An often overlooked, yet critical, aspect of zombie survival is communicating with other survivors and allies.  The exchange of information during the apocalypse will mean the difference between life and death, so contact through any means available will be vital.  Many a team will undoubtedly drive or hike several miles to find a hardware store or loot an Army Surplus store only to find the stores empty or the local zombie threat unmanageable.  Since it won’t be possible to snap on the television for updates or scan the local classified ads, how will a survivor know what’s going on beyond the walls of their own fortification?

CBs, in use since the mid 1940s, are a good option, and have the added advantage of mobility, but they are becoming increasingly rare thanks to the invention and popularity of internet chat rooms, mobile phones, and the like.  One advantage the CB has over its’ modern cousins, however, is its’ use of common airwaves, currently set to use 40 channels, as opposed to the availability of internet servers and satellites.  This would be a great asset during the apocalypse as minimal infrastructure is required.  One of the downsides, of course, would be the limitation of simple two-way communication, although the CB is not the only device with such limitations.   Having a CB in your vehicle as you drive to a safe zone could be useful as a way to coordinate raids and warn other survivors of road hazards and zombie threats.

Walky-talkies have also been around since the 1940s and are also a good portable option, but , in most cases, will rely on the availability of batteries or chargers, and communication will be limited as far as range.  The possibilities are a little broader with these devices since there are many different kinds available.  They can be very cheap models in the shape of a cartoon character on a Wal-Mart shelf, or they can be waterproof marine units, depending on how much a person wants to spend or what can be scavenged.  They are small, light weight, and fairly reliable, although with growing popularity comes limited bandwidth.  This is a great choice for communicating with other members on your team over a dedicated frequency, but it may be utterly useless as to getting news from somewhere farther than across the street.

Ham radio could also be considered, as people with a working knowledge of electronics could construct one,  but parts  may also be rare, and it will eventually require the use of a generator, which means fuel.   It has been estimated that as many as five million people currently operate an amateur radio, so finding someone else who is broadcasting should not be difficult, and it is, in many cases, transmitted as FM signal just like your favorite station programmed into your car stereo.  Do not be fooled, however, by the word “amateur.”  The people who operate this equipment have more knowledge than   the Morse code you learned as a boy scout.  It goes without saying, of course, this  is not the choice for you if your goal is mobility.

Carrier pigeons, smoke signals, semaphores…clearly, there are many options.  How will you stay connected in the age of the undead?

A. Christensen Johnson

The Bare Essentials are a new series of articles that are intended as a guide to what should be the corner stone to your kits. They are not, intended as a full description of what you should have. Since ZAC’s member base is so widely dispersed all of you will need to take in your own unique situations and areas and pack accordingly.

The Definition:

Firstly, a mobile Bug Out Bag, or Kit, is not a full survival kit. Nor is this a kit that is to be designed for extended, more than three to five days, trips. The mobile bug out bag is intended to be near at hand when you are work, either in you work area, or in the American way, in your car. It is you safety blanket, if things go to hell while you are away from you home and you are unable to use your vehicle to get out of Dodge then you mobile bug out bag is what you will need to rely on to survive and hopefully to get back home to your full kit and the entire stockpile of your equipment.

The Essentials:

1. The Bag: While it seems a given this may be one of the most important aspects of the kit. While a military surplus bag may be the most obvious choice you may want to look at civilian models. For one reason they may meet your needs better and secondly they don’t look like military equipment. Put bluntly, if you look like you are over prepared there may be those who will want your stuff and hen your away from all your gear you may not want to engage in unnecessary fights.
2. Clothes: Since this bag is to be with or near you at all times a change or two of clothes is essential. You may be at a wedding, or church, places where it is unlikely that combat fatigues or outdoor wear is welcome.
3. A shelter: A one man shelter is also advisable since, unless you work very close to home, it may take you multiple days to get there. Here is where military surplus is likely your best bet. Plus, most mil-surp one man shelters are quite lightweight, invaluable when you are counting ounces and things weigh pounds.
4. Water: In, or on your kit should be a container for water, possibly already filled, along with water purification tabs or if nothing else iodine.
5. A Weapon: While it may not be your primary arm a small compact weapon that you can carry on you or that will easily fit in your bag, even if it is only a large blade or a pistol is better than nothing at all. Along with your weapon also add additional ammo or cleaning supplies, a full battle kit isn’t what you should be looking for, unless where you work is just that bad. Though a small compact rifle would be the best choice this is not always an option. Take what you can get. Along with you weapon should also be at least one good working knife for mundane tasks, but that is also capable of combat tasking.
6. A fire starter: some simple device that you can use to easily start a fire should be in your kit. As for choice, whatever work, whatever works.
7. First Aid: While this is a subject in and of itself a first aid kit of some sort should be worked into the kit so that you can get to it easily and in a hurry if need be, but also secured somewhere that it is not in the way.
8. Food: A minimum of a three day supply of food, or more if the trek to your house or outpost is longer, be it MREs, power bars, or even cans if that is all you can get.

