Good call man. Maybe they were zombies and they starved? Anybody else? Maybe they died in the car accidents, which seems to make sense.

 

Well, if they died in car crashes. I think they would be in different positions. Hunched over. Not just that, but the cars would be in WORSE conditions. The other thing that bugged me about this was the theory that the doctor told Rick that everyone is infected and that when you die, you become a zombie... regardless of cause. This disproves that theory. these "dead" were in remarkably good condition... basically mummies. just doesn't make sense! some one care to clarify this one?

 

I think they turned into zombies in their cars but since zombies are stupid, they could neither keep driving or figure out how to get out. Those tricky child safety locks have to be a real chore for a zombie.

 

They were gassed by the US military.

 

Is it a rule that once you die, regardless of having been nibbled on or not, you zombify? If not, I agree that they were probably casualties of war and once dead, just festered in their cars. No walkers would feast on them, since they were dead meat. The dead guy that Carl stripped of his weapon pack, looked unmutilated to me. No garish wounds that I could see, just a wrinkled up corpse at the wheel. Had he been a walker I think he would have found a way out of the car. These walkers may not be the sharpest sticks in the pack but they're not exactly braindead either.

 

If that's the case, to what end was Jenner's bloodtesting of the group? If infection is 100% (a miraculous percentage rate), then what was he looking for?

 

He was testing to see if anyone was bitten or scratched recently. If this was the case, the infected person could reanimate in a matter of minutes and perhaps kill the entire group, whereas if everyone is merely "infected" thus causing them to turn into walkers upon their deaths, it is assumed that everyone is safe as there should be no reason to die inside the CDC.

Alternatively, the simple answer could be that they are unaware that everyone is "infected" and will turn upon death.

 

I posted this in a differant thread:
"I think I might have an actual reason for the dead in the cars, being dead-dead. It's Georgia, middle of summer, and all the car windows were closed. They reanimated when they died and sat in the cars until thier brains cooked from the heat. I think that would be plausible. "

 

100% infection rate is not possible. I know it's someone's fictional story, but he should have done some studying of the major plauges that have come and gone in the past. There has never been one with a 100% mortality rate. Evolution won't allow it. One of the major benifets with being a biological machine, our bodies can adapt. Look at the Black plauge as a example. Some people were just plain immune to it, granted it was only around like 10% of the Eueropean populas, but still they could take care of the sick and dying without becoming infected themselves.

 

hum...wasn't there a scene on the road where they found a child seat that looked like a zombie feast? They found it while searching through the cars on the street.

 

I just assumed the ones in the car hadn't been infected - 'our group' have got infected (if they are) since coming into contact with the walkers (e.g. maybe by getting blood on them) whereas the ones in the cars had fled before getting infected and died through overheating, dehydration, etc. As for the baby car seat - adults/older children would know to duck down or hide and be quiet whereas a baby or toddler wouldn't therefore alerting a passing walker to their presence.

 

Uninfected corpses

I don't know if this has been answered before, but I was just wondering why the corpses in the cars in what lies ahead hadn't turned into walkers? If the infection had become airbourne, wouldn't they have been affected by it too?

 

Since my post above (from.dec) - I've also seen/read kirkman stating that they were careful to make sure that the highway bodies were due to head trauma, hence no reanimation. Or maybe it was glen mazzara on twitter. If I remember I'll try and find a quote about it later.

 

You're spot on ldc!! Mazzara was asked this very question on 'Talking Dead' and he summed it up (paraphrasing) that presumably the corpses in the cars had all suffered traumatic head injuries...hence no reanimation for them...

 

I always wondered about the people sitting in their cars on the highway. If they all had head trauma, it makes sense that they wouldn't reanimate, since their brains would already be destroyed, but wouldn't their cars be in worse shape??