What would you do to survive?

Hi!

I was hoping to get insight of how people would react in a disaster setting so I can make realistic characters. For simplicity sake, we will say that this disaster is a zombie apocalypse. The "Zombies" are intelligent, not just some idiots bumbling around aimlessly.

Please don't say the "Correct" answer. Say the answer that is right for you. Thanks

1. First 24 hours, what do you do?



2. What are two things you would make sure you had on you at all times?



3. What would be the first five things you would loot? (Food and water don't count, if you are saying weapons, please be a bit more specific.)



4. If you were living with a group of people would size matter? (ex. Too many mouths to feed vs more hands to help out)

5. What kind of shelter would you look for? Where would it be? (Extreme temperatures don't work)



6. And finally, what skill would you bring to the table? What knowledge could you share with the group to help them thrive?

 

First, how intelligent are they? Like From being able to turn a doorknob to using a computer?

 

Boy there are a lot of people obsessed with the violent reanimated corpse thing.
Define what makes an infected person any more or less 'better' than their healthy
counter parts?

1. Get as far away from population centers, as they will be chaos due to panicky people
and quite possibly war zones (given the intelligent zombies will try and defend themselves).

2.Medical field kit, and a good large knife.

3. A decent mid-ranged rifle (AK-47, AR-15) and ammo. Matches/Lighters. Cigarettes.
Liquor for antiseptic, stress relief, and mild pain killer. Medical supplies (bandages,
sutures, antibiotics, pain pills).

4. 4-6 people maximum, easier to keep track of them. Work together as a team, along
with having specialized roles in the group.

5. Some place that is easily defensible from all sides with a roof. Will have to keep moving
as no place will be safe from zombies, battles (Mil+Zombies), and desperate people who
have reverted to barbarism to get what they want/need.

6. Crude but basic medical care. Pack light, scavenging, follow instructions. Pretty much
bring a ruthless democracy where we decide what to do in each given situation presented,
as the group is priority one. Trust no outsiders, and try to let the world sort itself out. Much
better to hide than try and outright fight a literal global war between humans and zombies.
Smaller groups move faster, and easier than large communities.

 

Well i answer this assuming i know nothing about the enemy.

1. Gather supplies, like weapons and food, and go to the countryside, away from populated areas. If i have a chance, i would like to capture a zombie to know what I'm up against. I want to know about their intelligence, weaknesses, patterns, the like.

2. A medium to long ranged, quite durable, easy to wield weapon. Like a katana. But for the meantime, a knife is the easiest one i can get, so that's no 1. No 2 is a medical kit.

3. Looting means getting stuff that i don't already have, so:
1. Portable radio for communication. Since this is the beginning of the apocalypse, there will be government announcements. There will be future uses as well.
2. Binoculars. I want to see them before they see me.
3. Guns with ammo (AR-15 probably)
4. A katana (if possible) for a sharp weapon substitution if i don't have ammo.
5. Medical kit (Inside there are bandages, antibiotics, etc)

Mentionable items that i already have: A backpack, a map of the area, matches, and a knife.

4. Little group between 4 to 6 ppl.

5. Hmm my shelter will be a boat, as i will need to keep moving. I'm aware that humans are still a problem, but at least zombies won't be much of a problem anymore, unless when i have to go look for fuel and supplies on land.

6. I know how to perform basic first aid (well i need a refresher course). Pack light and keep moving to survive. By keep moving means don't stay in 1 place for too long. Scavenge, and take another group's supplies if certain opportunity arises (Still having moral conflict). Keep listening to radio channels for news about survivors or safe zones, but still be wary. Recruit people with military and medical experience. Finally, trust a few and still don't let your guard down. You need to trust someone while preparing to stab him or her in the back should they try anything funny.

 

I don't suppose "assume the fetal position and wait for an adult to find me" will do the trick?
I'm going to assume this happens while I'm in the city, as that's the most likely scenario as well as the most problematic. I'll also assume I'm in my home at the time.

1.
A: Grab my cooking knife, the closest thing to a weapon around here.
B: Rush downstairs to lock the front door of the building.
C: Check in on my neighbors. Let's say they've been zombified.
D: Rush/sneak back upstairs, depending on whether I'm discovered or not. Lock myself in my apartment.
E: Try to get in touch with people via phone or internet. Find out if my loved ones are safe and sound, try to get as much information as I can. Arrange meetups if possible.
F: Take stock of inventory. Fill every possible container with water in case anything happens to the supply.
G: Spend the first night inside, waiting for the initial chaos to (hopefully) subside.

2:
Lighter and (muted) phone.

