Lets just say the dead start coming back to life and eating the living. How would you defend yourself against the undead?
First thing I would grab my hammer,crowbar,bat, and that piece of metal pipe I found in the yard. Next I would head over to the apartment next door(they have guns) and join forces with them.
Now its time to get moving. The dry storage building for the resturant I used to work at would be the perfect fortress to ride out the uprising. Steel security doors, plenty of food and water, access to the maintnence room(tools, more weapons, ect.) and the best part is the liquor storage room. After securing the building its time to cut a hole in the roof for some fresh air, set up some lawn chairs and watch the zombies do their thing.
If I can’t get to the resturant then its time for a tent house on my roof. It’s nice and flat and out of zombie reach. But that would be rather unpleasant seeing as the only food currently in my house is garlic ,a box of hamburger helper, and a can of artichoke hearts.
Are you ready for the Zombies?
oh yeah, I’m using the original slow moving Romero zombies, not these newfangled running ones.
I’m in New York, so I don’t think staying put and riding out the storm is going to be an option. Too many zombies, and too many survivors trying to survive on a relatively small amount of stored food. I’d probably try to walk across the George Washington Bridge and get bitten in the process as all the fleeing infected begin re-animating in the middle of the crowd.
How long do you plan on staying. The power will eventually fail (even if it’s nuclear ;), you’ll run out of fuel for the generator, and use up your supply of water. Meanwhile the zombies will still be outside trying to get in. They can’t starve, get dehydrated, or tire. You’d need to be far enough north that they’d freeze solid. Zombies appear to decay much slower than a real corpse.
I’m currently using Left 4 Dead as my guide. It’s an excellent training tool. Now all I need to complete my party is a senior citizen war veteran, a spunky white collar African-American, and a biker guy. Apply within.
I’d make sure I knew where my crowbar, 6-pound sledge, machete, battle-axe and swords are. But the best wasy to deal with zombies is to stay away from them. I wonder if I could make it to Dobbins AFB?
Note: if it’s a George Romero zombie scenario, then everybody who dies for any reason not involving massive brain trauma – heart attack, stabbing, cancer, choking on hot dog – will rise as the undead. So if you notice somebody getting a slight case of the deads, make sure to destroy his brain. It’s common courtesy.
I’ve been thinking about this. Am reading WWZ again and yet again finding out that my beautiful island is going to become a major white zone (but why can’t he write more about Iceland?).
I think my best bet would be to head for a glacier, trying to take whatever goods I can with me. At least I’ll freeze to death before I become a Zombie
Funny, I had a dream about just this subject last night. (Although now that I think about it, I suspect that if I went back and studied my dream journal closely I’d discover that probably 5-12% of all my dreams involve the zombie apocalypse. So maybe it’s not that big a coincidence after all.)
Anyway, in the dream, my family all gathered together at my parents’ house and fortified it into a zombie-proof stronghold. We planned to wait out the siege from there, but alas a few of the zombies had retained human-like intelligence and managed to force an entrance using tools and weapons. We then had no choice but to psychically evolve ourselves into a superhuman species that was both immune to zombie infection and invulnerable to gunfire, and could then easily dispatch zombies hand-to-hand.
Why didn’t we do that to begin with, instead of wasting all that time barricading the house? Obviously, this was only a dream. In real life I’d definitely choose to evolve superhuman powers at the first sign of crisis.
Evaluate your situation: flee or hunker down. Fighting during the outbreak would likely get you killed or turned.
I’d hunker down first. Seems to me, if you flee during the outbreak you’ve not only got to contend with zombies, but you’ve got to deal with humanity at its worst. Waiting until most folks are eaten or undead simplifies your survival tactics, I think. For all the chaos they bring, zombies play by some rules. Once you’ve figured out what tricks them, what they’re drawn to, and how to kill them - you’ve got them pegged. You just never know what to expect from people.
I live in on the second floor of a house. So, for the short term, I’d try to barricade the first floor entry to my stairwell. Then I’d rip out the entire stairwell (just wood and nails, piece of cake). Then I’d fill all my storage Rubber Maid tubs with tap water. It might go stagnant, but I could boil it over a controlled wood fire camping stove and filter it with coffee filters. I’ve got a regular stocked pantry that would last for maybe a couple months or more (at ration levels).
One thing rarely considered and addressed in zombie situations is the threat of fire. With the local FD likely chowing down on brains (along with most other emergency responders) a simple fire could spread unchecked and threaten entire towns and cities. The topography of my place makes fire risk low, but other people could do everything right and still be killed in their homes by fire. Sucks.
