Vicious88
01-03-2010, 04:03 AM
Preface
This book comes in three sections... "Prepare", "Survive", and "Rebuild". I've decided to maintain rights to this book by publishing it on my website (infohub.me) before publishing it anywhere else. This is only the first section, but I'll release the other two later on...
I should also mention that what you're seeing in this release is an un-edited manuscript that predates a possible wide scale publication (dependant on success online). I mention this for two reasons... One, to forewarn you that not everything will spelled correctly, and two, to tease you by telling you that if I do eventually publish, this book will be updated to contain a LOT more content (such as the good stuff I'm holding on to for myself).
I'd also like to thank my best friend Davy who's been a big help in the creation in a lot of this work, and may even co-author some in the later sections.
Prepare
When you're talking about surviving the zombie apocolypse, the absoute most important thing you can do is to be ready for whatever may be comming your way. In order to be properly prepared for this, or any other apocolyptic survival situation there are a few steps that must be taken. These are all steps that can be taken long in advance of an apocolypse, and will go a long way towards guarenteeing your survival.
I'll outline these steps here for you, and we'll discus them in more detail through the Prepare section of this book.
Step 1: Recruit
Step 2: Discuss
Step 3: Supply
Step 4: Assess
Step 5: Commit
Step 6: Practice
In short, these steps summarize down to putting together teams, discussing roles, identifying supply zones and gathering supplies, agreeing on the most likely scenerios and plans with the best chances of success, commit these plans to a set proceedure, and practicing the plan and any involved skills... If that doesn't really make sense, or you want to more than skim through this book, then I suggest you read ahead.
---
Step 1: Recruit
There is absolutely nothing more important to our survival as a species, and your survival as an individual than the ability to function in groups.
When recruiting, it may not be nessicary to openly discuss your plans with all group members condsidering that not all people agree that preparing for a zombie apocolypse is a valid use of time (or sanity). So for those people who you aren't close enough to discuss such measures without being considered for physciatric evaluation, it may be best to simply regard them as cargo who, come time of an outbreak, will be picked up and briefed on the plan.
As a general rule, however, it is very important that you and the majority of your survival group be "in the loop" about what to do in the event of an outbreak.
Additionally, it will be rather important to consider breeding prospects when gathering your group members. While it is unlikely that you'll oversee a large enough group of survivors to ensure proper genetic variety and complication-free breeding, it's still a good idea to avoid running off with 30 members of the same family.
If you don't think that genetic variety is very important, allow me to point out that zombies, like all enemies, can either starve to death or (dependant on which theoretical virus actually causes the outbreak) slow down significantly and begin to decay as their metabolisms die down. In either case, it is likely to take the better part of a decade for the zombie apocolypse to subside, and during that time, some of your survivors WILL die. It is for this reason that breeding must not wait untill the apocolypse if finished... This does not mean that you actively reproduce to a point where you can no longer supply the resources needed to raise the children - but it does mean that having an average of one or two children a year (dependant on the size of the group), is a very beneficial thing to do for the sake of the species.
To go further on this note, it is important that a large ammount of your survivors (at very least half) be women.
-
When recruiting, you should be aware that there are two primary categories your group members will need to be divided into. There is the Staff Group, and the Member Group.
Staff Group.
By leading this preparedness movement, you are most definately a member of the Staff Group. All staff group members are to have been selected for the specific skills and abilities that they bring your party's chance of survival. Additionally, all Staff Group Members are to be involved in the Discussion phase (Step 2: Discuss -- we'll read about this a bit later on).
Member Group.
This group title may seem misleading, as all survivors will have to pull an equal share of the labors involved in the survival of the group, but in general the main defining feature of the "Member Group" survivors are that they had no previous knowledge of the survival plan, or were picked up along the way. They may or may not have been specifically selected because of a skill or knowledge.
---
Step 2: Discuss
When in discussion with your Staff Group it is very important that the first thing laid out are roles. These are usually based off of the knowledge and expertise that a group member brings with them. For instance, I can pilot a variety of helicopters and virtually all fixed wing aircraft, and I'm good when it comes to lining out startegies -- So I'm likely going to be the one who pilots an aircraft and act as team leader, while as my friend Davy, who's great with shotguns and explosives, is more likely to be at the front of a combat zone.
