I think that one of the major problems isn't even the zombies as such, but the collapse of infrastructure that we rely on to maintain our current populations. Transportation and associated trade. Electrical power. Fuel. Fertilizer.
Like, even if you omitted zombies from the equation and took those away, the population that could be supported is probably a whole lot lower than the present population. Pre-industrial societies were not very populous compared to current ones.
The carrying capacity of an ecosystem is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as the environment's maximal load,[clarification needed] which in population ecology corresponds to the population equilibrium, when the number of deaths in a population equals the number of births (as well as immigration and emigration)
Human carrying capacity is a function of how people live and the technology at their disposal. The two great economic revolutions that marked human history up to 1900—the agricultural and industrial revolutions—greatly increased the Earth's human carrying capacity, allowing human population to grow from 5 to 10 million people in 10,000 BCE to 1.5 billion in 1900.[47] The immense technological improvements of the past 100 years—in applied chemistry, physics, computing, genetic engineering, and more—have further increased Earth's human carrying capacity, at least in the short term. Without the Haber-Bosch process for fixing nitrogen, modern agriculture could not support 8 billion people.[48] Without the Green Revolution of the 1950s and 60s, famine might have culled large numbers of people in poorer countries during the last three decades of the twentieth century.[49]
This is the answer. Most people won't survive the long term breakdown of society for long, and the "preppers" will probably be some of the first to go, as they will fight each other, become targets, and generally have a more antagonistic approach to survival. The people who stand the best chance will be the ones focused on collaboration and community building. But even then, surviving the initial collapse will be more about luck than intent.
These survivalist fantasies where people paint themselves as capable and not fodder...
Hell, you outlast the outbreak/bomb you'll probably die of sepsis the first time you get a bad cut or a tooth that goes rotten.
If it is truly the apocalypse, you are best just letting go, because what follows after is like the end of night out at a club when they turn the lights on.
... because what follows after is like the end of night out at a club when they turn the lights on.
I always loved that bit when I used to go to the clubs, because I was aces at swimming between all the drunks.
Not all us are helpless.
Infections are a real risk, yeah, but I've literally some antibiotics in my fridge, don't even remember where from. Sure they're expired and for specifically I think ear/nose/mouth infections, but they'd be of some help. Also I have the basics of mycology down, so making my own antibiotics wouldn't be out of the question. Would it be risky, and entail lots of shitting my guts out? Probably. But if it was an apocalypse scenario and I had a bad infection, I'd take my chances. Penicillin is quite common.
I've also other medical supplies like large expensive-ish covers/pads for surgery wounds from my elbow surgery, they gave me extra ones as I had to keep it clean at home (and by extra I mean extra not ones I was supposed to use but in case I fucked it up etc) and general first aid kit ofc.
I've also 25 liters of fresh water, just in case, and a car with a full tank of gas, a freezer full of food, would last me months, plus the dry stuff in the pantry. Weapons, not really. Lots of knives ofc, not kitchen knives, but puukko, Finnish knives. From a pretty much pvp version that's almost a small sword, to small whittling ones. (Got my first one at four from my grandpa, proper puukko from Lappi.) Got some mace, a foldable shovel that also functions as an ax. And a very small poundage bow. (You could perhaps hurt people with it with good arrows but honestly it's a teenagers practice bow, more for the psychological factor I think.)
Besides all that, I also served a year in the military, where I went to officer training for supply logistics. Meaning everything you need to keep fighting fit, aside from medical assistance. Supplies, guns, bullets, clothing, water and especially food. So we were also taught how to slaughter and butcher various animals, and how to be relatively sure that what you're eating and drinking isn't going to kill you. (We also drilled a well in -20c by hand when the ground was literally frozen solid. Had to 6m deep iirc or was it even 8.) Also how warm you need to be, how much water you need daily. From all the basics from "don't shit near where you make food" to more complex shit, like which bacteria live in which temp and what it takes to kill them.
So you know. You might let go, but I wouldn't. I'm no prepper, and in fact find them rather comical. However I do live about 300km from the Russian border, so I don't think any of this is in any way fantastical or even highly improbable.
I mean I don't plan to crash a car when I'm in one, but I (almost) always use a seatbelt. Doesn't mean I'm fantasising about crashes. But I have survived several though, so.
Wizard Island is a 5 hour drive. Deep freshwater lake, surrounded by water on all sides. Fish. In a volcanic crater so any zombies coming have to summit the volcano first, then be visible on the rim before getting to the water, where they sink.
I think that in general, the problem with water barriers is that they work well on humans, who need to breathe. But, depending upon the type of zombie universe in question, zombies may not. They may be able to just walk along the bottom.
EDIT: And one other complication for the zombie apocalypse survivor who wants to set up near large, accessible sources of freshwater:
b. (U) Operational COG #2: Potable water sources (PWS)
i. (U) Zombies do not drink water, but humans do. Humans typically cannot survive longer than 10 days without fresh water. Zombies will likely be drawn to potable water sources by the presence of human food sources that zombies prey on.