3: (I have no survival skills)
A proper gun w/ammo might be hard to come by around here, but I'm pretty sure some stores carry bows and arrows, so I'll try to head for one of those. I'd snatch up some liquor for the purpose of disinfection/molotov coctails/fire arrows/good times. I have no idea how to weaponize booze, but I would probably try. I'd loot some medication and such as well. Anticoagulants which I need to live, painkillers, nicotine patches, anything at all that might be fun or useful. I'd pick up a good, hefty axe for chopping down doors/firewood/zombies. Lastly, I'm torn between a fishin rod or a tent. Are those included in some "rugged outdoorsman amateur kit" or something?

4:
More people make more noise and consume more resources (and ups the likelihood of bullshit drama and fuckups) but also contribute more firepower and provides a bigger buffer between me and the zombies. Hmm... I think I would want something like 8-10. I would probably only, at least mainly, travel with people I know and trust. I don't think I'm pragmatic enough to oust a friend even if they don't have much to contribute. I would probably even choose them over a useful stranger I don't quite trust. After all, if there's one thing I've learned from apocalypse fiction it's that man is the real monster. Trust and teamwork, I think, is paramount to long-term survival.

5:
For shelter, I would like a nice, solid, defensible building. A place without too much in the way of entry points, but enough space for my ragtag band of 8-10. My current office building or similar would fit nicely. It's near the railroad, in case somebody starts running evacuations by train. It's also in a somewhat sparsely populated area, but still within looting distance of several stores. Eventually I would want to get out of the city, but such a place would be ideal for my temporary base.

6:
I believe I mentioned I have no survival skills, least of all in an urban setting. Well, I'm a pretty decent shot with rifle, pistol, or bow, and I know more or less how to swing an axe (at trees and logs, at least). Outside of combat, I'd be quite fucking useless, really. I can cook, but fine cuisine isn't going to save many lives. I'm not a natural leader, diplomat, or strategist. I barely know basic CPR. I can't fix electronic or mechanical stuff. I could maybe be that tipsy guy who tells stories by the fireplace.

 

1. First 24 hours, what do you do?
Cry a lot. Think about how I'm going to die. Hide, mostly. At some point I'd probably get up and try to find some other people but if an apocalypse ever happens I'm screwed.


2. What are two things you would make sure you had on you at all times?
I'm a type 1 diabetic so I need to make sure I have insulin vials and syringes/ insulin pens on me if I'm interested in living for more than a couple of days. Other than that I'd probably need to have some kind of weapon, like a knife.


3. What would be the first five things you would loot? (Food and water don't count, if you are saying weapons, please be a bit more specific.)
1) pharmacy for more insulin/ test strips
2) some type of convenience store so I can get a cooler for the insulin
3) I don't even know, man, I'm probably dead already. There's not going to be a way to keep my insulin cold for long because, assuming we've lost electricity, all the ice is going to melt.
4) I would free the animals from nearby shelters (used to work at a Humane Society, I'm not letting those babies starve while trapped in cages)
5) probably try to find an emergency medical kit somewhere.


4. If you were living with a group of people would size matter? (ex. Too many mouths to feed vs more hands to help out)
I'd like our group to be larger so there's less of a chance that I get eaten if we get ambushed. I mean, I'm still going to get eaten, but I'd like a couple of other people to get eaten first.

5. What kind of shelter would you look for? Where would it be? (Extreme temperatures don't work)
I'd look for shelter in something like a Walmart. Biggest one I could find.



6. And finally, what skill would you bring to the table? What knowledge could you share with the group to help them thrive?
I have some basic medical/ surgery knowledge from my time working at a shelter so I could probably help with wounds.

 

There is a 99% chance I will be doing this.

I might also visit some, uh, "Zombies in need of killing" which totally isn't an excuse to off some of my former bosses.

 

Day 1 New World Order

'So, Mr President we got these ex-military on the farmstead,'

'Yep, and who else?'

'The army of Satan militia down at Peckerville...'

'Okay, what about the ethnic constituency?'

'Sacred librarians of Puerto Rico? A couple of hombres designed the bombproof shelter, and...'

'And pussy, I need pussy!'

'No, no pussy, we're searching, of course, Mr President. There's spectacle evidence in laboratories, but otherwise only you and the horny corporals, we'll be in touch, out.'

 

This should be thing.

 

At least it's not become the pandemic fantasy has

 

So, exactly what is it about these guys that make them Zombies, then? How are they different than normal humans? Can they be reasoned with?