I've assembled a table below that will provide you with a skill name, the knowledge and experiences involved in it, and what sort of person would most likely possess these skills... This may seem rather basic, but you'll want to ensure that each of these skills are possessed by at least one person in your survival group (that's both the Staff Group and Member Group combined).
Please note that this table was beautifully formatted on my screen, but on forums just absolutely will not display properly. Sorry...
Primary Skills:
Just to recap, these are the skills you will absolutely want to have on hand.
Skill |Knowledge of |Likely Pre-Apocolysp Occupation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical |First Aid, Medicines, Diseases |Pharmasist, Doctor, Nurse
Mechanical |Small Engines, Tools, Electrical Systems |Car Mechanic, Electrician
Pyro |Homemade explosives, chemicals |Convict, Chemist, College Student
Combat |Small Arms Efficiency, Ammunition Presses |Soldier, Veteran
Ground Transport |Large Trucks, Construction Equipment |Truck Driver, Heavy Equipment Operator
Engineer |Carpentry, Welding, Large-Scale Repairs |Welder, Body Shop Technician
Navigator |Maps, Compasses, Analog Navigation |Ship Navigator, Pilot, Ship Captain
Optional Skills:
These are skills that are nice to have, but unless the plan your group comes up with involves the specified vehicle type, these skill sets remain optional.
Skill |Knowledge of |Likely Pre-Apocolysp Occupation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Helicopter Pilot |Upkeep of and Piloting Helicopters |News Helicopter Pilot, Military Pilot
Plane Pilot |Upkeep of and Piloting Fixed-Wings |Cropduster, Civilian Pilot, Military Pilot
Ship Pilot |Ship Piloting, Mouring, Docking |Ship Captain, Boat Owner
Before moving on to the next phase of discussion, please be certain to look over the Primary Skills category once more and ensure that you're not without someone to fulfill at least one of each skill set. If you are, you need to return to step one and recruit more people.
Alright... Once you've ensured that each of the that all the primary skill sets are spoken for, it's important to discuss a few points of knowledge before you and your group begin discussing where and how you wish to survive come zombie apocolypse...
Firstly, it's vitally important that you understand what will happen immediately following the outbreak, so I've assembled an outline for you... My outline assumes the initial outbreak occures in America, and that the virus responsible for the zombies is not air born...
00:00 -- Initial Outbreak from unknown/unimportant source (government experiment leak, chemical warfare, whatever have you). Number of infected is low and has not yet recieved any public attention.
01:00 -- Within one hour after the initial outbreak, more people have become infected after having been wounded and fleeing from the zombie. Police are summoned.
01:15 -- After having heard the commotion over police scanner, local media appears on scene, and public awareness rises.
01:20 -- 1 of 2 things will occur... Either a police offer will attempt to force a zombie to the ground, or they will recognize some form of viral infection and begin a makeshift quarenteen of the area using riot gear. Either way results in public crowding and eventual infestation.
02:45 -- By this point the pattern of wounded people running away and subcoming to their infections has caused the entire area to be considered infected and the military are called in to establish quarenteens and escourt out survivors.
04:00 -- Poor screening proceedures and understanding of how the infection is spread lead to the release of several wounded civilians from the quarenteen zone, who then flee to the nearest place where they feel safe -- most traveling to be with family or friends.
07:00 -- The infection will have spread to a large area, most likely encompassing three or four states. The government declares a state of emergency and suggests all citizens to stay in doors. Local cerfews will become enforced, and police and military officials will scatter to clean up the spreading threat. Over the next few hours the messages will begin to become more and more intense, urging citizens to barracade doors and windows and to not welcome survivors into their homes or offer aid to the wounded. Air ports will close, and borders will be put on lock down.
07:20 -- Widescale public panic leads to looting and evacuation, more people out doors helps the infection to spread still further...
