of Leicester (UK) basically found that 100 days into a Zombie outbreak will leave less than 300 survivors.  And they had numbers to back it up (which is so helpful). Here is what they said…

“Assuming that a zombie can find one person each day, with a 90 per cent chance of infecting victims with the zombie infection, the students from University of Leicester in the UK suggest that by day one hundred there would be just 273 remaining human survivors, outnumbered a million to one by zombies.
The team, which presented the findings in the student-run Journal of Physics Special Topics, investigated the spread of a hypothetical zombie virus using the SIR model - an epidemiological model that describes the spread of a disease throughout a population.”
(Scroll down to read more about how the SIR model works)

If you still think that a Zombie apocalypse is about as real as the unicorn, then you probably haven’t read about several diseases that exhibit zombie-like symptoms

• The sleeping sickness: when parasites attack the brain and cause its victim to have slurred speech and loss of concentration.
  
• Necrosis: Attacks specific groups of cells causing a communication breakdown between skin cells and the nervous system.  As a result, the skin starts rotting.
  
• Dysarthria: Affects the speech center of the brain leading to a loss of control over one's vocal muscles.

via GIPHY

How to survive a Zombie Apocalypse
Yes, we actually spent some time finding these viral tip on how to keep the zombies at bay. You are allowed to laugh on these tips because we sure did while listing them. 

1. The first rule of the Zombie survival guide is that you have to be fast and agile at all times. Be alert at all times since you won’t know when the attack can happen. Travel in groups at all times and if your best friend is infected, let them go.
2. You become a zombie if an undead bites you. So don’t get bitten under any circumstance! One bite is all it takes. And if you do, please make sure you tell your friends about it because it's not something you can hide).
3. Strap on a really good pair of running shoes because you’re going to be doing a lot of running. Use all those high heels as weapons to hurt the zombies. Stock up on all the canned food you can get your hands on (and also weapons, medicine, outdoor clothing and fuel). 
4. The undead have dreadful swimming skills. So if you can’t buy an island in the middle of the ocean, you can invest or rent a boat that can take you to a haven that is near a large water body. If they come a calling, get on your ark and paddle away.
5. Have a backup for everything including generators, batteries, ammunition, food, escape routes, weapons supplies and vehicles. 

Read these books or watch these movies to prepare yourself

• The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead
• The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
• The Zombie Survival Guide: How to Live Like a King After the Outbreak
• The Zombie's Survival Guide: Thrive In The Zombie Apocalypse After You Turn...
• The Zombie Survival Guide: Study Guide for Reluctant Readers
  
• Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies
• After Sundown
• Alien Dead
• All Souls Day
• Go Go Gone
  

Fact: Who coined the word Zombie?
William Seabrook coined the term in his 1929 novel 'The Magic Island,’ a travelogue/study based on Haiti and the native belief in Voodoo tradition about the resurrection of a dead man. The book was the premise of the 1932 horror film, 'White Zombie' where the undead made their debut on the silver screen. 

Fact: The recipe of Zombification 
Wade Davis, an anthropologist lead an expedition to Haiti to discover the secret recipe to create zombies. He published his findings in 'Passage of Darkness' and 'The Serpent and the Rainbow.' The latter book was made into a movie!

How it works: SIR model - an epidemiological model
The team, which presented the findings in the student-run Journal of Physics Special Topics, investigated the spread of a hypothetical zombie virus using the SIR model - an epidemiological model that describes the spread of a disease throughout a population.

• The model splits the population into three categories - those susceptible to the infection, those that are infected and those that have either died or recovered.
• The SIR model then considers the rates at which infections spread and die off as individuals in the population come into contact with each other.
• As part of the formula, the students looked at S (the susceptible population), Z (the zombie population) and D (the dead population), suggesting that the average life-cycle of a zombie would be S to Z to D.
• They also examined the time frame over which individuals in the population encounter one another.
• The initial study did not factor in natural birth and death rates, since the hypothetical epidemic took place over 100 days, resulting in natural births and deaths being negligible compared to the impact of the zombie virus over a short time frame.
• Without the ability for humankind to fight back against the undead hordes, the students' calculations suggest that if global populations were equally distributed in less than a year the human race might be wiped out.
  
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