“And as for panic and run scenarios,” he adds, “well-trained soldiers rarely break down and run. Some will fall back without orders, only to regroup and attack. Units are trained to hold or move off a defensive point then counter attack. It is a type of self-discipline that can hardly be explained. As the old saying goes: Courage is not the absence of fear, but the conquering of fear. And in that, there is true valor!”
What would make soldiers—or police, for that matter—fight so fiercely against such frightening opponents? And what about the emotional component—after all zombies were once ordinary people, not terrorists of a foreign government. Would this take the heart out of the men holding the line? “This really depends on the circumstances,” Witzgall admits. “Killing something that is trying to eat me leaves little room for discussion. Still, what if the Zombie was someone you knew or loved. That will be pretty tough going! Most SWAT/Military types deal with killing someone in their own way. It is not something we talk to outsiders about, fearing condemnation. A question that is often asked (to me) is why do we fight, especially if killing a person is so difficult to deal with. The answer is that we fight for our teammates to our left and to our right—and we fight for our friends and families so they will not have to.”
And in a zombie war, the soldiers would fight so that their friends and their families—and their fellow soldiers on the line—don’t fall victim to the infection itself. That kind of determination is more likely to strengthen resolve rather than cause a soldier to drop his or her gun and flee.
“We often train officers to shoot center mass,” says Sgt. Krimmel, “because it is the easiest thing to hit in a high stress situation. But…we have taught ‘body armor drills’ for years in fire arms training. Basically the drill simulates shots to the body that have been ineffective (due to body armor, or in this case zombies). The officer then transitions his shooting to the head.4 We train the officers to continue firing until the threat has stopped. One thing I am a big proponent of is the concept that cops carry handguns because they are convenient (easily carried on the belt, always there), not because they are the best weapon in a fight. Handguns rarely stop a suspect with a single shot, and typically take a couple. A suspect can still hurt you while being shot. Shotguns and rifles on the other hand, cause tremendous, immediate damage to humans, typically breaking bones and causing sudden, massive blood loss. I train our officers to always take a long gun if they think a fight may be coming. A firearms writer and former cop I admire, Clint Smith, has said, the handgun should be used to fight your way to your long gun. I agree.”
He adds, “In order to kill a carbon based life form with a firearm, you basically have to disrupt the function of the heart, lungs, or brain. Assuming the premise that the zombie will only be killed by a head shot, a shot to the chest could potentially cause enough blood loss (hydraulic failure) to at least slow a creature down. A 12-gauge shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot (standard police load) fires 9 .33 caliber pellets at once. The tissue damage and resulting blood loss at close range is devastating. It should have enough energy to enter the chest and exit the rear of the suspect. There is potential damage to the heart, lungs, and spinal cord with such a shot. A 5.56 mm tactical, bonded round fire from an M-4 or police assault rifle will have similar effect on a human torso. Besides head shots, we also train officers to take shots at the groins and upper thighs of dangerous suspects to hit the femoral arteries or break leg bones to stop movement of the suspect. A close shot to the arms with a shotgun or M-4 should incapacitate said arm simply through broken bones and/or tissue and blood loss.”
The bottom line is that in a one-to-one confrontation or in a pitched battle the officers of the law and the military would be able to hold the line.
If it started as a plague and spread, we’d take a lot of losses; but once the enemy was identified and the information relayed to the proper authorities (and, as discussed in Chapter 3 this would happen very quickly), then the response from law and military would be immediate and it would be formidable. Cops have radios and computers for communication and information sharing; they have high-tech weapons and body armor; they have armored vehicles; and they have the training and discipline to hold the line.
On the other hand if all the recent dead rose at once without requiring a bite to start things off, well sure, we’d be toast. But as we’ve already established, that’s the least likely scenario. It’s the plague we have to worry about, and when serums and inoculations fail, a barrage of well-aimed bullets seems to be a pretty good backup plan.
JUST THE FACTS
Deadly Force
The use-of-force continuum is a set of guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Justice to help officers respond to the flexible nature of street encounters. The idea is to maintain control over the situation while insuring the safety of the officer, the safety of civilians (witnesses, bystanders, family members, victims, etc.) and, whenever possible, the safety of the suspect. But the suspect’s safety comes last, and in need the officer can escalate all the way to lethal response.
The Department of Justice describes it this way: “When the use of force is reasonable and necessary, officers should, to the extent possible, use an escalating scale of options and not employ more forceful means unless it is determined that a lower level of force would not be, or has not been, adequate. The levels of force that generally should be included in the agency’s continuum of force include: verbal commands, use of hands, chemical agents, baton or other impact weapon, canine, less-than-lethal projectiles, and deadly force.”5
In confrontations police always start low on the force continuum ladder, attempting verbal commands first; and most often this works because rational people know that resisting arrest seldom ends happily. Noncompliance with verbal commands, however, is more common than patrol officers would prefer, and when that stratagem fails, the officer moves another step up the force continuum. This is something all police officers are trained to do, and they do it automatically.