My biggest concern would be the zombies contaminating the water with whatever virus/poison/venom that makes zombies. Even if they're visible, the moment they touch water, I'd already be scared to drink.
As I’ve grown older, survival has become a burden. I’ve decided to embrace chaos by traveling in my shark suit and detonating any reactors I encounter. I’ve always been a morally upright person, so I believe I deserve to sought a little chaos in my life.
Highly unlikely that anyone would actually "survive" a zombie apocalypse. It's more a question of how long you'd last, and for the vast majority of people that would be just days.
For example, if you live in a major city, it's highly unlikely you'd have enough supplies at home to wait out the initial chaos. Heading to the supermarket to fist-fight over a can of beans, or going to the gas station, is exactly what everyone else is doing too - and that's where you either get killed by a panicking human or bitten by the infected.
Even if you had the foresight to stock enough supplies to bunker down in your apartment for a few weeks (by far the safest place for you to be), you'd still be trapped inside a city full of the walking dead. The odds could not be more stacked against you.
I dunno, I'm pretty sure you'd only have to hold out for the few days it would take for the birds/ants/etc to eat through the major tendons on all the zombies, rendering them immobile, and then you'd be completely safe and the massive clean-up project could begin.
Unless anything magical/sci fi like in dead island going on i doubt there is enough food to support them for long. My guess is most run out of calories in 2 weeks. Then it gets to manageable levels.
We're talking about zombies here - they're fictional, magical creatures that laws of nature don't apply to. If it did, we wouldn't have zombies in the first place.
Zombies don't have heartbeat, don't eat, drink or sleep. They decay extremely slowly and can only be killed by destroying the brain.
I actually live on the outskirts of a city, in the intersection of major motorways and a walking distance from the small but interactions airport we have. As in I regularly take walks which go within a stones throw of the airport area and I've been in the back buildings they have there, fucking around with old lockers and the airplane stairs they'd use to use and whatnot. (Free clay balls for my gardening hobby as well dumped in a pile there, clearly abandoned.)
And I'm pretty sure I could manage to get Cessna sized plane up, I've played enough simulators.
Everyone here is so negative about all of this. I'd have much better chances at a life worth living than I do in this bureaucratic hellscape. Not really, probably, because once the convenience of everything gets taken away, it seems way less fun. But yeah not everyone is in the same situation. One of the other commenters was a trucker in, I assume, the US. That's a mobile apartment with torque enough to drive through any zombies. That guy isn't stuck in a city.
Form a citizen militia, go door to door and instruct people to start making spears out of what ever parts we can obtain. Train to fight in a formation.
Picks and shovels, construct earthworks to defend against a siege. Hold them out, funnel them into killing zones.
This is something that killed walking dead for me. There was a whole thing where they're in the prison and the zombies outside manage to mass up enough that they break the fence. If they took shifts, 4 hrs a day with a spear and head stabbed the zombies they would never have gotten to a critical mass.
Infact, I did the math years ago for my ideal zombie escape zone. It would only take 8 people and a month to effectively eliminate the entire regional population if we move in 4 hour shifts. So baring the entire nearest metropolitan city showing up at once with a psychic level awareness of our presence and a deep need for revenge, all you really need is consistency and a schedule.
Basically, in any sort of supply disruption cities will become unlivable very quickly.
Everyone thinks they can go camping and fishing. You could only survive like that for a few days - most fisheries cant support thousands of people from the city.
If you dont already live on a farm, your only chance is to find a farm and offer your Labor and help defending it from thieves and refugees in return for food. Dig in and prepare to be over run by desperate refugees in the coming days. Pay special attention to sanitisation. If possible scavenge medication.
Everyone thinks they can go camping and fishing. You could only survive like that for a few days - most fisheries cant support thousands of people from the city.
But how many people die from the initial zombie attack + human infighting + how many people are physically fit enough to do this sort of thing to begin with? The longer you can hold out, the more the human population would decrease, and the easier this would get
You can easily go without food for a month. So. At least weeks. And if you play it right, with a few fish, some backpacker meals, a bag of rice, and seeds to start growing greens, beans, and corn, you'd be fine for a long time.
Yes, its possible for an adult to not die for a month or so with no food in the right circumstances.
However, your physical and cognitive abilities are severely limited. You're definitely not going to be fighting off other groups or zombies if you haven't eaten for a week.
If the supply chain is interrupted anywhere you can think of to catch a couple of fish is going to be overrun with desperate idiots trying to survive on a bag of rice.
Growing beans and corn is non-trivial. You need good soil and fresh water and fertiliser. Anywhere you can catch a fish, get clean fresh water, and grow something within a few hundred metres is going to be very, very desirable property.