11:30 -- Nearly 12 hours in, the efforts to fight back the infection is failing largely on account of how quickly it spreads. In effort to slow the spread, survival shelters are opened under military control and all citizens are urged to attempt the trip to their nearest shelter or to signal passing military vehicles if they cannot provide their own transportation...
13:00 -- Once again poor screening methods and a rush to get the survivors to safety combine to work against us... Infection spreads quickly in the enclosed survival shelters, some may escape unwounded, but chances are the military will be forced to put down all civilians once the shelter has become infected.
17:00 -- By this point more and more paniced, hurried people are attempting to flee by any means nessicary, most will unknowingly carry someone who is infected with them. Those who escape by boat and succumb to their infection at sea will drift off untill their boat makes landfall, allowing the infection to become global.
36:00 -- A day and a half later, North America seems devoid of human life... Many survivors remain in their homes or on rooftops, but no help will come as the military will have been severely cut down. When their supplies of food run out, these survivors will be faced with the choice of starving to death or taking down their barracades and attempting to go through hell for the chance of food.
Day 3 -- By now, the infection has covered most parts of the globe, and large scale military action is being taken on most boarders as each country pre-blames its neighbor for its inevitable infection...
Day 7 -- One week in, human life as we know it has nearly ceased to exist... Most areas which had not lost their electicity as a result of car crashes and panic, will have lost it by now as the computers which control the power grids fail to detect significant changes in consumption and assume error, then continue to shut down the power grids for maintenance and to prevent fires...
Day 9 -- Large explosions and fires spill forth from industrial areas as electrically cooled chemicals warm, breech their containers, and combust.
Day 11 -- Most nuclear power plants remain operational, but some will start requiring maintence soon before the coolant system stops functioning and the water boils away causing radiation to be released into the surrounding areas.
Be sure you review that outline and understand the basic chain of events... Despite my assumptions that the outbreak would occure in America and not be air-born by nature, you'll find that the events proceed in similar fashion no matter what country the threat originates from.
Because of this, you should be fully aware of the threats surrounding where you intend to survive, as well as when, during the initial outbreak, you should set your plans into motion. I say this because if your plan is to set up shelter in a warehouse in an industrial area, well... Don't blame me if you should wake up due to an explosion blowing off your legs...
Now that you understand what you can expect after the outbreak, you should begin to discuss with your Staff Group where you wish to survive.
Some ideas for survival include bomb shelters, fortified houses/buildings, Off-Shore Oil Rigs, Islands, and Large Ships.
One thing you absolutely do not want to do is choose a shelter location with high visibility. This means avoid setting up shelter in places like pawn shops, food stores, service stations, or other places that will be subject to looters. Additionally, most large stores and pawnshops have a large ammount of glass windows which make them relatively easy to break into (and even though the pawn shop windows will most likely be barred, you'll find that the draft and constant moan of zombies can really destroy a nights sleep).
You should decide on a minimal of 3 possible shelters, and build plans around each of them - incase for some reason, you end up in a "Plan B" situation. For instance where I am at, a blocked off bridge or tunnel can cause me to completely abandon a plan.
If your group has already agreed on 3 possible survival shelters, you should be sure to understand what is involved with long term survival from that shelter.
If your unsure whether your shelter will surfice, ask yourself and your group these simple questions:
Is this shelter safe against zombies?
Does this shelter require extensive fortification or barracading?
Will it be safe and practicle to leave and return to the shelter in search of supplies?
Are there any negative area aspects to consider (industrial explosions, high visibility, flood land, fires, avalanch risk, etc)?
Will we be able to maintain this shelter?
Will we be able to protect this shelter from raiders?
Will we be able to house our group, supplies, and future generations here for a period of approximately 10 years?
How exactly will we get from this shelter to the nearest place to restock on supplies?
Review these answers carefully and ensure that they are to your liking.
Once you have 3 shelters and are confident in your ability to survive in them, it is time to begin planning. We'll cover the next phase of planning in Step 3: Supply.
---
Step 3: Supply
Now that you have your 3 shelters in mind, it's important that you begin to outline what supplies you'll need to have ready pre-apocolyse and what supplies you'll need to gather along the way.
