Survival Packs

I recently discovered a site which offers pre-made survival packs. I think this is a great idea. For anyone who is too lazy to put a pack together themself, which means they are too lazy to survive very long anyway. Below I've included a list of the contents of each of these packs. Each includes a base price and then has additional upgrades.

Ankle-biter
$184

• Pack ($40)
• Handbook
• Knife ($4)
• Emergency Blanket ($5) 
• Lighter ($1)
• 9m Black Duct Tape ($3) 
• First Aid Kit ($15)
• Water Purification Tabs ($15) 
• 1 Roll Electric Tape ($4)
• Tissues ($2)
• Hand Sanitizers ($5) 
• Whistle ($1)
• Keychain Light ($1) 
• 1 Pair Latex Gloves ($2)
• Travel Toothbrush & Toothpaste ($5) 
• 25 ft. Paracord ($40)
• 3 Meal Replacement Bars ($9) 
• Baseball bat ($20)
• Flask ($15)

The total for this came out to $152, just shy of the price charged. Including the upgrades is about the same price. I am not aware of what is in one of these "Handbooks" they include. I would say all of this is useful equipment to have but it it not "zombie" exclusive equipment. I recommend having all of these items in your survival kit for your party.

Vice
$532

• Pack ($60)
• Handbook
• 2L Bladder w/ Drinking Line & Mouth Piece ($40)
• Headlamp ($35)
• Multi-Tool ($8)
• Emergency Blanket/Bivy ($5)
• Heavy Duty Garbage Bags ($5)
• 3 Pairs Latex Gloves ($2)
• Water Proof Note Pad ($12)
• Ball Point Pen ($1)
• 56g Can of WD40 ($10) 
• 50 ft. Paracord ($50)
• Knife ($4)
• 3M Odor/Dust Mask ($3)
• 50 ml Vodka ($12)
• Water Filter Bottle ($22)
• First Aid kit ($15)
• 3 Lighters ($3)
• Travel Tooth Brush & Toothpaste ($5)
• Can Opener/Bottle Opener ($4)
• Duct Tape ($4)
• Black Vinyl Electrical Tape ($4)
• Spork ($3)
• Hand Sanitizing Wipes ($5)
• 4 Protein Bars ($12)
• 3 Packs of Sport Beans ($12)
• Baseball bat ($20)
• Airhorn ($20)

This kit, if got on your own, comes out to only $376, much less then the price to buy it all packaged together for you in this kit. For zombie survival I think a few of the items in this kit are not required and therefore not worth the extra weight. The airhorn is the first, this will only attract the undead and alert other survivors to your location. Both of which can be a bad thing. The WD40 is also only useful in select cercumstances and it's uses do not change life or death situations.

Headmaster
$684

• Pack ($80)
• Water filter bottle ($22)
• 50 Water Purification tablets ($20)
• 3 lighters ($3)
• First Aid Kit ($15)
• Can Opener/Bottle Opener ($4)
• 3M Particulate Mask ($12)
• Large roll Duct Tape Blk ($8)
• Black Vinyl Electrical Tape ($4)
• Adventure Medical Emergency Blanket/Bivy ($11)
• 56g Can of WD40 ($10)
• 10X25 Compact Binoculars ($10)
• Knife ($4)
• 35 Ball bearings ($60)
• Bar of Soap ($4)
• Collapsable Grappling Hook ($125)
• 100 ft. Green Paracord ($75)
• Large Orange Plastic Garbage Bags ($6)
• Multiscrewdriver ($4)
• Bundle of large 25 Ty-Raps ($3)
• Orange Sharpie Micro ($1)
• Black Sharpie Fine point ($1)
• Note Pad ($1)
• 3 Packs Of Energy Beans ($12)
• Latex Gloves ($2)
• Travel toothbrush & toothpaste ($5)
• Crystal Deoderant ($5)
• 3 blade razor ($2)
• Q-Tips ($3)
• Body/Hand/Face wipes ($6)
• 2L collapsible container ($3)
• Headlamp w/batteries ($35)
• Keychain Flashlight ($1)
• Travel Pouch/Toiletry Kit ($1) 
• Soap Holder ($1)
• 2L Bladder and drinking line ($40)
• Unbreakable Baseball Bat ($45)
• Chainsaw ($160-$700)
• Two Way/Weather Radio ($15)
• Forcible Entry Tool ($15)
• Zombie Tools Machete ($25)
• Gas Mask Kit ($60)
• Zombie Mask ($1)
• 1L Fuel Bottle ($5)
• Bolt Cutters ($220)
• Flask ($15)
• Collapsable Grappling Hook ($125)
• Airhorn ($20)