Farms are already set up with all this stuff but they already have a resident with weapons. However, a lone farmer can't defend his livestock and would need to enlist workers.
Farms are already set up with all this stuff but they already have a resident with weapons. However, a lone farmer can’t defend his livestock and would need to enlist workers.
In the walking dead they managed to defend against intruders by taking shelter inside a prison. Not sure if this would be a viable strategy or not but it made for interesting TV
Driving (and living in) an 18-wheeler, I've got shelter and transportation already sorted. Got all the comforts of home on board. Enough food and water to last a couple weeks, maybe a month if I had to. I can carry enough fuel to drive ~2500 miles if I ditched my trailer, or to run my APU for nearly a year in "standby" mode. Sure, replacing that fuel once it's gone would be tricky, but it's a diesel. There are plenty of alternative fuel sources out there.
I suppose my plan would be to run away from civilization, but off the beaten path so as to not get stuck in the mother of all traffic jams. No need to go that far; a few dozen, maybe a couple hundred miles down a non-interstate highway should be sufficient to avoid most humans/zombies. Plenty of random warehouses and parking lots out in the middle of nowhere.
Then it'd be a matter of relaxing for a few weeks, keeping my head down, and listening to the radio for any news about a safe zone or what have you.
I could last a bit. We have outdoorsy supplies and can do without electricity, but it's probably inevitable I'd just wind down or lose focus once and that'll be that.
Stage 1: Find some sort of weapon and defend my home. Take normal emergency procedures, accounting for food, filling bath tubs with water, propane to cook with, etc. I live in a mid density burb, so probably the zombies wouldnt be too dense. Unfortunately, my slidine glass back door and a few large windows would make my hose less than excellently defensible. But my attic is accessible only via retractable ladder, and would be an excellent option. Upon the house being breeched, I could climb up there and stab zombies in the eyes with a sharp pointy on a long stick. With a bit of kicking and breaking, I could make a passage onto the roof, which would be nice if the attic got especially hot or to communicate with surviving neighbors. Crux will be avoiding attracting a hoard, and rationing water.
Stage 2: from the roof, start contacting neighbors who are also in their homes. Start getting together, organizing, pooling supplies. Get together in the most defensible house in the neighborhood. Set up parties to collect water, food, and weapons, but otherwise stay relatively hunkered down. Daily bite inspections mandatory, obviously. Crux will be not attracting a hoard, and maintaining community stability and organization. Eventually, food will start to run low as we deplete the neighborhood's pantries.
Stage 3: The hoard will likely have concentrated downtown by now. Food is running low, but the local theat has also receded significantly. Time to go on the offensive. Send out scouting parties to gather intelligence on hoard position, and develop tactics for avoiding drawing the hoard to our base. Contact other cells of survivors, but be careful not to disclose our base location. Stockpile weapons, food, water, and vehicles as much as possible. Also, walkie talkies for improved communication. Crux will be not attracting the attention of hostile survivors to our base.
Stage 4: We go on the offensive. We outfit our convoy of vehicles as best as we can, and head towards downtown. Previous scouting missions will have mapped out a path clear of obstructions. Scouting day-of would route us on a path with minimal hoard density. We would quickly arrive at our destination - the city's hockey arena. We park the convoy to set up a perimeter around the staff entrance, and defend that perimeter as we break through the door. Making it through the door will be the crux, as the commotion of breaking through it will likeli alert any zombies nearby inside, as well as any outside who hadnt already noticed our convoy. However, the chokepoint of the door is an advantage to us, and we can stick them with sharp pointies on long sticks as they come for us until we catch a break.
From here, it is on. We sprint into the arena and go up as fast as possible, doing our best not to get bogged down. Zombies are not very coordinated, so the higher we go, the easier the going gets. At the top of the stands, we can vault out of the nosebleeds and into the press box, where we should be safe for a while as the hoard climbs the stands after us. Breaking down a few more doors from here, and we will have access to our destination: the catwalks.
120' above the arena floor, there are a few catwalks, and importantly, a grid of beams forming the structure of the arena's roof and walls. As quick as we can, we reach the safety of the beams, and then get to work removing the guardrails from the catwalks. And then... we wait. The initial zombies which followed us to the press box will soon arrive. But zombies are both dumb and not coordinated. So I can sit on a 6" box beam indefinitely. But a zombie on a catwalk with no handrail will see me, walk towards me, and plummet 120' down to the arena floor. Splat! We don't do much. Just sit there as the zombies walk over the edge and fall to their doom one by one. As the stream relents, we go out on scouting missions, attracting isolated groups up and guiding them to the abyss. Eventually we conduct a room by room search, ensuring the building is clear. From there, we radio to the convoy, and we start moving our supplies in. Everything goes to the beams - food, water, hammocks, batteries.
