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The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse A zombie apocalypse is an end-of-the-world scenario in which both social order and government infrastructure have completely broken down as a result of the walking dead wreaking havoc and caus- ing irreparable destruction. While it is true that the notion of apocalypse, or the end of the world, has existed since the beginning of human civilization, a zombie apocalypse is a uniquely horrifying situation that requires a certain set of skills,

supplies, and knowledge to survive. What differentiates a zombie apocalypse from a run-of-the-mill zombie uprising is its duration. A zombie apocalypse is, by its very definition, forever. Its destruction is irrevocable and widespread on a global scale, and it lasts as long as there is a single human brain left to consume. A zombie uprising is temporary, focusing on a small-to-medium number of zombies attacking a single human population, and is typically put down by military means. Every zombie

uprising or zombie attack has the potential to turn into a zombie apocalypse if not dealt with in an expedient manner. It is important to recognize the tipping point where a zombie uprising becomes a zombie apocalypse and prepare accordingly. The information in this book can help you sur- vive a short-term zombie uprising, but the main thrust of this work is the worst-case scenario: there is no cavalry on the horizon coming to save you at the last minute, and you have to live every day in the

shadow of the unquiet dead. It is the end of the world as you know it—are you prepared? WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE AND ARMAGEDDON? For the purposes of this book, we will define Armageddon as the end of the world caused by armed conflict or environmental/natural catastrophe. This can run the gamut of nuclear-war scenarios between superpowers to massive and immediate global warming—caused disasters. It is the setting of movies like Mel Gibson’s Mad Max and novels like

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and it is what most people think of when they consider the term “Armageddon.” One major difference between Armageddon and a zombie apocalypse is that zombies are not known to operate weapons at all, let alone ones powerful enough to destroy large structures. A nuclear-war scenario typically includes the wholesale eradication of major cities and military targets, with the subse- quent radioactive fallout from the bombs them- selves. This fallout, radioactive dust

thrown into the The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a ZO}MB{B Apocalypse During a zombie apocalypse, both social order and government infrastructure will break down completely. (Illustration by Martin Reimann.) What Is a ZOMBIB Apocalypse? atmosphere, can have catastrophically damaging effects on the environment for months, if not years: poisonous rain, cancer-causing agents leaching into the soil, and gigantic ash clouds resulting in years- long nuclear winter. Luckily, in a zombie apoca-

lypse, you won’t have to worry too much about that. Some ill-prepared governments may decide to keep a large-scale zombie uprising from becoming a zombie apocalypse through the use of nuclear weapons, but it is not likely that a nuclear-armed country would completely destroy itself in this fash- ion. Aside from one or two municipalities unwisely destroyed by a nuke-happy military, most cities, towns, and buildings will be rel- atively intact during a zombie apocalypse. This is a very good

thing: scavenging for supplies in abandoned structures will become your new career for quite some time. Another signifi- cant differentiating factor is that you will not only have to compete for resources with your fellow survivors but also have to live under the constant threat of becom- ing a victim of the walk- ing dead. Zombies don’t get tired, give up, or heed pleas for mercy: all they know is hunger and pursuit, which means that your top priority will be self-protec- tion

rather than the acquisition of food and shelter. And there will be a lot more of them than there are of you, no matter where you go. History has shown that in times of crisis and civil unrest, individuals don’t always band together to cooperatively overcome the threat: in many cases they loot, pillage, rape, and otherwise indulge in their most base desires. Beleaguered and beset by both the living and the undead, you will need to learn a new way to live that puts personal defense before all

other concerns. In addition to the general strain and horror of being alive during the end of the world, when it’s likely that many if not all of your friends and family are dead, a zombie apocalypse presents specific psy- chological and existential concerns that no other Armageddon scenario begins to approach. Imagine having to kill a loved one who, through disease or other process, has become an undead creature bent on clawing you open and eating your brain. Your wife, your child, your best

friend: could you do it? Could you stick a gun into Uncle George’s once- beloved, now grunting, slob- bering, hideous face and pull the trigger? Think carefully, because hesitation kills eerOr WORSE. The dead won't stay dead. Dealing with these stresses, as well as the ter- rifying imper- manence of not only your survival situ- ation but also the upending of the con- cept of death itself, can be more than some of us can There will be a lot more zombies than there are of you.

bear. (Illustration by Dierdra Olin.) The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a ZO}BIB Apocalypse rs ; ; = ny i KC, One thing to remember about the undead: they won't stay dead, so you'll have to fight them over and over, unless you destroy the brain. (Illustration by Carlos Machuca.) 4 What Is a ZOMBIE Apocalypse? WHY DO YOU NEED A BOOK TO SURVIVE A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE? Most of you living in the twenty-first century are not prepared to face a basic survival situation, let alone the end

of the world. Easy access to refrigerat- ed food, potable water from any spigot, electrically powered machines that do our work for us, and the social compact that keeps most people from murder- ing each other over petty differences have made mod- ern humanity relatively weak and soft. Today, the driving forces to become physically fit are vanity and the boosting of self-esteem rather than survival. Skills like woodworking, smithing, and weaving are prac- ticed only occasionally as hobbies, and

hunting for food is a leisure activity done by people who can still drive a mile down the street to the local McDonald’s for a Big Mac if they don’t bag any game. The largest cities in America and countries around the world have deliberately disarmed their citizens, making everyone a potential victim of violent predators. This helpless- ness in the face of true emergency was brought into stark relief in the aftermath of Hurncane Katrina in 2005: many people who couldn’t or wouldn’t leave the Gulf