1. First 24 hours, what do you do?

Stay where I am, try and figure out what's going on, assess what the risk is, take stock of everything I've got and make a list of things I'll need in order to survive for a while into the future. I live on a farm that's not easy to find when you know it's there and population centers aren't really a thing up here. The biggest town near me had maybe 10,000 people max. and it's fairly far from anything that could be considered the epicenter of an outbreak, so I've got some time.

2. What are two things you would make sure you had on you at all times?

Something to make fires and a solid pair of boots. If I could choose a third, it'd probably be a decent pocket knife, a small axe or both.

3. What would be the first five things you would loot? (Food and water don't count, if you are saying weapons, please be a bit more specific.)

Alcohol (all kinds), water purifiers/filters, ammunition for my SKS rifle (7.62x39), building supplies (lumber, cinder blocks, rebar, all of it, but especially copper tubing), and tools.

4. If you were living with a group of people would size matter? (ex. Too many mouths to feed vs more hands to help out)

If I were traveling, probably no more than a dozen. If I were in a community, not more than 150. That seems to be the magic number for the amount of people in a community that a person can know, keep track of and keep peaceful without actual dedicated peacekeepers.

5. What kind of shelter would you look for? Where would it be? (Extreme temperatures don't work)

Somewhere on a hilltop with a decent set of walls and surrounded by plenty of farmland so if an invasion came, there'd be plenty of time to mount a defense or get the hell out of Dodge.

6. And finally, what skill would you bring to the table? What knowledge could you share with the group to help them thrive?

I grew up on a farm so I can shoot, I can build, I can repair, I have some basic blacksmith skills, I know how to brew and distill, and I can gut and clean pretty much any animal except for long pig, as long as you're not expecting anything too fancy. I also know how to make soap using animal fat and lye, as well as other weird and random and mostly useless things that I wouldn't think of until I was put in a related situation, like how to develop film using coffee and borax.

 

Grab my go bag. Text my family and close friends with my location. Listen to the radio for updates, and observe the city from the top floor of my apartment building. If my family or friends and I can't connect and my building looks to be compromised, I'll leave a note and move to a safe location on foot (I don't have a car).

If I can, I'll stay at my apartment until a ride comes along. If not, I'll move southeast, headed to my extended family.

My go bag has food and supplies for three days. Other than that, my most accessible weapon is my knife. I'd prefer to have my gun, but my dad currently keeps it at his house.

I wouldn't loot anything until I absolutely had to. If I couldn't connect with my friends or family, I'd need guns, a long blade (like a machete) and a better short blade, more food, more disability supplies, and a vehicle. Those would be my priorities.

Give me a semi-automatic rifle, preferably something that can shoot 5.56 or 7.62. I'd also like a 9mm or .45 ACP sidearm, with a holster if I can get it. For a blade, I'd probably want a machete with a tapered point for stabbing, a smooth blade for cutting, and a serrated edge portion for sawing. Add to that a combat-style knife (a SOG SEAL Team Elite would be ideal).

As for food, I'd want proteins, carbs, and essential vitamins, so canned or desiccated fruits, meats, and vegetables would be ideal. Disability supplies would be a bitch because I can only get some of it from a department store. I'd have to raid a hospital for the rest.

Any vehicle I take would need to be an automatic (not a stick-shift). Preferably something older, without any remote stopping capability like OnStar gives to its vehicles. At the very least, it needs as full a tank of gas as I can get, and it needs to be mechanically sound. Off-road capability would be a plus. I might drop by Fort Carson at that point and see if the Army left me anything.

Personality matters more than size. I wouldn't put in with cowards, the lazy, the stupid, or anyone using the ZA to fulfill any homicidal urges. I could trust my friends and family, but would hesitate to put in with strangers.

Anything I can fortify, preferably up high. Depending on the physical capabilities of my enemy, I would want something difficult to get to, with two points of ingress/egress. If I could connect with my friends or family, we could take shifts keeping an eye out. On my own, the upper level of buildings I could secure would be preferable.

I have survival skills, some first aid knowledge, marksmanship, and an ability to strategize. I'm not any good in hand-to-hand, but I can shoot accurately up to 200 yards, and can be absolutely stealthy when necessary. I also know plenty about mental health, I can motivate people to push aside their wrong thinking and "get their head in the game," if they're willing to trust me.

 

The population density of the greater Osaka area averages 4000 people per square mile.

There are no guns or bows available at any place that I know of.

There's a small grocery store / large liquor store directly across the street, not many people live in my building, and I'm on the top floor, so:

Buy all the booze I can pay for, food for a couple days, and drink myself stupid until the zombies and/or yakuza set up relief for those unaffected by the plague.

This is Japan. Look at what happened after the 2011 earthquake. We do things differently here.

