H-2: Undead Smackdown

I received a phone call from my youngest brother yesterday. He posed the question, "If a zombie and a vampire were to get into a fight, who would win?" To me, someone who has studied vampires, zombies, or anything supernatural pretty much all my life, this seemed like a real easy and in-your-face question. When I actually sat down and thought about it, I realized that it was actually a question worth looking into and explaining a little more.
Anyone who knows anything about vampires, knows that they have amazing superhuman strength and speed. A millenia or two of evolution has created the ultimate killing machine. The vampire's only downfall is the fact that she can only hunt during the night. A vampire is deadly whether there is one or an entire group of them. Although she can be killed it is extremely difficult to kill one, let alone an entire group. However a human being can take solace in the fact that vampires rarely, if ever, tend to horde.
The zombie is much different. He is not confined to hunt during a specific time of day, and he is motivated by nothing but the hunger. His hunger is the only thing that drives him and therefore the only reason he "survives". Compared to a vampire, the zombie is extremely easy to kill. Technically all it would take is extreme damage to the head (hence my favorite zombie killing weapon, a barbed wire wrapped Louisville slugger). Zombies cannot run or even think on a complex level. Most of the time, closing a door, or climbing up something can deter one or two zombies at a time. The real danger ensues when they start to horde. When their numbers increase, so does the risk of injury or death to a human. Highly different from it's undead counterpart, a zombie can effect it's prey with just one bite. Technically speaking one zombie could start a pandemic of exponential proportions. This in it of itself, coupled with it's hording tendencies, make for a very formidable foe.
If I were to say right now with any certainty, I would have to say that the vampire has the zombie beat hands down. However, when I look a little deeper, I would have to start looking at the zombie a little bit more. Of course one on one the vampire could obliterate the zombie, no problem. But when you start looking at a species wide war, the zombie would not only stand a chance, but could actually come out on top. Why you ask? It all boils down to a numbers game. In absolutely no time, zombies would far outnumber vampires, thus creating a double-edged sword for the vampire. Not only would the numbers create a significant foe for the vampire, but the zombie's sheer hunger would significantly reduce the vampire's food source. That in it of itself could be enough to reduce the vampires numbers. The mindless hunger that drives the zombie could be very detrimental to the vampire. What is your opinion?