I'd probably drive straight home first. While I was driving home I may try to call a bunch of people I care about, but that could quickly prove to be futile cause all the circuits might be busy as often happens during a disaster.
If the roads are blocked, I'd turn into an obscure street and park my car...obscurely and go on foot. I'm a pretty good hiker and runner so I'm fairly confident I could make it to my house this way if I had to. Assuming I make it some safely, I get inside, lock the door, and start packing whatever supplies I think I'll need on the road. I'm probably gonna stay at home for as long as possible and fill up containers with water so hopefully I'll have enough potable water until I can really figure something out. It's best to assume public utilities are gonna quickly become unavailable.
I currently don't own a gun, but I have my crowbar and machette so I am taking those with me. My packpack will have some fairly basic supplies. As much water as I can carry, but I don't have a lot of non-perishable foods in my house right now so I need to make plans either to risk zombies in the neighborhood and raiding other people's homes, or holding out long enough until a lot of people are either dead or zombies and then brave a trip to the grocery store.
What happens next depends also on whether I want to try to group up with people or continue on my own. I would have a hard time not wanting to check up on my exgirlfriend since we only recently broke up and I care about her a lot. I'd want to know she was safe. So once I was prepared enough, I'd get out of the house and make my way to her. If I made it safely there and she wasn't there I'd assume either she was dead, a zombie, or at her parent's house. Whether she was there or not, I'd then take a breather and think of how else I know and trust that might be worth trying to group up with.
Once I got with as many people as I thought reasonable or practical, I would try to get into the valley. In my town, you have the city on one side, and the valley on another which is an area of pretty nice homes and farmlands that are much more sparsely located than in the city. A lot more people up there own guns and assorted machinery than here in the city-even more propane tanks. I could literally hike the trails and avoid the roads to get over there. This part of the plan really does assume though I can find a decent estate with KIA or MIA occupants and start turning the house into a shelter/fortress. There are even more wells in that area so I'd work on really filling up on lots of water if possible.
Hopefully the zombie population in this area will be sparse enough as well that I can make lookout points to keep an eye out for them without necessarily attracting hoards of them. In this area we could probably hold off a considerable number of zombies, but other humans could quickly be a problem. We'd have to hope either to assimilate them into our group, or kill them if they posed a threat to us.
Quote from "Ullion" »
Lol, if I were caught in a city? I would find the nearest, tallest building and travel to the very top (while looking for possible weapons, foods, etc.) and try to sabotage the stairwells on the way up. Zombies can't climb on the outside of the building (not enough muscle force to pull themselves up), and they can't operate elevators. The broken staircases would prevent them from simply walking up, and if blockaded well enough, they may not be able to advance at all.
BUT lets assume they make it to the rooftop - chances are there would be only one (maybe two) entrances to the rooftop, basically funneling them towards my position one at a time, where I could wait with a primitive, melee weapon (Ie. baseball bat) to kill them. Y'all said "don't play the numbers game with zombies because they'll always win" - well, if you send in 1 000 men, but only 1 at a time towards a group of 5 people, you won't be able to win at all. Same idea here - focus the zombies to come in only 1 or 2 at a time, and simply kill them as they do (even if I AM by myself, but I'd likely have others up at the rooftps as well).
The main issues that arise would be food availability, and possibly sexual drive (assuming there are some of those damn, punk-ass horny teenagers around...)
You're definitely wise to control the staircases. If you must go into a tall building though, you may wish to create a means of escape. I'd be most worried about lack of food in an office building as well as fire hazards. I'm really not sure what kinds of weapons you'd find up there though either. And what's this about sexual drive? Eh?
Some buildings have those emergency fire escapes, the black metal staircases with ladders on the sides of the buildings. If his building had one of those he could simply knock off the bottom ladder, and replace it with a retractable one so that nobody could reach it.
People would be able to reach it I guess, since they can stack things, but zombies wouldn't have the brain capacity to do that.
edit: Just thought of something, you know how most cities are making "green roofs" now ?
If anyone is unfamiliar with this, it's basically an apartment roof with a greenhouse on it to make those concrete monoliths "enviro friendly".
A roof with one of these would be ideal, since most of them are fairly large and it would provide you with a somewhat sustainable source of food.
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Quote from "Sixen" »
"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.
Most tall buildings actually don't have those side staircases anymore. Fire escapes are usually built within the buildings now. But in a big city I'm sure he wouldn't have trouble finding one with the oldschool staircases on the outside.
Yeah... good point.
There are actually quite a few buildings downtown where I live with those fire escapes.
Another method would be to barricade off the staircases of an apartment building near the bottom, and just use the elevator to move in and out of the building.
Then you would have access to all of the apartments in that building, providing you with food, possibly weapons, hiding places, and shelter.
The only problem here, again would be people.
While there is the off chance where a zombie could mash the up button on the elevator and make it to your floor, theres a pretty small chance of that happening.