Coast area during the storm sat and waited after it for the government to rescue them rather than trying to save themselves. What happens when all of the trappings of civi- lization are ruthlessly stripped away? The electricity stops running, and there’s no easy way to preserve food or get water from the tap. The law of the land becomes the Law of the Jungle: might makes right. Just making it through the day and night depends on the strength of your muscles, the toughness of your will, and the

possession of skills that are no longer considered vital to survival. Like it or not, the vast majority of you are simply ill-equipped for this con- tingency, and when you throw in the extra difficulty of defending yourself against hordes of ravenous zombies, it will be a miracle if you last a week, let alone a month. Your life expectancy has just dropped to next winter . . . if you’re lucky. That’s where this book comes in. What will see you through this horrible crisis is not only the

knowledge of how to survive but also the confi- dence such knowledge brings. After reading this book, you will learn: ¢ The different classifications of zombies, along with their strengths and weaknesses * How to deal with the overall zombie-caused breakdown of society ¢ Zombie-fighting tactics and techniques * How to find food, water, and shelter in a zombie-overrun world ¢ Skills for dealing with other physical dangers, such as rogue government agencies, zombie ani- mals, and your

fellow surviving humans * How to prepare a zombie bug-out bag today: a kit that will get you through that critical first week of a zombie apocalypse. Louis Pasteur famously said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” While a cliché, it is no less valid for that, and in this new, terrible world, you will have to make your own luck and be prepared to cap- italize on it. With knowledge and skill, practice and a little good fortune, you can survive and even pre- vail during a zombie apocalypse.

WHY SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO ME? The clandestine nature of my previous employ- ment has required me to use a pseudonym when writing this text. My relevant background includes 30 years of military service, with more than 10 years of teaching at the U.S. Army’s SERE (survival, evasion, rescue, and escape) school; riot control in high-risk environments overseas; and combat in Southeast Asia, the Persian Gulf, and Eastern Europe. After I was sidelined by injury, I took a management position in

private security for CERN, the European Organization of Nuclear Research. While a nondisclosure agreement prohibits me from presenting any specifics regarding what I saw during my short tenure there, I can and will say this: the information in this book is more timely and urgent than you can possibly imagine. Credentials aside, please give this text a thor- ough read. There will undoubtedly be some things in it that you are already aware of and others you do not believe. Despite that, I urge you

to keep an open mind and take what is offered here to heart. This is your survival guide, and it may be the most impor- tant book you will ever read. Good luck. In the broadest definition, a zombie is a reani- mated corpse that, while able to perform such sim- ple tasks as chasing, eating, and killing people, is nonetheless mostly nonsentient and unable to reason past a very primitive, almost animalistic level. Their raison d’étre is the consumption of living brain mat- ter, and they will stop

at nothing to get it. Other names for zombies include zombi, the undead, the walking dead, the unquiet dead, ghoul, and revenant. There are three types of zombies, each of which has its own specific characteristics: the viral zombie, the supernatural zombie, and the voodoo zombie. VIRAL ZOMBIE Viral zombies are undead creatures created as a result of scientific effort. This typically happens in one of three ways: * Scientific Experimentation: With the sequencing of the human genome, we

now know more about the building blocks of life than at any time in recorded human history. For decades, government agencies and privately funded labo- ratories have been working in the fields of genetic experimentation, human cloning, dupli- gies 94 2 fae delp dec aanass > - rt | : Ty, f pag —_: “ “hy a bi i \ mF He wo eet a , . ¢ 621 BUSTA ALATA Ses ria "at " = . cation of body parts, stem-cell manipulation, genetically modified crops, and biomechanical implantation. With this

kind of research, a little knowledge can be a very perilous thing, and success can present a much greater danger than failure. Zombies created as a result of genetic experimentation tend to be more grotesque and disturbing in appearance than a run-of-the-mill walking corpse, due to the mutation and warp- ing of once-healthy human tissue. Escaped Virus/Chemical Agent: Despite interna- tional law prohibiting the research and develop- ment of biological weapons, supergerms and other

vaccine-resistant plagues are still being fashioned for national defense and personal profit. The age-old desire to control one’s fellow man has been invigorated by this kind of illegal scientific research, and what started out as a simple mind-control drug may, through accident or design, become something far more terrible. Zombies created through disease tend to be more numerous in the early stages of a zombie apocalypse due to a relatively quick incubation period and ease of pathogen