Again, these are only basic suggestions, designed to get the mind of the reader revolving around what they would need to survive a trek from your work or another place to your home or safe haven.

Against the undead there is often the idea that distance mean safety. So, taking this stratagem to the next level why can’t we just use our great technology and advancements in the art of air power and bring collective hell down on the heads of the undead where they can’t even touch us?

You no doubt have seen the videos of smart bombs disengaging from the bottom of a jet fighters or falling from the bomb bays of bombers and falling through the air, making minuet adjustments so that the target, often times a small window is hit dead center. With current advancement in thermo baric devices and a plethora of others including atomic weapons it is understandable that these weapons that are thought to be able to win wars would be of great advantage against the undead.

Over the past century air power has become one of the deciding factoring in conventional war. He who controls the skies controls the war. This is in conventional warfare, not guerrilla, and certainly not against the undead. The undead that mankind will face are not the herds of the movies, are not semi-moronic ones that still have some idea how everyday item may. They cannot work door knobs, they cannot drive cars, and they know not enough to even turn on the lights.  The point is, that the undead will likely stay where they rise, unless that is in the streets or fields. Unless you want to flatten everything in the country, and I do mean everything, you will not be able to win the war by air power alone. Also, even if you do try to use air power to completely eliminate the undead, there will be those who flee to the underground, those that are alive and either infected or whom are overrun by the infected in there shelter. Be that the sewers, bomb shelters, of just the subways, places that bombs cannot reach and when the area is repopulated the threat from these areas will hang over the heads of those there until every zombie are dead.

“You can keep your atom bombs, your tanks and your airplanes; you”ll still have to have some little guy with a rifle and bayonet who winkles the other bastard out of his foxhole and gets him to sign the peace treaty.”
General George S. Patton

Just to indulge all of us that like to fantasize about what we would do during the zombie apocalypse, we put forth this question.

If money was no object, what weapon systems you would want to take into battle against the zombies?

Assume that you are going to battle against a large group of zombies, and bringing NOTHING except weapons and ammo that you could carry on your person.

Answer in this form:

Main weapon and accessories you would add
Reason for the choice

Secondary weapon and accessories you would add
Reason for the choice

Side arm and accessories you would add
Reason for the choice

Melee combat weapons
Reason for the choice

Any other weapon or destructive device
Reason for the choice

Example:

Melee combat weapons:
A pair of Kamas…

Reason:
I’m a mall ninja…

While the University is claiming that the plan was originally meant as a joke could someone have been trying to warn the students of a coming disaster?Last week the University of Florida removed their reaction plan for a zombie outbreak from their website. “The exercise lays out the university’s response to attacks by “flesh-eating, apparently life impaired individuals.”

Though they are claiming that the plan does not belong could it be a cover up? Could the school be trying to hide the fact that those in charge of writing the plans that will be taken during a disaster actually think zombies are a possibility? More importantly, was there anything in the document that would have proven useful toward the survival effort during an outbreak?

Read the full article for yourself and make your own judgment.  A PDF version of the exercise/plan can be viewed here.

A Thanks to Andy for bring this late breaking news to the attention of ZAC.

Stay safe.  Stay informed.  Stay alive.

Every day you will be exposed to potential infection due to the very nature of the enemy you will be fighting. Infection can come from a scratch, bite, or exposure to bodily fluids of the infected enemy.