Stage 5: We remove our convoy barricade, and the hoard starts to flow in. We lead them up to the catwalks, and one by one, they leap to their doom. The arena has a 700,000 sqft field. A human body only takes up about 2 cubic feet. My metro's population is about 3 million. So we need 6,000,000 cubic feet of volume for dead bodies. Luckily, that is just about 8.5' off the ground for the 700,000 sqft field. Even accounting for the fact that the zombies won't liquify then they crater, that is plenty of margin for error when we have 120' to work with. Sure, not all the zombies will die in the fall - but physics is physics, and zombies with broken legs and shattered rib cages sure won't be moving very fast.
We draw in huge numbers of zombies at once, wait for them to extinguish themselves, then barricade the entrance once more and conduct room by room searches and manually kill any survivors. These are also nice breaks for resupplies from our survival cell outside. Then the outside cell runs a convoy through the city and draws in another part of the hoard. After a couple weeks, large hoards should cease to be a thing in the metro area.
Stage 6: We run systemic searches of the metro to search for smaller, breakoff hoards, which are then drawn to the arena. After these are cleared, life can become a bit more normal. The city will divide into neighborhoods, each operating as an independent defence cell. Walls are built around each neighborhood both to keep zombies out and to serve as a defence against our breaks in adjacent cells. Room by room searches are conducted of the whole metro area. Unfortunately, by this point, food supplies for the whole city will likely be running low.
We will have a very hard winter.
Stage 7: With global supply chains now collapsed, we start growing our own food on every available surface. When we aren't farming staple crops, we are busy building a city perimeter wall, lest another hoard come through.
I use a couple of garlic on the top and bottom rows to funnel them closer to the center. Melons can hit chumps in a 3x3 area, so having everybody within a span of 3 lanes is optimal.
In terms of what you're going to eat, though, I have no idea.
I have stuff growing in my allotment, but other than radishes most of it isn't going to be edible before I would starve if there was a zombie apocalypse today. Plus even if I converted everything to potatoes it still isn't going to be enough kcal for someone to survive off it. Which is why I don't practice subsistence farming and instead grow things that are tasty or would be expensive to buy.
Need to buy them for next year but higher quality garlic can easily go for over £1 a bulb so I want to get some nice varieties. Currently growing some random softneck sort I got as a plant on discount a few years ago and grew in the garden, which is fine but now looking to grow something more special. Plus I have more space, could easily grow several hundred bulbs now.
Radishes? They are not that big, but certainly fast growing. Plan to put more seeds down soon, this morning I put in what is hopefully a more efficient irrigation setup.
Ohhhh no, not played that game so didn't really think about it but it makes sense now. I just happen to have 6 rows of radishes and 6 rows of beetroot on one bed and as radishes grow fastest so they are nearly ready.
I believe it's generally accepted that zombies can't climb, or at least, they are really bad at it. So you basically just need to take the high ground. If you can get up a ladder or something, you would basically be safe and could easily pick off any zombies below with a spear or other ranged weapon.
Long term, I would probably go to the mountains, find a clean water source and plant crops. The mountainous terrain would be a big obstacle and most zombies probably wouldn't even try to go up. For any that do, I could probably set up some traps to lead them off an edge where they would fall back to the bottom.
Mountains. I've never even seen one in real life. :( (It always fucking gets me when Bilbo goes "MOUNTAINS I want to see mountains again" so wistful looking)
I'd probably have to go on an island.
We've got the most in the world, iirc, 50 000 - 80 000 small islands.
The plan my friends and I have are to load up our vehicles with weapons, clothes, fishing gear, etc and take off for a cabin on a lake in the woods. A slow day fishing on this lake is like 2hrs before you get a bite, so plenty of food on that front
I would not survive.
I think that one of the major problems isn't even the zombies as such, but the collapse of infrastructure that we rely on to maintain our current populations. Transportation and associated trade. Electrical power. Fuel. Fertilizer.
Like, even if you omitted zombies from the equation and took those away, the population that could be supported is probably a whole lot lower than the present population. Pre-industrial societies were not very populous compared to current ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrying_capacity
Not with that attitude you wouldnt
This is the answer. Most people won't survive the long term breakdown of society for long, and the "preppers" will probably be some of the first to go, as they will fight each other, become targets, and generally have a more antagonistic approach to survival. The people who stand the best chance will be the ones focused on collaboration and community building. But even then, surviving the initial collapse will be more about luck than intent.
Me either, but I'd have a great last several days on earth. Drugs, guns, and junk food.
I'd head to the Winchester, have a pint and wait for this whole thing to blow over.
Take car. Go to mum's. Kill Phil, grab Liz.
I wouldn't.
These survivalist fantasies where people paint themselves as capable and not fodder...
Hell, you outlast the outbreak/bomb you'll probably die of sepsis the first time you get a bad cut or a tooth that goes rotten.
If it is truly the apocalypse, you are best just letting go, because what follows after is like the end of night out at a club when they turn the lights on.
