What's your Zombie Apocalypse Survivor Group Ideals?

[KarlOmega1]

With Halloween coming, my mind went straight to one thing...Zombie Apocalypse. I started to think about what if the survivors started going around in groups and thought of this question- If you were part of a moderately-sized group of survivors in the Zombie Apocalypse, what type of people would you hope would be in the group?(and what would be needed in order for the group to survive?)

I had asked my mom this question earlier today...she said at least one medical doctor for healing/taking care of people, and someone from the military for organization/leadership/defense preparation (which were good ideas to me, including medical doctors...because we'd need research into the bug that turns people into zombies so we can develop a vaccine). I had thought of Architectural/mechanical engineers to build fortifications and make thing from scrap (like a water purification system or some ATVs to use for scavenging), agricultural-inclined personnel (to help grow crops, because a group/colony of survivors will need to eat), some chemical experts/manufacturers (to create lubricants for the machines, sanitizers for health preservation and most likely...combustibles for heat/frying zombie butt) and weaponsmiths (to make weapons for the defense of the survivors).

For the fort, I believe the group would need to start a colony out at a scrap yard (or some other suitable place, after it has been deemed cleared of zombies) and use the scrap metal there to build the first layer fortifications. Then we smelt the rest of the metal for raw materials for additional fortifications...as well as weapons, shelter, custom hardware (vehicles, utilities, modes of power generation, etc). Assuming that the scrap yard/junkyard has tow trucks, you could modify them to be armed while retrieving other vehicles outside the fort to bring back to be scrapped (zombies can't drive, so nobody's gonna be missing them) for materials.

Then there's food...with the amount of zombies no doubt attempting to consume the flesh of the living outside the fort, you would need a space inside the fort needed for planting and growing crops to sustain the survivors. You could try to go out and scavenge for nonperishable foods, but you'd better be well armed to fight off any zombies you encounter...an armored vehicle with a submachine gun turret on top would help. Livestock is not an option atm, as you wouldn't be sure if any animals could be carriers of the zombie plague.

As for using customized vehicles for scavenging or searching for more survivors, use of alternate fuel sources is recommended...as gasoline is gonna be scarce at one point or another. Maybe use solar power/wind power/steam power/electricity would work...nuclear power may pose a risk to drivers/personnel. Use of vehicles, as I said, may be used to scavenge for food and materials/survivors/transport between colonies (if the survivors of your colony get news of another colony the next town/city over). The selection of vehicles could range from ATV/motorcycles to mobile fortresses (aka really big vehicles that double as mini forts)...all of which will at least need some modification to best protect their riders.

Clothing and shelter are essential for survivors, as seasonal changes can really wreak havoc on their bodies. No one wants to freeze their butts off in the winter. So it is necessary to sometimes scavenge outside the fort for cloth and materials to keep themselves from being exposed to the elements...and shelter to keep safe from Mother Nature's fury. For floods, I would do like some people and build a secondary wall to protect the fort from flood waters. For winter, I would recommend a fireplace or another source of heat to keep the shelter warm during the colder months. For Tornadoes (if you live in a place where tornadoes can occur), making an underground shelter would likely help the chance of survival of one.

As for chemicals you should need, I'd recommend you'd have something to keep the stuff around you from rusting/getting sticky...as well as sanitizers for disease prevention and combustibles for heat/explosives.
Weapons are also going to be needed in defense of the fort or any travel outside the fort. I would think that survivors would at least be equipped with some armor/defensive fabric to reduce the possibility of being bitten by zombies or prevent attacked by a rogue group of survivors. And the weapons...I would believe that each individual in the group would need to be equipped with a primary projectile weapon of a rifle/machinegun type, a secondary projectile weapon of the handgun type, a melee weapon that's either very blunt or very sharp (for beating the crap out of zombies or slicing/stabbing them up before they can land a finger on you), and likely a few tossable/throwable weapons (like grenades) for crowd control.

Also...part of the fort would be needed to be set aside for medical practice/research. The survivors could get sick from other diseases besides the one that caused the apocalypse and they'll need healing. One part would be where the healing would be done and the other part of the medical area would be used for developing medicines/vaccines...hopefully one day, the bug that brought about the zombies can be snuffed out by a vaccine that would be developed by researching the virus.