People however, would recognize the barricades, and assume somebody is hiding inside. This could lead to you getting eaten by them (depending how scarce food is) or just being shot so they can take your building.
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Quote from "Sixen" »
"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.
Ah, fuck I forgot all about electricity.
Well there goes the elevator idea...
Unless you could lay your hands on a couple of generators, that plan would be pretty impossible.
Though, if you did manage to get a few, then barricading the apartment would probably be one of the better ways to live out the zombie outbreak.
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Quote from "Sixen" »
"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.
I don't know. Without electricity, all the food in people's refrigerators will go bad pretty quickly. And you're left with whatever canned goods there may be in the building. I'm sure it can sustain you for awhile, but once it's out, I'd hate to be trapped in a tall building. Cause even if you have it barricaded off, you're still surrounded by zombies making your escape rather difficult.
Some buildings have generators in the basements for emergencies though, doubt it could sustain all of the refrigerators in the building however.
Unless you went from apartment to apartment unplugging all of the televisions/computers/lamps/anything unecessary, the generator wouldn't be able to power the fridges.
Then again, the generators generally don't power all of the apartments, so unless you had copper wire and the knowledge on how to rewire circuits.... you'd be fucked.
*sigh* My plan gets shittier and shittier every post.
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Quote from "Sixen" »
"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.
Well, if you had no choice be to be holed up in a tall apartment building, I'm sure you could easily make do for awhile. But you should make it your short term goal to get out of the city.
Agreed, holing up for a while to gather supplies or wait until the streets clear would be a good idea. (Assuming the zombies would move on once the food was exhausted)
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Quote from "Sixen" »
"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.
Alright. I figure it's about time that I made my first post, after having lurked on this site for ages; this thread also prompted my registration. With that aside, after having gone through most of this thread, I've noted a few key flaws in some of its most active "posters".
Siaynoq
You kind of seem like the obligatory thread-troll - someone who thinks his opinion is right, above all others, merely because you read the Zombie Survival Guide. Good on 'ya. Now take into consideration that it's just that, a Guide. This means that it can't necessarily be followed to a "T". Circumstances can vary, incredibly. What if you found yourself in the Resident Evil scenario? Your knowledge of Solanum should be tossed right out the window. Solanum is a fictional virus, much as the T-Virus is, it's difficult to argue which would exist in the "real world", because the way I see it - neither would. Those are merely two of an infinite amount of possibilities.
Lt Venom
Resident Evil is certainly a plausible outcome of what a zombie outbreak would look like - up until Resident Evil 4. 2 & 3 were certainly stretching what a "real life" scenario would look like, what with the whole Umbrella corporation conspiracy. Either way, the way that the military and civilians react is plausible, but as for the police force getting so heavily involved (S.T.A.R.S.)... I doubt it would work.
Now let's lay down the proper foundation.
Killing a Zombie
We can all assume that in order to kill a zombie, you need to destroy its brain. Maybe it's as simple as a decapitation, but in most cases - destroying its brain would likely suffice and/or be easier.
Exposure to the elements won't kill a zombie, however they will certainly slow them down. Extreme heat could likely increase the speed of body decomposition, whereas extreme cold would prolong decomposition.
Zombies have a complete disregard for physical (or mental) pain, making them extremely lethal. If you're building a barricade, keep in mind that it won't last forever. Broken limbs, missing organs, open wounds... they mean nothing to a zombie. If you're a mixed-martial-artist, a zombie isn't going to care. It's going to lunge at you and try to bite you, whether you break its neck or not. However, a missing limb or broken limb would certainly present some interesting challenges to the movement of a Zombie. (It should be noted at this point that as Zombies are dead, their muscle tissue will not regenerate. A "fresh" Zombie will be marginally more powerful than one that's been animated for a while)
Their lack of restraint could be attributed to the most important point of all; their brain. The only "for sure" way that we can all seem to agree on, is a headshot. Obliterate the brain, and the Zed drops.
What Kind of Zombie? This seems to be a tough one, as it's the source of the entire "debate". We have a few basic types of Zombies that we've seen in various mediums. In most cases, we can all agree that a zombie has to die and come back to life, in order to be a real "zombie". There are exceptions, however.
Standard Zombie.
These guys are your typical zombie that aren't capable of much more than a slow shuffle and some basic motor skills. Climbing stairs, running, operating doorknobs, etc, are out of the question. They tend to rely on sight, smell, and sound. Taste and touch are two senses that they really don't need to rely on, other than when attacking prey.
Speedy Zombie.
As mentioned already, these zombies are seen in Dawn of the Dead; typically running all over the place, seemingly unstoppable. They have the same disregard for their own "health" as all other zombies, and are just as dumb. However they may have the ability to climb surfaces or stairs, as they have enough coordination to run. Other than basic motor skills and the obvious hunger, the only real threat is their speed, as stated before, Zombies have little concern for their own well being.
The "Voodoo" or Mind Controlled Zombie.
Generally speaking, they are subject to their master's will and, depending on your source material, are capable of all motor skills they had prior to being mind controlled. Whether they need to actually die or not, is debatable.
