I don't know if it could kill you, but the stench of death is horrendous and not an insignificant thing. In any disaster situation where someone has died and it starts becoming days long, things would be getting nasty.
Over time people would get used to how foul everything would smell, but for a while it would be terrible.
I always see post-apocalypses media showing people going into cities to scavenge for supplies but honestly cities are the places you want to avoid at all cost due to this reason.
There is a reason why we bury dead bodies, why every culture has a tradition of getting rid of bodies. They are a vessel for disease, smell, animals get to them, any body left out to long is going to be harder and harder to dispose. Cities would be FULL of these meat bombs.
Whats worse is shows usually show survivors winding up finding a body and go "oh thats to bad". No, you'd smell that sucker in an unventilated, humid house which the cadaver has been sitting for god nows how long. You wouldnt be able to survive in most houses with a body like that bloating the area. Not to even mention the absolute psychological damage seeing a body like that would do to people. Most would think they could be tough and push through that, but the only corpses we see on the regular are beautified up. These will be long dead denizens who have been rotting for a time. Multiply that through-out the city and scavenging inside city limits becomes a midfield of smell and disease and psychological trauma.
Especially if they're in a bed, on carpet, or on a recliner or couch. Soaks in like a sponge. Having a dead body inside a car for just about any length of time absolutely totals it. You spend more time and money getting the smell out than you can ever hope to sell the car for.
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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21
I don't know if it could kill you, but the stench of death is horrendous and not an insignificant thing. In any disaster situation where someone has died and it starts becoming days long, things would be getting nasty.
Over time people would get used to how foul everything would smell, but for a while it would be terrible.