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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-
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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
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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 |