Because every survival plan is different, I can't tell you exactly what supplies you'll need, nor can I assume that you have enough disposable income to purchase a large stash of guns and ammunition to stock your nuclear bomb shelter with -- but what I can do is give you guidance that will help in the majority of scenerios.
If you have the ability to stockpile guns and ammunition, then I would suggest you do so after joining your local branch of the NRA (this will help keep you off of the terrorist watch list and make your "collection" a lot less suspicious). If you've already got plenty of guns -- as some of you do, then you may want to invest in some ammo presses and dies, so that you can make your own ammunition.
If you don't have the money to stockpile guns and ammunition, then I would at least have enough to stave off conflict mid-outbreak as you gather the rest of your supplies...
Some good things to stock up on pre-apocolypse are:
Gas Cans (rotate these out so as to prevent the gas from turning to lacker after too long)
A small cutting torch (when you run into your first locked metal door or chained off fence while cather supplies, you'll wish you'd had one)
A Large Pair of Bolt Cutters (Just a general good thing to have)
MREs (Meals Ready to Eat -- Can be purchased through military personal via the base exchange, though pricey, or stocked up on after hurricanes or other natural disaster)
A Good SUV (of course)
Flashlights (the crank kind are good, but keep some battery powered ones on hand in case you need some for continued use)
Tools
Spare Tires
A nice length of chain (incase you have to pull a barracade appart using your SUV, for instance)
You may also want to take the time nessicary to map out any and all armories that are within a reasonable path to each of the 3 possible shelters. Armories, specifically auxillery armories, are going to be good places to obtain military grade vehicles and gear. I specify auxillery armories because more often than not most of that equipment is there in holding pending the next military surplus auction -- meaning it's not likely to be actively deployed during the initial outbreak, and can be taken without much risk.
It may seem like a great idea to attempt raiding pawn shops and military surplus stores, but the thing you should bare in mind is that these stores are almost always opporated by the sort of person will shoot raiders dead where they stand. If you can pull off such a supply raid near the begining of the outbreak, you're likely to find a lot of good guns, ammo, and other supplies, but it is highly likely that you will lose some people during the raid.
Be sure that no matter which shelter you end up going to (even if you have to change plans at a moments notice) there is somewhere along the way that you can stock up on supplies.
---
Step 4: Assess
Now that you and your group are familiar with your shelters, routes, and supply zones, it's time to discuss the difficult "What if"s...
Here are some of the "what if"s you'll want to address:
What if we're stopped en route by police or military?
What if we're forced to evacuate?
What if [insert group member name here] dies? -- Rotate this one so that everone has a backup.
What if we get stuck?
This step may seem kind of pointless, but it's absolutely vital to consider all possibilies if you're going to consider yourselves truely prepared.
Discuss these "What if" scenerios, along with any others you can think of, with your group and agree on the best course of action to take in such an event. Once you have a set reaction to each scenerio, you're ready to commit.
---
Step 5: Commit
You've addressed all the loopholes of all your plans. If absolutely nothing else, you've assembled enough of a plan to arrive at a shelter well supplied.
It's time you set the plan in stone, so to speak. This means that each plan is broken down into steps and discusses as a group, so that each person knows their individual and team roles.
---
Step 6: Practice
You and your group will want to actively practice each of the plans every so often -- NOTE: I do NOT mean you should rob your supply zones, but rather park outside for the estimated time it would take to gather the supplies, and then progress on your way.
These practice sessions are mostly to help you readily gather up your group members and get to your destination in a safe and timely fashion.
These practice sessions do not account for things such as road blocks, wreckage, barracades, or actual raids -- but it will cut down on personel load time and hesitation. Additionally, it will make it to where in the event of an actual outbreak, less time needs to be consumed with instructing group members as to their roles.
Additionally, group members who have skills that need to be kept fresh, such as weaponry skills, should practice fairly often so as not to become "rusty". NOTE: Practice such skills in a manner that is in accordance to your local laws -- your of no use to your group if you're in prison.
This concludes the "Prepare" section of the book, and I hope you've thoroughly enjoyed it and will take the advice to heart. I hope I've brought details to your mind that you hadn't considered before. I'll post the next other two sections later on...
