Idk about you guys, but you are legally required to have a first aid kit in your car where live, so there are plenty to salvage same is for water, there are tons of water bottles, that don’t go bad in the supermarket and your water purifier is gonna break at some point, so you’ll have to move to alcohol anyway.
Gas will expire eventually and you could just hotwire one of the many abandoned cars anyways, if the roads aren’t blocked by said cars. Bullets will run out unless you find a gun shop, in which case you get guns anyways. Water purifying is easy enough to do without a machine.
My picks would be German Shepherd, Axe, First Aid, and Radio.
There’s a reason we domesticated dogs, they are useful in so many different ways like hunting, defense, and security (and companionship). Especially German Shepherds, you can see the damage they do when used by police.
Axes are survivalist 101 and some are practically multi tools despite being simple.
First Aid because infections, zombie or not, are the real killers throughout history.
The radio’s more of a gamble, but it’s your best chance to find a new settlement, monke strong together and all that. Also you can maybe stay informed on what’s happening in other parts of the country. (And it lets me flex my Amateur Radio License).
I think I’d take the night vision goggles over the radio. You’re much more likely to find a radio. Situational awareness at night will be a huge survival factor.
Its a relatively recent development that u can just walk into the supermarket and buy a bag of dog food that will last a month, u won’t have that in the wild - how u gonna feed the dog?
Jeep, water purifier, first aid kit, katana. Wish I could take flashlight, but it’s a 5th option on the list.
No reason to take guns since rounds will be gone quickly and you’ll end up with a worthless piece of metal. Chainsaw is clunky and fuel-dependent. Fire axe is also clunky and actually not that good at chopping wood - not to mention you’ll make a lot of sounds while doing so. Machete is bad on both fronts. Crossbow - almost perfect, but bolts tend to break too.
Jeep adds to mobility, which is very handy. Fuel-dependent, but then again, with such mobility you can reach some gasoline. Doubles as a place to stay in extreme situations, without losing mobility, rendering it able to escape emergencies.
Water purifier will allow you to move on without acute diarrhea
First aid kit is a must in literally every survival situation. You should be able to prevent infections and restore mobility as quickly as possible
Katana is too difficult to maintain, crossbow bolts can be fashioned by hand from found materials, first aid kit can be scavenged pretty easily. If this is starting gear, go for the stuff that is either rare or likely to be scavenged first, and that is easy for you to maintain by hand. Jeeps aren’t rare, real body armor is. The machete is the go-to blade for many parts of the world for a reason. It is heavy enough to cleave small brush and limbs alike, sturdy enough that it isn’t likely to break on you, and you can get a utility or survival version that has a saw on the back and other useful tools included in it. Only take the Jeep if you are proficient in maintaining it and know how to make biodiesel. If you have those skills, go for it. Your assessment is correct. If not, it is prioritizing short-term benefits over even medium-term. Even on a full tank, you have less than a day’s travel in it. Then it becomes a hard-walled tent or tiny home, take your pick of feel-good terminology. Depending on your starting location, that half-day of travel may not be enough to get you safely away from population centers. If you are in any major US East Coast city, you are fucked. You can barely make it into the Appalachians on one tank, and certainly not remote enough to be safe. As you move further and further west, that becomes less and less of an issue. If you are in the SW, a Jeep becomes top tier pick because it lets you navigate offroad to somewhere truly remote and provides adequate hauling capacity for scavenged materials for setting up a secure base of operations.
Where are you, I’d love to analyze a different country?. Who knows, pigs may fly and I may be able to afford to be traveling abroad when Z-Day happens.
Looking at this population density map of Russia and the satellite map on Google, I feel like the Jeep would only be a viable take if you are somewhere in the medium-density band like the area around Neya. Looking further North, and correct me if I’m wrong, the terrain looks like it takes on a generally rough aspect. Looks like a decent amount of steep hills and mountains which lack infrastructure, so while the jeep could offroad it, the time it would take to traverse would be onerous and diminish the already abysmal fuel efficiency.
Exploring this forestry map I am seeing a lot of dense tall forests as you move north through the western part of the country, which is also looking like pretty rough terrain, so I am thinking the list I would go for in that region would be the fire axe, wrist rocket, winterized body armor, and climbing gear or a backpack. Clean water should not be as much of an issue given the number of lakes and accompanying tributaries in the region, plentiful wood supply for small fires for purifying water, and I’m pretty sure a lot of it is coniferous (correct?) which would mean that there should be ample tinder in dry needles so most fire kits would be overkill.