The 28-Days Zombie.
This is a tough one, as the "zombies" in the film 28 Days Later (and sequel, 28 Weeks Later), were supposedly infected by rage. Some would say that these aren't "true" Zombies. They are quite similar to the Speedy zombies, in that they tend to run a lot. They also seem to travel in large groups, easily routing any defense provided. A single drop of blood is all it takes to infect another person; though it seems that it needs to enter an orifice or at least an exposed wound (even an eye works). The Scenario This is possibly the most important part, next to the kind of zombie we've got running around. I always say, be prepared for the worst, so let's hypothesize what the absolute worst scenario would be.
A government conspiracy would be quite disastrous, as the country of origin would likely see no assistance from its military.
A spontaneous outbreak of an illness, let's say H1N1?
Voodoo?
The actual source really doesn't matter so much as where you will be when the shit hits the fan. You'll also want to consider the various ways that the zombies can infect a given person. Whether it only takes a simple scratch, or perhaps it's the blood? The saliva? Many variables.
The Contingency Plan
You can't make a specific "plan". Rather, a guideline, at best. Though with that being said, let's go over a few key points that everyone should at least give some thought to.
Team.
Your team should be small and manageable. I would say no more than 3-4 people, tops. Any more than that, and you're just asking for trouble. The less baggage, the better, in this sort of situation. However, keep in mind that you may have reason to include more than 3-4 people. What if you want to establish a base of operations?
Safety.
Doesn't exist. No place is safe, only safer. You'll want to find a place that you can plan multiple routes of escape from, and is difficult for the Zeds to access. Avoid places with windows, or places people would generally flock to - police departments and hospitals (especially), are places you really want to avoid.
Be prepared for the worst. If an outbreak actually was to occur, it's likely it wouldn't be resolved any time soon. Those of you who plan to take to the sea, think again - would you want to be out at sea for years at a time?
The human factor is also a huge safety concern. Other humans could potentially be incredible allies or pose as horrible threats. It's up to you to discern.
Supplies.
For starters, I would personally recommend raiding a food store that (hopefully) hasn't been raided already. Always having a good supply of canned foods and other non-perishables on hand will benefit you greatly. You'll also want to stock up on bottled water, or at least a few empty spill-proof bottles. Finding clean water is going to be difficult, what with all the animated corpses running around.
Ammo & Weapons.
This is easy. Familiarize yourself with at least one or two bladed weapons. Seek training, if possible. Carry at least two melee weapons (sword, knife, etc.) on your person at all times, and have at least two firearms. A rifle and pistol would suffice, though assuming zombies can hear, troublesome. Gunshots may cause you to alert near by zombies, and before you know it you've got a swarm of a couple hundred on you.
Regardless of what weapon you choose, you're always going to need ammo or at least need to maintain that weapon. Proper care for all weapons is a necessity; you wouldn't want your gun jamming or misfiring because you haven't cleaned it in a couple of weeks, would you?
Attire.
You're going to want to wear tighter clothing so that Zombies can't grab at it. For those of you who wear extremely baggy clothes and insist on wearing it after Z-Day hits, have fun as a member of the walking dead - you'll be the easiest to grab onto. Some form-fitting clothes are going to be the best for keeping you out of the clutches of an animated corpse; nobody is going to care about what you're wearing when the world, as we know it, is ending. Nobody will care if you look fat either... except for the zombies.
You want to wear practical clothing. I recommend some pants with "cargo" pockets; as you can never have enough storage space when being a nomad.
Fleeing a City or Town.
My suggestion is that while everybody else is trying to escape the city, you sit tight. Find a place (or better yet, series of places) that you can bunker down in. Easily fortified with 2 entrances, 3 tops. Plan escape routes to your next safehouse, and always have fallback plans. Fallback plans for your fallback plans.
While the initial surge of people attempt to leave the city via the main roads/highways, you should gather your supplies and team (if needed). I would recommend packing for at least 2 weeks of travel, but you'll want to pack as light as possible.
You'll want to find any maps for your city or surrounding areas, and familiarize yourself with them. If you can't read a map already, learn to. Google maps won't cut it. You're also going to want to familiarize yourself with the lay of the land & terrain; if you haven't been living in your area long, or been on any camping trips - you may want to start.
Keep in mind that the Zombies likely won't go off in search of food. There's no real reason for them to go looking for food, as (in most cases) they don't require it. Rather, they just seem to have something of a fetish for it. They desire it. I hypothesize that they would practically stand still or do very little "exploring" on their own, unless potential prey was near by.
Seek shelter in unpopulated areas - mountains would be a great place, as they generally have game to hunt and/or plants to forage.
Passing the Time.
This one can be a killer. Imagine sitting in a room for a month, having to defecate in a corner, little to no electricity, no board games, nobody to talk to, etc... What would you do? Regardless of how deadly you are, if your morale drops - you're as good as defeated. Here's a few things to consider;
Exercise is always needed. A light calisthenics routine every few hours and plenty of sleep will be handy. Setting up traps, specifically noise-making ones, will benefit you beyond belief, as sleep may be hard to come by otherwise.