With all upgrades this pack would be $1305 to put together yourself; without them, $599, almost a hundred dollars less then the suggested price. Now note I took the more expensive price of most of these items, meaning my numbers are maxes, you could put these packs together for much less and over time. Also of note this pack does not seem to include the handbook of which I have no information. This final pack includes a lot of items not useful to fight zombies. First of all is the chainsaw. Chainsaws are the biggest zombie myth ever, followed shortly by shotguns. Big, bulky, gas guzzling, noising, heavy, hard to weild (read dangerous to user), any of these reasons are enough to knock something off the list and the chainsaw has all of them! Zombie mask... need I say more? Gas mask, not needed unless you are in an area where you expect to find broken gas lines or leaking factories/power plants. Most of these other items are household items that would be nice to have at your base of operations but not needed in a zombie survival kit.

Over all I find these kits quite lacking. The Ankle-biter pack is decent and for not a bad price but the Vice pack is very over priced and the Headmaster pack while not over-priced, has many items you will find in any house you loot and will just burden you to carry with you every where.
I commend these fine folks for the effort but knowledge and training are going to keep you much safer then spending hundreds of dollars on these packs.
If you wish to look at the packs or contact the company or even purchase one of the packs here is their website:
http://zombiesurvivalpacks.com/

Be smart, 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.

Zombies in film: Day Zero

"What can you do when everyone around you is dead, except die yourself."

Film: Day Zero

Directed by Mathew and Marshall Khalil

Written by Mathew and Marshall Khalil

Produced by Night Terror Films, Cathullu Productions, Atomic Zombie

Story: I will try to avoid spoilers but this is a pretty typical zombie story. A family goes about its everyday life until zombies invade. Then a group of survivors is forced to spend a night barricaded in a house. The cast includes a cowardly protagonist, his infected sister, a teenage girl, her foreign father, a woman from down the street and a scientist. You can see how things are going to go. Not much original here but why break a formula that works right? Two notable parts of the plot are throughout the film we see a mysterious character known only as the Chief and Todd (the protagonist) is forced to make some decisions on who lives and who dies, always choosing himself or his sister even though she is clearly a lost cause.

Zombies: The zombies from this film are pretty close to how the undead function. They are slow, uncoordinated, brain dead and persistent. The film does have inconsistencies in this area though, some zombies will slam their body against a door fruitlessly while others will ring the doorbell and patiently wait for the victim to open up, then the zombie will hide the body… perhaps this zombie in particular was simply one of the various serial killers and maniacs who will take advantage of the outbreak to fulfill their own desires. The zombies also infect other people by releasing an airborne gas which seems to instantly turn both living and dead while the traditional bite takes the regular time to kill and infect (ranging from a few hours to kill and minutes to reanimate, to up to a couple days to kill and hours to reanimate. All depending on the fortitude of the person infected.)

Survival Lessons:
1 - Never shake a bum to get him to wake up. He may be a sleeping bum in which case prodding in ever increasing pressure will suffice OR he may be a zombie about to turn in which case prodding will eventually reveal this and not leave you in an immediate grapple with the undead creature.
2 - Your best friend is no longer your best friend when a seven foot cannibal is trying to eat you.
3 - Swearing at zombies does not slow them down or even hurt their feelings.
4 - Killing yourself by any means that do not destroy your brain only ensure you will rise again and become a danger to others.
5 - Do not be sentimental and protect infected loved ones. It will bite you in the ass.
6 - Look out behind you.
7 - Try to get an important bio-scientist into your survival party. It will make you a priority should the military ever get its sh*t together.