The real difficult decision is in the climbing gear, as being able fo ascend a cliff or tall tree and safely secure yourself would be ideal for Z-poc survival. Just ascend the tree, drive a piton in and fashion a sleeping harness from the climbing rope. Make sure you have a good amount of ammo for the wrist rocket and in the morning you can obliterate any Zs that have gathered around the bottom of the tree. Long term, I would totally go Ewok/Forest Elf with it and build a canopy encampment. Lots of space and easy-to-control access points, and with each additional platform it becomes easier and safer to build the next. The real issue with that is the ability to safely fell trees and hewn lumber, which would be nearly impossible solo unless you could adequately secure a perimeter so you didn’t have to focus on threat vigilance. Barring that, I would say a clifftop camp with a rapid descent escape route. Good sight lines, effective egress, and if it is tall enough, you could try to get them to chase you and have an effective way to clear the Zs without wasting ammo. You would just need to clear the corpses after using it.
The reason why the question is tough with the pack is because of the terrain traversal, you need to be able to appropriately distribute the weight if anything you carry into wilderness like that, and that is tough without a good pack, especially with the body armor. I contemplated swapping the armor for a pack, but I can’t justify being able to avoid bites and other injuries for traversal ease. If I could have 5, those would be the 5.
One thing though; the area to the north is very swamped; it’s not just lakes. So getting dry lumber any time of the year is near impossible, thereby fire kit is very advisable. Dry needles are not as dry as one would want. Cones that are often advised as an element of easy fire starters are extremely wet and useless for the task; they burn no better than wood thorougly soaked in water. Generally, making fire out of any lumber in the woods is a massive headache in there.
Also, high humidity means fog is a very regular occurrence, so a clifftop might be way less useful that one can imagine. It gets particularly bad the closer you move to Khibiny mountains.
That definitely changes things. Swamps would likely be the last place you would want to try to survive out the Z-poc. The mobility issues would be useful for impeding zombies and raiders, but you would suffer the same issues until you could get some sort of infrastructure in. And that is completely ignoring the fact that Zs can end up hiding under the muck and bog. Also, the drinking water would be a real issue, since, as you said, everything is wet. If you could locate a good pete bog you could harvest and dry it in a shelter for amazing fuel, but I don’t know how prevalent those are in those particular swamps. Other than resource gathering though, I think it would be best to avoid until you had a foothold somewhere else.
Now the fog in the mountains is actually interesting. That level of humidity means that you can source drinking water directly from the air with little issue. Cut up some cotton shirts so they are broad and flat, then rig up a wind vein that will keep a small sail aligned with the prevailing winds so the fog flows over it and the cloth will be soaked with fresh clean water. If the vein is built right you can even channel drip water into a container, then wring out the cloth when the fog has lifted before the sun can evaporate it. Variations on this are actually viable in any humid region, especially if the temperature dips below the dew point at night.
I think I would still probably make for the foggy mountains if I were in that region if I could do so while bypassing swampy regions. The rough terrain could be trivialized with minimal infrastructure and resources could be plentiful if managed right. I am also of the minor assumption that in that region the cold is almost as much of a threat as the zombies, so I’m not positive what sorts of shelter the mountains would provide. If memory serves, most of that region is very old metamorphic rocks that aren’t prone to cave formation. This would severely limit shelter from the elements without a good source of building materials or the means to produce them. I would amend the list to fire axe, body armor (winterized), fire kit, wrist rocket. In scavenging, I would prioritize a survival machete, a pack, the aforementioned claiming gear, and real medical supplies (suture needle, sterile gauze, strong thread or monofilament fishing line). Once I am able to secure somewhere to put a cache, that expands to a charged car battery or 3, jumper cables, basic carpenter tools, many many tarps, and as many fluid containers as I can get my hands on. Russian winters are no joke and without the tarps, drying enough wood to survive would be hell. The tarps would he enough to make a sealed drying environment until a kiln dryer could be constructed. Of course, all of this is predicated on being able to secure an area that has materials and is remote enough that the possibility of wandering Zs becomes slim. It would probably he worth finding a camp in one of the transitional zones between the swamps and mountains so the swamp can act as a natural trap/barrier to Z traversal so it only requires minimal fortification.