Zombies aren’t the only ones who bite; irrational (and sometimes even rational but pissed-off) humans do it, too. Long before AIDS and other communicable diseases elevated health concerns, cops were employing skills to prevent being bitten. It’s disgusting, it hurts, and the human mouth is filthy.
There are a number of techniques, both unarmed and using the tools all officers carry, to deter and control someone who has gotten a little “bitey.” As we’ve discussed, control techniques such as takedowns and joint locking are useful in most cases. Joint locks and attacks to pressure-sensitive spots (nerve clusters, etc.) will not, of course, work on zombies since the living dead feel no pain and will struggle even with a sprained or broken arm. And a lot of experienced officers will tell you that a crack addict or a hysterical and irrational person will sometimes continue to fight even in the presence of great pain or injury. The lack of response to pain compliance doesn’t startle officers into vulnerable immobility as is sometimes shown in fiction. All this means is that there is a clear and present need to go at least one more step up the force continuum.
Chemical weapons like Mace and OC spray6 are often employed. Zombie experts have widely suggested that zombies, though unthinking, rely heavily on sight, smell, and hearing for tracking their prey. Mace (tear gas) or OC spray will significantly blur vision and interfere with the sense of smell. This would allow the officer to cuff the zombie.
Or would it? According to Detective McKinney, pepper spray wouldn’t be his weapon of choice against a zombie. “Pepper spray works because it severely irritates the eyes. As such, it is what is known as a pain-compliance tool. If your zombies are reanimated corpses, then a mere eye irritant will not bother them or slow them down in the slightest. It’s a clear liquid that does not totally occlude a person’s sight, but rather irritates the eyes to the point that the person can’t help but close them (while writhing on the ground in pain). A corpse, I don’t think, would react at all to the pepper spray.”
A
nd so we take another step up the force continuum.
If the zombie was too wild, or if there were multiple zombies, then the use of batons would be a common next step. When an officer takes a baton to a suspect’s knee, that knee is going to bend. A leg that is suddenly and forcefully bent removes the structural support for the body’s mass, and gravity yanks it down. Gravity is a constant, and lacking support any object will fall at approximately 10 meters per second. This value (known as the acceleration of gravity) is the same for all free-falling objects regardless of how long they have been falling, or whether they were initially dropped from rest or thrown up into the air. Even a zombie will hit the deck.
* * *
Art of the Dead—George Martzoukos
Zombie Hunger
“The art of the weird and the fantastic feels like it is my second nature. I find so much beauty in it.”
* * *
If the zombie is even more aggressive—or is rushing forward in such a way that the officer does not feel that the baton is the appropriate choice—there are two very serious upgrades in his potential response: Tasers and firearms.
The final step in the force continuum is the use of deadly force.
Expert Witness
Wilson says, “Shooting to the head is not standard procedure for police. We’re taught to aim for the center of the body. That’s where the heart, lungs and spine are. Unlike the movies cops don’t fire unless they have no choice, but when they do fire shooting to wound is seldom a smart move. You don’t try to ‘wing’ someone, you don’t shoot them in the leg. Guns are killing devices. If we’ve drawn our service weapon then a lot of other things—strategies and tools—have failed, or the situation was too big to begin with. In those circumstances you are shooting to put someone down.”
Former LAPD officer Dennis Miller agrees. “In the twenty-two years I worked LAPD I never fired my gun once. I used OC spray a lot, and my baton. I even did some hand-to-hand stuff. I’m a believer in the idea that guns are for killing, not for settling disputes. Sure, we may draw our weapons in order to maintain order, say while someone else is cuffing suspects or during a house entry, but having to fire is rare. And I’ve been in some pretty hairy situations. So I know for sure that if I had ever needed to fire my gun it would be to kill.”
An active officer from Washington, D.C., who declined to be named in this book, had this to say: “Here’s the problem with shooting to wound. Actually, here are a couple of problems. First, you aim for an arm or leg you could miss and that bullet is going to keep traveling until something stops it. How stupid is that on the street? Second, the bullet can easily pass through a limb and you have the same problem. Also, a wounded suspect who still has his gun can continue to shoot back, and screw that! Last, and here’s a real problem all across the U.S.—you shoot some schmuck who’s just popped a cap in a liquor store owner and taken a shot at you and you hit him in the arm or leg, he’s going to sue the ass off the city and the SOB will win. I was in two shoot-outs. I guess it’s my good fortune that I didn’t have to kill someone, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. In both cases there were circumstances that prevented me from being the one to make the take-down shot.”
Use of Deadly Force by Jonathan Maberry
Deadly force seems like an appropriate response to an attack by the living dead.
Though head shots may not be standard operating procedure (SOP) for most police departments, it has become common in the personal enrichment training many law enforcement professionals seek to improve their skill sets. One training exercise that has gained a lot of popularity is the “failure drill.” Firearms expert Karl Rehn, owner of KR Training, a company in Austin, Texas, that teaches firearm safety, NRA instructor certification, and firearm safety instructor programs, tells us about this drill: “Failure Drill” is short for ‘failure to stop’ drill. It—like dozens of other terms used in relation to defensive handgun training—originated from Col. Jeff Cooper and the Gunsite Academy out in Arizona. Gunsite taught students to shoot a ‘double tap’ (two shots in rapid succession) to the chest of someone that was a lethal threat. If that failed, then following up with a single head shot was the next thing to do. Modern thinking amongst trainers is that firing two to the chest and stopping to assess is dangerous because often people do not react immediately to handgun wounds, even two hits to heart and lungs. Current doctrine at most schools is to fire until the threat is down rather than give the bad guy an opportunity to shoot you back. Often this results in the general public getting upset because people get killed in shootouts with cops. The reality is that it can take up to 10 seconds for a lethal wound to drop someone, and even though the first hit may have been fatal the shooter doesn’t know that until the threat is down. So while the first hit is taking effect the shooter continues to fire on the threat.”
The Zombie Factor
Which brings us to the issue of the effect of a gunshot to a zombie.
“Aiming for small targets such as the head or legs from any distance beyond 4 or 5 yards seems like a near-certain recipe for a miss; remember, in a gunfight, only hits count.” This comes from a Vietnam War veteran and member of the Combat Handguns online group.7 He adds, “Rather than aim for small areas such as legs, arms or head, it seems more logical to continue to aim for the center of mass, as we are now taught, and to concentrate on the lower portion of the center of mass, in particular, the pelvic area. The pelvis is a large and very strong bone but most bullets with a kinetic power level of the .38 Special +P or larger and most centerfire rifle rounds can break the pelvis. Once the pelvis is broken, the individual is not physically able to stand and mobility is limited to his ability to crawl using the upper part of his body. Now, in a real human being, the pain associated with the slightest movement with a broken pelvis is almost beyond belief so effective resistance is pretty much ended. In a zombie, pain is not a consideration but the loss of agility and movement is the same. They may be able to crawl after their intended victims, but only a very slow pace. Their intended victims could simply walk slowly away and dispatch the crippled zombies at their leisure. Yeah, it’s a bit gruesome, but such is the nature of the beast.”
“It’s also a question of sheer impact,” says Miller. “In the movies everyone seems to shake off a bullet. Heroes get shot and they keep running and firing their guns, same with the bad guys. In zombie movies they get shot over and over again and, okay, they’re corpses so a body shot won’t hurt them, but the foot-pounds of impact is sure as hell going to knock them down. At the very least it’ll knock them back. That’s a reality, man. A .357 Magnum handgun bullet weighs about 125 grains and travels at 1450 fps.”8
“The shock of impact of a gun,” explains Miller, “will knock most people down, even if they’re not taking a serious injury. Look at what happens when an officer takes a round in his Kevlar vest. Puts him on his ass.”
But Rehn reminds us of the “failure drill,” with its two-to-the-body one-to-the-head philosophy. He observes, “While this may sound overly aggressive, in reality it’s been proven that this approach is the best way for the shooter to survive the incident and the fastest way to immediately stop the attack.”
THE FINAL VERDICT: DEADLY FORCES
Cops versus zombies? Except in the presence of truly overwhelming odds, I give it to the cops. The question then becomes what constitutes overwhelming odds?
In a Romero scenario, one officer with a handgun and at least two spare magazines could probably take down six to ten zombies, and this accounts for body shots and misses. an expert shooter would do 50 percent better on average. A police sniper may be 100 percent better. In one-to-one confrontations it seems highly unlikely that a slow zombie would win against an armed and trained officer.
If we’re talking fast zombies of the kind found in the Dawn of the Dead remake, or the fast human infection as seen in 28 Days Later, then there will be a lower success rate due to shock value; but as the situation becomes known, even in the midst of a crisis,
the officers would bring more aggression to the game and more firepower. So round one may go to the zombies, but the rest of the fight will go to the guys with the guns.
Now the math on this changes in favor of the officers if they don’t need to score a kill shot every time. Head shots are tough; shots to the centerline are easier, and a damaged spine will drop anyone—alive or dead. That’s an electricity thing, and a damaged central nervous system is not going to help a zombie any more than it’ll help a human. If the officers shoot to the pelvis and damage the hips, hip ball joint, or thigh bones, then not only will the zombie go down, they’ll become obstacles that will slow down the attack of the zombies behind them. Again the odds turn in favor of men and women trained to use firearms.
A slam dunk? No; but the hot money will be on the boys in blue.
Spirits of the Dead
The Spiritual and Philosophical Implications of the Walking Dead
Hands by Brandon Hildreth
“This painting has a lot of personal meaning to me ‘psychologically’ but I’d say it represents a person that has been dragged down in the world, or someone that has been sort of killed inside and shut out, turned almost monster, but there is still a small part that begs to be let back inside; a part that still longs to show signs of a human soul.”