This book comes in three sections... "Prepare", "Survive", and "Rebuild". I've decided to maintain rights to this book by publishing it on my website (infohub.me) before publishing it anywhere else. This is only the first section, but I'll release the other two later on...
I should also mention that what you're seeing in this release is an un-edited manuscript that predates a possible wide scale publication (dependant on success online). I mention this for two reasons... One, to forewarn you that not everything will spelled correctly, and two, to tease you by telling you that if I do eventually publish, this book will be updated to contain a LOT more content (such as the good stuff I'm holding on to for myself).
I'd also like to thank my best friend Davy who's been a big help in the creation in a lot of this work, and may even co-author some in the later sections.
Prepare
When you're talking about surviving the zombie apocolypse, the absoute most important thing you can do is to be ready for whatever may be comming your way. In order to be properly prepared for this, or any other apocolyptic survival situation there are a few steps that must be taken. These are all steps that can be taken long in advance of an apocolypse, and will go a long way towards guarenteeing your survival.
I'll outline these steps here for you, and we'll discus them in more detail through the Prepare section of this book.
Step 1: Recruit
Step 2: Discuss
Step 3: Supply
Step 4: Assess
Step 5: Commit
Step 6: Practice
In short, these steps summarize down to putting together teams, discussing roles, identifying supply zones and gathering supplies, agreeing on the most likely scenerios and plans with the best chances of success, commit these plans to a set proceedure, and practicing the plan and any involved skills... If that doesn't really make sense, or you want to more than skim through this book, then I suggest you read ahead.
---
Step 1: Recruit
There is absolutely nothing more important to our survival as a species, and your survival as an individual than the ability to function in groups.
When recruiting, it may not be nessicary to openly discuss your plans with all group members condsidering that not all people agree that preparing for a zombie apocolypse is a valid use of time (or sanity). So for those people who you aren't close enough to discuss such measures without being considered for physciatric evaluation, it may be best to simply regard them as cargo who, come time of an outbreak, will be picked up and briefed on the plan.
As a general rule, however, it is very important that you and the majority of your survival group be "in the loop" about what to do in the event of an outbreak.
Additionally, it will be rather important to consider breeding prospects when gathering your group members. While it is unlikely that you'll oversee a large enough group of survivors to ensure proper genetic variety and complication-free breeding, it's still a good idea to avoid running off with 30 members of the same family.
If you don't think that genetic variety is very important, allow me to point out that zombies, like all enemies, can either starve to death or (dependant on which theoretical virus actually causes the outbreak) slow down significantly and begin to decay as their metabolisms die down. In either case, it is likely to take the better part of a decade for the zombie apocolypse to subside, and during that time, some of your survivors WILL die. It is for this reason that breeding must not wait untill the apocolypse if finished... This does not mean that you actively reproduce to a point where you can no longer supply the resources needed to raise the children - but it does mean that having an average of one or two children a year (dependant on the size of the group), is a very beneficial thing to do for the sake of the species.
To go further on this note, it is important that a large ammount of your survivors (at very least half) be women.
-
When recruiting, you should be aware that there are two primary categories your group members will need to be divided into. There is the Staff Group, and the Member Group.
Staff Group.
By leading this preparedness movement, you are most definately a member of the Staff Group. All staff group members are to have been selected for the specific skills and abilities that they bring your party's chance of survival. Additionally, all Staff Group Members are to be involved in the Discussion phase (Step 2: Discuss -- we'll read about this a bit later on).
Member Group.
This group title may seem misleading, as all survivors will have to pull an equal share of the labors involved in the survival of the group, but in general the main defining feature of the "Member Group" survivors are that they had no previous knowledge of the survival plan, or were picked up along the way. They may or may not have been specifically selected because of a skill or knowledge.
---
Step 2: Discuss
When in discussion with your Staff Group it is very important that the first thing laid out are roles. These are usually based off of the knowledge and expertise that a group member brings with them. For instance, I can pilot a variety of helicopters and virtually all fixed wing aircraft, and I'm good when it comes to lining out startegies -- So I'm likely going to be the one who pilots an aircraft and act as team leader, while as my friend Davy, who's great with shotguns and explosives, is more likely to be at the front of a combat zone.