I’d say there’s enough stuff that can be turned into fire starter should you have time to dry it (and under a good cover with relatively strong winds and relatively low humidity for the area it will take several days to dry thin starters and months to dry firewood, so tarp won’t help you that much in the short run). Generally, if you’re in the wild in winter in northwestern Russia without already stored dry firewood or other fuel, your chances of survival are fairly questionable to begin with.
Yes, there aren’t many caves in there and terrain is very hard. Constructing a cover is not a trivial task. Normally in this environment survivalists resort to self-made tents or dig into the ground (latter being less popular in the winter, for obvious reasons), but both are fairly useless in a zombie apocalypse for the reasons you’ve already outlined. Mountain and treetop constructions will suffer severely from strong cold winds.
Realistically though, you cannot survive the wilderness of northwestern Russia (and a lot of wilderness for that matter) with just 4 objects. You’ll strike a way better chance by finding a remote village. Yes, you might have to ward off zombies, but, as you mentioned, environment will be less of an issue, and environment here is certainly deadly.
Yeah, that is a really rough place to survive in a non-apocalyptic scenario. I think focused active scavenging on the way out of civilization would be the key to making it. Then finding/setting up a village would be the next key to long-term survival.
I’m glad that I was able to reevaluate with better accuracy. This was fun.
I think it depends on the nature of the plague, is the zombie contagion airborne to some extent? If yes, I think I’d take the gas mask over the first aid kit.
If the zombie plague is airborne, fuck it. Give me a barrel of bourbon and and a couple pounds of weed. That’s guaranteed to last me the rest of my life.
And then scavenge around a city, getting an axe, a flashlight, a first aid kit, a bicycle (not motorbike because fuel), a survival kit (matches/flint, compass, etc.) and some survival guidebooks such as general survival guide or foraging guide. Now you’re all set for making a shelter in the woods and staying away from everything, making occasional trips to the city for supplies. Maybe you’ll even manage to make a kinda comfy home up a tree or something.
It’s good for general protection too. It can soften blows from other humans or just accidental injury while scavenging dilapidated buildings. What we consider to be minor bumps and scrapes now can be life threatening when you have inadequate medical supplies, malnutrition, sleep deprived, no sanitation, etc.
I don’t have a PhD in zombiology but zombies will bite you wherever they can. Depending on what kind of zombies we’re talking about a bite alone might turn you or not. So body armor could be useful for some kinds of zombies and utterly useless for others.
He’s right, unless you study up on making biodiesel. Then you have the upper hand in the argument, as a diesel Jeep can be run on biodiesel. Rendering those fatty zombie corpses to fuel should be a functional disposal method.
Not a terrible play, but it has a BIG downside you might not be considering.
99.99% of the corn grown first world, and a lot of other food crops, are sterile hybrid varieties that don’t readily reseed themselves (Monsanto and company HATE when farmers don’t have to buy seed every year).
Once there is no more harvesting or maintenance on stockpile equipment, that supply will dwindle faster than you might expect.
Fuck corn. It is patently one of the worst feedstocks for ethanol. The only reason you hear so much of it is because there is so much money wrapped up in it already and it is a way to use up excess stock. No, switchgrass is the answer. Hearty, more biomass per km² than just about any other crop, has high cellulose content (which is what gets turned into ethanol), and can be cultivated just about anywhere on the continent with little maintenance or involvement. You could probably get away with planting a few fields in pockets around a stronghold which could be checked on a couple of times a week and harvested for an extended period, then you just have to process it as usual. It is even relatively short and dense, so zombies would struggle to hide in it and it would act as a natural barrier to slow the advance of both Zs and any nairdowells that would seek to assault you. Fuel source and defensive emplacement in one.
That and after a while gasoline expires even in the tank of a car. After like a few months he would have to be making his own fuel anyway, because whatever gets siphoned can’t be used.
I’m swapping the first-aid kit for the crossbow, but spot on for the rest. Body armor is rare and definitely raises your odds of survival in the short term after the initial spread. A machete is the ultimate all-purpose blade, good for defense as well as butchering, breeching, and it is easily maintained. And the water purifier is a no-brainer. Waterborn diseases are a real problem in any situation where public utilities become inaccessible and clean drinking water grows scarce.
Assuming that I am obviously able to expand my kit as I survive, the ranged weapon that uses easily craftable ammo would be ideal. A first aid kit could be cobbled together over the course of a few days of persistent scavenging. No promises on the crossbow, they are far less common than bandaids, gauze, sterilization solutions, and splints. Really the thing that would likely be the hardest to source is the suture needle that you should have in there.
