In a zombie apocalpyse

[the humanity]

I plan to get my family and get to the mountains. make whatever we need, raid small ghost towns for items, stop for nothing farther than the arms reach. escaping while there are other survivors fighting.

Once out I will be the wilderness guy, the ranger. use no doubt a knife as that's what in my pocket, but I will surely get a baseball bat or machete or maybe even a .22 rimfire with a homemade silencer. certainly not some heavy assault rifle that will have far less available rounds.

I don't plan to find zombies. I plan to escape them. I will be a coward. If I see them near the home base I will slaughter. Anywhere else I hide and run.

[Traab]

Better way of handwaving it: The initial outbreak started as a contagion vi a highly exported substance like, say, a fruit or a grain. Hence, evil, evil rice or corn or something in a main growing region could feasbly spread it around before anyone knows about the effects about a few days after eating.

Someone enjoyed his Warcraft 3 human campaign! "The Damned stand ready!"

[Coidzor]

Problem with that is that in such a case, either A. it's negligible or extremely localized or B. the only survivors are vegans or some other group that has dietary restrictions that keep them from eating something that *everybody* eats, and that last one is just no fun.

[Riverdance]

I would be with a bunch of friends, all of whom are fairly savvy with wilderness survival. We all work together really well so I imagine we would scavenge what we could and retreat into the wilderness. I would serve along with the rest of them to scavenge food, build shelter, navigate, etc. I believe I have had more experience with guns than any of the rest of them, and I fancy myself a rather good shot, especially with a light shotgun, so I imagine that would be my specialty.

[Solaris]

[QUOTE=the humanity;12786379]Once out I will be the wilderness guy, the ranger. use no doubt a knife as that's what in my pocket, but I will surely get a baseball bat or machete or maybe even a .22 rimfire with a homemade silencer. certainly not some heavy assault rifle that will have far less available rounds.QUOTE]

5.56mm is one of the most common rounds in the world, right alongside the 7.62mm (both Soviet and NATO). Ma Deuce is the only practical weapon in our arsenal of crew-served weapons that you really can't arm with off-the-shelf ammunition (provided you scavenge your links, of course).

I do have to chuckle at everyone saying they'll assume a leadership role. Too many chiefs gets the tribe eaten.

[North_Ranger]

I do have to chuckle at everyone saying they'll assume a leadership role. Too many chiefs gets the tribe eaten.

That's the problem with a power vacuum. Once the current regime is eaten, everyone and their grandmother starts grabbing for power. It's the old zombie movie adage: your worst enemy are not the zombies, it's other people.

[Elemental]

Don't worry. I'll be fine as official scribe.
Control over knowledge shall give me power in the long run!
*evil laughter*
Seriously, someone has to take the minutes for our meetings.

[Coidzor]

I do have to chuckle at everyone saying they'll assume a leadership role. Too many chiefs gets the tribe eaten.

I imagine that is the fundamental problem with anarcho-zombism, yeah, everyone wants to be the despot, which leads to fragmentation and inter-tribal warfare amongst the nascent seeds for rebuilding culture.

I figure I'm most likely either zombie chow or going to get enslaved by a group of raiders if I last long enough, at least, at present where I have a number of skills and physical traits which would be useful mostly for hauling or transporting supplies or tending to a garden.

[WyvernLord]

I imagine that is the fundamental problem with anarcho-zombism, yeah, everyone wants to be the despot, which leads to fragmentation and inter-tribal warfare amongst the nascent seeds for rebuilding culture.

Yeah, i noticed that. Also a loyal and hard working lacky here.

[Serpentine]

I do have to chuckle at everyone saying they'll assume a leadership role. Too many chiefs gets the tribe eaten.

I think I'm better as a second or third, or maybe an adviser type thing. Ideas and helping make things happen.

You know, when I'm not cowering in fear and/or getting disemboweled.

I am actually liking the sound of this Cambrae thing. In land-locked Armidale, we decided the local Bunnings was the place to go: big, sturdy building; lots of building materials and stuff to make weapons with; surrounded by an open field; lots of seeds for long-term food; and so on.

[An Enemy Spy]

Become a zombie. Might as well be on the winning side.