Same. Tbh, I wouldn’t even want to survive. That’s a shit world in which to live.
I always loved that bit when I used to go to the clubs, because I was aces at swimming between all the drunks.
Not all us are helpless.
Infections are a real risk, yeah, but I've literally some antibiotics in my fridge, don't even remember where from. Sure they're expired and for specifically I think ear/nose/mouth infections, but they'd be of some help. Also I have the basics of mycology down, so making my own antibiotics wouldn't be out of the question. Would it be risky, and entail lots of shitting my guts out? Probably. But if it was an apocalypse scenario and I had a bad infection, I'd take my chances. Penicillin is quite common.
I've also other medical supplies like large expensive-ish covers/pads for surgery wounds from my elbow surgery, they gave me extra ones as I had to keep it clean at home (and by extra I mean extra not ones I was supposed to use but in case I fucked it up etc) and general first aid kit ofc.
I've also 25 liters of fresh water, just in case, and a car with a full tank of gas, a freezer full of food, would last me months, plus the dry stuff in the pantry. Weapons, not really. Lots of knives ofc, not kitchen knives, but puukko, Finnish knives. From a pretty much pvp version that's almost a small sword, to small whittling ones. (Got my first one at four from my grandpa, proper puukko from Lappi.) Got some mace, a foldable shovel that also functions as an ax. And a very small poundage bow. (You could perhaps hurt people with it with good arrows but honestly it's a teenagers practice bow, more for the psychological factor I think.)
Besides all that, I also served a year in the military, where I went to officer training for supply logistics. Meaning everything you need to keep fighting fit, aside from medical assistance. Supplies, guns, bullets, clothing, water and especially food. So we were also taught how to slaughter and butcher various animals, and how to be relatively sure that what you're eating and drinking isn't going to kill you. (We also drilled a well in -20c by hand when the ground was literally frozen solid. Had to 6m deep iirc or was it even 8.) Also how warm you need to be, how much water you need daily. From all the basics from "don't shit near where you make food" to more complex shit, like which bacteria live in which temp and what it takes to kill them.
So you know. You might let go, but I wouldn't. I'm no prepper, and in fact find them rather comical. However I do live about 300km from the Russian border, so I don't think any of this is in any way fantastical or even highly improbable.
I mean I don't plan to crash a car when I'm in one, but I (almost) always use a seatbelt. Doesn't mean I'm fantasising about crashes. But I have survived several though, so.
You'd die faster than the time it took you to write that fantasy lmao
Which part is fantasy, pray tell? Ask and I'll prove it.
Wizard Island is a 5 hour drive. Deep freshwater lake, surrounded by water on all sides. Fish. In a volcanic crater so any zombies coming have to summit the volcano first, then be visible on the rim before getting to the water, where they sink.
I think that in general, the problem with water barriers is that they work well on humans, who need to breathe. But, depending upon the type of zombie universe in question, zombies may not. They may be able to just walk along the bottom.
EDIT: And one other complication for the zombie apocalypse survivor who wants to set up near large, accessible sources of freshwater:
https://www.stratcom.mil/Portals/8/Documents/FOIA/CONPLAN_8888-11.pdf
This is the most solid plan I’ve heard yet
What If zombies can swim?
They aren't buoyant. 😉 No air in the lungs.
Walk on the bottom, Pirates of the Caribbean style.
They did it in land of the dead too. Zombies just walked to shelter.
My biggest concern would be the zombies contaminating the water with whatever virus/poison/venom that makes zombies. Even if they're visible, the moment they touch water, I'd already be scared to drink.
It'd be just my luck that I wouldnt die quickly, being forced to trudge through worse and worse conditions.
Idk, not sure I really want to live in a post-apocalyptic world. Life is already hard enough as is.
As I’ve grown older, survival has become a burden. I’ve decided to embrace chaos by traveling in my shark suit and detonating any reactors I encounter. I’ve always been a morally upright person, so I believe I deserve to sought a little chaos in my life.
Trash Can Man? Donald? Donald Merwin Elbert? Is THAT you?
Ok, he didn't detonate them on purpose
Highly unlikely that anyone would actually "survive" a zombie apocalypse. It's more a question of how long you'd last, and for the vast majority of people that would be just days.
For example, if you live in a major city, it's highly unlikely you'd have enough supplies at home to wait out the initial chaos. Heading to the supermarket to fist-fight over a can of beans, or going to the gas station, is exactly what everyone else is doing too - and that's where you either get killed by a panicking human or bitten by the infected.
Even if you had the foresight to stock enough supplies to bunker down in your apartment for a few weeks (by far the safest place for you to be), you'd still be trapped inside a city full of the walking dead. The odds could not be more stacked against you.
I dunno, I'm pretty sure you'd only have to hold out for the few days it would take for the birds/ants/etc to eat through the major tendons on all the zombies, rendering them immobile, and then you'd be completely safe and the massive clean-up project could begin.
