Rialto High School vs. Zombies
- David M. Lucan
- Sep 28, 2022
- 3 min read
The zombie apocalypse has always been a huge part of the entertainment industry. Popularized by video games, tv shows, and movies, providing the basic story about the typical group of survivors looking for supplies and ways to survive against the hoards of zombies taking over the city, island, building, etc.
With all the knowledge from the source material people got from watching shows such as AMC’s The Walking Dead and playing games such as Dying Light or the very popular gamemode on the even more popular game franchise Activision’s Call of Duty there has been debates on what would be the best plan of survival in such scenarios.
Fellow students and staff at Rialto High School (RHS) had a lot to say in response to these three questions: 1. If a zombie apocalypse were to happen right now what would be your first reaction? 2. What is your survival plan? 3. How long are you lasting?
“I wouldn’t even be shocked,” says Isaiah Ham, senior, followed up by fellow senior Tyson Thornton saying, “I’d be out of here…I’m off the grid.” The first thing Thornton would do is “leave school, go home, get my resources, get whatever I need, get as much water and food as I can, and a knife or two.”
A machete or a big knife is the recommended choice of a weapon in a zombie apocalypse due to its swiftness and light and compact body according to an article about the best and worst weapons to wield in a zombie apocalypse published by the Alternative Press.
As far as how long students and staff would last during an apocalypse, there are definitely some survivors and others who would fail pretty quickly.
“Not even a week, honestly,” says senior Valeria Contreras. “I’m diabetic so I won’t last that long.” Senior Alex Ayala followed up by saying “max 2 months.” Junior Derrick McKinney says “until natural causes kill me,” and senior Rodolfo Amacosta says, “I’m gonna outlive the human population.”
Assistant Principal of the class of 2025 Germaine Gray says, “I know I can go two days without water so I'd probably give myself a day and a half.”
As far as a survival plan, security guard Officer James Haines’ plan is “to make sure my students are safe and direct them to a safe environment and also relate to them that we are trying to not get bit.” AP government and Ethnic and Social Justice studies teacher Liliana Casarrubias said her plan is to “run to my car and then go home… I have earthquake supplies so I would stay home and eat up all the food.”
“I’d probably let the zombies take me,” says freshman Oscar Puentes. “I’d probably just grab something and just start beating them,” fellow freshman Derrick Zombrano says. Officer Haines mentioned the infamous bite, a lot of shows and games make the bite the main way to spread the zombie virus and those who are bit would usually turn into zombies in a short amount of time just like in the show The Walking Dead on AMC.
There’s no exact average on how long a person would last in such a scenario because there hasn’t been a zombie apocalypse, yet, but according to a USC professor who studied people’s responses to a global crises he estimated that people who have a chronic illness would last a week, and leading up to the one year mark more than 90% of the population would most likely be gone.
Although some of Rialto’s staff and students might be caught off guard and believe their chances of survival are very slim and they have very little time left, there are people on campus who believe they will last a long time in the apocalypse because they are prepared both physically and mentally.
Will the Rialto High students and staff survive the horrors of a zombie apocalypse? Based on the answers given most of them believe that they won’t, but no one will ever know the right answer unless it actually happens.
Until that day comes follow the advice of Haines and … “Try not to get bit.”
I enjoy occasionally overthinking about how I would react to a zombie outbreak. I feel as though the most realistic interpretation of how the remaining population would react to an outbreak is the show The Walking Dead (Seen most of it 7/10 Daryl carries). The Walking Dead has I think an amazing portrayal of the psychology of the situation through the character Rick Grimes. Rick is thrown out of a coma from a shooting to his wasted surroundings. The barren streets paint a grim picture to him, until he finally sees a "walker" and then further panic kicks in. As the show goes on, he finds a group that he sticks with for the rest of the show. The group…
I think people don't take into account the fact that the standard thought of a zombie is a slow shuffling corpse with no thoughts or strategy. Due to this I think that in that case as long as we don't try to murder each other over petty and thoughtless reasons, many of us if not all of us can survive. Zombies win with numbers so being solo even with good survival skills won't get you far due to Rialto's urban setting. Things become different when the zombies get 'tweaks' like the zombies in Dying Light, or get mutations like we see in the Resident Evil series. In these cases RHS may have trouble and losses, but with human resolve and…
I like the way that people are very honest about their answers. But for me, it would not have lasted very long. One reason is that I am a very spacious person. So if I were an apocalypse, I would not want to stay in one classroom with people for how long. Another is that I would be too scared to go outside and see. I would probably wonder when am I getting out or when will I see my family again. I would probably be the one to panic, also to be telling people that we will probably die because we have no water, food, or other supplies to last us who knows how long. I would be realistic…
I have a more negative outlook on the zombie apocalypse. I think that the thought of having limited time and resources scares me. I know i am not cut out to live off the grid. Also my family has the same ideology as me. We are too dependent on modern tech in our daily lives. At most i would last maybe 2 days and that's in a best case scenario.
I've always thought about a zombie apocalypse happening one day and how would I survive it. There would always be something that makes me over think the situation for example, would I be alone, would I be with my family, would I be with my friends, and more. I would think of how I would create a base or how to go to houses and look for supplies. I would also come up with methods on how to prevent zombies from getting to me and how to fight back against them. I would also need to come up with fighting tactics against the zombies since most are slow but some can be quick.