I always loved 10k in Z-Nation for using the wrist rocket slingshot because that is truly the king ranged weapon for a survival scenario. Lightweight, ammo that is infinite and easily accessible, and lethal out to ranges that matter. Not to mention that they are very easy to maintain and repair.
All that said, I would likely accumulate the aforementioned electricity/fuel items as I am familiar with the production of biofuels and can build some alternative generators (wind, methane, solar concentrators) for electricity once I have somewhere secure. Methane in particular has always been attractive to me for survival scenarios because anaerobic decomposition is a great way of dealing with biowaste and what is left over ends up making really good fertilizer. Just need a couple of propane tanks, some steel, and a car battery to rig as a welder and you can turn one into a digestor and the other into storage, then get a couple 2 cycle lawnmower engines and some AC motors and you can get a power supply running. At least enough to run some incandescent bulbs. Need a voltage regulator for more complex electronics to keep the line clean, but that is a different conversation.
They only have to be serviceable, which is manageable just like they were made in from antiquity to the modern era, wood. It might take some practice, but a hand-carved shaft that has the tip dipped into molten lead or pewter could make a rather effective bolt. You could use more modern materials as well; various types of piping, scavenged hardware like nails and dowels, etc. They may be less accurate and harder on the crossbow, but they don’t need the longest range in this topic and the wear and tear on the crossbow may be justified if you know how to repair it and maintain it to ward off failure. Obviously, there would be trial and error, but it wouldn’t take too long to become a competent Fletcher.
Also, as I said, for usability and reliability in efficacy and ammo sourcing, nothing beats a wrist rocket slingshot. The weapon itself is lightweight and can use everything from ball bearings and buck shot to large bolts and nuts to gravel. There is virtually no terrestrial environment that you wouldn’t be able to find something that can be used as absolutely lethal ammo.
Going with all but the water purifier. Fresh water is too easy to come by where I live. We have pristine wild rivers here, and it rains a lot. I’d be living in the forest anyway if this happened.
I chose similarly but changed somethings for longevity.
I subbed out the jeep for body armor. The jeep will run out of gas eventually, who knows how long the apocalypse will last for. Body armor will be last near indefinitely. Also would swap out the ak for a machete. Ammo will probably be hoarded by others so will be a difficult find.
Fire axe is a great utility tool, once it becomes dull, it’ll be a good blunt weapon. Machete will not be as good but if you learn how to sharpen or find a whetstone, they’ll last you as long as you need.
Most body armor is good for 1 strike. Kevlar thread break, ceramic breaks, and you really don’t want to use dented armor, best case it’s a weak point, worst case is pushing in your chest cavity preventing you from breathing. Any body armor that is remotely mobile is effectively one time use. Now admitted (normally) used body armor can still provide some protection and can be better than nothing (except in situations where the damage impacts you, ie the plate metal being dented and pushing into your chest). And some can be repaired or replaced with the right materials and tools, but those are heavy, and take space
First Aid Kit - Zombies are dangerous but so are infections from minor cuts and lacerations. Gotta prep for the unexpected.
Machete - Most effective and common sense weapon as all the others require some level of skill or maintenance and only the machete would be good at making pointy sticks for improvised spears.
NVGs - Something people forget about is that when the power goes out you’re going to be looting some dark ass buildings even during the daytime. Stock up some batteries or a charger and looting just got so much simpler. Plus, if you hear a bump in the night, you can go looking for it without letting the neighborhood know where you are, like with a flashlight.
Water purifier - You can go approximately 3 days without water and the pipes stop working when the electricity does. That river and lake isn’t safe to drink, neither is the rainwater, and do you really want to whip out your firekit and draw attention just for sippy sips?
Boring picks but I think these are the biggest bang for your buck. Everything else will take so much just to maintain that it isn’t worth it. Including doggo.
See, light and water I can make/clean myself. I’d replace them with one of the firearms to counter other humans and maybe the dog for danger detection.
Ah but see, a firearm requires cleaning, oil, and ammunition. The suppressed sidearm will lure in your neighborhood while anything unsuppressed is going to call everything within 8 blocks right to you. Dog is a mouth to feed, mess to clean, and is also loud unless you’ve trained them very, very well. Making light isn’t hard but everyone can see light - including zombies. NVGs are just for you. Water you can clean yourself but I assume you mean boiling which would need a fire… and everyone can see the light and smoke.
You only use the firearm if you need it. If you need it, you really want it.
There’s a lot of heating solutions in the world that do not involve fire and even so, plenty of ways to do light sanitation exist.
