I Simulated a Hyper Realistic Zombie Apocalypse, Day by Day

A worker is bitten at an animal market on Alor, Indonesia. At first the illness looks like an isolated case. Then more patients arrive. I wanted to follow what a hyper realistic zombie outbreak through the world we actually live in would look like. How do cities react, ports, social media and governing bodies which disagree on what to do. The simulation happens day by day (skipping unimportant days). First it's isolated attacks in a small village in indonesia. Then it's a worldwide apocalyptic event. The map tracks infections, deaths and recoveries. The logs track the people caught in this insane scenario. Families hiding sick relatives, hospital staff trying to keep their doors open, and soldiers receiving increasingly desperate orders. My one rule was simple: make it as realistic as possible, so i stayed away from immortal, or back from the dead zombies, or supernatural stuff... What i did was simulate a virus which infects the brain of the victims, leading them to ultra agressive behaviours, spreading the virus, followed by a state of extreme hunger that leads the patients to eat virtually everything they can get their hands on, even rotten. The infected are still living people, and some can recover. That makes the decision to use lethal force a lot harder... until communities start demanding protection... What should I simulate next? Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL; Natural Earth. Population geography adapted from GHS-POP R2023A, 2020, Schiavina, Freire, Carioli and MacManus, European Commission JRC, CC BY 4.0. Methods: Pesaresi et al. (2024).