If the Zombie Apocalypse Breaks Out Be Thankful You Live in BC

If a zombie outbreak were ever to occur in the world those of us living in BC and parts of Alberta are pretty lucky, as they may be living near the ultimate hiding place.

Playing off the popularity of hit television shows such as the Walking Dead, the idea of Zombies has everyone thinking about how they would survive a zombie apocalypse. A study was conducted to figure out the best place to hide from the flesh eating monsters and apparently the undead won’t be fans of the Rocky Mountains.

The study was authored by Alexander Alemi from Cornell University and it looks at the real life consequences of the fictional outbreak. The paper You Can Run, You Can Hide: The Epidemiology and Statistical Mechanics of Zombies focuses on the outbreak in the United States, but since the Rocky’s are also in Canada, it sounds like a good enough hiding place to me.

Alemi simulates the outbreak and how it would begin and spread across the country and how major metropolitan centres would be affected.

“In the early stages of the outbreak, while the population is roughly homogeneous, the zombie plague spreads out in roughly uniform circles, where the speed of the infection is tied to the local population density. Infestations on the coasts, with their higher population density, have spread farther than those near the center of the country,” said Alemi. “After four weeks, much of the United States has fallen, but it takes a very long time for the zombies to diffuse and capture the remaining portions of the United States. Even four months in, remote areas of Montana and Nevada remain zombie free.”

Alemi and his team ran 7,000 different 28-day zombie outbreaks in the United States and as a result they were able to build a zombie susceptibility map. Regions with lots of individuals would be hit first and hardest as the spread of zombies would be rapid. If you are far away from people, like in the mountains, you are more likely to survive. Small rural communities are also a good location to head to, and anywhere else that is inaccessible.

The study made several assumptions such as people not travelling via plane or train to move around and that major transportation networks would not be running during the outbreak. Of course this is completely fictional but nonetheless something fun that has become a popular topic in our social culture. Because who hasn’t played the game with their friends about who would survive and who would die first and who is important enough to keep alive for the future?!