transference. It is a common belief that this type of zombie out- break is the most likely to occur and become a worldwide problem. The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a ZO}MB{B Apocalypse Viral zombies are undead creatures created as a result of scientific effort or mishap. (Illustration by Carlos Machuca.) 8 Types of ZOMBIES * Extraterrestrial Interference: With billions of galaxies in the universe, each one housing bil- lions and billions of stars, it would be ludicrous for us to assume

that Earth is the only planet in existence with intelligent life. According to the most likely outcomes of the Drake equation— the calculation of how many sentient, potential- ly communicating civilizations there are in the galaxy—there may be as many as 2,000 intelli- gent alien species out there. Just as a home- owner might spray pesticide on a beehive to clear his porch of stinging insects, a hostile extraterrestrial force may decide to take this planet for its own by turning its most

evolved civilization against itself in an orgy of destruction. This contingency, however farfetched it may seem on the surface, is not something to be ignored. Alien-created zombies are little differ- ent from the other kinds of viral undead in terms of appearance and danger to society, but they may be reinforced by alien technology thatis 4 impossible to defeat. 7 \ SUPERNATURAL ZOMBIE Supernatural zombies are created through magical or otherwise unexplainable means. While this

can include voodoo as the creation agent, the voodoo zombie is a different creature in many respects and deserves its own category. The three ways supernatural zombies can be raised are: ¢ Human Magicians: The New Age Movement (including Wicca, cabalism, ritual magick, and general practice of spirituality through tarot cards, pagan idols, and self-help mantras) has cre- ated a huge underclass of ama- teur magicians. There are many supernatural phenomena some committed individuals have

managed to pierce, however imperfectly, the veil between the living and the dead. Zombies raised in this fashion can be considered the sorcerous coun- terparts to zombies created through the error of scientific experimentation. Vampires: Stories of vampires and vampirism have haunted the nightmares of humankind for millennia, and it is possible that there is a kernel of truth to these ancient legends. Vampires are generally considered to be the princes of the undead, and have many powers and

abilities far beyond the ken of mortal men. A common power attributed to vam- pires is the ability to partially raise the dead to do that have yet to be properly id explained through science, and it very well may be that through the use of magic, the Supernatural zombies are created through magical or otherwise unexplainable dark arts, or general sorcery, means. (Illustration by Carlos Machuca.) The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a TOMBIE Apocalypse 2 | il sf Le [ c . onl vt re

Voodoo zombies have been created through incantation and powerful drugs by a practitioner of voodoo. (Illustration by Carlos Machuca.) 10 Types of ZOMBIES their bidding (i.¢., create zombies). Vampire- created zombies are extremely frightening because they are under the active control of a hostile entity with particular designs aside from simple death and destruction. * Demonic Design: The rise of postmodernism as a valid philosophy, spirituality over belief in God, and the ascendancy

of terrorist death cults in the Middle East have eroded the very fabric of what is good, right, and truthful in human civilization. Many respected eschatologists and Bible scholars have evidence to believe that the End Times are right around the corner. As the world God made turns upside down and inside out, the laws of nature may become more fragile, leading to a zombie apocalypse wrought by Satan himself as a way to spread fear and horror. Demon-raised zombies are typically accompanied by other

mon- sters belched forth from the pits of Hell and stink of brimstone as well as death. VOODOO ZOMBIE Voodoo zombies have been created through incantation and powerful drugs by a practitioner of voodoo known as a bocor. Brought to popular attention by researcher Wade Davis in his seminal text The Serpent and the Rainbow, voodoo zombies are not actually undead creatures, but live humans put into a sorcerous/chemical trance and forced to do the bocor’s bidding. It has also been theorized that

voodoo zombies are actually hosts for evil, bodiless entities in a Caribbean form of demonic possession. It might not look as though this kind of zombie can become numerous enough to trigger the end of the world, but consider this: there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that government researchers have been studying Haitian bocors for decades to create and standardize their methods of zombie creation. If successful, it shouldn’t be too difficult to introduce concentrated zombie powder into

a municipal water supply and combine it with subliminally transmitted incantations broadcast over the public airways to create a nation of zombie slaves. Voodoo zombies are usually a little easier to defeat than the other kinds of zombies but are no less frightening and dangerous. 11 CHARACTERISTICS ALL ZOMBIES SHARE All zombies, no matter how they were created, share certain characteristics that separate them from the living human populace. In most cases it shouldn’t be very difficult to

tell a zombie from a normal person, and zombies tend to stick out like sore thumbs in mixed groups. These defining char- acteristics include: * Appearance: Due to their extremely limited mental capacity and existential condition, zom- bies have appalling personal hygiene. Their clothes will be ripped, scuffed, and generally dirty. Most zombies also exhibit seeping, bleed- ing, and suppurating wounds of some kind, including skeletal fractures breaking through the skin, open sores, unhealed

