A couple of days ago I put out a post with a link to two zombie survival guides. One of these is "How to Survive Zombies" by Dave Johnson. The book starts out with a brief explaination of one possible cause for zombies and goes into a little detail on theories. Most of the book seems to treat zombies as if they react like normal humans -more on this later- but this stems from the explaination of zombies given in the book where by the infection causes a coma, the person either dies during this time or awaken from the coma as a zombie. The flaws with this theory are evident, zombies are dead. The "coma" state is in fact death, and re-animation is 100% if the body has been infected.
Now survivors, I believe you will be smart enough to see through this but I will state it just on principle. While organizations like FEMA, CDC and WHO may try different tactics such as Zombie Feeding stations to keep the zombies controlled; these will not work. Zombies feed on the closest fresh meat. The amount of fresh (read "live" food) to keep even a small number of zombies in one location would be vast. Although this could be used as a strategy to coral the zombies and lock them away until the time and resources exsist to eliminate them.
Looking past the fluff there are a couple of good survival tips in here. Make friends with the socially awkward guy who believes every apocolypse story and has a stock pile ready to go in an instant. This person can probably teach you a few things about preparedness and if they end up turning during the fall you can always take advantage of their preparedness.
Knowing the location of the nearest hardware store is also very important. While you may be able to buy/put together everything you need, eventually you will need to resupply or things will come up that you didn't think of and you will need more wood for barricades, quick cement for windows or walls, and tools.
What is not good advice is trying to make it to the nearest Costco or Wal-Mart. Why? Because every would-be-survivor will be grabbing his pawnshop katana, army surplus combats and heading for the nearest Wal-Mart or Costco. In addition to the people who will already be there. In addition to the people who will be desperately rushing there to get last minute supplies. All-in-all, stay away from these places until things have calmed down a bit.
Run or Hide. Good tip for the begining. Only fight the undead you have to. Trying to be a hero during the first couple of days will only get you killed or in a jail cell. Neither of these are ideal.
There are a few other good bits of information in here. One of which I constantly push, invest in a real leather jacket. If you can't bite through it, neither can a zombie.
But all of that is just the basics, some general survival tips every survivor can tell you. The meat and potatos of this book actually has nothing to do with zombies. It's copied from the US Marines handbook, Battle Drill handbook and US Army Field Manual, how to move, on your own or in formations. Very basics of hunting and fishing. How to use hand signals and even how to opperate a military radio. If this useful information? Absolutely! But not for the reasons Dave writes. Zombie do not opperate like humans but humans do. Eventually you will come across hostile humans, raiders, bandits, looters, other survivors or even military units. It is against these humans the knowledge presented will prove of use to you. While not vital to your survival, every advantage you can get over an opposing force is an advantage worth taking.
The final section of the book is more entertainment then survival guide but is worth reading and taking in with a grain of salt. The one thing I will argue about this section is the note about shotguns. Everyone tends to think of shotguns as a close range weapon because of video games and movies. If you have no weapons training, take a shotgun over an assualt rifle. With a shotgun you just have to aim around the head to get a hit (or the chest if you can't hold the recoil.) With an assualt rifle you have to get a head shot, perfect aim on a moving target, every time. With no training and the target moving in to EAT you, most people will not be able to do this. Most shotguns are accurate out to about one hundred meters (330 feet), a range at which anyone not trained will have a very hard time getting a head shot. Once the target closes to thirty meters (33 feet) I suggest switching to your sidearm. This will give better control, aim and speed. Three things that will be vitally important once the infected get that close.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Showing posts with label firearms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label firearms. Show all posts
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Safe house on the sea
By now survivors you should have realized there are few things I would consider perfect, but this... this comes close.
With extra tugs it could potentially house as many people as required. I personally wouldn't want mine to get any larger then this though. Simply because you could already easily house four to eight families which is a great sized group. Big enough to survive, repopulate to some extend, protect themselves and make others thing twice about attacking.
However I did say it was close to perfect. There are a couple improvements to the design. Weapons storage on every boat, nothing major but a rifle locker with a few dozen rounds would suffice, just to make sure anyone caught on those rafts without a weapon for some reason aren't at a complete loss. A ground vehicle and emergency life-raft/small boat should be on every raft, this is for obvious reasons and there should be more then enough to allow everyone on the vessel save passage off. The ground vehicles should be of various kinds and what the crew is familiar with, motorcycles or dirt bikes if anyone knows how to drive them would be best for scouting and saving fuel, jeeps and 4X4 pick-ups would be best for gathering supplies and moving bigger groups around on the ground. I would also add more water reserves and mounted weapons. The water seems like an oxymoron because of sailing on the river but the river water may be contaminated and not easy to reach, to this end a system which gathers water from the river and purifies it while the engine is moving would be extremely useful.
