You may have been preparing for all sorts of natural and nuclear disasters, but have you thought about how to survive a zombie apocalypse? It may seem silly and even ridiculous to the more skeptical prepper, but when you think about it and do your research, you’ll realize that is better to be safe than sorry.
So, I did my research after thinking about the possibility of a zombie apocalypse actually happening. So, how to survive a zombie apocalypse? The results of my research determined that in order to survive a zombie apocalypse we’re going to need way more than any other sort of natural disaster or nuclear incident. Here’s what you’re going to need.
- Gather Basic Resources
- Choose Your Weaponry
- Protect the Entrances
- Choose the Right People
- Have an Exit Plan
- Pick Your Vehicle
The reasons a zombie apocalypse would require more prepping from you is that no one is coming to save you. Obviously, as a prepper, you’re never really counting with that. Still, here’s the thing. If an EMP happens, the government will still do everything it can to protect its citizen. Plus, America’s allies will have to step in to help. Now, when it comes to a zombie apocalypse happening none of that is a possibility. That’s why you have to be more prepared than ever.
So, below we go into detail to help you prep for everything. If you follow these steps, you’ll have more chances of survival than anyone else.
Gather Resources
The first thing you’re going to need to really make out of this alive is to gather the most basic, yet important, resources that are vital to keeping any human alive. You need shelter, water, food, first aid kit, medication, hygiene kit, and utility supplies.
These utility supplies can be stuff like can openers, knives, flashlights, matches, lighters, batteries. This equipment can increase your chances of survival exponentially.
Now, in any survival situation, you’re going to need shelter since according to the rule of 3 you only last 3 hours without shelter. So, you’re going to need a better place than your house, especially if it’s in the city. If this is your case, wait a few days, if possible, to evacuate the city. In the first few hours everybody will try to take the highways to evacuate, which will cause everybody to be stuck, thus creating a perfect banquet for zombies.
So, wait as much as you can before fleeing your house. While you wait, hide in the attic and any other high places in the house since zombies have a hard time climbing. Basement is not a good idea here.
Once you’re secure in your house and have a shelter, it’s time to think about the most basic supplies; food and water. Ideally, you’ll already have this stored in your house. Water for a few months and canned food for a year. If this is not your case, you’re going to need to go to the nearest grocery store or supermarket. The problem is that most people will do the same, which will cause chaos and fill the place with zombies after you.
Always remember that the most important things are shelter, water, and food. Now, the other things are secondary but still important. So, gather your supplies of medication, first aid kit, hygiene kit, and utility supplies. No one wants to die in a zombie apocalypse because of a minor infection after injuring yourself while on the run.
So, go about it this way. Get basic medicine, heat sources, and tools. Flashlights are practical but it is always good to have a real heat source since they keep you warm and they also kill zombies. For the medication, always have antibiotics and antiseptic. For tools, get the ones that help you fix electrical and mechanical objects and the ones that help you open things.
Once you have basic resources, you’ll have great chances of survival for a few months. Still, if you want to increase your chances of survival and even last for years, you’re going to need more than the basic. It’s time to choose more aggressive protection. After all, you have to be able to kill the zombies.
Choose Your Weapons
It’s time to start your arsenal to make sure you can protect yourself and everyone around you. Now, choosing weapons for a zombie apocalypse isn’t about just getting the biggest gun with most firepower. To survive long-term, you’re going to need a strategy.
Starting with the obvious, choose your firearm of choice. You need to be able to kill zombies without getting too close to them. Here, it’s interesting to have more than one option. For example, automatic and semiautomatic guns are great if you’re facing a big herd of zombies at the moment. You’re going to need a lot of firepower without the need to be constantly reloading. You also want handguns to more direct confrontation.
Then, it’s always good to think long-term. Ammo doesn’t last forever, so the best is to first get as much as you can after the apocalypse started. Then, start thinking about other options of weapons that aren’t firearms.
You can start with baseball bats and machetes. There are relatively light and precise if you know how to use. They sort of function an extension of your arm. You can also go for a bow and arrows if you know how to use them.
Try and avoid weapons like axes or any heavy object like that because you’ll get tired quickly if there are more than 10 zombies. Also, they create an arch every time that you hit, leaving huge vulnerable spots for the zombies to explore.
Once you have your firearms and machetes at the ready, you can think about strategic weapons. Think about grenades and TNT here. Bombs are not only good to kill a bunch of zombies at the same time they’re also great to create a distraction and open way for you to escape.
Still, it’s important to use these weapons carefully because if you start a fire you can’t control you may end up dying by the fire and not the zombies.
Beyond firearms, machetes, bow and arrows, and bombs, you may also consider traps. Think, zombies are not very bright and the best way to kill them is beheading them. So, if you, for example, set a trap with a sharp line that will do exactly that when they walk through a room, you may kill most of them without lifting a finger. You can even set up one of these traps at the entrances of your shelter, which is the next step.
Protect the Entrances
Once you have everything you need to keep your body functioning and all the equipment to kill the brain-hungry zombies, it’s time to reduce the chances of you even having to encounter one. You do that by protecting the entrances. Be this your final shelter or just a temporary one, you have to protect the entrances at all times.
A good rule of thumb is to look for places without windows. They make you too vulnerable to a zombie attack. Avoid shopping malls, supermarkets, and office buildings. Those places tend to have too many entrances to protect and too many windows.