Gear to prevent infection:

• Bloodborne pathogen prevention: A simple bandana over you face and safety glasses arent going to protect you from “splatter” infections. When fighting in close quarters or simply slipping in a pool of blood, you run a high risk of infection. For protection of your facial mucous membranes, (Eyes, ears, and nose) you need something capable of forming an airtight seal. Gas masks, fireman’s mask, and things of that nature are best, but if you cant get your hands on those, a ventilator mask and goggles would be suitable. A motorcycle helmet would work as long as it has a full face shield. If your face were covered in gore, the vents in front could become saturated with infected and it fluids could drip inside the helmet or become an aerosol inhalant to to the air being forced through the vents. Sweat could become mixed with infected fluids, and run down into your eyes or mouth, what is why things with airtight seals are best. That is also why just a bandana and glasses are a terrible idea. Your mouth is almost in direct contact with the bandana, and the fluid can seep through coming into contact with your mouth, causing infection.
• Clothing: Anything that provides a suitable barrier to bites, scratches, and other ways infection could be transmitted. Military or tactical clothing is probably best due to the fact that it is by nature designed to resist failure from rugged use in battle conditions. A BDU top will resist snags and penetration from large briars, so it could keep you from being scratched, and possibly provide you with enough protection to keep your skin from being punctured by a zombie bite, although there probably will be a good deal of bruising. The same can be said for any other military/rugged use clothing. Thick denim, or even leather jackets or pants are also better protection than you think. In cold weather, layers can mean the difference between life and death. Not only from the elements, but from the zombie menace as well. Gloves should also be worn, as your hands will most often be the tools you use for your survival. A small nick, bite, or cut on an unprocected hand could cause you to become infected. Leather or military/tactical gloves will provide better protection than cotton garden gloves. It may also be a good idea to wear latex gloves under any other gloves. You may have to carry a wounded friend, move carcasses for burning, or other chores that would require your hands to be exposed to possible infection. Microscopic cracks in the skin on your hands are very common and are viable avenues of infection.

Exposure prevention procedures:
Everyone should be checked when returning from outside of your base. Check for bites or wounds that could possibly cause infection. Men and women BOTH should be stripped to their underwear for examination upon arrival, and their clothes and gear taken to be immediately sanitized. Everyone returning will bathe in an anti-viral/anti-bacterial rinse, and should be taken to a debreifing session.

Quarantine:
Anyone with bites or suspicious wounds will be quarantined in their own cell for as long as needed to determing if they are infected or not. (As we don’t know the time it will take for a person to turn from infection. Many factors could influence this: a person’s natural immunity, weight, metabolism, ect.) Quarantined individuals will be debriefed as soon as possible. Visitation with the quarantined will be allowed, but in a “Prison style” visitation area where the quarantined cannot have physical contact with the visitors.

Let’s face it.  Nobody knows where or when the attack will come.  All we know is that one day we will all have to face off against the undead.  The best way to prepare is to consider as many scenarios as possible.  This month’s scenario: When the chips are down, who do you choose?

It’s been one month since Z-Day began, and you’re beginning to realize that, as prepared as you were, you can’t do it alone.  Supplies are running low and sleep deprivation is setting in.  The television and radio stations are dead, but you’ve been in contact with a few other survivors via Ham radio.  One is a surgeon, one is a mechanic, another is a retired sheriff’s deputy, and the last is a farmer.  The doctor has admitted to having a drinking problem, the mechanic says he’s disabled, but doesn’t say how, the deputy has a heart condition, and the farmer has a wife who is seven months pregnant.  Each is within ten miles of your fortification, each has a useful skill and experience in a branch of the armed services, but each has a potentially lethal defect, should you take them in.  There is room in your bunker for four.  Whom, if any, do you invite? When the chips are down, who do you choose?

“Zombie Scenario” is meant as a learning and discussion exercise used as a tool for getting your mind thinking about the outbreak.  It should prove helpful to think about a specific scenario and have others review your potential plan.  If you have a scenario you would like to see discussed, contact us.

Stay safe.  Stay informed. Stay alive.

This article was written and submitted by Andy.

“Although it may take several decades for the process of transformation to unfold, in time, the art of warfare…  will be vastly different than it is today… the distinction between military and commercial space systems-combatants and noncombatants- will become blurred… advanced forms of biological warfare that can “target” specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.”

-Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century. A Report of the Project for the New American Century. (September 2000)

There is no doubt that there are advances made in the sciences all the time, everyday. Many of these advances are bought and paid for by the government and then slowly leak to the civilian sector. While others are kept under lock and key for fear that if they fall into the wrong hand that they could wreak untold havoc. Diseases and viruses that made the bubonic plague look like the common cold. But, what if these plagues have already fallen into the wrong hands, the hands of the keepers.

Current bioresearch is looking into the future in a search for everything from the cure to cancer to advancing a person’s very body through gene-splicing. Though, it may be called fear mongering it takes little imagination to consider that a virus developed to help man may in fact turn on him. Though, considered, by some a dirty word, evolution occurs all the time. Plants and animals either adapt to their environment or die. A retrovirus designed for one purpose may replicate incorrectly and create a whole new virus, or an amino acid that is tasked to create one protein and in turn affect another in unforeseen ways. A gene inserted or activated to create one thing may have dire consequences in another area.

While these scenarios are bleak what is more so is the idea that the government may take this technology and use it against the very people they are charged with protecting. “To save the country we have to destroy it!”

It is as real a possibility as any that the very plague that destroys mankind may be unleashed by the people we elect to rule this country may kill us all. It is not as far from reality as one may think, just ask your parents about the days when a nuclear dawn was very real possibility.

Over the years I have seen and heard many questions regarding zombies. Some quite intelligent and thought provoking others, less so. However, there are several questions that have been raised that I have answered time and time again. So, to stave off the inevitable homicidal rampage a few more hours here are the answers to the questions that have been put to me must often. Now, shut up already!

What is a zombie?
Okay, here is without a doubt the most common question. Firstly, what a zombie is not. A zombie is not your stoner neighbor. Though they may have the shambling, slack jawed, clueless look about them they are not the living dead, just the lifeless husk of the living. What a zombie is, by definition, is the living dead or undead. They have been brought to life or unlife by a virus that animates the dead bodies of those infected while live. You cannot turn a corpse into a zombie.

Do zombies eat brains?
No, they do not. This is a pop culture misconception from the movies. Zombies don’t eat flesh either, not in the traditional sense of the words at least. They may consume flesh but they receive no nutritional value from it. They seek out and consume flesh only to try to infect the living and to add to their own numbers.

What kind of zombies are you talking about?
For all intensive purposes on ZAC when we talk about zombies we are referring to the Max Brooks model from his book The Zombie Survival Guide, not the zombies from Night of The Life Dead, Resident Evil or 28 Days Later. Otherwise, by Max Brooks zombies we mean that the zombies are not intelligent, they cannot move quickly, they seek to infect you with their bite or through other fluid transfers. And, no do not go there you sick necrophiliacs!

How do you kill a zombie?
Generally speaking, to kill a zombie you have to destroy the brain. This can be done a number of ways, but the most common ways are to crush the skull with a bludgeon of some sort or to place a well aimed shot between the eyes. Once you manage to kill the zombie it is also recommended that you burn the corpse to completely destroy any chance of infection.

Do zombies have super strength?
No, a zombie is no stringer than the person who existed before they succumbed to the virus. The only difference is since a zombie lacks any inhibitors to stop it from over exerting itself then can but every once of strength into their grip. On a plus note, since the zombie is slowly decaying their strength will slowly decline and wane.

Are zombies smarter since they eat brains?
I have actually been asked this question, the thought being that since zombies consume other people’s gray matter they must be adding to their own. No, zombies are not smart, they are little more than a plague of retards since they are using only the most basic functions of the mind to act and exist.

Do you suffer from insanity or delusions?
No, I happen to enjoy both my insanity and delusions quite a lot. Thank you for asking, though.

While some may question the morals of those who will survive the fall of man at the stained teeth of the undead, just how far does this thirst for blood go?

Suppose, if you will, that you have in your possession the very virus that turns the living into the flesh craving undead. Injected into a person and within a day you have the very abomination that we read and watch movies about, eager to spread the infection. With little more than a whim you can unleash the very apocalypse, the end times on the world that we know. You have it in your power to destroy this plague by simply incinerating the virus in its container, burning it in cleansing fire and stopping the infection before it ever begins. However, will you do that, save the world from this terror, or will you unleash this virus and let it cleanse the world of the plague of mankind?

This is less a full article and more of a poll of those who will read it, so please let us know you thoughts.