"Help".
I, personally, plan for the worst case scenario - I doubt that there will ever be help. The government will be overrun, and everything will be mass anarchy. The prospect of hope, as you know it, will die out.
At least, that's what I'd like to tell you. However, if you'd asked me, I'd say that after having formed enough alliances with small resistance groups such as your own, you may all want to band together and begin building stick-houses and living as pioneers did in the old days. Make sure that these are people that you have come to trust, as you never know what another human could be up to.
And that's it. In the smallest nutshell I could provide, that's a lot of the stuff that really needs to be planned out when thinking of a "contingency plan". Sorry for the long post, and I'm sure people will have some kind of response to this - I at least expect one from Saiynoq, as he's been the most active on this thread.
And you know, you're assuming that there are no zombies or looters already in the apartment building. They're big buildings- any amount of anything could be living- or hiding- inside.
You kind of seem like the obligatory thread-troll - someone who thinks his opinion is right, above all others, merely because you read the Zombie Survival Guide. Good on 'ya. Now take into consideration that it's just that, a Guide. This means that it can't necessarily be followed to a "T". Circumstances can vary, incredibly. What if you found yourself in the Resident Evil scenario? Your knowledge of Solanum should be tossed right out the window. Solanum is a fictional virus, much as the T-Virus is, it's difficult to argue which would exist in the "real world", because the way I see it - neither would. Those are merely two of an infinite amount of possibilities.
Well, sorry if I come off as a troll to you. And I can assure you there was nothing troll like in what you just said. Not one thing.
But anyway, yes, I base a lot of information off of the Zombie Survival Guide. This is really to help me ensure my own consistency on the matter. To be honest, I don't care what mechanism really turns people into zombies. People are free to debate the T-Virus and all that jazz all they want. I merely don't subscribe to those tenets of fiction.
The only thing I have really insisted people agree with me on are some basic things about the zombie itself. One is that it's an automaton completely intent on eating human flesh and nothing else, and also that it is generally slow moving and can only truly be destroyed by taking out its brain. When we're all in agreement that the nature of the zombie is a slow moving, uncoordinated, single-minded organism intent on eating human flesh then I find it much easier to debate on how to deal with the zombie on many levels.
Things like the voodoo zombie and the infected in 28 Days Later I don't consider to be zombies. Voodoo zombies can supposedly do a number of tasks, and the infected wish to kill non-infected but not necessarily feast on their flesh. The feasting on human flesh to me is such a critical criteria of the zombie.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go look up this word, obligatory. Welcome to the forums, by the way.
Another issue that is brought up, is about the power supply. I know some power-generating stations will not immedaitely go out as soon as the human population decreases. I recall watching a documentary last year (or earlier this year), stating that one in the States would last for up to a month after the human population "dissapears" completely - as it completly maintains itself (other than the fact for cleaning and whatnot, and is it that issue that eventually prevents the station from continuing on).
The only issue is if the power lines leaving the station are still working or not (as zombies could accidentally tear them?).
I'd also rather trust a complete stranger with their assistance rather than trying to survive on my own. Why? Because it is an extra set of hands, and why on earth would they try and kill me to help them survive? It's rediculously contradictory - I mean, if they want to survive, they WILL need assistance from others. They can set traps quicker, gather more food, more ammunition, more assistance if in a fight, etc. Killing someone else to stay alive longer is idiotic, unless that someone else is a zombie.
And also Epoch, welcome to the forums - and don't worry about Siaynoq.
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One becomes strong when they are fighting to protect someone close to them... - Shiro Haku
Those fire escapes on the sides of buildings would actually be useful. Destroy or completely block the main stairs and then use the fire escapes to get out because they can be lowered and raised. Or if the elevator is on the ground floor, lower a rope through the maintenance hole in the top and use that as a secondary escape if the outside of the fire escape area draws some zombies.
To Epoch: First off, welcome to the forums and second, You know what your talking about, and Siaynoq also knows what he is talking about, as I am sure he's one of those survivalist freaks that have a home-made bomb shelter in their backyard, and spent many days studying the guide.
To those of you who think power will be out just as quickly as the outbreak, think again. Does the History channel series "Life after People" ring a bell? Well in some of the episodes, the cities and towns had about 2-3 months worth of electricity. The rural and farm areas lasted about 1 to 1-1/2 months. Same thing with other utilities such as phone and water. If this outbreak ever did occur, span the time like they did in the series and in about 15-20 years, just about everything man-made is pretty much beat to hell and most like unrecognizable heaps of metal, concrete, and/or other various materials. I mean maintenance/use on a car will help it live longer, before it becomes a pile of scrap metal. those lasted close to about 50 years before everything went downhill.
