Survival Tips on People & Zombies

Avoid or Befriend Others?

In the midst of a zombie apocalypse, should you avoid contact with others (strangers). True, they can help you, provide entertainment, and possibly save you; however, they can betray you, slow you down, and even kill you or get you killed. There are plenty of good people in the world and just as many bad.

Applying principles of battle

Despite that zombies cannot be intimidated, some principles of battle can be applied. Every soldier out fresh out of basic knows “shoot, move and communicate”, and these could be effectively applied against the living dead.
1. Shoot: proper firearms training pre-invasion is vital. The right time to learn how to shoot is not when the undead are snacking on your face. Handguns and melée weapons are excellent last resorts, but being capable of killing a zombie from 300 yards keeps you alive to fight another day.
2. Move: Remember, whatever doesn’t move is dead, at least pre animation. Staying in one place allows the enemy to mass and eventually overwhelm you. The classic zombie fiction cliche of boarding up a house will not work in the long run. A home base may be an option if well fortified and hidden, but patrols must be maintained for reconnaissance as well as search and destroy missions, and a viable escape plan must be both standardised and rehearsed. In battle itself constant movement will keep Romero zombies at a comfortable distance, as well
as potentially providing debilitating crossfire on ragers. If with a team, however, discipline and coordination are vital to mitigate friendly fire, which leads to the last point…
3. Communicate: As stated, coordination is vital for effective fighting. Securing personal communication devices, establishing visual or verbal commands, and having a strong chain of command to initiate actions will all contribute to a survivable encounter with the undead. Of course long range passive and active communications to find fellow survivors would be a great boost to both long term survival and morale. A key point in all this is that to communicate, youust have someone to communicate with. The lone wolf gunman is in no way viable except in extreme emergency, and even then the bulk of your efforts should be to find fellow humans. It will keep you sane, provide backup in battle, and a large enough group with diverse skills may be able to reestablish an economy to provide for job specialization and full time warriors, allowing the zombie apocalypse to be not only survivable, but livable.