[Silverraptor]

Become a zombie. Might as well be on the winning side.

*Headshots*

*Walks on*

[An Enemy Spy]

*Headshots*

*Walks on*

I'm a zombie. What do I care?

[Taffimai]

I'll be the one who starts planning how to propagate the species with the limited number of survivors available while maintaining the widest possible genetic variety.

a.k.a. the one who goes: "Congratulations, male#11, you have successfully impregnated female#27. Next on your list - checks clipboard - would be female#05, but she's still nursing female#05-13. However, I see that female#17 has just become available, so tally-ho!"

[Hiro Protagonest]

I'm a zombie. What do I care?

"There are exactly two ways to kill Zed: Chop off their head, or burn them to a crisp."

So they apparently still need their brain.

[noparlpf]

I don't plan to find zombies. I plan to escape them. I will be a coward. If I see them near the home base I will slaughter. Anywhere else I hide and run.

My plan. I see no reason to go looking for trouble. I'd probably be the type to freak the **** out because I'm terrified of zombies lay low with my crowbar in hand, move around when necessary to find food and drink, avoid trouble. Maybe try to meet up with a couple of friends who would also do alright in a survival situation. It would be nice to have somebody to watch my back, and I would like to have somebody to keep watch while I sleep.

I do have to chuckle at everyone saying they'll assume a leadership role. Too many chiefs gets the tribe eaten.

I don't want to be a leader, but I also don't want to stick with a large group until the zombie infestation starts to die down and we get to rebuilding society. I'd probably be alright as a leader if necessary, but I'd also be so freaked out during the zombie apocalypse to trust myself not to kill my teammates.

"There are exactly two ways to kill a zombie: Chop off their head, or burn them to a crisp."

So they apparently still need their brain.

But zombies don't have very much in the way of thoughts. I doubt zombies sit around philosophizing about death and the afterlife.


Just a question, but are these zombies the type that starve to death in a few weeks without humans and stuff to eat, or do they remain animated for decades even without any flesh left? Even with sustenance, how quickly do they decay to the point of being unable to move?

[OverdrivePrime]

Assuming my wife and baby have survived and are with the group, I'll be the diplomat, group counselor, secondary outdoorsman and melee defender. I'll also be the guy who raids a pharmacy for a five year supply of 175mcg Levothyroxine at the first opportunity.

If not, I'll be the very grimdark melee heavy.

In both cases I can also handle any carpentry, boating, cooking and electrical work. Do not use me for stealth missions. While agile, my big feet manage to find every creaky board available.

[An Enemy Spy]

I'll be the one who starts planning how to propagate the species with the limited number of survivors available while maintaining the widest possible genetic variety.

a.k.a. the one who goes: "Congratulations, male#11, you have successfully impregnated female#27. Next on your list - checks clipboard - would be female#05, but she's still nursing female#05-13. However, I see that female#17 has just become available, so tally-ho!"

Inbreeding ahoy!

[noparlpf]

Assuming my wife and baby have survived and are with the group, I'll be the diplomat, group counselor, secondary outdoorsman and melee defender. I'll also be the guy who raids a pharmacy for a five year supply of 175mcg Levothyroxine at the first opportunity.

If not, I'll be the very grimdark melee heavy.

In both cases I can also handle any carpentry, boating, cooking and electrical work. Do not use me for stealth missions. While agile, my big feet manage to find every creaky board available.

Unfortunately levothyroxine doesn't have a five-year shelf life, if I recall correctly. Kind of stinks for folks with thyroid disorders...which I probably will develop in the next couple of years, based on family history.

[Aedilred]

While I am most likely to prosper in a leadership/strategic role, in a situation where I have unexpectedly survived the apocalypse and joined a band of fellow survivors, none of whom I know, I am nowhere near assertive enough to assume that position, assuming there's anybody there who thinks they know what they're doing. Unless I figured my survival was invaluable to the group, the chances are I'd end up sacrificing myself in some pointless fashion.

In a situation where you have even a short time (a couple of hours) to prepare, I'd execute my apocalypse survival strategy and assemble my own team of trusted friends and associates. In that situation I'd be much better at exercising my authority and judgment and taking on a leadership role. I don't know whether I'd have what it takes to lead the group for a long time but I could at least establish enough of a reputation for usefulness as a decision-maker to be kept around.