Also, if anybody was good at rigging complicated stuff up, they might be able to turn a car into a killing machine, as seen on the movie "Death Race" and the video game series "Twisted Metal", I'd get a laugh or two if somebody made Sweet Tooth's vehicle out of the standard ice cream truck and started mowing down a group of zombie children.
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Just as the Scorpion hunts...
Silently Lurking...
"Nothing is True. Everything is Permitted." ~ Ezio Auditore de Firenze
To those of you who think power will be out just as quickly as the outbreak, think again. Does the History channel series "Life after People" ring a bell? Well in some of the episodes, the cities and towns had about 2-3 months worth of electricity. The rural and farm areas lasted about 1 to 1-1/2 months. Same thing with other utilities such as phone and water. If this outbreak ever did occur, span the time like they did in the series and in about 15-20 years, just about everything man-made is pretty much beat to hell and most like unrecognizable heaps of metal, concrete, and/or other various materials. I mean maintenance/use on a car will help it live longer, before it becomes a pile of scrap metal. those lasted close to about 50 years before everything went downhill.
Problem is that "Life After People" involved a hypothetical situation where all humans inexplicably vanish. In a zombie apocalypse, there would be mad chaos and infrastructure would be getting destroyed. Fires, people running around panicking, killing each other, looting, all on unprecedented levels. You could count on losing all utilities within weeks.
Random thought. People are easily taken advantage of. I could see groups of people rallying around a charismatic doomsayer. I bet small personal armies wouldn't be unheard of in a zombie apocalypse.
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Walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic, love music and never forget you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers and warriors.
-Hunter S. Thompson
Well, sorry if I come off as a troll to you. And I can assure you there was nothing troll like in what you just said. Not one thing.
But anyway, yes, I base a lot of information off of the Zombie Survival Guide. This is really to help me ensure my own consistency on the matter. To be honest, I don't care what mechanism really turns people into zombies. People are free to debate the T-Virus and all that jazz all they want. I merely don't subscribe to those tenets of fiction.
The only thing I have really insisted people agree with me on are some basic things about the zombie itself. One is that it's an automaton completely intent on eating human flesh and nothing else, and also that it is generally slow moving and can only truly be destroyed by taking out its brain. When we're all in agreement that the nature of the zombie is a slow moving, uncoordinated, single-minded organism intent on eating human flesh then I find it much easier to debate on how to deal with the zombie on many levels.
Things like the voodoo zombie and the infected in 28 Days Later I don't consider to be zombies. Voodoo zombies can supposedly do a number of tasks, and the infected wish to kill non-infected but not necessarily feast on their flesh. The feasting on human flesh to me is such a critical criteria of the zombie.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go look up this word, obligatory. Welcome to the forums, by the way.
Haha alright, Siaynoq - good point. Let's all be friends.
The point that I was trying to make is that everybody in this thread DOES have a valid point, regardless of how far fetched it may seem. When it comes down to it, we're all trying to agree on a hypothetical situation based around a work of fiction.
When it comes down to it, Zombies (hopefully) are fictitious. I'd hate to see what would happen in a real-life Zombie outbreak, but we could all do ourselves a favor and be prepared (as this thread seems to have been intended for).
@Johnny_Death
You have a very valid point. I predict the same thing occurring, many times. It's common for people to band together under a single person's views - even in today's society. We all listen to charismatic people, people who exude confidence. In any case, you're bound to run into other survivors - the best plan of action is to steer clear of them, or at least make peace with them. People are going to be on-edge, and are bound to have extremely short fuses; things like rape, mugging, looting, and general infighting will occur frequently. All traces of modern society will basically crumble apart. We have Riots in modern day society, and look what happens in them. All traces of the regular comings & goings of people dissappear; everybody attacks everybody. It's chaos.
@Lt Venom & Ullion
A source of power/electricity is something that I predict to dissipating within a couple of weeks to a month. That leaves you a lot of time to do what you need to do. Let's not forget that things like batteries will also be extremely useful, so you'll probably want to hoard them, if you start suspecting an outbreak. I'm sure that there are also generators that can be used, and let's not forget vehicles. Electricity will be in short supply.
Basically, what you want to do to be "prepared", is imagine the worst possible scenario you can come up with. Now imagine that x10. Prepare for that.
And for those of you who think you're going to Rambo/Hero your way out of a hoard of zombies... When you have 8 bodies (that have no regard for their own safety) swarming on you, it's going to be pretty hard to swing a katana/machete with any finesse. Even getting into hand-to-hand with a zombie is a death sentence. The best defense is avoiding all contact, whatsoever. If you find a secluded area that hasn't seen a zombie in a week - great. Stay there. If you see more than a single zombie within a day of eachother, I'd get the hell out of there - unless you've got a surefire way of taking them out.
Thanks for welcoming me to the forum, everyone! Glad I could be of some use, even if I come off as a bit troll-ish, ahaha.
---
This just crossed my mind too.
