'The Walking Dead' zombies attend Comic-Con International 2016 preview night on July 20, 2016 in San Diego, California. (Photo : Getty Images/Marc Cowan)
An interesting study has predicted humanity having only approximately six months to survive before being wiped out in a Zombie Apocalypse.
According to a study published by the University of Leicester in its undergraduate Journal of Physics Special Topics, a so-called zombie epidemic would reduce the world's population to a mere 100-200 people in just 100 days. Then after that, those 100 people would be infected or killed off in just six months.
Using SIR model, the undergraduate students were able to classify the world's population into three segments: susceptible population, zombie population, and the dead population. Taking into account other several factors (including the zombie's average life), they were able to arrive at the grim timeline for humanity's extinction.
The researchers did not include in their equation the natural birth and death rates as they felt those two factors would have left a "negligible" impact compared to the epidemic. Even more disturbing, they also assumed that a zombie's success rate of turning at least one human into another walking dead is everyday is a whopping 90 percent.
"We also assumed that a zombie will turn one person into a zombie each day with a 90% probability, meaning that each zombie is able to find a person every day", they said.
Interestingly enough, the researchers did not take into account of humans fighting back against the zombies. They admitted this factor would have boosted humanity's chances of surviving against a zombie onslaught.
"We have also not included the possibility for the humans to kill the zombies. Including this may give the humans a better chance at survival", they noted.
The scenario of zombies rampaging across the world has long been a staple in literature and media. Reasons for the outbreak have ranged from the plausible to the impossible (including plant-based toxins and top-secret biochemical agents).
However, the fixture has also extended well-enough to grasp the attention of even scientific and military circles. In 2014, CNN reported obtaining a Pentagon document called "CONOP 8888" which outlined the U.S. government's plan of staving off a possible zombie invasion on American soil.
Watch the official trailer of "How I Survived a Zombie Apocalypse" here:
