Where is everyone?

[mascaria]

Do you remember in 2003 when most of the Eastern Seaboard lost power? I was in NYC that day at work. And I remember looking downstairs at the masses off people milling around because they'd left their offices and had headed to the street to figure out what was going on.

http://www.theage.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1060871742086_2003/08/15/blackouts3.jpghttp://farm1.static.flickr.com/42/104326542_234483f245.jpg

I'm not kidding when I tell you that the sidewalks and streets were PACKED with people. Now I understand that the initial attack got TONS of people but then where are all of the zombies? Los Angeles is a pretty densely populated city...

Where did everyone go?

And how did Angel, Michael and Saul miss all of this when they were leaving the artillery? Why didn't they see helicopters?

[mascaria]

My vote is that a majority of people are infact safe and alive and managed to get out of dodge before everything went down hard core. Especially in smaller communities where there wouldn't be mobs of people outside... There has to be some kind of.... bunker or camp or something like the compound that Michael, Kelly and Pegs are at right now, but larger and more official run by the government.

[Wicked Sid]

Judging by the reaction from Tanya about L.A. it seems the dense population of the city caused an exponential explosion of the infection, causing rushed and shoddy evacuations and most everyone being either dismembered or turned.

Angel, Michael and Saul could have missed the helicopters and such when they were worried about finding a place of refuge. They could've been chasing "Zombie," Cats and eating shitty food while the people on the outskirts of L.A. were leaving the country.

[Destiny]

There are problem some safe havens that are run by the government still.

[mascaria]

Judging by the reaction from Tanya about L.A. it seems the dense population of the city caused an exponential explosion of the infection, causing rushed and shoddy evacuations and most everyone being either dismembered or turned.

Angel, Michael and Saul could have missed the helicopters and such when they were worried about finding a place of refuge. They could've been chasing "Zombie," Cats and eating shitty food while the people on the outskirts of L.A. were leaving the country.

I don't really just mean in LA. The how of the infection is going to be a really big question answerer. I mean there's small towns in the middle of the country that.. like before the internet it took 10 years for fashion trends to get there. Are they all infected? If so how?

[SleepyGlenn]

They could all be in the process of having their orifices checked out by the Colony Gatekeeper. I hear he's really thorough...

I'm pretty sure most people are Zomb'ed, apart from those small communities and the lucky ones that got evac'ed.

[Onslaught]

I think everyone is dead (or deadish) when the zombie outbreak comes racing around the corner a lot of people are going to peek their heads around and get hit in the face with a shovel.

[nikvoodoo]

This is such a simple, but deep and complex question. By the looks of California, I'd have to say most everyone id dead and turned. I'd break it down like this proportionately: If there were 100 people left on Earth when the outbreak happened- 60 turned, 30-35 are eaten, and 5-10 are survivors.

It makes sense that more people are turned because of the exponential rate zombies create themselves. More hunters you have, the more prey is consumed, but some prey is able to escape the hunter. That's how I'd break it down.

P.S.- I definitely remember the black out of '03. I was working as a pizza delivery boy for one of the only places in New York State that didn't lose power. Many thanks to my small town's power company being unplugged from the Eastern Seaboard Power Grid....no thanks to the Papa Johns I worked for delivering outside of said town. It went from a 5 hour shift to 12 hour nightmare full of no tips and rude bastards who were angry they couldn't watch tv.

[Brooke Steele]

I think it would have taken most people by surprise. There may be pockets, but most people would not be expecting to fend off personal attacks or have the skills to protect themselves. Also, most people don't have stockpiles of food and ammo. The survivors seem to be lucky. I think the fact that the evacuation ceased would indicate that the evac site was compromised. Otherwise, why would they have stopped evacuating the survivors?

[nikvoodoo]

I think the fact that the evacuation ceased would indicate that the evac site was compromised. Otherwise, why would they have stopped evacuating the survivors?

Are you talking about the pick up site being compromised? Or the Drop off? It would be a very interesting addition to our conversation about The Colony if it became compromised hence had to be abandoned, but somehow Marcus was able to secure themselves again and flourish as they are.

[Teethingbiscuit]

dead and eaten. even the infected are at risk of being eaten.
I don't think the infected especially like to eat other infected but that would be up for debate after the hockey rink. Hopefully as their hunger progresses they will thin each other out and there again I and the other dead and eaten vote win.
Teeth

[Dr Janus]

I'd have to go over the series again to get my facts straight, I'm just pulling crap out my arse right now... but I'm thinking there is a small logistics issue relating to the infection spread and rate and all that good stuff... considering what we know from the series re the time it takes for a victim to turn into a zombie, correlate that with the time it took to devastate the city / country etc... I love the idea that an infection could hit like a tsunami wave, without warning, much akin to something out of a movie like Horde or something... The thing I'm thinking is within this series, it kind of doesn't make sense that it all seemed to happen almost overnight... You'd think there would have been some kind of report of an outbreak somewhere, or there would have been some kind of instance where unusual violence had erupted on the news or something.. or the army blockading, carpet bombings, mass hysteria and all that... Correct me if I'm wrong... Anyways it's all good.

If we look at where the current survivors are.. It would seem pretty logical that since this group is situated fairly close to where the shiyet went down.. the 'hot zone' as described in the series, you'd think if 'they' were able to survive as long as they had, considering their location, there would be heaps of survivors outside the zone. Of course I am assuming it all started in their city.

[Zombiehead]

I think it's a combination of turned and eaten. The only thing that throws me off is Kalani's story of Hawaii being infested with these creatures as well. That's alot of ocean to cross if the change only takes a few minutes. We started with Michael's point of view from Chapter 1 and the news story only mentioned that San Diego and LA were affected. They also called it a 'riot' meaning that it all happened suddenly. So if there were any earlier reports we wouldn't have heard about them anyway. I need to relisten to some parts but it's strange to me that they haven't run into any other soldiers. In the beginning we heard an explosion and lots of heavy gunfire in the background, too much to just be cops. So someone else is out there fighting. It's also weird that they haven't seen any helicopters or planes or heard of any evacuation attempts made by the government on the mainland if I remember correctly. Surely one of the survivors that showed up later would have some kind of story to tell about how they tried to leave the area. It's also strange that no one thought to try to make contact with other military personnel that might be in the field or other bases for more info seeing as how cellphones were still working. I hate blindly theorycrafting but that's my thoughts on the population issue.