All of this is what I had gone through my head when I thought about what should be part of a group survival of the zombie apocalypse if it comes. What do you think about it and what would you think your group would do?

(sorry about this...I wanted your opinions on what would you hope your group would do IF you were part of a group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse and what kind of people would you hope would be in it, but my opinion might have been a bit long)

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

You forgot ammo.

Supplies of saltpetre, nitre, and charcoal in the volumes needed to generate significant volumes of ammo; think also about brass (you can police your brass and reuse a lot of it, but you're going to lose some of it, particularly if you get cornered) and lead, which isn't going to be reusable so you're going to go through a lot of it; copper, if you're going for FMJ; steel for shotguns in CQB and street sweeping - nothing like a nice shotgun blast to the face to give a zombie pause.

Personally, I'd be more of the mind of a semi or full auto long gun, a sawnoff shottie, either pump or lever-action, couple of revolvers or pistols; if pistols, you'd want three or four reloads per, if revolvers, you'd want quick-reloaders and spare ammo. A nice aluminium baseball bat would go well on that, but honestly, if the zombies are that close, you're fubar anyway, and once you reach that level, you're talking quite a lot of weight; the rifle and reloads for it is probably 30 lbs, shottie and reloads is another 15-20, pistols are another 20... you're talking 70lbs, here, and that's a not counting armour. There's a reason that military folks tend to be fairly fit and muscular - if it wasn't for that, they'd collapse under the weight of the survival gear they cart about...


Notwithstanding that, it's an interesting idea to plan for... how were you planning on finding enough to eat for the first six months to a year or so, while your fields start growing stuff? Heck, finding enough to eat while you build the defences around the fields?

[Lisky]

Llearch, you're vastly overestimating the weight of a pistol and spare shells.  A 1911 .45 cal pistol is a solid hunk of steel, sure enough, but it weighs under 2 pounds loaded.  A box of 50 shells, is another 2-3 pounds.  Figure you take 200 shells with you, you're looking at around 10 pounds of gear for a sidearm and reloads.

As for long guns, that depends on what you take.  A modern AR-15, for example, is 7.5 lbs, and will have a longer range than anyone without training is capable.  If you happen to be a practiced hunter or marksman, you can take a heavier rifle, with longer range... but generally speaking, a lighter, higher capacity rifle will do just fine in a zombie situation anyways.

As for a shotgun, you'd use the sawed off shotgun for the same role as the pistol... but shells are heavier... and you really wouldn't carry 200 shells... you might take 50... which would put you at closer to 20 pounds there.


As for me... well, i'd head north, i happen to have a readily available 1911, that i go to the range with for an hour or so a week... so for close quarters, i've got that covered.  I think my first goal would be to collect the non-perishable food, bottled water, soda, tea, and other consumable that are either required for survival, or improve performance.  I'd load them into my SUV, and my roommate's SUV, and start a convoy.  Heading out of town to my cabin, after a few stops.

First stop, work.  Anti-biotics are going to be huge until a stead flow of such necessary drugs are restored.  I work at a pharmacy, collecting as many of these as possible would probably be a rather intelligent idea.  Probably gather up the painkillers and some stimulants.  Never know when you'll need something like that.  Also, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, gause, medical tape... pretty much stock up on the supplies you'd have and need to perform routine medical procedures.

2rd Stop, cousin's place.  Seeing his personal ownership of many firearms, i'd bolster the arsenal we were carrying, and hopefully pick up some non-zombified competent survivalists and marksmen. 

3rdly: The Cabin.  It's in an area surrounded by freshwater lakes.  There are crops already around that require minimal work to maintain (corn, berries, apples, grains) and an already small population.  Give the area's surroundings, staying in the urban center, surrounded by the fields makes sense.  The town would be a snap to fortify, the natural resources are already there, and the positioning of no less than a half-dozen gas stations means that the small number of vehicles that would draw from the tap would be alright until a more agrarian means of transportation could be secured from the neighboring areas, such as the horse farms that are no more than 15 miles from town.  The relative remoteness means that there is little chance of being discovered, the abundance of woodlands, water, and currently running farms means that infrastructure is already in place for a zombie induced emergency, and a group of 100 people could easily survive for quite some time with minimal efforts in fortifying the town in the event of a larger horde.