Warnings: This movie has a lot of foul language. There is also a disturbing scene with a baby. You've been warned!

Until next time, 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.

Zombie Defense Tactics

To test your survival technique I have created this chart. Answer honestly and you will find your chances of zombie survival.

If you found yourself among the dead do not be surprised. A great many paths lead to death. And even if you survived, that is one encounter against a single zombie. You will have to survive thousands if not hundreds of thousands of similar encounters to die of natural causes.

But back to if you died. Where did you fail? Did you misinterpret the threat? Anyone can be infected and it only takes minutes for an infected to become an undead. You cannot be sure of anyone unless you search them yourself or spend a few days with them and away from other infected.

Were there weapons around but you don't know how to use them? Or you didn't recognize the weapons in your environment? If it simple to train in use of most weapons. Spend a few hours at a gun club and talk to the people there, fire a few rounds and learn how to reload and use the safety, the basics. Look up fencers, kendo fighters and medieval reenactors. These people are all more then willing to show the basics of weapon combat to anyone showing interest.

Are you trained in unarmed combat? Find Mixed Martial Art dojos or Judo and Taekwondo dojos and take the free samples or even basic lessons. Normally I would never suggest Judo or Taekwondo or similar martial arts because they are useless in a fight against a human BUT it is far easier to learn to disengage a zombie and get away then to kill it with your bare hands.

Do you not rank among the elite in the training you have with hand-to-hand or armed combat? What most people don't realize is how hard it is to kill a human, let alone to kill something that used to be human and now will only stop if you destroy the head. The CIA assassination handbook estimates there are a mere handful of people in the world how are skilled enough in unarmed combat to kill someone before they make an attack back. All the undead need is the chance to make one attack, a single bite and your world is over. Making a headshot with a handgun or rifle is a task made easy in the movies but requires training and dedication most people simply don't realize.

The goal when facing a zombie until you have survived or trained long enough to begin killing the undead is merely to avoid them. Your best chances of surviving any encounter are to escape the danger. If you cannot escape it then removing it is an acceptable option if you are capible of doing so. Hopefully this opens the eyes of a few to the need for training and being prepared BEFORE the dead rise. Be ready or be food.

To that end I wish to bring your attention to a group in Denver who I wish all the best and want to recognize their efforts to prepare the world for it's inevitable end.

An MMA trainer in Denver offers a serious Zombie Defense Tactics course open to anyone of any experience level. First let me throw down that I am an experienced fighter and zombie defense expert and I fully intent to one day make the trip south of the 49 to take all of his courses.

The sample course includes four defensive moves to redirect or kill a zombie. They make a point of teaching that pain does nothing to stop a zombie. The training focuses on immobilizing and running. Exactly the two goals you must always have in mind when facing the undead. Killing the undead is an option and always preferred but as this course points out and I have said in my blog, killing a zombie in hand-to-hand combat is a LOT harder then it would appear. Even shooting a target in the head is a feat which the average person cannot complete under controlled circumstances, forget when the target is trying to eat you.

They include games of HvZ in their training. An age old training technique which every zombie survivalist should be aware of and run regular drills whenever possible. The rules of HvZ are simple. The group is split about 5 humans-to-1 zombie ratio. Humans must then accomplish tasks of varying difficulty (sometimes just surviving for a certain amount of time or finding a weapon with which to dispatch the zombies. Zombies must grab the humans in order to turn them, once grabbed a human is then made into a zombie. Humans may only kill zombies with the add of a weapon (normally nerf guns or swords) and a head shot. It is always surprising to the untrained how often the humans lose this battle and their are an infinite number of lessons to be learned from such an encounter.

ZDT includes a number of reality checks. Including placing a melon on a stand and letting trainees try to smash it with various weapons. Most people will find they cannot even hit the melon, let alone have enough force to smash it. Again this is a controlled event, now imagine if the melon was a flesh craving zombie and your life depended on that single swing. The fear can overwhelm most people.