Look for warehouses, prisons (yes you read that right), police stations, and any place that you can find with no more than 2-3 entrances, near to zero windows that is hard to get in. Prisons, in this case, are a great place because they are hard to get in but also get out.
Anyway, about the entrances, the best way is to have cameras monitoring but this may not be available, in which case you should have a plan to secure every entrance at all times.
Besides monitoring the entrances, you should secure them with contingency plans. Set up traps and a way to block them even indefinitely if needed. You need grenades at the entrance and any other killing zombie method in the playbook.
Give preference to anything that can behead them. If you don’t have anything that beheads zombies, you may also go for anything that would slow them down. Since they’re not the brightest bunch, set up obstacles as well. The more time you’re able to gain the more your chances increase to making it out alive.
Assuming you’re in a group, another important thing is to set up a schedule and a system to ensure that everyone is rested while the entrances are still secure. In any survival situation is important that everyone saves the more energy as it ‘s possible for the crucial moments. So, have a system in place to protect the entrances in the most efficient way you can. To do that, you need to surround yourself with the right people, which is the next tip.
Build Your Own Society
Humans are social creatures. No matter how much of an introvert you are, you need social interaction. As humans, we don’t last long without human contact. With time, our mental health decays and we die. So, you need to form your own survival group, clan, or whatever you want to call it.
The best way to survive is in a group. Besides society needs to be rebuilt. You can start a new society with the right individuals. Look for people with different sets of skills and different personalities. Still, remember that if the world pretty much ended a lot of people don’t have reasons to continue to follow the law or any other rules. So, it’s important to establish leadership and have some rules to hold the group together.
Now, it’s important to point out that choosing the right people is not about excluding others. Unless they’re a risk for the group. The main criteria that you can use are to choose people based on their personalities and skills. For example, it might come in handy to have a doctor and a police officer around. It’s important to have a practical, logical person the same way you need someone that empathizes with others.
Have a good mix to make sure that you have all sorts of perspectives to increase your chances and the group’s chance of survival. The more important thing though is to remember that you must have a leadership be it yours or someone better suited for the job.
When you don’t have authority, everyone does what’s best for them and not the group. This can get everyone killed that’s why it’s important to have an authority figure to keep things in perspective. With all that, start choosing the group to form the new society.
Find a Good Place to Hide
Chances are your house is not the best place to start civilization again or even to hide for a few days. So, the best you can do is to have a place to hide. Even if you have intentions of staying in your house for as long as it’s possible. You still will want to have a plan B. A place near the mountain or the woods may be an interesting start since these locations usually have clean water, available food, and are more remote, which means fewer zombies.
Fortresses, castles, or even prisons may also be another option. You should look for places in remote areas, with difficult access points, and that is big enough to accommodate your group. Prisons, for example, have control towers where you can place a sniper to eliminate any approaching threat.
You should also choose a place with entrances that you can control and that you can use to scape fast. Remember that if a herd of zombie approach and their entrance is inevitable, people tend to panic which worsens everything. So, it’s important to have a good exit strategy so no one is left behind, or worse, everybody dies.
You also have to think about food when it comes to your new place. If you have intentions of staying there for a long time, it’s important to think of a way of getting more food. Now, you may have a local warehouse or grocery store around, but chances are that the food will expire or the supply will end. So, the best thing you do is to start cultivating vegetable and fruits.
It may sound difficult or just not great but you should consider planting and hunting what you eat. This way you don’t become dependent on finding warehouses or any other place to get your food.
If you stockpiled the right kind of food, it’s possible that you already have around 5 years’ worth of food stored. This gives you plenty of time to learn to plant and start doing it, so you can replace the canned food. Then, pick somewhere that you can plant and maybe even have some animals for consumption.
Pick Your Vehicle
One of the biggest inventions that humanity ever created was cars. When you’re in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, you’re going to need to move fast and get out of places even faster.
This is why you should choose different methods of transportation. Besides cars, you should also consider other things. For example, boats and planes. Also, if a cure never happens, you may consider other transportation methods that do not involve fuel like horses. These animals may prove themselves invaluable once you don’t have gas anymore.
So, consider having as many different ways to move around the country as you can. Boats can also be a great place to hide unless there are shark zombies or orc zombies. Also, being in a boat with the chance of someone getting infected and not having where to go, may not be the best idea.
So, stick with selecting a few different ways to move around the country and fleeing a place in case the zombies get inside your fortress. Just make sure that the tank is always full and that you have a backup vehicle.
Final Thoughts
So, if you follow these tips you’ll increase your chances of surviving the zombie apocalypse. First, you should worry about getting away from the worst zone. Then, it’s time to plan long-term. You’ll have to worry about a place to stay and rebuild some resemblance of civilization.
Once you secure basic resources and weapons, you can pretty much last way longer than most people will. Also, remember that satellites will work for about 6 months without maintenance, so make the most out of GPS and any other functionality that you may need to locate a safe spot.
At last, have a place for everything, including for the worse. Unless you want to die a painful death of being eaten by zombies and joining their army, plan even for what to do in case you don’t have an exit.
As you can see, surviving a zombie apocalypse is a matter of prepping and strategizing the right way instead of luck or depending on the government or anyone else to save you. All you need is your brains and a will to survive it.