If you want to get an idea of what a zombie apocalypse would "feel" like, you should absolutely watch movies like Dawn of the Dead. I also play UrbanDead (urbandead.com) and there is a great Zombie Infection Simulator someplace on the internet, Google is your friend.
Ah ! I used to love UrbanDead !
Played it over the summer once, had a pretty badass character going. Pretty sure I started with a firefighter...
Anywho, thank you so much for reminding me of this, +1 rep ^^.
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Quote from "Sixen" »
"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.
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If the roads are blocked, I'd turn into an obscure street and park my car...obscurely and go on foot. I'm a pretty good hiker and runner so I'm fairly confident I could make it to my house this way if I had to. Assuming I make it some safely, I get inside, lock the door, and start packing whatever supplies I think I'll need on the road. I'm probably gonna stay at home for as long as possible and fill up containers with water so hopefully I'll have enough potable water until I can really figure something out. It's best to assume public utilities are gonna quickly become unavailable.
I currently don't own a gun, but I have my crowbar and machette so I am taking those with me. My packpack will have some fairly basic supplies. As much water as I can carry, but I don't have a lot of non-perishable foods in my house right now so I need to make plans either to risk zombies in the neighborhood and raiding other people's homes, or holding out long enough until a lot of people are either dead or zombies and then brave a trip to the grocery store.
What happens next depends also on whether I want to try to group up with people or continue on my own. I would have a hard time not wanting to check up on my exgirlfriend since we only recently broke up and I care about her a lot. I'd want to know she was safe. So once I was prepared enough, I'd get out of the house and make my way to her. If I made it safely there and she wasn't there I'd assume either she was dead, a zombie, or at her parent's house. Whether she was there or not, I'd then take a breather and think of how else I know and trust that might be worth trying to group up with.
Once I got with as many people as I thought reasonable or practical, I would try to get into the valley. In my town, you have the city on one side, and the valley on another which is an area of pretty nice homes and farmlands that are much more sparsely located than in the city. A lot more people up there own guns and assorted machinery than here in the city-even more propane tanks. I could literally hike the trails and avoid the roads to get over there. This part of the plan really does assume though I can find a decent estate with KIA or MIA occupants and start turning the house into a shelter/fortress. There are even more wells in that area so I'd work on really filling up on lots of water if possible.
Hopefully the zombie population in this area will be sparse enough as well that I can make lookout points to keep an eye out for them without necessarily attracting hoards of them. In this area we could probably hold off a considerable number of zombies, but other humans could quickly be a problem. We'd have to hope either to assimilate them into our group, or kill them if they posed a threat to us.
You're definitely wise to control the staircases. If you must go into a tall building though, you may wish to create a means of escape. I'd be most worried about lack of food in an office building as well as fire hazards. I'm really not sure what kinds of weapons you'd find up there though either. And what's this about sexual drive? Eh?
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
People would be able to reach it I guess, since they can stack things, but zombies wouldn't have the brain capacity to do that.
edit: Just thought of something, you know how most cities are making "green roofs" now ?
If anyone is unfamiliar with this, it's basically an apartment roof with a greenhouse on it to make those concrete monoliths "enviro friendly".
A roof with one of these would be ideal, since most of them are fairly large and it would provide you with a somewhat sustainable source of food.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
There are actually quite a few buildings downtown where I live with those fire escapes.
Another method would be to barricade off the staircases of an apartment building near the bottom, and just use the elevator to move in and out of the building.
Then you would have access to all of the apartments in that building, providing you with food, possibly weapons, hiding places, and shelter.
The only problem here, again would be people.
While there is the off chance where a zombie could mash the up button on the elevator and make it to your floor, theres a pretty small chance of that happening.
People however, would recognize the barricades, and assume somebody is hiding inside. This could lead to you getting eaten by them (depending how scarce food is) or just being shot so they can take your building.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Well there goes the elevator idea...
Unless you could lay your hands on a couple of generators, that plan would be pretty impossible.
Though, if you did manage to get a few, then barricading the apartment would probably be one of the better ways to live out the zombie outbreak.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Some buildings have generators in the basements for emergencies though, doubt it could sustain all of the refrigerators in the building however.
Unless you went from apartment to apartment unplugging all of the televisions/computers/lamps/anything unecessary, the generator wouldn't be able to power the fridges.
Then again, the generators generally don't power all of the apartments, so unless you had copper wire and the knowledge on how to rewire circuits.... you'd be fucked.
*sigh* My plan gets shittier and shittier every post.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Siaynoq
You kind of seem like the obligatory thread-troll - someone who thinks his opinion is right, above all others, merely because you read the Zombie Survival Guide. Good on 'ya. Now take into consideration that it's just that, a Guide. This means that it can't necessarily be followed to a "T". Circumstances can vary, incredibly. What if you found yourself in the Resident Evil scenario? Your knowledge of Solanum should be tossed right out the window. Solanum is a fictional virus, much as the T-Virus is, it's difficult to argue which would exist in the "real world", because the way I see it - neither would. Those are merely two of an infinite amount of possibilities.
