Start building your bunkers, Auckland - New Zealand's biggest city is the least prepared to cope with an influx of the living dead.
New research released today has rated major cities across Australia and New Zealand based on how well they would survive a zombie outbreak.
The clear winners are more isolated locations - Darwin is ranked the safest town, thanks to its distance from other major centres and the high rate of gun ownership.
Auckland fares the worst.
The high population living in close quarters means that within four hours, 75,000 people would be infected, according to the study.
In addition, Auckland's proximity and efficient travel connections to other cities mean the infection would quickly spread outwards - our apologies to Northland, the Coromandel and the Waikato.
On the flip side, Queenstown is well-served by its relative isolation and the increased likelihood of its residents to possess firearms.
Everyone who has ever watched a zombie movie knows to kill one, you must destroy the brain - so a clean shot to the head is considered the most efficient method.
The research, conducted in collaboration with the University of Melbourne's Centre for Disaster Management and Public Safety and Xbox ANZ to launch new game State of Decay 2, created a Zombie Survival Index to analyse each city's survival probability.
Major AU/NZ cities Zombie Survival Index:
- Darwin
- Queenstown
- Melbourne
- Sydney
- Perth
- Auckland
Criteria included the potential rate of infection, how residents claim they would behave, geographic location and how well each city would defend itself.
Researchers used a model developed at Cornell University called the SZR (Susceptible Zombie Removed) to compare zombie attack models to the traditional spread of disease models.
The research made a number of assumptions about a zombie attack, such as a single zombie bite being enough to pass on the infection, and zombies only being able to move on foot - they cannot drive cars, ride bikes or catch trains and other public transport.
"Our best chance of survival would be to contain an outbreak early by overpowering and removing zombies from the streets, while they were still few in numbers," says Professor Greg Foliente of the Centre for Disaster Management.
"New Zealanders would have the best chance of survival if the outbreak began in Queenstown, with its isolated location restricting its ability to travel easily, coupled with residents claiming they would take arms to defend themselves against the walking dead."
State of Decay 2 puts players in control of a community of survivors after a zombie apocalypse and was released on Xbox One and PC on Tuesday.
Newshub.