Possibly the biggest thing to note is that this craft will be a target. Everyone will want it and raiders will do anything to take it or make sure at the very least no one else has it. This is why I suggest more mounted weapons, the more mounted weapons you have, the more people it suggests you have on board. Even if you only have twenty people on board, they would not expect every person to have a mounted weapon so having just the site of twenty mounted weapons will make you look like a much more powerful force. Partially because it will make you a more powerful force, in the rare case you face enemies on all sides having mounted weapons on all side to meet them is never a bad idea. Basically the moral of this is it is never a bad idea to have more weaponry on a large craft like this. It will protect you practically but more importantly it will make you look more powerful then you actually are which can be of huge benefit when dealing with raiders, authorities, or even other survivors. A couple things to note about mounted weapons, make sure the swivel but do not turn fully around, if any enemy reaches one you do not want your own gun to be able to fire back on the ship or the crew. Also don't be afraid to abandon the mounted gun for your sidearm or rifle. Some mounted guns, especially those with shields, can be used as cover as well. If the enemy has bored the ship (and your gun can't swivel onto the deck) keep close watch on your sides and back if you need to stay on the mounted gun to hold more attacks back. If you do not need to stay on the mounted weapon after being boarded, do not do so. It leaves you wide open to attack from behind while your attention is completely focused ahead. One last quick note is to fire in bursts, most video game players will think this has to do with the barrel over heating, in part it does yes. But more then that it has to do with your aim. Firing constantly will throw your aim off more then you would believe. Fire in quick bursts back and forth, left and right. Either mowing the enemy down in waves as you go back and forth, or concentrate on one side then the other side, left and right, back and forth to make the enemy funnel in front of you. In an ideal world you would have a second gunner with an assault rifle firing at the enemies being herded into the centre lane by the bigger gun. If the second shooter is not there this strategy still works as it discourages flanking and slowly you will be able to narrow the lane like a trap that closes the wall in on both sides to crush the attackers in the middle.
If anyone ever builds this or has tons of money they don't know what to do with, let me know. We will be good friends.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and Poseidon make your waters run smoothly, Mike D.
With extra tugs it could potentially house as many people as required. I personally wouldn't want mine to get any larger then this though. Simply because you could already easily house four to eight families which is a great sized group. Big enough to survive, repopulate to some extend, protect themselves and make others thing twice about attacking.
However I did say it was close to perfect. There are a couple improvements to the design. Weapons storage on every boat, nothing major but a rifle locker with a few dozen rounds would suffice, just to make sure anyone caught on those rafts without a weapon for some reason aren't at a complete loss. A ground vehicle and emergency life-raft/small boat should be on every raft, this is for obvious reasons and there should be more then enough to allow everyone on the vessel save passage off. The ground vehicles should be of various kinds and what the crew is familiar with, motorcycles or dirt bikes if anyone knows how to drive them would be best for scouting and saving fuel, jeeps and 4X4 pick-ups would be best for gathering supplies and moving bigger groups around on the ground. I would also add more water reserves and mounted weapons. The water seems like an oxymoron because of sailing on the river but the river water may be contaminated and not easy to reach, to this end a system which gathers water from the river and purifies it while the engine is moving would be extremely useful.
Possibly the biggest thing to note is that this craft will be a target. Everyone will want it and raiders will do anything to take it or make sure at the very least no one else has it. This is why I suggest more mounted weapons, the more mounted weapons you have, the more people it suggests you have on board. Even if you only have twenty people on board, they would not expect every person to have a mounted weapon so having just the site of twenty mounted weapons will make you look like a much more powerful force. Partially because it will make you a more powerful force, in the rare case you face enemies on all sides having mounted weapons on all side to meet them is never a bad idea. Basically the moral of this is it is never a bad idea to have more weaponry on a large craft like this. It will protect you practically but more importantly it will make you look more powerful then you actually are which can be of huge benefit when dealing with raiders, authorities, or even other survivors. A couple things to note about mounted weapons, make sure the swivel but do not turn fully around, if any enemy reaches one you do not want your own gun to be able to fire back on the ship or the crew. Also don't be afraid to abandon the mounted gun for your sidearm or rifle. Some mounted guns, especially those with shields, can be used as cover as well. If the enemy has bored the ship (and your gun can't swivel onto the deck) keep close watch on your sides and back if you need to stay on the mounted gun to hold more attacks back. If you do not need to stay on the mounted weapon after being boarded, do not do so. It leaves you wide open to attack from behind while your attention is completely focused ahead. One last quick note is to fire in bursts, most video game players will think this has to do with the barrel over heating, in part it does yes. But more then that it has to do with your aim. Firing constantly will throw your aim off more then you would believe. Fire in quick bursts back and forth, left and right. Either mowing the enemy down in waves as you go back and forth, or concentrate on one side then the other side, left and right, back and forth to make the enemy funnel in front of you. In an ideal world you would have a second gunner with an assault rifle firing at the enemies being herded into the centre lane by the bigger gun. If the second shooter is not there this strategy still works as it discourages flanking and slowly you will be able to narrow the lane like a trap that closes the wall in on both sides to crush the attackers in the middle.
If anyone ever builds this or has tons of money they don't know what to do with, let me know. We will be good friends.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and Poseidon make your waters run smoothly, Mike D.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Field Guide to Monsters
Darren Zenko has put together a great resource for all monster hunters. This handy little book is called the "Field Guide to Monsters". Of course I am not of the mind monsters are real or need hunting but a book of this nature could not go without a section on our favorite undead. I've copied just this section here as a sample.