Lt Venom
Resident Evil is certainly a plausible outcome of what a zombie outbreak would look like - up until Resident Evil 4. 2 & 3 were certainly stretching what a "real life" scenario would look like, what with the whole Umbrella corporation conspiracy. Either way, the way that the military and civilians react is plausible, but as for the police force getting so heavily involved (S.T.A.R.S.)... I doubt it would work.
Now let's lay down the proper foundation.
Killing a Zombie
We can all assume that in order to kill a zombie, you need to destroy its brain. Maybe it's as simple as a decapitation, but in most cases - destroying its brain would likely suffice and/or be easier.
Exposure to the elements won't kill a zombie, however they will certainly slow them down. Extreme heat could likely increase the speed of body decomposition, whereas extreme cold would prolong decomposition.
Zombies have a complete disregard for physical (or mental) pain, making them extremely lethal. If you're building a barricade, keep in mind that it won't last forever. Broken limbs, missing organs, open wounds... they mean nothing to a zombie. If you're a mixed-martial-artist, a zombie isn't going to care. It's going to lunge at you and try to bite you, whether you break its neck or not. However, a missing limb or broken limb would certainly present some interesting challenges to the movement of a Zombie. (It should be noted at this point that as Zombies are dead, their muscle tissue will not regenerate. A "fresh" Zombie will be marginally more powerful than one that's been animated for a while)
Their lack of restraint could be attributed to the most important point of all; their brain. The only "for sure" way that we can all seem to agree on, is a headshot. Obliterate the brain, and the Zed drops.
What Kind of Zombie?
This seems to be a tough one, as it's the source of the entire "debate". We have a few basic types of Zombies that we've seen in various mediums. In most cases, we can all agree that a zombie has to die and come back to life, in order to be a real "zombie". There are exceptions, however.
This is possibly the most important part, next to the kind of zombie we've got running around. I always say, be prepared for the worst, so let's hypothesize what the absolute worst scenario would be.
The Contingency Plan
You can't make a specific "plan". Rather, a guideline, at best. Though with that being said, let's go over a few key points that everyone should at least give some thought to.
Be prepared for the worst. If an outbreak actually was to occur, it's likely it wouldn't be resolved any time soon. Those of you who plan to take to the sea, think again - would you want to be out at sea for years at a time?
The human factor is also a huge safety concern. Other humans could potentially be incredible allies or pose as horrible threats. It's up to you to discern.
Regardless of what weapon you choose, you're always going to need ammo or at least need to maintain that weapon. Proper care for all weapons is a necessity; you wouldn't want your gun jamming or misfiring because you haven't cleaned it in a couple of weeks, would you?
You want to wear practical clothing. I recommend some pants with "cargo" pockets; as you can never have enough storage space when being a nomad.
While the initial surge of people attempt to leave the city via the main roads/highways, you should gather your supplies and team (if needed). I would recommend packing for at least 2 weeks of travel, but you'll want to pack as light as possible.
You'll want to find any maps for your city or surrounding areas, and familiarize yourself with them. If you can't read a map already, learn to. Google maps won't cut it. You're also going to want to familiarize yourself with the lay of the land & terrain; if you haven't been living in your area long, or been on any camping trips - you may want to start.
Keep in mind that the Zombies likely won't go off in search of food. There's no real reason for them to go looking for food, as (in most cases) they don't require it. Rather, they just seem to have something of a fetish for it. They desire it. I hypothesize that they would practically stand still or do very little "exploring" on their own, unless potential prey was near by.
Seek shelter in unpopulated areas - mountains would be a great place, as they generally have game to hunt and/or plants to forage.
Exercise is always needed. A light calisthenics routine every few hours and plenty of sleep will be handy. Setting up traps, specifically noise-making ones, will benefit you beyond belief, as sleep may be hard to come by otherwise.
At least, that's what I'd like to tell you. However, if you'd asked me, I'd say that after having formed enough alliances with small resistance groups such as your own, you may all want to band together and begin building stick-houses and living as pioneers did in the old days. Make sure that these are people that you have come to trust, as you never know what another human could be up to.
Yay for my first post! What a doozy.
But anyway, yes, I base a lot of information off of the Zombie Survival Guide. This is really to help me ensure my own consistency on the matter. To be honest, I don't care what mechanism really turns people into zombies. People are free to debate the T-Virus and all that jazz all they want. I merely don't subscribe to those tenets of fiction.
The only thing I have really insisted people agree with me on are some basic things about the zombie itself. One is that it's an automaton completely intent on eating human flesh and nothing else, and also that it is generally slow moving and can only truly be destroyed by taking out its brain. When we're all in agreement that the nature of the zombie is a slow moving, uncoordinated, single-minded organism intent on eating human flesh then I find it much easier to debate on how to deal with the zombie on many levels.
