Zombie Cliché Lookout:

Zombie stories are often separated into two distinct groups: siege stories and road stories. In the former, characters hunker down and try to secure a location against the onslaught of the walking dead. The classic example of the siege story is the original Night of the Living Dead, which set the standard for modern zombie stories. In siege stories the primary focuses are fortifications, supplies, and continued cooperation within the group. If any of these three factors fails, the group is doomed.

Road stories, on the other hand, focus on characters moving and evading zombies on the road, while gathering supplies and looking for other survivors. Road stories aren’t nearly as common, but there are a few notable examples, such as the recent Zombieland, and certain story arcs in Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic. In road stories, the protagonists must keep moving in order to survive. Whenever they stop, they run the risk of being surrounded with no clear course of escape.

Characters typically decide whether they’re going to turtle up or bug out pretty early on. However they may bounce back and forth between these two strategies as the story continues.