 

Can my shelter be a car and I bring extra fuel and assume I can raid gas stations like in The Road?

 

True, but it is spreading steadily.

 

Actually real swords are very tightly controlled, as hard or harder to get hold of than a gun in the USA. That is, I believe, a holdover from the Meiji suppression of the samurai (as shown in the movie The Last Samurai) more than any sort of public safety issue. There's a beautiful scene (minor spoilers on an 8 year old anime) in Blood: The Last Vampire when the vampire hunter grabs what she thinks is a real katana from a store, only to have it bend when she uses it against one of the baddies.

Also (got a friend who was an iaido master who showed me this) katanas require a lot more skill to use than you'd think. Watch this knucklehead wreck $5000 worth of (and that's bargain -basement for a real sword) katana in one go:



So I'm going to stick with my plan of skipping work until a tattooed zombie comes along with a nice bento box and some toiletry essentials. Seriously, look at what happened in Japan after the last couple catastrophic earthquakes: zero looting, zero rioting, services delivered inefficiently by the government, slack taken up by organized crime.

 

I never really thought of swords as a sound defense against zombies. If you're up against the 'destroy the brain' type zombies, you'd either have to decapitate them or bash the skull in; both of which are not as easy to so as movies say it is. Also, to use one, you have to get really close to the zombies, which isn't a really a good idea if there are very many of them and, even alone, slashing at one seems like a good way to get covered in all kinds of nasty, infectious zombie goop. Unless of course it's not the zombies you're most worried about. If I had to go melee, though, my preference would probably be a spiked war hammer of some kind. Little maintenance, simple to use, hard to break, and easy to fix. Even a standard claw hammer turned backward would be pretty devastating.

 

Funny, I had a dream about using a geologist's pick hammer to kill someone last night.

Took several penetrating blows to the skull to do the trick.

 

Hollywood Marine, baby, and it was dreamlogic, only headshots would work.

 

1. First 24 hours, what do you do?
- Try and find some quick weapons and supplies and head out of town.

2. What are two things you would make sure you had on you at all times?
- First Aid and a Bow n' Arrow or Crossbow

3. What would be the first five things you would loot? (Food and water don't count, if you are saying weapons, please be a bit more specific.)
- 1. Medical Supplies such as inhalers (I have a few friends who need them), bandages, supplies for stitching up wounds, etc.
- 2. Arrows or Bolts.
- 3. A shotgun and some shotgun rounds for emergencies.
- 4. Maps and Compasses.
- 5. Machete's and large knives and axes.

4. If you were living with a group of people would size matter? (ex. Too many mouths to feed vs more hands to help out)
- I would want a small group that would be able to move in and out of locations quickly and unnoticed without having to worry about too many mouths to feed. Roughly 3-7 people (7 max) other than myself.

5. What kind of shelter would you look for? Where would it be? (Extreme temperatures don't work)
- Somewhere small with few exits to reinforce (no large glass walls) that can be used as a place to stay for no more than a few days of scavenging and then moving on to the next one.

6. And finally, what skill would you bring to the table? What knowledge could you share with the group to help them thrive?
- Heavy lifting strength and general knowledge and understanding of basic tactics of getting in and out of locations. Also entertainment, I love telling stories and playing pen/paper RPGs and often make up my own on the spot just for a quick fun one shot game.

Hope this helps, it was pretty fun to jot down.

 

I imagine 99% of the population would simply go through something akin to PTSD.


1. First 24 hours, what do you do?
Get to the country where there is a low population density, but a high gun density.

2. What are two things you would make sure you had on you at all times?
My knife and a glock.

3. What would be the first five things you would loot? (Food and water don't count, if you are saying weapons, please be a bit more specific.)
Pharmacies for drugs, both to heal ourselves and to drug/kill other people. Guns. I'd be mostly interested in small arms, 9mms, but I'd probably want to grab a shotgun too. Then the library for every encyclopedia / science book.

4. If you were living with a group of people would size matter? (ex. Too many mouths to feed vs more hands to help out)
A small family group, maybe one or two other families. I'd be more concerned with unpredictability than feeding them.

5. What kind of shelter would you look for? Where would it be? (Extreme temperatures don't work)
Underground. A storm shelter would be sufficient. I'm assuming these zombies can't pick locks. It'd be up in the mountains, basic laws of entropy says that zombies will congregate in valleys.

6. And finally, what skill would you bring to the table? What knowledge could you share with the group to help them thrive?
Mechanical engineering, project organization. Knowledge of chemistry and physics. I could do things like build an electric generator or a gravity fed hydroponic system. I also know how to track, navigate, and hunt.