Which is the main objective of the team at ZDT, to show people they need to train so that when our body goes into autopilot when we get afraid -which don't kid yourself, every one will when the undead come knocking- our bodies will know exactly what to do to keep us safe in those precious moments.

Here is a link to the ZDT
http://www.agogewarrior.com/Zombie_Defense_Tactics.html

Until then, 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.

Looking for leadership team

I am currently trying to start an Edmonton Chapter of the Zombie Research Society. I require two people to help me in this endeavor.

The Zombie Research Society is a group dedicated to spreading knowledge of the impeding zombie Apocalypse and encouraging new research in all areas involving the undead.

A link to the Zombie Research Society can be found at the bottom of my page if you wish to find more information.

To begin a chapter requires three ZRS members to work as a leadership core for the chapter. To round off the leadership team I am looking for a Vice President and Sergeant At Arms. The whole team together decides on chapter meetings, research projects and policies.

President:
Provides direction for the chapter. Maintains contacts with the ZRS and near-by chapters. Being the public face of the chapter and gathering material for members to access. Along with other duties relating to maintaining and advancing the chapter.

Vice President:
Acts as president went the president is unavailable and is responsible for keeping notes and documents for the chapter.

Sergeant At Arms:
Makes sure everything runs smoothly and on time. The SA also handles bringing new members into the chapter.

I mentioned research projects and meetings before. Each chapter is required to complete two research projects per year. These research projects can be of any sort and are decided on by the leadership team. They can vary in size and severity based on the size of the chapter and commitment of its members.

Chapters are required to hold five meetings a year at least two of which must be open to the public. The nature, location and times of these meetings are up to the leadership core.

Anyone interested in helping with this great cause (and located in Edmonton) please leave a comment or send an e-mail to: mdthesoldier@hotmail.com

Good luck, 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.

Vehicle Review: Grand Am

I've received a request to look at more vehicles for use during the end. The next vehicle listed is the 1993 Pontiac Grand Am.







Automatic
Front-wheel drive
29 MPG
Top speed – 193km/h (120mph)
0-60 – 7.7s
Tank 57.8 liters (15.2 gallons)


Pros:

Decent mileage
Reliable
Easy to repair
Tough design
Good control

The main thing about this car is it's reliablity. It will take a lickin' and keep on kickin' as it were. In field tests this vehicle showed great promise in terms of surviving very rough crashes including one crash test in which a Range Rover hit a parked Grand Am: the Range Rover was completely destroyed and the Grand Am suffered extremely minor body damage. The mileage on this vehicle is great ranging from 29-35 MPG which puts it ahead of most of vehicles but not quite in the very top rungs. The vehicle is quite easy to repair, with the entire body easy to take apart and replace also the inner working of the car being comparitively simple too other cars. This sports car has a bit of an edge in it's control, tests show that even while racing at 190km/h this car stays easy to control and rides smoothly, a huge asset when dodging wreckage or debris. Though I doubt you will get in many high speed chases in the end days it is good to know your vehicle can hack it if the need asrises. A very good thing about having a strong body is the ability to mow through the undead, a car that can't handle smacking a few zombies around isn't worth the fuel.

Cons:
Crash safety
Power

Part of the problem with a lot of older vehicles which can with stand a lot of damage is that they don't absorb much of the impact: the chances of getting injured are much higher. The car isn't big enough and powerful enough to be an actual powerhouse when it comes to crashes so it will still take the worse end of things. So while the body of the car takes little damage all the force is directed to the passengers. The Grand Am has been given one of the worst safety ratings of all vehicles. The car also doesn't have the weight or horsepower to do much besides get you from A to B. That means I wouldn't suggest pulling anything or trying to push anybody out of the way.

Over all this car is great if your tough enough to take the scraps and bangs OR have the skill to keep this easy-to-use car out of harms way. I would say this is an excellent car for the inexperienced survivor who just needs something easy to use and tough enough to not have to replace after a few close calls.

Good luck, 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.