I've assembled a table below that will provide you with a skill name, the knowledge and experiences involved in it, and what sort of person would most likely possess these skills... This may seem rather basic, but you'll want to ensure that each of these skills are possessed by at least one person in your survival group (that's both the Staff Group and Member Group combined).
Please note that this table was beautifully formatted on my screen, but on forums just absolutely will not display properly. Sorry...
Primary Skills:
Just to recap, these are the skills you will absolutely want to have on hand.
Skill |Knowledge of |Likely Pre-Apocolysp Occupation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical |First Aid, Medicines, Diseases |Pharmasist, Doctor, Nurse
Mechanical |Small Engines, Tools, Electrical Systems |Car Mechanic, Electrician
Pyro |Homemade explosives, chemicals |Convict, Chemist, College Student
Combat |Small Arms Efficiency, Ammunition Presses |Soldier, Veteran
Ground Transport |Large Trucks, Construction Equipment |Truck Driver, Heavy Equipment Operator
Engineer |Carpentry, Welding, Large-Scale Repairs |Welder, Body Shop Technician
Navigator |Maps, Compasses, Analog Navigation |Ship Navigator, Pilot, Ship Captain
Optional Skills:
These are skills that are nice to have, but unless the plan your group comes up with involves the specified vehicle type, these skill sets remain optional.
Skill |Knowledge of |Likely Pre-Apocolysp Occupation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Helicopter Pilot |Upkeep of and Piloting Helicopters |News Helicopter Pilot, Military Pilot
Plane Pilot |Upkeep of and Piloting Fixed-Wings |Cropduster, Civilian Pilot, Military Pilot
Ship Pilot |Ship Piloting, Mouring, Docking |Ship Captain, Boat Owner
Before moving on to the next phase of discussion, please be certain to look over the Primary Skills category once more and ensure that you're not without someone to fulfill at least one of each skill set. If you are, you need to return to step one and recruit more people.
Alright... Once you've ensured that each of the that all the primary skill sets are spoken for, it's important to discuss a few points of knowledge before you and your group begin discussing where and how you wish to survive come zombie apocolypse...
Firstly, it's vitally important that you understand what will happen immediately following the outbreak, so I've assembled an outline for you... My outline assumes the initial outbreak occures in America, and that the virus responsible for the zombies is not air born...
00:00 -- Initial Outbreak from unknown/unimportant source (government experiment leak, chemical warfare, whatever have you). Number of infected is low and has not yet recieved any public attention.
01:00 -- Within one hour after the initial outbreak, more people have become infected after having been wounded and fleeing from the zombie. Police are summoned.
01:15 -- After having heard the commotion over police scanner, local media appears on scene, and public awareness rises.
01:20 -- 1 of 2 things will occur... Either a police offer will attempt to force a zombie to the ground, or they will recognize some form of viral infection and begin a makeshift quarenteen of the area using riot gear. Either way results in public crowding and eventual infestation.
02:45 -- By this point the pattern of wounded people running away and subcoming to their infections has caused the entire area to be considered infected and the military are called in to establish quarenteens and escourt out survivors.
04:00 -- Poor screening proceedures and understanding of how the infection is spread lead to the release of several wounded civilians from the quarenteen zone, who then flee to the nearest place where they feel safe -- most traveling to be with family or friends.
07:00 -- The infection will have spread to a large area, most likely encompassing three or four states. The government declares a state of emergency and suggests all citizens to stay in doors. Local cerfews will become enforced, and police and military officials will scatter to clean up the spreading threat. Over the next few hours the messages will begin to become more and more intense, urging citizens to barracade doors and windows and to not welcome survivors into their homes or offer aid to the wounded. Air ports will close, and borders will be put on lock down.
07:20 -- Widescale public panic leads to looting and evacuation, more people out doors helps the infection to spread still further...
11:30 -- Nearly 12 hours in, the efforts to fight back the infection is failing largely on account of how quickly it spreads. In effort to slow the spread, survival shelters are opened under military control and all citizens are urged to attempt the trip to their nearest shelter or to signal passing military vehicles if they cannot provide their own transportation...