gashes, and missing teeth or digits. This is because zombies are extremely clumsy and feel no pain from injuries, so they often bump into things like walls and automobiles, and trip over curbs and other obstacles. Because they are actually dead but still walking around (hence undead), they will stink of blood, rotting flesh, and human waste. Although they do not have to breathe to maintain their nightmarish existence, many zombies make moaning or gobbling noises from their decaying throats, and

they almost never speak intelligently. They feel cold to the touch, or at least room temperature, and they do not have’a measurable pulse. In fact, the best way to determine the difference between a homeless person and a zombie, if you need to, is to take his pulse. ¢ Disease: Zombies attract flies, rats, and other vermin that feed off their putrefying, ambulato- ry bodies. These insects and rodents may then attach themselves to living hosts and transmit whatever illnesses the zombie, when it

was a living person, may have been suffering: HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis, or other dangerous pathogens. During their travels seeking human brains to eat, zombies may inadvertently infect rivers, streams, and reservoirs, causing the spread of intestinal parasites to those unlucky The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a TOMBE Apocalypse individuals who have not properly purified their drinking water. Luckily, there are very few known cases of sexually transmitted diseases jumping from the undead

to the living. Horror: There is something deeply horrifying about the sight of a shuffling, brain-starved undead creature, especially if it used to be someone you knew. Zombies are the very essence of terror and revulsion, from their appalling appearance to their disgusting appetites. Certain psychically sensitive people are able to sense a zombie’s proximity before it becomes physically visible, which is a valuable survival trait. Appetite: Zombies always have a purpose, and, in most cases,

that purpose is to eat the brains or bodies of the living. All modern cultures abhor cannibalism, but this taboo no longer applies when you have become one of the hun- gry undead. The majority of zombie types transmit their horrifying condition through bit- ing, which makes them doubly terrifying: all they want to do is eat you, and, even if they don’t succeed, they can still turn you into a one of them with a single bite. This hunger is their only reason to exist, unless being commanded by a

more powerful figure, such as a vampire or demon, and they seek to sate their appetites with a single-mindedness that makes them very difficult to overcome. 12 Stupidity: One of the main things that makes a zombie a zombie, aside from being undead, 1s its lack of intelligence. Zombies cannot be rea- soned with or frightened away, nor will they communicate with you to tell you what they want. They don’t have long-term strategies, and their only goal is to consume your brain. Some zombies

will attempt to repeatedly perform activities that they habitually engaged in when they were living people, but this is an unfortu- nate result of neurons misfiring in their rotting gray matter rather than the volition of a thinking mind. The longer a zombie remains a zombie, the more mindless it becomes. Toughness: The only way to kill a zombie, no matter how it was raised, is to severely injure its brain. Decapitation works to put a zombie down, as does a well-placed bullet or arrow. But it

won't stop attacking you if you break its leg or stab it through the heart: it doesn’t have a circu- latory system that keeps it going. Whatever it is that gives a zombie the ability to shamble and bite and slobber is in its gray matter. Later on in this book you will learn combat techniques specifically designed to defeat zombies, but the rule of thumb is to destroy its brain. Do that, and it turns off like a light switch. The world of the zombie apocalypse will be an alien and terrifying

place, despite its earlier famil- larity, and you need to know what will happen in it before you can develop a properly working survival plan. Do not put yourself in the mindset of making assumptions as a result of watching Charlton Heston in The Omega Man or reading a self-help book on assertiveness and goal development. Understand and acknowledge that the world you once knew has gone completely crazy, and that your survival is based on careful tactical planning rather than what you think should

work because it worked before zombies over- ran the world. The anarchy and lawlessness that are part and parcel of a zombie apocalypse can be at least as dis- quieting as having to fight the walking dead. The cherished, familiar people who were formerly your friends and neighbors have suddenly become dan- gerous competition for much-needed resources. When individuals realize that the police are no longer answering 911 calls, theft and looting will become rampant, even in your own neighborhood.

In a world with no hope, where the dead literally walk the Earth, “apocalypse fever” will take hold: freed from social and legal restraints, many people will decide that they have nothing left to lose and will act on their basest, most savage impulses. That neighbor who’s been complaining about your dande- lions spreading to his lawn may decide to settle the score with a .45, permanently. Those hoodlums across the street who’ve been eyeing your teenage daughter for the last year, the

pedophile-looking man who lives alone in a house with the shades per- petually drawn, the camouflage-clad slob with the unkempt yard who has screaming fights with his common-law wife every night: all are potential ene- mies when the rise of the walking dead breaks the social compact. For equivalent examples, just look at the Los Angeles riots in 1992, the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and the post-earthquake looting in Haiti in 2010. People who have the luxury of living in a world where the dead

stay quiet in their graves can label justified caution as paranoia, and before you picked up this book, you might have been one of them. You have to look at things through the eyes of someone living in the world of a zombie apocalypse. Your life and your family’s lives are now in constant danger: do you trust any of these people, the acquaintances you happened to buy a house near, that much? Consider how far you would go to keep your child from becoming a shuffling, drooling, filth-caked dead