There are also no less than 3 specialty firearms stores within 15 miles, along with a fully stocked hunting post type thing in town.  If all else fails, people can easily be trained on the hunting grade compound bows, with a very large stock of arrows to match the ammunition and refills for firearms.

[KarlOmega1]

Thanks for reminding me about the supplies that are needed to make the ammo, Llearch...almost forgot about that.

And Basilisk, the area you just described sounds like it could be pretty good place to hold out since it's pretty much isolated.

[joshofspam]

I'd probably be more of a grunt then the person to make such decisions.

But I always wondered if you picked a secure enough building you could use a rope to nabbed yourself  a zombie one at a time from the roof and bash them over the head with a club or ax, wash rinse, cycle repeat.

For a zombie horde, you might want to thin the herd a little. But your going to want to be smart about it and hit them in a way that significantly drops the risk of them getting their hands on you in great numbers. They aren't going anywhere until they rot away and they will be actively searching for their next meal.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

If you're gonna do that, you might as well sit on the roof and snipe them. Which isn't a bad plan all round...

Lisky, thanks for the correction; I looked for Bradypodidae or you online, but neither of you were around to verify my numbers. :-/

[justacritic]

Get rid of the politicians nuff said

[TheDXM]

The trick is to scare the zombies away!

So you must pick someone who is scarier than a zombie

[justacritic]

yes but the politicians make sure everything will go wrong, in other words shove the politicians unto the zombies, they'll delegate and drain their system dry

[Valynth]

I'll assume we're dealing with the slow and unintelligent zombies, not the running or fast types.

Anyway, for personal gear I'd have:

-katana:  it's always good to have a non-reload weapon for low ammo situations and it doesn't generate noise to cause the zombie to swarm plus it severs limbs easily.
-9mm Beretta:  light weight with plenty of scavengable ammo means you have to carry less.  Contrary to popular belief guns are actually pretty bad to use against zombies due to the noise generating their attention.  No matter how much ammo you have the resulting swarm will have more mass than you can shoot.  This weapon is purely to kill other survivors, not everyone who makes it through will be of sunny disposition.
-backpack:  obvious.
-medi-kit:  stores medical supplies.  Though bites from the dead are fatal there are all kinds of injures that aren't caused by the undead and grateful survivors make better recruits than random people of random mental alignment.
-MRE's:  food, especially long duration like MRE's or cans can be a lifesaver.
-can opener:  see above
-knife:  when the katana is too large or unwieldy.

in terms of group skills:

-soldier:  despite the obious skills with weapons odds are they will also have skills in construction, engineering, or access to bases.  They may also be the best mentally.
-doctor:  as with the medkit above, but due to their background they may break down in a fight.  Keep away from heavy combat.
-Engineer:  Most likely better at this job than the soldier, but mentally similar to doctor.
-locksmith/lockpick:  Despite the former society's views of these people, getting into locked areas to scavenge or escape in an emergency is lifesaving.  Mentally between soldiers and the doctors/engineers, but be wary of betreyal if it favors them.
-psycologist/counseler:  to help with mental issues and help prevent mental breakdowns.

tactics:

-abandon the cities, due to the large populace now being zombies and the density means unussually high swarm numbers.
-head to the mid-west U.S.A. avoiding any common trails or roads as they are probably clogged with would-be evacuees now turn zombies and thei cars.
-Once in america's food basket, secure a farm.  The low population count of many mid-west areas means far fewer zombies and risks.
-Once a farm is secure, see if soldier can or knows about any near-by bases.
-If he does send him, the locksmith, and the psycologist to check it out.  If the base is secure from zombies, check for sanity of the remaining humans.  If friendly, preferably military, explain the situation and request assistance.
-work on rebuilding society.

[bill]

1. laphoraig 10 year
2. johnnie walker gold label
3. an assortment of imperial stouts
Repeat until death, via alcohol or zombies, whichever comes first