So I’d stay at home with my immediate family and live in near-silence for a couple months while planning our flight. By auto, we’d have to siphon lots of gas. If some horses survived in nearby farms, horseback would be a very cool and practical mode of transport. Heading up into the great Canadian wilderness and seeking out an unused cabin hundreds of miles down logging roads sounds damn tempting.
The old island solution would be great as well. With enough survivors, I’ve always though cleaning out Mackinac Island on Lake Huron would be badass. We could gorge on fudge, stay in a great hotel, and ride horses all day.
Is this an “all dead reanimate” zombie apocalypse, that means that there are suddenly hundreds if not thousands of zombies in my immediate location? Or a World War Z type pandemic, where the plague takes days weeks or months to build up?
Whichever, let’s say that after minimal warning zombies start being a major problem. First thing is to acquire weapons. I’d get my gun, my crowbar and maybe my ax (I have a sledgehammer but I don’t think I’m strong enough to wield it effectively). Get over to the gun store if I still can to obtain spare guns and as much ammo as I can. If the gun store is looted/ destroyed/ shooting everyone who approaches, many stores with a sporting goods department carry at least shotguns and shells. Swing by the hardware store for a machete and miscellaneous supplies.
If anyone is organizing a resistance or defense zone I try to join up. If I’m on my own, a lot depends on the situation: am I having to fight off the occasional undead mugger, or are mobs of hundreds of zombies roaming about? Is the government still functioning in a state of emergecy? Are soliders trying to enforce too little-too late quarantine measures? Has all organization broken down? Is the city on fire? Being bombed by the Air Force?
I doubt I’d try to leave the city, unless it was absolutely unsurvivable. Where would I go? I have no survival skills and would be completely dependent on what tools and supplies I could scavenge. And anyway, the roads would be clogged with refugees, all trying to get somewhere safe (like where?). My survival plan would be try to find a safe place to hole up, and scrounge for food, supplies and equipment where I could.
Chances of survival: iffy to poor. But hey, I tried my best and if I kill even two zombies I helped the zombie problem more than I added to it.
I recommend you don’t plan to escape to Alaska, for although zombies have no body heat and will freeze into corpse-sicles, for most of us we’ll never make it - The major freeways will be choked with stalled cars of people trying to flee population centers.
Dream journal update: Tonight, I learned that if you can transform yourself into a dragon, the children are going to demand dragon rides. It matters not one whit if you happen to be the incarnation of Crown Prince Carl Gustavus, who fought a giant during his last incarnation cycle and is destined to battle Nazis in the next; just make with the dragon rides, pal.
Admittedly tonight’s lesson has no direct application to zombies, and I therefore apologize for the slight hijack. However, those who properly value such oneiromantic insight will forgive me when they are wisely choosing to psychically evolve superhuman invulnerability during the zombie apocalypse. Also, if you happen to have the ability to transform yourself into a dragon instead, I see no reason to doubt that this would make an excellent anti-zombie tactic as well. Spiritual heirs of his Royal Highness Carl Gustavus the Draconthropic, take heed.
Oh this place is stocked. And I mean stocked. There is enough food and bottled water for a few people for at least a couple of months. And if we happen to run out of water, thats what my “hole in the roof” idea is for. And if nothing else, the ocean is only about 50 feet away. At least desalinizing sea water would help pass the time. Also if I can make it to Patrick AFB I’m all set.
Zombie Logistics are simply nonsense anyway. There’s not enough viable corpses to make a real threat to humanity. Hospitals and morgues would be screwed over yeah but within a day police/army/gun nuts would have shot and killed most of them simple containment of newly dead from then on would keep other outbreaks to a minimum. We’re simply too smart too well armed and not enough of us are newly dead (even if we were being attacked) for things to get too out of control IMO.
I guess it depends on what type of outbreak you are talking about. If you’re talking about Classic slow zombies where the newly dead attack, and people bitten slowly become zombies. No problem. The newer faster zombies, where people bitten become zombies in pretty short order. Bigger problem more danger but still pretty easy to stay out of the danger zones until it’s sorted. Or a new type of zombie for just this thread where the infection is easier to spread and the zombies are somewhat more intelligent, now this could be interesting.
I think the type of zombies which would be the closest to eradicating mankind are the virus zombies from Brooks. I say this because being infected is easier to hide and also easier for there to be a government cover up until it reaches a point to where there’s a huge explosion. I.E.: The great panic.
At least with Brooks zombies there’s a virus to be contained. With Romero zombies one day everthing is normal, the next day everybody who dies reanimates. Everyone, no matter how secure your walled city, no matter how carefully you screen people you can’t stop someone from dropping dead or dying in their sleep (who the hell would even want to share a bedroom, let alone a bed in Romero’s world).
I’m gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the zombies I see,
I’m gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the zombies I see.
When I kill all the zombies I see, then zombie he won’t bother me.