man’s next meal, or worse. Imagine, then, what your next-door neighbor would do to keep his kids The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a TOMBIE Apocalypse During a zombie apocalypse, civilization as we know it will disappear. (Illustration by Jennifer Larson.) from a similar fate. What wouldnt you do? Now take it further: your entire neighborhood. After all, the guy down the street has kids, too. Now the town. All those people have to eat. Now the state. What are they going to do? And you can

hear it right out- side your door: the chaos, the screams of the inno- cent being eaten alive, the groans of the undead as they break through windows to find new victims. The police are dead. The army is overwhelmed. You and your family: that is your new society. 14 BREAKDOWN OF GOVERNMENT INFRASTRUCTURE The illusion of civilization with which we have surrounded ourselves can be npped away in an instant by the broken fingernails of a horde of undead monsters. Municipal employees aren’t

going to risk their lives at the power plant to make sure you have hot showers during a zombie apocalypse, and your local city council won’t hold the line against the zombie threat with writs and meetings ZOMBIE Apocalypse Basics and ordinances. We have become very used to a care and maintenance to keep them running. It world that gives us instant service and gratification is almost impossible to estimate when you will at the flip of a switch, the press of a button, or the lose power during a

zombie apocalypse. It may turn of a faucet. Public services you will have to be days or even weeks before the power goes learn to do without include: out, but go out it will. Permanently. Without electricity, you won’t have easy access to refrig- ¢ Electricity: Whether from coal plants, nuclear eration, light, and heat. Gasoline-powered gen- stations, natural gas, hydroelectric plants, or erators, while useful, also generate a good bit of windmills, the vast majority of us get our elec-

undead-attracting noise and smoke, and you tricity from public utilities that require constant have to have a constant supply of gas to power a Mud Don’t expect to have any electricity—or any other public service—during a zombie apocalypse. (Illustration by Jennifer Larson.) 15 The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a ZOMBIE Apocalypse them. Batteries eventually run out. Hand- cranked radios and flashlights are good in a pinch but not always reliable or very powerful. Water: When the

electricity goes out, it is a good bet that the water will stop running as well. One major concern is that most public water comes from aquifers, reservoirs, lakes, and desalinization plants. Before it gets to your sinks and showers, it goes through a disinfect- ing and purification process that is powered by electricity. If your water 1s pumped electrically, it will just stop flowing altogether when the power goes out. If it is pumped through gravity, you may still get water when the electricity

shuts off, but it may be unsafe to drink because of the lack of purification and filtering. It is extremely difficult to put a bullet into a zom- bie’s brain when you can barely rise from stom- ach cramps and explosive diarrhea brought on by drinking bad water. Telephone: Mobile phones require charged bat- teries to work, in addition to a network of elec- trically powered towers to broadcast and amplify signals. At the height of the zombie apocalypse, when the terminally helpless (most of the

world) will be calling anyone and everyone for help, for sympathy, for anything, your cell phone will become less than useless: discard it and move on. Landlines may last a little longer, but in many places the network will become over- loaded with calls for emergency services that will never arrive. Because you have read this book, you will already have a plan in place at the first hint of a zombie attack, so you will not -need a phone. Internet: Email, the World Wide Web, iTunes, and the

entire useless network of computers chattering at each other about nothing important will be the first things to come crashing down when the undead rise from their graves to destroy the world. Your Internet Service Provider has better things to do than risk its employees’ lives making sure you can download the latest version of Gears of War. Zombies don’t care about YouTube videos of dogs riding skateboards or the latest episode of Desperate Housewives. Out of all the things to be thinking 16

about during a zombie apocalypse, is your Facebook page that important? INSTITUTING MARTIAL LAW In the early stages of the zombie apocalypse, at the tipping point just before a widespread zombie attack becomes impossible for the authorities to defend against, it is a safe bet that your government will declare martial law. Polite synonyms for martial law include “state of emergency” and “emergency quarantine,” but the effects are exactly the same. Martial law is declared when local

authorities are deemed insufficient to maintain basic services and keep the public order during an emergency situation. What happens is that the military takes control of the country, focusing on maintaining security above all else. This is done, of course, with well-trained, heavily armed soldiers, backed up with all the weapons and materials they used to use to defend your country from outside forces. Your personal freedom is now a thing of the past, and you have become subject to the

uncompromising statutes of military rule. Living under a state of martial law is difficult enough, but in those critical early days and weeks of a zombie apocalypse, an officially declared state of emergency presents a unique series of dangers that you will need to prepare for. * Curfew: The first thing that will be imposed dur- ing martial law is a curfew, which will consider- ably limit your freedom to move. It is most likely that in the beginning of its imposition, this cur- few will last

