I think a fire axe would be great to enter places and chop firewood. Shotgun just in case. If it has a couple of rounds as a deterrent. Tent to sleep in obviously. Flashlight cus dark
So many questions like is the bullets in the gun and gasoline in jeep and batteries in flashlight? Also if yes are there any sources for more consumables?
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.
Depends where you live. A lot of this stuff can be acquired afterwards.
As an Aussie, firearms are very hard to come across. Also, I’ve never fired a gun before, so I would pick the shotgun because I know my terrible aim would be mitigated somewhat.
Water purifier. Duh.
Fire axe. Utility + weapon.
Tent. I live close to nature, so my game plan is to stock up on nonperishables and go camp for as long as I can, and hope that the zombies have thinned out by the time I need to start scavaging
These are starter items right? All of my selected items are just expendable resources. The tough decision is where I should go for maximum resources and reliable companions.
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.
LOL, imagine thinking a motorcycle or jeep would do you any damn good (especially after the gas you can siphon from abandoned cars has gone bad), when what you really need is a bicycle. Bikepackers and touring cyclists will be the kings of the apocalypse.
Assuming best case scenario (a new jeep is shat into my driveway with a full tank of gas) I think the jeep is a MASSIVE boon. It increases movement ability and hauling capacity, and can be used to clear many obstacles you’d otherwise have to go around. Is its life finite? Yes, but it’ll give you that leg up at the start of the situation that may very well set you up for success long term.
Anything blocking paths. Can’t move broken vehicles, downed trees, etc with a bike. Sure a bike can go around, but with a jeep, I can go through, and have space to haul a bike back.
There are diesel Kawasaki KLR motorcycles that will run on literally anything, not that they’re very fast but they would at least preserve your stamina for when you need it.
They’re also extremely robust and simple to repair.
The earlier in the apocalypse, the more panicking humans running around, so you’re absolutely correct there. Unfortunately, depending on where you live and how early you realize what’s happening, the roads might be utterly jammed with no hope of getting away from population centers. The bike would be less of a tank, but you’ll almost certainly make it farther - but is that any good? Unless you’re confident in your ability to go full bear grylls, it might be best to just hunker down and make as little noise as possible for that initial pandemonium.
I’d probably stay clear of basically anywhere that you’d wanna go in an apocalypse for those 72 hours, because everybody else has the same idea. Find somewhere with a second story, block or preferably destroy the staircase, and stay as quiet as possible while scavenging what you can.
Dog if trained, water purifier, fire axe, AK (if with bullets of around 250), otherwise a flashlight AK maybe priority since I know how to make my own ammo.
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