Unless anything magical/sci fi like in dead island going on i doubt there is enough food to support them for long. My guess is most run out of calories in 2 weeks. Then it gets to manageable levels.
We're talking about zombies here - they're fictional, magical creatures that laws of nature don't apply to. If it did, we wouldn't have zombies in the first place.
Zombies don't have heartbeat, don't eat, drink or sleep. They decay extremely slowly and can only be killed by destroying the brain.
Oh and depending on the pop culture mythology you're using, also fire.
Sure, the birds/ants/etc aren't going to kill the zombies, but without any tendons the zombies aren't going to pose much of a threat.
I actually live on the outskirts of a city, in the intersection of major motorways and a walking distance from the small but interactions airport we have. As in I regularly take walks which go within a stones throw of the airport area and I've been in the back buildings they have there, fucking around with old lockers and the airplane stairs they'd use to use and whatnot. (Free clay balls for my gardening hobby as well dumped in a pile there, clearly abandoned.)
And I'm pretty sure I could manage to get Cessna sized plane up, I've played enough simulators.
Everyone here is so negative about all of this. I'd have much better chances at a life worth living than I do in this bureaucratic hellscape. Not really, probably, because once the convenience of everything gets taken away, it seems way less fun. But yeah not everyone is in the same situation. One of the other commenters was a trucker in, I assume, the US. That's a mobile apartment with torque enough to drive through any zombies. That guy isn't stuck in a city.
I might survive the zombies by not going outside like a shut-in but then die from something stupid like accidentally tripping over a rock.
Step 1: anxiously bite nails.
Step 2: infected hangnail.
Step 3: Die.
By running faster than the people around me.
Rule 1: cardio
But what if cardon't?
Cardo or cardon't, there is no cartry.
But what if the zombies were riding mopeds?
Well shit, that'd be fucking cool and maybe I'd want to become a zombie if it means I get to be cool undead cannibals on mopeds.
This is the correct response
Are they wearing helmets?
Of course. Safety first
Form a citizen militia, go door to door and instruct people to start making spears out of what ever parts we can obtain. Train to fight in a formation.
Picks and shovels, construct earthworks to defend against a siege. Hold them out, funnel them into killing zones.
This is something that killed walking dead for me. There was a whole thing where they're in the prison and the zombies outside manage to mass up enough that they break the fence. If they took shifts, 4 hrs a day with a spear and head stabbed the zombies they would never have gotten to a critical mass.
Infact, I did the math years ago for my ideal zombie escape zone. It would only take 8 people and a month to effectively eliminate the entire regional population if we move in 4 hour shifts. So baring the entire nearest metropolitan city showing up at once with a psychic level awareness of our presence and a deep need for revenge, all you really need is consistency and a schedule.
Yep, and surely most people are capable of killing >1 zombie unless they get pretty unlucky. You can only turn into 1 zombie when you fail.
I would die during the opening credits
My goal is to be patient zero. The alpha zombie with the canonically massive hog.
Some of us have to die in the blast while taking a blast.
I think about this a lot.
Basically, in any sort of supply disruption cities will become unlivable very quickly.
Everyone thinks they can go camping and fishing. You could only survive like that for a few days - most fisheries cant support thousands of people from the city.
If you dont already live on a farm, your only chance is to find a farm and offer your Labor and help defending it from thieves and refugees in return for food. Dig in and prepare to be over run by desperate refugees in the coming days. Pay special attention to sanitisation. If possible scavenge medication.
But how many people die from the initial zombie attack + human infighting + how many people are physically fit enough to do this sort of thing to begin with? The longer you can hold out, the more the human population would decrease, and the easier this would get
Yes but my point is, you can hold out longer more easily by not going where everyone else is trying to go.
Fair enough
You can easily go without food for a month. So. At least weeks. And if you play it right, with a few fish, some backpacker meals, a bag of rice, and seeds to start growing greens, beans, and corn, you'd be fine for a long time.
That's just not true.
Yes, its possible for an adult to not die for a month or so with no food in the right circumstances.
However, your physical and cognitive abilities are severely limited. You're definitely not going to be fighting off other groups or zombies if you haven't eaten for a week.
If the supply chain is interrupted anywhere you can think of to catch a couple of fish is going to be overrun with desperate idiots trying to survive on a bag of rice.
Growing beans and corn is non-trivial. You need good soil and fresh water and fertiliser. Anywhere you can catch a fish, get clean fresh water, and grow something within a few hundred metres is going to be very, very desirable property.
Farms are already set up with all this stuff but they already have a resident with weapons. However, a lone farmer can't defend his livestock and would need to enlist workers.
In the walking dead they managed to defend against intruders by taking shelter inside a prison. Not sure if this would be a viable strategy or not but it made for interesting TV
Great defense but no fresh water, food, or sanitation.