from an hour before sundown to an hour after sunrise. Once the danger of the walk- ing dead grows to epidemic proportions, howev- er, you may be required to stay in your home all day and night while the military tries to deal with the threat. Air raid sirens will usually signal the beginning and end of the day’s curfew. Patrolling troops in military vehicles will enforce the curfew, and depending on where you live, the punishment for breaking curfew can range from a warning to imprisonment to

summary execu- tion. The military wasn’t put in charge tu keep you safe: martial law was declared to keep the public order. That means that your individual TOMBIE Apocalypse Basics rights have been severely curtailed, and the mili- tary’s job is to shoot zombies and potential zom- bies first and sift through the bodies afterward. When a curfew has been established in your area, your best choice of action is to hunker down and wait for the military to be overrun by the zombie hordes before

making your escape. A well-prepared home with reinforced doors and windows, a long-term food and water supply, and plenty of weapons for personal defense will be a safer place to be than dodging both zombies and men in jeeps shooting at you because you ran out of Aunt Betty’s insulin and had to raid a drugstore after lights-out. Rationing: The curfew will affect groceries and other retail stores as well as individuals, so supermarkets, gas stations, and pharmacies will be very crowded during

the day and locked up tight at night. Deliveries from the warehouses will either be canceled or extremely restricted, meaning that these mobbed stores will have fewer and fewer things to sell. That is when food rationing will begin. The amount and vari- ety of things you can buy will be lessened, and prices will go through the roof. Your locale may institute ration cards in place of money. This might tempt you to begin hoarding food and valuable supplies now, before rationing starts, which

is far from a bad thing. But be clever about it: don’t buy hundreds of cans of Dinty Moore stew from your local Shop ’n’ Save because that will draw unwanted attention. Spread out your purchases. Buy some supplies now at the local store; then drive two towns over and buy some more. Wait a few days before doing this at another place. Before long, you will have a properly stocked pantry ready to nourish you when the entire town goes into lockdown. For God’s sake, however, tell no one about

what you’re doing and fi ; | At the outset of a zombie apocalypse, one of the first actions of the government will be the imposition of martial law. (Illustration by Dierdra Olin.) what you’re preparing for, and make dead sure that your family also keeps mum. | The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a ZOMBIE Apocalypse During martial law, food hoarders are usually shot and their property is confiscated and dis- tributed throughout the community for the com- mon good. What your neighbors

and, more important, the army don’t know won’t hurt them (or you). During a state of emergency, rationing might not be limited to just food. Services like electricity, gas, and water may also be restricted to certain hours to better keep the peace, so pre- pare to do without if you have to. Transportation: Where you are allowed to travel will be quite limited once martial law is declared. A perimeter will be established around your town/city/area and patrolled by men with assault rifles. Most

nonessential businesses will be closed down: who needs to get a haircut or go to a realtor’s open house when cannibalistic undead are shuffling through the streets? Shopping for necessities will be allowed (until it isn’t). Medical offices will probably be open, as well as hospitals and drugstores. Unless you’re a doctor or supermarket clerk, you will have to have a good reason to be going somewhere dur- ing martial law, and if you don’t, you can be thrown in jail. Leaving town for any reason

will require a permit of some kind. This 1s why preparing now for a zombie apocalypse is so important: you can’t afford to run out of some- thing vital and be unable to get to it because the army won’t let you leave town. Internment: For the sake of maintaining the pub- lic order, the military might order everyone into detention camps for the duration of the emer- gency. Whatever you do, do not let them take you to a detention camp: they’re absolute death- traps. You will be dependent on the

authorities for everything: food, water, and your very safety. Don’t forget that these are the same authorities who couldn’t stop a simple zombie attack from becoming a widespread apocalypse—and they, in fact, might be responsible for the zombies in the first place. What happens when the perime- ter is breached and then overrun by the walking dead? How can you defend yourself, let alone your family, when you’ve been disarmed and thrown into a pen with all the other sheep? When the military

begins rounding up your fel- 18 low citizens to be placed in detention camps “for their own safety,” hide in your zombie redoubt and wait for them to leave. They won’t spend hours searching your house when they have everyone else in town to gather up and imprison. Once you have avoided capture stay as quiet as possible during both day and night, and do not use any devices plugged into the electri- cal outlets. Any government authorities monitor- ing the grid will notice the power use and

send teams of soldiers to investigate, and this time they wil/i do a thorough job of searching the whole house. The situation may arise where martial law is declared in your country or city but it is not enforced in your locale. Your country’s military is a formidable force, especially against civilians, but its power is finite, and the official lines of communica- tion are likely to break down in a real emergency. This is especially true in rural areas. In that case, locally elected leaders

may attempt to take control of all resources and individuals in your area, using law enforcement as a private army. This is very much a worst-case scenario within a worst-case sce- nario. A military under the control of a centralized government will, at least in the early stages of a zombie apocalypse, act in a way that is consistent with the rule of law. Honor and discipline are respected traits among those who serve, especially in the United States, and soldiers take their responsi- bilities