Things like the voodoo zombie and the infected in 28 Days Later I don't consider to be zombies. Voodoo zombies can supposedly do a number of tasks, and the infected wish to kill non-infected but not necessarily feast on their flesh. The feasting on human flesh to me is such a critical criteria of the zombie.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go look up this word, obligatory. Welcome to the forums, by the way.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
The only issue is if the power lines leaving the station are still working or not (as zombies could accidentally tear them?).
I'd also rather trust a complete stranger with their assistance rather than trying to survive on my own. Why? Because it is an extra set of hands, and why on earth would they try and kill me to help them survive? It's rediculously contradictory - I mean, if they want to survive, they WILL need assistance from others. They can set traps quicker, gather more food, more ammunition, more assistance if in a fight, etc. Killing someone else to stay alive longer is idiotic, unless that someone else is a zombie.
And also Epoch, welcome to the forums - and don't worry about Siaynoq.
One becomes strong when they are fighting to protect someone close to them... - Shiro Haku
To those of you who think power will be out just as quickly as the outbreak, think again. Does the History channel series "Life after People" ring a bell? Well in some of the episodes, the cities and towns had about 2-3 months worth of electricity. The rural and farm areas lasted about 1 to 1-1/2 months. Same thing with other utilities such as phone and water. If this outbreak ever did occur, span the time like they did in the series and in about 15-20 years, just about everything man-made is pretty much beat to hell and most like unrecognizable heaps of metal, concrete, and/or other various materials. I mean maintenance/use on a car will help it live longer, before it becomes a pile of scrap metal. those lasted close to about 50 years before everything went downhill.
Also, if anybody was good at rigging complicated stuff up, they might be able to turn a car into a killing machine, as seen on the movie "Death Race" and the video game series "Twisted Metal", I'd get a laugh or two if somebody made Sweet Tooth's vehicle out of the standard ice cream truck and started mowing down a group of zombie children.
(Please refer to my last post if you're confused)
One becomes strong when they are fighting to protect someone close to them... - Shiro Haku
Problem is that "Life After People" involved a hypothetical situation where all humans inexplicably vanish. In a zombie apocalypse, there would be mad chaos and infrastructure would be getting destroyed. Fires, people running around panicking, killing each other, looting, all on unprecedented levels. You could count on losing all utilities within weeks.
Random thought. People are easily taken advantage of. I could see groups of people rallying around a charismatic doomsayer. I bet small personal armies wouldn't be unheard of in a zombie apocalypse.
-Hunter S. Thompson
TED . LEAP . Woot . MF
Haha alright, Siaynoq - good point. Let's all be friends.
The point that I was trying to make is that everybody in this thread DOES have a valid point, regardless of how far fetched it may seem. When it comes down to it, we're all trying to agree on a hypothetical situation based around a work of fiction.
When it comes down to it, Zombies (hopefully) are fictitious. I'd hate to see what would happen in a real-life Zombie outbreak, but we could all do ourselves a favor and be prepared (as this thread seems to have been intended for).
@Johnny_Death
You have a very valid point. I predict the same thing occurring, many times. It's common for people to band together under a single person's views - even in today's society. We all listen to charismatic people, people who exude confidence. In any case, you're bound to run into other survivors - the best plan of action is to steer clear of them, or at least make peace with them. People are going to be on-edge, and are bound to have extremely short fuses; things like rape, mugging, looting, and general infighting will occur frequently. All traces of modern society will basically crumble apart. We have Riots in modern day society, and look what happens in them. All traces of the regular comings & goings of people dissappear; everybody attacks everybody. It's chaos.
@Lt Venom & Ullion
A source of power/electricity is something that I predict to dissipating within a couple of weeks to a month. That leaves you a lot of time to do what you need to do. Let's not forget that things like batteries will also be extremely useful, so you'll probably want to hoard them, if you start suspecting an outbreak. I'm sure that there are also generators that can be used, and let's not forget vehicles. Electricity will be in short supply.
Basically, what you want to do to be "prepared", is imagine the worst possible scenario you can come up with. Now imagine that x10. Prepare for that.
And for those of you who think you're going to Rambo/Hero your way out of a hoard of zombies... When you have 8 bodies (that have no regard for their own safety) swarming on you, it's going to be pretty hard to swing a katana/machete with any finesse. Even getting into hand-to-hand with a zombie is a death sentence. The best defense is avoiding all contact, whatsoever. If you find a secluded area that hasn't seen a zombie in a week - great. Stay there. If you see more than a single zombie within a day of eachother, I'd get the hell out of there - unless you've got a surefire way of taking them out.
Thanks for welcoming me to the forum, everyone! Glad I could be of some use, even if I come off as a bit troll-ish, ahaha.
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This just crossed my mind too.
If you want to get an idea of what a zombie apocalypse would "feel" like, you should absolutely watch movies like Dawn of the Dead. I also play UrbanDead (urbandead.com) and there is a great Zombie Infection Simulator someplace on the internet, Google is your friend.
Played it over the summer once, had a pretty badass character going. Pretty sure I started with a firefighter...
Anywho, thank you so much for reminding me of this, +1 rep ^^.