Join the zombies 🧟
Driving (and living in) an 18-wheeler, I've got shelter and transportation already sorted. Got all the comforts of home on board. Enough food and water to last a couple weeks, maybe a month if I had to. I can carry enough fuel to drive ~2500 miles if I ditched my trailer, or to run my APU for nearly a year in "standby" mode. Sure, replacing that fuel once it's gone would be tricky, but it's a diesel. There are plenty of alternative fuel sources out there.
I suppose my plan would be to run away from civilization, but off the beaten path so as to not get stuck in the mother of all traffic jams. No need to go that far; a few dozen, maybe a couple hundred miles down a non-interstate highway should be sufficient to avoid most humans/zombies. Plenty of random warehouses and parking lots out in the middle of nowhere.
Then it'd be a matter of relaxing for a few weeks, keeping my head down, and listening to the radio for any news about a safe zone or what have you.
By pretending to be a zombie and hoping I don't run into Jessie Eisenberg.
Well I would need a stockpile of my medications
Why would you want to?
I wouldn't. I have an extroverted, anxious child who doesn't know how to be quiet or careful.
That means you have bait for the first encounter. Not bad.
Briefly.
Defensive Plants
Took me a second
Poorly.
I could last a bit. We have outdoorsy supplies and can do without electricity, but it's probably inevitable I'd just wind down or lose focus once and that'll be that.
Cardio
Stage 1: Find some sort of weapon and defend my home. Take normal emergency procedures, accounting for food, filling bath tubs with water, propane to cook with, etc. I live in a mid density burb, so probably the zombies wouldnt be too dense. Unfortunately, my slidine glass back door and a few large windows would make my hose less than excellently defensible. But my attic is accessible only via retractable ladder, and would be an excellent option. Upon the house being breeched, I could climb up there and stab zombies in the eyes with a sharp pointy on a long stick. With a bit of kicking and breaking, I could make a passage onto the roof, which would be nice if the attic got especially hot or to communicate with surviving neighbors. Crux will be avoiding attracting a hoard, and rationing water.
Stage 2: from the roof, start contacting neighbors who are also in their homes. Start getting together, organizing, pooling supplies. Get together in the most defensible house in the neighborhood. Set up parties to collect water, food, and weapons, but otherwise stay relatively hunkered down. Daily bite inspections mandatory, obviously. Crux will be not attracting a hoard, and maintaining community stability and organization. Eventually, food will start to run low as we deplete the neighborhood's pantries.
Stage 3: The hoard will likely have concentrated downtown by now. Food is running low, but the local theat has also receded significantly. Time to go on the offensive. Send out scouting parties to gather intelligence on hoard position, and develop tactics for avoiding drawing the hoard to our base. Contact other cells of survivors, but be careful not to disclose our base location. Stockpile weapons, food, water, and vehicles as much as possible. Also, walkie talkies for improved communication. Crux will be not attracting the attention of hostile survivors to our base.
Stage 4: We go on the offensive. We outfit our convoy of vehicles as best as we can, and head towards downtown. Previous scouting missions will have mapped out a path clear of obstructions. Scouting day-of would route us on a path with minimal hoard density. We would quickly arrive at our destination - the city's hockey arena. We park the convoy to set up a perimeter around the staff entrance, and defend that perimeter as we break through the door. Making it through the door will be the crux, as the commotion of breaking through it will likeli alert any zombies nearby inside, as well as any outside who hadnt already noticed our convoy. However, the chokepoint of the door is an advantage to us, and we can stick them with sharp pointies on long sticks as they come for us until we catch a break.
From here, it is on. We sprint into the arena and go up as fast as possible, doing our best not to get bogged down. Zombies are not very coordinated, so the higher we go, the easier the going gets. At the top of the stands, we can vault out of the nosebleeds and into the press box, where we should be safe for a while as the hoard climbs the stands after us. Breaking down a few more doors from here, and we will have access to our destination: the catwalks.
120' above the arena floor, there are a few catwalks, and importantly, a grid of beams forming the structure of the arena's roof and walls. As quick as we can, we reach the safety of the beams, and then get to work removing the guardrails from the catwalks. And then... we wait. The initial zombies which followed us to the press box will soon arrive. But zombies are both dumb and not coordinated. So I can sit on a 6" box beam indefinitely. But a zombie on a catwalk with no handrail will see me, walk towards me, and plummet 120' down to the arena floor. Splat! We don't do much. Just sit there as the zombies walk over the edge and fall to their doom one by one. As the stream relents, we go out on scouting missions, attracting isolated groups up and guiding them to the abyss. Eventually we conduct a room by room search, ensuring the building is clear. From there, we radio to the convoy, and we start moving our supplies in. Everything goes to the beams - food, water, hammocks, batteries.
