OK seriously. Yes, I am going to write about a Zombie Apocalypse. But not for the reasons that you might think. A Zombie Apocalypse, as pictured in movies of course is complete bullshit. However, some emergency, law enforcement and military units in the past, have assumed a Zombie Apocalypse for training exercises. Why would that be?
First of all, it is obviously apparent to anybody, even remotely participating in such a training, that it is not the real deal. Depending on circumstances that can be good or bad. Secondly and more importantly, a movie like Zombie Apocalypse incorporates many other disaster scenarios in one:
- Civil unrest/war
- Global pandemic
- Grid down (Zombies do not keep powerplants running)
- Food shortages: Imagine a situation where the food supply completely breaks down and people are starving. Now imagine yourself standing in the middle of a street somewhere in a city with a fresh loaf of bread in your hand. What do you think how many “mindless creatures” will be running towards you once they see you (or the bread for that matter)? There you go, there’s your zombie apocalypse. In short you can substitute “Zombies” with “desperate or ruthless starving people”
Basically, it would be the end of the world as we know it, and involve a complete breakdown of society. I have to stress out that I do NOT think that a Zombie Apocalypse is something even remotely realistic. The only reason for considering a Zombie Apocalypse when prepping, is that when you are prepared for a Zombie Apocalypse you are also prepared for many of the more realistic scenarios at the same time. Plus, it might be more entertaining for some people. Social unrest will be hard to grasp for many, as they have never experienced anything like it. Thanks to Hollywood everybody will “know” what to expect when talking about a Zombie Apocalypse.
So, let’s dive into it.
For our scenario let’s assume that a virus was released (whether accidentally or not is irrelevant). This virus infects people and turns them into mindless aggressive beasts that only wish is to attack everybody not already infected. The infection will start to spread somewhere in a city and obviously local law enforcement will not know what to do and be completely overwhelmed/infected. People will eventually figure out that something is going on and try to get out as quickly as they can. Governments will enable varyingly efficient emergency responses and try and lock down certain areas to prevent further spread. At the beginning law enforcement and military will not want to use deadly force straight away, and many of them will get infected as well. Resulting in ever bigger circles of lockdowns around the centre of the infection. At the same time some infected will manage to get through and spread the infection to other places, where new clusters will emerge. Does this somewhat sound familiar? Due to the severe nature of the infection, measures taken against the infected will eventually become much more severe as well. Most people will become caught between the rising tide of infected and the military/police trying to enforce curfews and lockdowns. The true nature of how the infection spreads will be unknown at the beginning and there will be heaps of conflicting information on the media. Some news will be claimed conspiracy theories, only to later be confirmed and vice versa. Of course, information spread via official channels will try and keep the general population from panicking. So, it will probably say something like stay at home, isolate and keep calm. Help is underway. There likely will be military posts blocking all the major roads and preventing anybody from fleeing the centres of infection.
I personally think that long term, a military response would be more than capable to halt such a zombie apocalypse eventually. Especially as long as the infected don’t find out how to shoot down helicopters and destroy tanks. But, short term local police, military, militia whatever will be overwhelmed and will have to retreat or be annihilated. Thus, with regards to prepping, if you are in the middle of an infected zone, don’t count on any official help.
Our Zombie Apocalypse Prepping Scenario
So, for our scenario you will find yourself in an area where law enforcement and military have been overwhelmed (or retreated from). Some people have fled and the rest has been converted into mindless zombies, that attack any human being on sight. You are among the few survivors in that area. Supply chain, power, local authority, everything has completely broken down and going to the street during night-time is dangerous. During daytime it is suicide. To make things worse you do not really know how the virus spreads and any contact with (seemingly healthy) humans might get you infected. You also do not know whether the virus can survive on surfaces that have been touched by infected or if it can transmit through the air. You have no idea what is happening in the outside world and if order is ever going to be restored.
So as always hunkering down and laying low is probably your best call at the beginning of the situation, until you have a better idea of what is going on. Do NOT attract any attention. If you do, infected nearby might be notified of your presence and attack. It might be a good idea to retreat into a secondary more secluded location if you have such a shelter prepared and have the means to get there safely and without attracting any attention. If your plan involves hopping into your humongous loud Ute and driving through half of the city its probably just going to get you killed.
It is going to be essential for your survival that you are not seen or heard. That means NO Sounds and NO light to be heard and seen from the outside of where you are. If the Zombie hordes pick up that there is possible prey inside one house they are going to come storming through the doors and windows.
It would probably be a good time to have some plywood sheets ready (already cut to size – or cut it to size by hand). Thus, light could be stopped from getting outside and anything trying to smash its way through the windows is going to be delayed. However, if your house is the only one with nicely barred windows it would potentially draw a lot of unwanted attention.
Generally speaking, you want to keep as low a profile as possible to not be found by the infected. Depending on where you live that is going to be harder or easier. If there were people (that are now zombies) living around you leaving your shelter is going to be dangerous. Doing so during broad daylight is going to be suicide.
Truth is in areas with a high density of infected, something will eventually be alerted to your presence. It might be a tiny bit of light shining through a crack in the plywood, or one could smell the delicious food you were cooking. Or the temper tantrum your teen son threw because he could not play games on his PlayStation.
Your shelter or house should delay any assault by the infected as best as possible. Not because you will be able to fend them off, but to give you more time to evacuate through the back door. That is right. Do not expect you will be able to fend of dozens if not hundreds of hungry zombies. In this scenario you will absolutely need a plan and the means to safely get to another (safer) place in case your primary location gets compromised. That also means, when planning for such a scenario include an escape route and the gear you are going to need in your plans. When fortifying your house or shelter (or simply planning to do so) always have at least one emergency exit included.
That does not sound as fun as some people thought it would, does it? Instead of shooting masses of zombies together with Mila Jovovic, you are hiding or fleeing most of the time. Gun fire will only attract more infected. But it gets even worse. Don’t forget that you not just have to deal with aggressive mindless beasts, but also a pandemic. That means that any nightly foraging trip and basically any new location where there have been infected could potentially mean you getting infected as well. So, hygiene, sanitation and personal protective equipment will be very important as well. Mind you we are still assuming that the means of spreading this disease are unknown, so we have to assume a worst case. That means that your house or shelter will have some biosecurity isolation measures in place. Anything coming in will have to be thoroughly sanitized or disposed of. You will potentially have to deal with family members or friends that might have become infected and will need to be quarantined for a certain amount of time. The same goes for anybody doing nightly forages. Biosecurity is also another reason you don’t want to fend off any zombies on your property. The bodies will likely continue to be infectious.
Your only ally in this thing is time. With time the zombies will die of starvation (ideally before you do) or the disease itself. Thus, their numbers will start to decrease with time, which does not mean that second clusters of infections will flare up once the first one has subsided. Or maybe the military/government/officials will come up with a treatment/vaccine or the military will just win the war.
Now let’s leave our small zombie apocalypse scenario and get back to the real world. Of course, I don’t believe in a Zombie Apocalypse a neither should you. But read through the text again and simply substitute “Zombie” or “Infected” with “desperate starving person”.
In any case of a complete break down of society and infrastructure over time you are going to have to deal with a “zombie apocalypse” of desperate or ruthless people coming after you if you are not careful.