13:00 -- Once again poor screening methods and a rush to get the survivors to safety combine to work against us... Infection spreads quickly in the enclosed survival shelters, some may escape unwounded, but chances are the military will be forced to put down all civilians once the shelter has become infected.
17:00 -- By this point more and more paniced, hurried people are attempting to flee by any means nessicary, most will unknowingly carry someone who is infected with them. Those who escape by boat and succumb to their infection at sea will drift off untill their boat makes landfall, allowing the infection to become global.
36:00 -- A day and a half later, North America seems devoid of human life... Many survivors remain in their homes or on rooftops, but no help will come as the military will have been severely cut down. When their supplies of food run out, these survivors will be faced with the choice of starving to death or taking down their barracades and attempting to go through hell for the chance of food.
Day 3 -- By now, the infection has covered most parts of the globe, and large scale military action is being taken on most boarders as each country pre-blames its neighbor for its inevitable infection...
Day 7 -- One week in, human life as we know it has nearly ceased to exist... Most areas which had not lost their electicity as a result of car crashes and panic, will have lost it by now as the computers which control the power grids fail to detect significant changes in consumption and assume error, then continue to shut down the power grids for maintenance and to prevent fires...
Day 9 -- Large explosions and fires spill forth from industrial areas as electrically cooled chemicals warm, breech their containers, and combust.
Day 11 -- Most nuclear power plants remain operational, but some will start requiring maintence soon before the coolant system stops functioning and the water boils away causing radiation to be released into the surrounding areas.
Be sure you review that outline and understand the basic chain of events... Despite my assumptions that the outbreak would occure in America and not be air-born by nature, you'll find that the events proceed in similar fashion no matter what country the threat originates from.
Because of this, you should be fully aware of the threats surrounding where you intend to survive, as well as when, during the initial outbreak, you should set your plans into motion. I say this because if your plan is to set up shelter in a warehouse in an industrial area, well... Don't blame me if you should wake up due to an explosion blowing off your legs...
Now that you understand what you can expect after the outbreak, you should begin to discuss with your Staff Group where you wish to survive.
Some ideas for survival include bomb shelters, fortified houses/buildings, Off-Shore Oil Rigs, Islands, and Large Ships.
One thing you absolutely do not want to do is choose a shelter location with high visibility. This means avoid setting up shelter in places like pawn shops, food stores, service stations, or other places that will be subject to looters. Additionally, most large stores and pawnshops have a large ammount of glass windows which make them relatively easy to break into (and even though the pawn shop windows will most likely be barred, you'll find that the draft and constant moan of zombies can really destroy a nights sleep).
You should decide on a minimal of 3 possible shelters, and build plans around each of them - incase for some reason, you end up in a "Plan B" situation. For instance where I am at, a blocked off bridge or tunnel can cause me to completely abandon a plan.
If your group has already agreed on 3 possible survival shelters, you should be sure to understand what is involved with long term survival from that shelter.
If your unsure whether your shelter will surfice, ask yourself and your group these simple questions:
Is this shelter safe against zombies?
Does this shelter require extensive fortification or barracading?
Will it be safe and practicle to leave and return to the shelter in search of supplies?
Are there any negative area aspects to consider (industrial explosions, high visibility, flood land, fires, avalanch risk, etc)?
Will we be able to maintain this shelter?
Will we be able to protect this shelter from raiders?
Will we be able to house our group, supplies, and future generations here for a period of approximately 10 years?
How exactly will we get from this shelter to the nearest place to restock on supplies?
Review these answers carefully and ensure that they are to your liking.
Once you have 3 shelters and are confident in your ability to survive in them, it is time to begin planning. We'll cover the next phase of planning in Step 3: Supply.
---
Step 3: Supply
Now that you have your 3 shelters in mind, it's important that you begin to outline what supplies you'll need to have ready pre-apocolyse and what supplies you'll need to gather along the way.