very seriously. They will be tough but fair. A mayor, city councilman, or local captain of industry who has arrogated power to himself during a nation- al emergency has no such controls. His actions are limited only by his personal sense of ethics, and in his mind, might makes right. If this should occur, all the rules go out the win- dow, and you have just become a vassal of a tin-pot dictator. Once you see that Mayor Brown is looking to become Warlord Brown, gather whatever supplies you can

and flee ‘immediately. Fighting zombies and a petty tyrant with a private army is a battle you cannot win. This is not just something you can ride out. Your friends and neighbors, hungry for someone to shepherd them through the zombie crisis, will wholeheartedly support their new leader. In the ZOMBIE Apocalypse Basics interest of staying on the new master’s good side, they'll turn you in as a hoarder and dangerous ele- ment in a heartbeat if you attempt to hunker down and wait out the attack

in your well-stocked base- ment. Remember the section on societal breakdown and act in your best interests, because everyone else will be doing the same. YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN During a zombie apocalypse, self-reliance is the only trait that matters. When everything else has fallen apart, it will be up to you to see yourself and your family through the unimaginable terror, danger, and uncertainty: no one else can or will do it for you. As a modern person living in the 21st century, you tend to

watch what you do and analyze what you are doing as if from a distance instead of actual- ly being in the moment and doing it. You have become a spectator in your own life. Whether this is a consequence of watching too much television or relying overly on machines and contrivances to do the most basic tasks, or simply a consequence of the times in which we live, is immaterial: what matters is that it is up to you to become an engaged and active participant in your own life, and if you want to

survive the zombie apocalypse, the time to do that is now. Don’t wait for some future opportunity to gather resources and important information on basic lifesaving skills, because by the time it becomes a priority, your Internet Service Provider will have already been murdered by teeming hordes of the undead. The army cannot save you and the police won’t, so it will be your primary responsibility to keep your family from dying of starvation, being raped by roving bands of thugs, or being eaten

alive by zom- bie cannibals. Many of you would like to think that your instincts and skills for self-preservation will suddenly “kick in” when they have to, or that the worst things that can possibly happen won’t happen to you, but there are mass graves filled with millions of men and women who felt the same way in Stalin’s Russia, the Great Leap Forward in China, and Nazi Germany. Expressions like “at all costs” sound dra- matic when spoken in polite company at a dinner party, but when you’re in

the midst of a zombie apocalypse, those three words have a totemic, almost magical quality: it will be up to you to pro- tect yourself at all costs. This means that you must be willing to do whatever it takes to save yourself, no matter how horrible or distasteful it may seem at the time. If you work at it and make the effort to develop that vital trait of self-reliance, the knowl- edge of how to keep yourself alive when the world has fallen down around your ears, and the physical skills to

defend yourself and your loved ones from all comers, alive or undead, you will prevail. The proper mindset is key to survival. You can develop this mindset in several ways. * Visualization: When you imagine success as you are confronted with life’s challenges, it becomes easier to make that success a reality. When in a crowd or populated area, visualize what might happen if Person A should suddenly become a zombie and begin attacking people at random. What would you do? Have you located and

counted the exits? How many people could you put between yourself and the “zombie”? What weapons are you Carrying on your person right now? What’s nearby that could be used as an improvised zombie-killing tool? Prepare your- self by not just imagining the worst but also fig- uring out how you would prevail in these sce- narios. Be harsh, be realistic, but don’t set your- self up for failure, either. ¢ Will: Wanting to win is not the same as having the will to win. Building this up requires you

to push yourself beyond what you thought your limits could be. Get out of your comfort zone, break through your self-created paradigm, and challenge yourself. Every workout you engage in should completely exhaust you: never hold anything back for the return trip. When you play, play hard but honorably. You will never know what you are capable of until you test yourself, and such testing must be as rigorous as possible without creating injury. ¢ Hardship: Knowing how much you can endure is an

amazingly empowering thing. Sure, you think you can take not eating for several days, but have you actually tried it? What about going without sleep? Or making do without a roof The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a ZO}MB\B Apocalypse over your head? Or even just going without cof- fee for a week? Most of us have never had to deal with ¢rue hardship: starvation, deprivation, utter exhaustion. Getting used to that and know- ing what you can take now will make it easier to handle when it happens

for real. Practice: Knowledge creates confidence and destroys fear. When you know what to do in an emergency, especially a zombie-created emer- gency, your chances for survival go up exponen- tially. But this knowledge must be backed up with true experience in order for it to move from theory to reality. Get out there and do the things you ve read about. Construct your zombie 20 redoubt and stock it with supplies and weapons you have learned how to use. Practice the com- bat drills taught

in this book. Teach your family the same things that you’ve learned, because the best way to learn more about a skill is to edu- cate others. Stop being a spectator and start being a doer. The right survival mindset won’t just happen when you want it to, and wishing for things doesn’t make them appear. Hope is for people who won’t stand up and do what they have to do. Get out there and make your own luck, and the zombies won’t make you their next meal. re Combat ee a | “< rey: i wid”

