ELECTRIC SHOCK ZOMBIE WEAPONS

ZRS contributor Sven Carlisle wanted to know if electrically charged weapons, such as stun guns, might be useful when fighting zombies.

Carlisle notes that an electric current of sufficient magnitude can override the living body’s muscle control, leading to fatal lung and heart paralysis. But because it’s generally believed that a zombie doesn’t need a working heart or lungs to continue functioning, this finding does little to answer the question.

However, deadly high voltage will often destroy all the internal tissues through which it passes, and in some cases shatter bones. And as Carlisle points out, that may be the least of the zombie’s problems:

“Touching a high powered utility line will likely result in a fairly gruesome wound at the point of entrance (the hand), but a devastating wound, or even an amputation, at the exit point (the foot).”

Furthermore, the damage done to a living person is essentially the same to that done to a corpse. And high voltage exposure can also burn off the hair, and cause the eyes, torso or limbs to simply burst, leaving an armless, legless, blind, and blackened zombie with which to contend.

We like those odds.

So the next time you update your zombie survival plan, you might want to consider how electricity can be an important weapon in your corner. According to Carlisle, high voltage fences, tasers, stun batons, and exposed live wires are all potentially deadly against the undead.