[OverdrivePrime]

Unfortunately levothyroxine doesn't have a five-year shelf life, if I recall correctly. Kind of stinks for folks with thyroid disorders...which I probably will develop in the next couple of years, based on family history.

Crap. With my 'no thyroid' flaw I kinda need those little pills in order to stay vertical. Hopefully we can get a pharma lab up and running before my meds fail me.

[Anuan]

Melee and overseer of stationary fort defenses, assuming we go with fortifying a defensive position rather than nomadic-tribe format.. I've got functional weapons for when all y'all's bullets run out and zombies don't need -much- armouring against; just stop them breaking the skin.

With a bunch of people with carpentry and welding skills, I can set up a plan for standard grounded pike defenses, we've got enough people that we can dig spike-pits, I've got a pattern or two for various forms of ballistae and catapault around here somewhere. We construct sniper platforms and towers, and if there's any masonry-oriented folks out there, walls with wall-mounted ballistae, and catapaults behind them.

[the humanity]

5.56mm is one of the most common rounds in the world, right alongside the 7.62mm (both Soviet and NATO). Ma Deuce is the only practical weapon in our arsenal of crew-served weapons that you really can't arm with off-the-shelf ammunition (provided you scavenge your links, of course).

I do have to chuckle at everyone saying they'll assume a leadership role. Too many chiefs gets the tribe eaten.

The sheer amount of .22 ammo even Wal-mart will carry compared to other ammo will make it the best. Also, being lighter in ammo means I can carry more of it without straining myself. There is a difference between 'available' and 'always available'.

The .22 has a reputation for being a weak, childrens gun. It feels like a toy. It lacks range compared to larger weapons. Veterans would rather grab a heavier gun. It will simply be more available. When your goal is to minimize risk, a .22 is better.

plus the guns are also far more available. why be caught with 5 pounds of ammo that only fit one gun in the nearby area, that just happens to be the one you broke on the zombie that snuck up behind you?

[Dr.Epic]

In a zombie acopcalypse, dead flesh eats you.
get it?

[Murska]

I've got plenty of weapons, lots of space to retreat into wilderness, some basic survival skills and enough smarts to not do anything extremely dumb.

So, I'd grab as much stuff, especially food, as possible, a few books, drive a van to the wilds, build a zombie-proof shelter on an island and wait it out. It depends on the zombie type whether this is feasible. I don't really know anyone I'd trust enough to take with me, though having a friend or two around would make things easier in some respects. I don't really need company, though.

Depending on what the zeds are like and how they track people, I imagine that I wouldn't have to contend with too many of them on an island in the middle of a lake in the middle of nowhere. Especially with deep winter snows that usually impede the living dead somewhat - I'd saw open the ice and such.

So basically, my role in a group is that I'd avoid getting placed into a group.

[noparlpf]

Personally I'm a decent shot (I can usually hit within a fifteen centimeter radius from twenty feet or so with a .45; haven't had much practice in any other settings). But I hate guns and ranged weapons in general, and besides, they require ammo. Reach weapons are cool; I'd love to learn how to use a meteor well, and the halberd is fun (though not particularly long, come to think of it). My style is close-range bludgeoning, regardless of how much more dangerous that is against critters than can kill you with a minor wound. Hence crowbar. And I guess a heavy leather jacket and gloves, maybe a ski mask or something, to minimize exposed skin.

[Solaris]

The sheer amount of .22 ammo even Wal-mart will carry compared to other ammo will make it the best. Also, being lighter in ammo means I can carry more of it without straining myself. There is a difference between 'available' and 'always available'.

And you'll need more. It's part of the problem of the 5.56mm - sure, I can carry twice as many, but I have to shoot everything twice to make it die in a timely manner. I've seen a guy take four 5.56mm rounds before he even went down, then take two more to stay down. Zombies are traditionally tougher to take down than the living, unless you're someone familiar enough with firearms to be able to reliably take that headshot.