Because every survival plan is different, I can't tell you exactly what supplies you'll need, nor can I assume that you have enough disposable income to purchase a large stash of guns and ammunition to stock your nuclear bomb shelter with -- but what I can do is give you guidance that will help in the majority of scenerios.
If you have the ability to stockpile guns and ammunition, then I would suggest you do so after joining your local branch of the NRA (this will help keep you off of the terrorist watch list and make your "collection" a lot less suspicious). If you've already got plenty of guns -- as some of you do, then you may want to invest in some ammo presses and dies, so that you can make your own ammunition.
If you don't have the money to stockpile guns and ammunition, then I would at least have enough to stave off conflict mid-outbreak as you gather the rest of your supplies...
Some good things to stock up on pre-apocolypse are:
Gas Cans (rotate these out so as to prevent the gas from turning to lacker after too long)
A small cutting torch (when you run into your first locked metal door or chained off fence while cather supplies, you'll wish you'd had one)
A Large Pair of Bolt Cutters (Just a general good thing to have)
MREs (Meals Ready to Eat -- Can be purchased through military personal via the base exchange, though pricey, or stocked up on after hurricanes or other natural disaster)
A Good SUV (of course)
Flashlights (the crank kind are good, but keep some battery powered ones on hand in case you need some for continued use)
Tools
Spare Tires
A nice length of chain (incase you have to pull a barracade appart using your SUV, for instance)
You may also want to take the time nessicary to map out any and all armories that are within a reasonable path to each of the 3 possible shelters. Armories, specifically auxillery armories, are going to be good places to obtain military grade vehicles and gear. I specify auxillery armories because more often than not most of that equipment is there in holding pending the next military surplus auction -- meaning it's not likely to be actively deployed during the initial outbreak, and can be taken without much risk.
It may seem like a great idea to attempt raiding pawn shops and military surplus stores, but the thing you should bare in mind is that these stores are almost always opporated by the sort of person will shoot raiders dead where they stand. If you can pull off such a supply raid near the begining of the outbreak, you're likely to find a lot of good guns, ammo, and other supplies, but it is highly likely that you will lose some people during the raid.
Be sure that no matter which shelter you end up going to (even if you have to change plans at a moments notice) there is somewhere along the way that you can stock up on supplies.
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Step 4: Assess
Now that you and your group are familiar with your shelters, routes, and supply zones, it's time to discuss the difficult "What if"s...
Here are some of the "what if"s you'll want to address:
What if we're stopped en route by police or military?
What if we're forced to evacuate?
What if [insert group member name here] dies? -- Rotate this one so that everone has a backup.
What if we get stuck?
This step may seem kind of pointless, but it's absolutely vital to consider all possibilies if you're going to consider yourselves truely prepared.
Discuss these "What if" scenerios, along with any others you can think of, with your group and agree on the best course of action to take in such an event. Once you have a set reaction to each scenerio, you're ready to commit.
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Step 5: Commit
You've addressed all the loopholes of all your plans. If absolutely nothing else, you've assembled enough of a plan to arrive at a shelter well supplied.
It's time you set the plan in stone, so to speak. This means that each plan is broken down into steps and discusses as a group, so that each person knows their individual and team roles.
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Step 6: Practice
You and your group will want to actively practice each of the plans every so often -- NOTE: I do NOT mean you should rob your supply zones, but rather park outside for the estimated time it would take to gather the supplies, and then progress on your way.
These practice sessions are mostly to help you readily gather up your group members and get to your destination in a safe and timely fashion.
These practice sessions do not account for things such as road blocks, wreckage, barracades, or actual raids -- but it will cut down on personel load time and hesitation. Additionally, it will make it to where in the event of an actual outbreak, less time needs to be consumed with instructing group members as to their roles.
Additionally, group members who have skills that need to be kept fresh, such as weaponry skills, should practice fairly often so as not to become "rusty". NOTE: Practice such skills in a manner that is in accordance to your local laws -- your of no use to your group if you're in prison.
This concludes the "Prepare" section of the book, and I hope you've thoroughly enjoyed it and will take the advice to heart. I hope I've brought details to your mind that you hadn't considered before. I'll post the next other two sections later on...