Also, if Gunfighter was infected and has become a zombie, be extra-vigilant; the zombies will be well-armed.

More spoils for re-killing him. Assuming this particular zombie outbreak don't have the higher functions required to use his weapons.

I don't think even zombification could remove Gunfighter's firearms proficiency. He's got that shit down to instinct, yo.

Good point, and don't forget that high level of physical ability he's got. I doubt his corpse will be one of the slow limpers either, it'll probably be able to out rundown some of the less physically fit survivors even with all that gear he was carrying.

Dammit. That's Gunfighter for you, single-handedly causing the downfall of humanity. Thanks a lot, jerk.

Humanity simply stabbed him so naturally he decides to help the undead solo.

I have long envisioned a short movie which would be told from the point of view of a new reporter reporting on a zombie outbreak. Over the course of the day things would get more and more hectic.

But then the next morning the news reporter reports that the local college students plus other local zombie movie "enthusiasts" were able to put down the zombie uprising before it got out of hand.

In other news, school boards across the country are considering adding zombie preparedness training to the curriculum for all ages and grades.

I'm not a zombie. Chill out everyone. But I do feel like a zombie after that weekend. Still trying to get my shit together. Expect a long reply tonight.

Oh, god; the zombies have learned how to type, and have hacked Gunfighter's account to try to make us believe he hasn't been converted! We're doomed! Doooooooooommmmmmed!

Perhaps Gunfighter was a zombie all along, and only started this thread to trick us all into revealing our survival plans! We've been compromised! Destroy the servers!

That means all of Gunfighter's advice was designed to get us to get the *wrong* weapons and the *wrong* strategy...scrap those M-14's and get yourself an AR-15 before it's too late! Set up your base camp, trade in your armored vehichle for a bulldozer!

Don't even joke about that. There are a lot of Americans not breathing anymore because of Stoner's bastardized drawing board demon spawn.

There *would* be stresses associated with a nomadic lifestyle, but the M1117s would serve as a rock of stability for the group. I will admit that my strategy is completely incompatible with dependents or extra persons. Six people is the limit. Anything else is too big.

If food became scarce, I imagine that my group could contract with a less secure group for temporary protection in exchange for food. Say, two weeks of protection for two weeks of food. If they're having a particularly problematic hostile group or zombie herd we could contract as mercenaries, such as eliminating/mediating the group/herd in exchange for X pounds of food. If the vulnerable friendly group was particularly well-stocked for food, we could potentially work something out long-term and eliminate the island objective altogether.

If I were to camp, hecks' Civil War island fort would be ideal. If a military-grade bunker was unavailable, I would pick a hilltop farm in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, or some other heartland state. Build a settlement around the farm on the steepest hilltop I can find, drill for water, and build pillboxes, machine gun nests, and other subterranean fortifications along the perimeter. I would *not* go with a full chain-link fence. Instead, I would use concertina wire because it's better against human opponents. There would be a designated, well-rehearsed "bug-out" plan in place with fully stocked getaway vehicles manned and ready to go at all times. Multiple heavily fortified, well-stocked nearby bug-out fallback positions would be prepared. As with my "Plan A", there would be a minimum of two lookouts on duty at all times.

@Gunfighter06

You seem like a nice guy, dude. But what real assurance do we have that you are not secretly a zombie? If you're indeed not a zombie, I think that you will understand our concern.

Come on guys you're hijacking this serious thread for low humor. Let the discussion resume.

LOL, sorry. I suppose that's why I was hesitant to pipe up early. Really then I tend to think of the zombie-apocalypse folks as more than a bit silly, with the exception that zombie-survivalism encourages interest in survivalism, another hobby of mine.

Zombies cannot present a threat to a reasonably smart human. Even if about 50% of people went nuts on something (like rabies, or maybe a nerve agent, etc.) and began to behave like zombies, most of us would probably be okay because survival would mostly be a matter of waiting it out.

While survivalism and "off-the-grid" living make rather splendid hobbies, people are better off understanding zombie fiction for the joke that it is.

Even without extensive planning, I've got about two weeks worth of water in my apartment (including refrigerator plus toilet, yech!) and could in about an hour's notice stockpile another months worth. The idea that a bunch of diseased individuals would be able to mount a sustained assault on my apartment is not to be taken seriously.

Sorry if this takes the wind out of your sail, but as far as disaster planning rabies and rabies variants make for somewhat pedestrian exercises. Long-term electricity failures (a la Katrina) make for much better planning and readiness exercises, unless you live in a region of the world (e.g. the Balkans) where ground wars are more than a remote possibility.

You disagree?

The good thing about zombie planning, as ridiculous as it is, is that it really is the worst-case scenario for any sort of cataclysmic event.

If you are prepared for life without any civil infrastructure and having 98% of the population trying to kill you, then it is safe to say that you are adequately prepared for any sort of more-realistic disaster situation. It really does not get much worse than a zombie apocalypse, with the possible exception of an alien invasion.

@Gunfighter06

I like it. You have a point. I take back what I said.

"If you are prepared for life without any civil infrastructure and having 98% of the population trying to kill you, then it is safe to say that you are adequately prepared for any sort of more-realistic disaster situation. It really does not get much worse than a zombie apocalypse, with the possible exception of an alien invasion."

I'd add global nuclear war to the list of things worse than zombie invasion. Fallout sucks.

A nuclear war would have a higher survival rate than a zombie apocalypse. If you were far away from the nearest nuclear impact point, your only danger would be a slow, painful, cancerous death and hordes of armed looters.

Nuclear war might have a higher survival rate, but life as a survivor would be horrible. You can't build walls or post sentries against radiation.

That said, in World War Z, several nations attempt to use nukes against invading zombie hordes. Presuming that some small, isolated countries would attempt this strategies, you'd likely be dealing with both.

In the event of nuclear war, my strategy is not to survive.

@ Hecks - how many small, isolated countries have nukes?

Okay, large, isolated countries as well.

For small isolated countries, Israel, the UK, and North Korea. In World War Z it's Pakistan, India, and Iran that use them.

(Prompting, if I recall properly, nuclear retaliation from China)

I don't see nukes being used against zombies. While the blast effects and subsequent radiation would kill large numbers of zombies and possibly a large amount of the pathogen responsible, with global communication breakdown you would risk inadvertent nuclear retaliation, in which case you would have to deal with a nuclear holocaust *and* a zombie apocalypse. Too costly. The easy thing is to eliminate or cure the zombies.

As for the survivor quality of life, I dispute that it would be horrible. If the exchange was somewhat limited, fallout would mean a spike in radiation poisoning, environmental damage and exponential increase in cancer rate. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are more or less back to normal 60+ years later, albeit with higher rates of the aforementioned health issues. Granted, almost all modern warheads are thermonuclear and therefore generally much more powerful and "dirtier" than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs and the radiation would be worldwide, but at least humanity could pull through with less total casualties than a zombie apocalypse.