A lot of these are highly contextual in terms of the type of outbreak and individual skills but I think my options give more flexibility overall for me personally.
I suppose but for me I wouldn’t want to waste a pick on something I’d use for extreme cases. Sure it’ll help in a bind but I’d rather prep to not be in that bind to begin with.
Everything changes with context but I made my picks with “The Walking Dead” scenario in mind. They all walk, everyone’s infected, it only takes effect if you die with your brain intact, they roam in hordes. But hey, we may never know and it’s probably for the best.
Why not the fire axe? I don’t think it would be that difficult to swing. Granted, it would be much heavier than a machete, but long term the axe is gonna last longer and dull slower.
Fire Axe requires you to be pretty dead on with every swing. You miss or misalign the edge coming down and it bounces off their skull. They feel nothing and now you’ve got to lift up that axe for another swing. You’ll tire yourself out pretty quickly but if the edge lasts long enough I suppose it could be used to make spears as well. Spears, even just makeshift ones from sticks, are light and if you miss it’s almost effortless to get another go at it.
Also might come in handy as a tool in more ways than the machete. Open doors, smash windows, chop firewood and you’d probably still manage to sharpen some sticks with it. As a weapon I do not think that a machete is easier to use without any training.
Absolutely the last place you’d ever want to be. Everyone loots stores, it’s safer to loot locally first. Best case scenario everything is cleaned out. Worst case, you find other people. Or other “people”.
My partner worked at a water bottling station and they kept a “dead archive” of production for quality control: dark, cool room, away from machinery and chemicals.
Archived samples were cleared after 5 years. Out of curiosity, they decided to try the water before emptying the bottles and it was foul. Blamed on too long storage time.
When the plant shut down, the archive was fully cleared and samples older than 6 months were drinkable but not pleasant to, older than a year tasted bad.
Water does not stock well and even worse when exposed to sun light.
plot twist, the jeep is electric and there is a spinner-bike in the back you can use to charge it with. Only four short days of pedaling will get you 100 miles!
Never understood that about the walking dead. Gasoline stops being vital after 3-6 months, so years into the apocalypse and everyone’s driving cars, and Daryl has that sweet frankenbike. What are those things running on?
Gas is no longer in prime condition after 3-6 months, but is still combustible for at least a year or two. Old gas will damage your engine over time though. Most of the degradation is due to oxidization, so if the gas were in sealed cans, maybe it could last longer.
But yeah, 5+ years in and most gas is unlikely to work in an engine. You’d have to be making some kind of bio-ethanol at that point.
Jeep: unparalleled utility. It’ll die eventually, fuel is finite, but it’ll let me establish.
Shotgun: need a weapon, and while not the strategically beat weapon, I have an image to maintain.
Water purifier: water.
Machete: backup weapon, infinitely useful tool, more rugged than the katana.
I think this combination gives me a good shot at establishing a base of operations, securing the area, and settling for long-term. Between the jeep and the machete, most obstacles can be overcome, and scavenging is easier and quicker. Strategically, the crossbow is probably the best weapon just due to the reusability of the ammunition, but it’s not infinite and what you gain in that, you lose in ease of use, which is paramount in a stressful situation. Opting purely for usefulness, the pistol (assuming subsonic rounds and as quiet as possible) probably offers the best balance between reliability and forgivingness, but I like shotguns.
Water purifier is a pretty easy one. Gotta have water, and while most of that will come from rain or scavenging, there will inevitably be periods of literal draught. Finally, the machete. A knife, a backup weapon, a crowbar. Good for clearing small-medium vegetation. Honestly, the uses are limitless, perhaps second only to the jeep.
Honorable mentions:
Dog. If it’s pre-trained, top tier. If you have to train it, mid at best plus another mouth to feed.
Any other firearm: mostly preference, each has pros and cons
Body armor: depending on the zombies, top tier (walking dead style, feral gonna bite you zombies) or reeeally not useful (anything spread by spores, fumes, fluids, etc.)
Gas mask: invert the body armor.
Motorcycle: quicker, less utility than Jeep. I wouldn’t say it’s the worst pick
Everything else is either marginal utility at best (cb radio, NV goggles) or easy enough to scavenge (flashlight, first aid supplies, tent, honestly everything else on the list.)
I’ll just search appartmenta with my body armour,my dog and an ax for a some keys. When I find them I go outside and do that thing we do when we forgot where we parked in a large parking lot
Add comment