Field Guide to Monsters by Darren Zenko:
They advance slowly, in eerie silence punctuated only by the occasional moan and the sound of feet scraping the ground. From a distance, the horde may appear to be a shambling crowd of normal humans. The truth is revealed on closer inspection: ripped and bloody clothes, gaping wounds, rotting flesh and the nauseating stench of the grave. These are the walking corpses, the living dead... zombies.
Where do these mindless horrors come from? There's really no easy answer. First and fremost, though, the zombie was once human - and a human body, even (or perhaps especially) a dead one, is a strong and powerful object. Many methods, technological and magical, take advantage of this potential to bring about zombification. Even a quick sampling of recorded zombie outbreaks reveals zombies brought to life by evil spells; zombies created by meteorites from space; zombies as the result of secret biochemical experiments; zombies created by strange viruses; zombies as the result of ancient curses; and zombies apawned by radiation from atomic weapons tests. In most cases, zombieism is highly contagious and spread by bites or scratches.
Although zombies can be created in many ways, the method of destroying them is more-or-less universal: go for the head. To function, zombies require a certain portion of the brain tissue to remain intact, and catastrophic damage to the head will stop the creature cold. Single bullets or buried hatchets aren't usually enough, however -your attack must be wholly decapitating. High explosives, firebombs and industrial-strength acid also work well. Extremely low temperatures will not destroy zombies, but they can immobilize them.
Note that, although the word "zombie" is derived from the Haitian voodoo word zombi, the true Haitian zombi is not undead. It is a living human, turned into a mindless slave by means of powerful drugs - do not blow its head off! Suspected zombie encounters in the areas of known voodoo activity call for careful inspection for rotted flesh and other indicators of zombification. Remember the zombie hunter's rule of thumb: "Signs of decay? Fire away!"
This is not the complete section on zombies but you can get a good handle on what the author has to say on them. A couple things to mention as everyone knows already, the infection is always contagius. He also makes a good point about how often a single bullet or blade strike will not destroy enough of the brain. When choosing weapons go for the two extremes, high and low caliber. High can destroy enough of brain normally and low calibers, such as .22 are not powerful enough to exit the skull which will mean the bullet bounces around doing more damage.
The Field Guide to Monsters is full of basic tips for a wide range of monsters. In fact every monster I can think of (and many I've never heard of) can be found within the pages of this great little book. This field guide gives basic guidelines for an encounter with any sort of creature and well worth the time to buy and read, for just the entertainment value alone this book is worth while.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Field Guide to Monsters by Darren Zenko:
They advance slowly, in eerie silence punctuated only by the occasional moan and the sound of feet scraping the ground. From a distance, the horde may appear to be a shambling crowd of normal humans. The truth is revealed on closer inspection: ripped and bloody clothes, gaping wounds, rotting flesh and the nauseating stench of the grave. These are the walking corpses, the living dead... zombies.
Where do these mindless horrors come from? There's really no easy answer. First and fremost, though, the zombie was once human - and a human body, even (or perhaps especially) a dead one, is a strong and powerful object. Many methods, technological and magical, take advantage of this potential to bring about zombification. Even a quick sampling of recorded zombie outbreaks reveals zombies brought to life by evil spells; zombies created by meteorites from space; zombies as the result of secret biochemical experiments; zombies created by strange viruses; zombies as the result of ancient curses; and zombies apawned by radiation from atomic weapons tests. In most cases, zombieism is highly contagious and spread by bites or scratches.
Although zombies can be created in many ways, the method of destroying them is more-or-less universal: go for the head. To function, zombies require a certain portion of the brain tissue to remain intact, and catastrophic damage to the head will stop the creature cold. Single bullets or buried hatchets aren't usually enough, however -your attack must be wholly decapitating. High explosives, firebombs and industrial-strength acid also work well. Extremely low temperatures will not destroy zombies, but they can immobilize them.
Note that, although the word "zombie" is derived from the Haitian voodoo word zombi, the true Haitian zombi is not undead. It is a living human, turned into a mindless slave by means of powerful drugs - do not blow its head off! Suspected zombie encounters in the areas of known voodoo activity call for careful inspection for rotted flesh and other indicators of zombification. Remember the zombie hunter's rule of thumb: "Signs of decay? Fire away!"
This is not the complete section on zombies but you can get a good handle on what the author has to say on them. A couple things to mention as everyone knows already, the infection is always contagius. He also makes a good point about how often a single bullet or blade strike will not destroy enough of the brain. When choosing weapons go for the two extremes, high and low caliber. High can destroy enough of brain normally and low calibers, such as .22 are not powerful enough to exit the skull which will mean the bullet bounces around doing more damage.
The Field Guide to Monsters is full of basic tips for a wide range of monsters. In fact every monster I can think of (and many I've never heard of) can be found within the pages of this great little book. This field guide gives basic guidelines for an encounter with any sort of creature and well worth the time to buy and read, for just the entertainment value alone this book is worth while.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
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