Stage 5: We remove our convoy barricade, and the hoard starts to flow in. We lead them up to the catwalks, and one by one, they leap to their doom. The arena has a 700,000 sqft field. A human body only takes up about 2 cubic feet. My metro's population is about 3 million. So we need 6,000,000 cubic feet of volume for dead bodies. Luckily, that is just about 8.5' off the ground for the 700,000 sqft field. Even accounting for the fact that the zombies won't liquify then they crater, that is plenty of margin for error when we have 120' to work with. Sure, not all the zombies will die in the fall - but physics is physics, and zombies with broken legs and shattered rib cages sure won't be moving very fast.
We draw in huge numbers of zombies at once, wait for them to extinguish themselves, then barricade the entrance once more and conduct room by room searches and manually kill any survivors. These are also nice breaks for resupplies from our survival cell outside. Then the outside cell runs a convoy through the city and draws in another part of the hoard. After a couple weeks, large hoards should cease to be a thing in the metro area.
Stage 6: We run systemic searches of the metro to search for smaller, breakoff hoards, which are then drawn to the arena. After these are cleared, life can become a bit more normal. The city will divide into neighborhoods, each operating as an independent defence cell. Walls are built around each neighborhood both to keep zombies out and to serve as a defence against our breaks in adjacent cells. Room by room searches are conducted of the whole metro area. Unfortunately, by this point, food supplies for the whole city will likely be running low.
We will have a very hard winter.
Stage 7: With global supply chains now collapsed, we start growing our own food on every available surface. When we aren't farming staple crops, we are busy building a city perimeter wall, lest another hoard come through.
Stage 8: we continue living
The hockey arena idea is very ambitious, but sounds super risky. I would not volunteer for that mission
I got fullplate knight armor. And would go hide in a castle. Zombies can try to sieg me down!
Camelot. It is a silly place.
I have some plants and a pan. Soo i'll be save
Same. How long can you survive on 6 rows of radishes? Maybe push starvation off for an extra day?
My go to is honestly always 2 row sunflowers, from right 2 spike rocks, then tall-nut and rest filled up with melon-pult and one row of winter melon
I use a couple of garlic on the top and bottom rows to funnel them closer to the center. Melons can hit chumps in a 3x3 area, so having everybody within a span of 3 lanes is optimal.
In terms of what you're going to eat, though, I have no idea.
I have stuff growing in my allotment, but other than radishes most of it isn't going to be edible before I would starve if there was a zombie apocalypse today. Plus even if I converted everything to potatoes it still isn't going to be enough kcal for someone to survive off it. Which is why I don't practice subsistence farming and instead grow things that are tasty or would be expensive to buy.
Need to buy them for next year but higher quality garlic can easily go for over £1 a bulb so I want to get some nice varieties. Currently growing some random softneck sort I got as a plant on discount a few years ago and grew in the garden, which is fine but now looking to grow something more special. Plus I have more space, could easily grow several hundred bulbs now.
They are really big plants and grow super fast.
Radishes? They are not that big, but certainly fast growing. Plan to put more seeds down soon, this morning I put in what is hopefully a more efficient irrigation setup.
Oh i was referencing a game. Plants vs zombies. It has 6 rows for the mutated super plants to grow so I thought you were talking about it too.
Ohhhh no, not played that game so didn't really think about it but it makes sense now. I just happen to have 6 rows of radishes and 6 rows of beetroot on one bed and as radishes grow fastest so they are nearly ready.
Lol those defenses seem sound.
Water, shelter, food, security. Everything is viewed through the lens of those priorities, in order.
I believe it's generally accepted that zombies can't climb, or at least, they are really bad at it. So you basically just need to take the high ground. If you can get up a ladder or something, you would basically be safe and could easily pick off any zombies below with a spear or other ranged weapon.
Long term, I would probably go to the mountains, find a clean water source and plant crops. The mountainous terrain would be a big obstacle and most zombies probably wouldn't even try to go up. For any that do, I could probably set up some traps to lead them off an edge where they would fall back to the bottom.
Mountains. I've never even seen one in real life. :( (It always fucking gets me when Bilbo goes "MOUNTAINS I want to see mountains again" so wistful looking)
I'd probably have to go on an island.
We've got the most in the world, iirc, 50 000 - 80 000 small islands.
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Guns, Germs and Steel
Become a zombie
Are you a traveling nurse, by any chance?
Why do you ask?
we are in it now … it is in slow motion. we are all gonna die.
i would vote
I probably wouldn't
Not only I wouldn't survive I would be that stupid character that makes the beloved character die because their idiocracy :3
The plan my friends and I have are to load up our vehicles with weapons, clothes, fishing gear, etc and take off for a cabin on a lake in the woods. A slow day fishing on this lake is like 2hrs before you get a bite, so plenty of food on that front
Thats everyone's plan though. There will be no fish after the first few days.
Not well, based on James Burke's Connections episode
Easy. I would survive by not being there.
Guns and fortification