The .22 has a reputation for being a weak, childrens gun. It feels like a toy. It lacks range compared to larger weapons. Veterans would rather grab a heavier gun. It will simply be more available. When your goal is to minimize risk, a .22 is better.

Are we talking rifle or pistol rounds? The pistol round, you might as well be popping off BBs for all the good it will do you at any ranges you care to be engaging at.
If you're looking at small game, though, the .22 is the most useful thing you've got. That's what I'd use it for - but carrying fifty pounds doesn't bother me like it would most folks. It's nothing for me to slap an extra eight-pound weapon on my pack... especially considering I'm with a team of four to twelve fit men who can split loads.

Relying on salvage is a terrible idea. If you're looking to minimize risk, get a crossbow or a shotgun. You can manufacture shotgun ammo relatively easily. Heck, if you're feeling froggy, let's not ignore the possibility of a muzzle-loader.

plus the guns are also far more available. why be caught with 5 pounds of ammo that only fit one gun in the nearby area, that just happens to be the one you broke on the zombie that snuck up behind you?

If you manage to break an M16A2/A4, you deserve to be eaten. I've used one as a baseball bat before (grab it by the barrel, beat target vigorously with pistol grip/stock end) and it still functions perfectly fine as a firearm. They only really jam if you're deliberately mistreating them or using really, really old weapons that should have been retired after the first Gulf War.
That aside, I'll reiterate that weapons using 5.56mm and 7.62mm ammo are really quite common. In the end, it's what you're most comfortable with. Having a thousand rounds and twenty M16A2s doesn't matter if you can't shoot the thing to save your life.

I imagine that is the fundamental problem with anarcho-zombism, yeah, everyone wants to be the despot, which leads to fragmentation and inter-tribal warfare amongst the nascent seeds for rebuilding culture.

No kidding. I may only be third grunt on the left, uncredited in the movie and recognized only by my mother in the fifteen seconds I have on-screen, but me and my buddies would survive while the Lone Hero would get eaten.
What can I say? I'm a professional. Amateur heroics stopped being cute a long time ago.

So basically, my role in a group is that I'd avoid getting placed into a group.

"Ew, what happened here?"
"Dysentery."
"Burn the shack to the ground, let's call this island clear and go home."

Or even better...

"Seriously? There's no guard on this li'l island in the middle of the lake that we can row to and the zombies can just walk to on the lakebed?"
"Time to loot and pillage!"
"Remember: Pillage, then burn."
"I can never keep those two straight..."

Both are situations that a buddy can alleviate.

And I guess a heavy leather jacket and gloves, maybe a ski mask or something, to minimize exposed skin.

Come to think of it, if a zombie's not much stronger than an ordinary human that would pretty much be all the protection you need. Even jeans are surprisingly difficult to bite through.

[noparlpf]

Come to think of it, if a zombie's not much stronger than an ordinary human that would pretty much be all the protection you need. Even jeans are surprisingly difficult to bite through.

Well, I'd guess that a fresh zombie is stronger than a human because the mental limiters that stop the body from hurting itself are gone. But then they'll quickly tear all their muscles, and because they're dead and decaying, they won't heal, so they'll be weaker than humans pretty soon.
And remember, they also have hands, not that they're particularly coordinated. So you also have to worry about one of them managing to tug your jacket partially off or something.

[Traab]

Ive had my skin torn and bleeding through clothing before. If a zombie gets its teeth on you, even the saliva it leaves behind might be enough once it soaks through the material if it skinned you. Remember, it doesnt take a 3 inch chunk of flesh getting torn off to cause infection.

[noparlpf]

Ive had my skin torn and bleeding through clothing before. If a zombie gets its teeth on you, even the saliva it leaves behind might be enough once it soaks through the material if it skinned you. Remember, it doesnt take a 3 inch chunk of flesh getting torn off to cause infection.

True...I've gotten cuts many times through clothing without the clothing tearing. Like that time last winter when I ran through a field of frozen snow and shredded the skin on my shins pushing through the inch-thick layer of ice on the surface of the snow. (OH NO I USED ENGLISH MEASUREMENTS WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME DARN YOU AMERICAN PEERS.) (I'm on some mild opioids for pain right now, please excuse my previous outburst.)