e — o 4 q £ f ty _ Now we have come to the heart of the matter: fighting zombies. No doubt many of you have skipped ahead or skimmed through the earlier mate- rial to get to this section. Knowing how to defeat the zombie threat is one of the most important skills you will ever learn, but in your zeal to become a slayer of the undead, don’t ignore the importance of preparation before you go into action. An often- overlooked aspect of combat is becoming intimately familiar with the

circumstances in which you will be fighting. Survival is a holistic effort, encompassing not only combat, but also skill development and marshaling of resources. Keep all of this in mind before seeking combat with the undead. The definition of combat is fighting against someone who is trying to fight you back, and the very nature of a fight is a struggle. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be a fight at all. The longer a fight goes on, the greater your chances for defeat, so you will want to win all

your battles as quickly as you can. In the world of the zombie apocalypse, there are no guarantees: every fight can be your last. The police won’t be there to break it up before it gets too bad, and the ambulance won’t come to patch you up no matter how often you try to call for one. To successfully and consistently kill zombies, you must learn as much as you can about their 21 \ q Strabeaies strengths and weaknesses, the proper weapons to use, and how to employ good combat tactics.

The techniques and strategies laid out here will, if prop- erly practiced, give you the edge that can mean the difference between living out another day in apoca- lypse and becoming a drooling, undead creature starving for human brains. ZOMBIE STRENGTHS Most individual zombies aren’t necessarily strong or formidable foes against an armed person committed to his own defense. This doesn’t mean that they cannot be deadly dangerous. If you live in a world where a zombie uprising has turned into

a full-fledged zombie apocalypse, the zombies have obviously presented a greater danger than could be dealt with by both law enforcement and military forces. Knowing their strengths enables you to mount an effective defense against them. ¢ Physical Toughness: Because zombies aren’t sub- ject to the same physical limitations as living humans, they tend to be more resistant to damage. If you cut off a man’s hand in a fight, the shock and pain will cause him to stop attacking you, whereas with a

zombie, a lost hand is no big deal. The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a ZOMBIE Apocalypse Zombies aren't subject to the same physical limitations as living creatures and are thus more resistant to damage. (Illustration by Rolf Harding.) 22 ZOMBIE Combat Strategies It will just thrust the oozing stump at you and a single bite from a zombie can mean death, keep coming. Because their hearts don’t beat, whereas a zombie can be sliced and shot many blood loss doesn’t affect them. Lactic acid

doesn’t times before deanimating. build in their rotting muscles, so they don’t get ¢ They Create Horror and Terror: Most of us tired or achy after a long day of hunting humans. would be understandably reluctant to chop the You can’t inflict pain on dead nerves. Whatever its head off of a child, woman, or elderly person, animating force, a zombie no longer has a con- but that hesitation can be deadly in a combat sit- nection to what makes a living person work, and uation. What if the zombie didn’t

look particu- as such it follows different physical rules. larly bloody but instead shuffled at you, making Mental Toughness: Zombies cannot think their pained, pitiful moaning noises? What if the way past complex problems, but they also do not give up. Ever. They don’t experience fear or other similar emo- tions, and their very single-minded- ness is a terrible thing to contend with. A zombie simply will not relent or lose morale, and there is no way to verbally convince one to stop attack-

ing you. In a world where we are taught first to try to reason our way past conflict, the zombie is implacable and deadly. They Come in Groups: Through acci- dent or instinct, zombies usually travel in packs, and will try to overwhelm you with their numbers. You must learn to be adept at fighting multiple opponents, even entire swarms of them. Shooting one zombie in the head at ten yards is one thing, but what happens when you turn the cor- ner and bump into five of them? Or ten? Or an

entire church congrega- tion’s worth? They Inflict Disease: In addition to the diseases the undead usually carry, like bacterial infections from the scratch of their dirty fingernails or cholera- infected fleas hopping from their filthy bodies to yours, most zombies can inflict their horrible condition on you by biting. In some cases, the bite of an infected zombie kills (and half- resurrects) the victim almost instantly, and in other cases it can take a long, MY agonizing time for you to die

and ; a come back as one of them. Either way, — Zombies usually travel in packs. (Illustration by Martin Reimann.) 23 The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a ZOMBIE Apocalypse zombie once happened to be someone you ducking, dodging, and avoiding edged knew? Someone you loved? So now you have to weapons or bullets. fight a creature that won’t stop attacking you, * They Are Extremely Stupid: Zombies are easily can kill you with a single bite, is traveling with fooled and don’t use complicated

tactics and a group of like-minded monsters, and aiso used strategies to get what they want. They rely on to be your beloved Aunt Tess eight hours ago. strength of numbers and an indomitable will The degree of horror and terror a single zombie rather than thinking their way through a problem. can produce should not be overestimated, and Zombies are incapable of switching their focus while you may be scared of it, it definitely isn’t from one thing to another, and they won’t stop frightened of