Time: now-ish. Probably either right before Christmas, or right before Spring Break. Location: ideally, western Colorado, though I can move them if I *have* to.
I have fungal zombies. The fungus is transmitted by basically any fluid-to-fluid contact (biting, sex, kissing, blood transfusions, etc). Infection doesn't turn you, however. You only turn once you die, and the infection doesn't generally kill you. You could be infected for decades, then turn when you, eg, have a heart attack.
Single zombies are slow and stupid, small groups (packs, ~10-90) are fast and dangerous, and large groups (hives, 100+) are people-smart and basically friendly, if only out of self-interest. A pack or hive will form when the necessary number of zombies are within ~1mi of each other, whether or not they are from the same source.
But I'm trying to form the first zombie hive, back when only... maybe a few thousand people in the world are infected, and there have been a single-digit number of actual cases of zombieism.
So, I need a situation where:
1. ~100-120 people are in a relatively confined area.
2. One of them dies, at a time/in a situation where the rest of them can't get away easily, but are at least mostly still alive, though I'll need at least a few to be on the verge of dying.
3. Once we have ~100 zombies, I need them to be able to walk away from said confined area, *without* anyone being able to be *sure* that they did so for at least a month. This is the part that's proving tricky.
Scenarios that I've tried, that have been shot down:
A. Plane crash, with the survivors destroying the plane. It has been deemed implausible that they would, with the materials at hand, be able to destroy it thoroughly enough that investigators wouldn't be able to tell, fairly quickly, that there were no bodies.
B. Plane crash, with the survivors *hiding* the plane. Even with a helpful avalanche and the like, it has been deemed implausible that they could hide a crashed commercial flight long enough that it wouldn't be found and uncovered long before my hive of zombies have had a month or so to go about their business.
A few people suggested that I use a bus crash, but I think that would have, if anything, even *more* problems with the crash being found too soon, since busses tend to travel on, you know, actual roads.
So, any other suggestions, or any ways you can think of to make a plane or bus crash work?
I don't mind unlikely, as long as it's not actively implausible, or at least not so implausible that it breaks anyone's disbelief suspenders.
