We have teamed up with the publishers of the absolutely fantastic The Zombie Autopsies who are providing 5 copies of the book as prizes to readers of Fantasy-Faction!
This secret notebook has been retrieved from Dr Blum’s excursion to the only medical facility in the world capable of dissecting these creatures to the extent of comprehension. The scientific discoveries within may provide the last hope for humans on earth! These discoveries come in the form of in-depth descriptions of autopsies and many gruesome but beautifully drawn pictures.
You can read our review for the book here.
To get your hands on a copy all you need to do is tell us in less than 140 characters:
What would be your zombie survival strategy?
Answers are accepted as either a Twitter message (@FantasyFaction) or a comment on this post. We will contact the winner via Twitter/email, so make sure all accounts and information you use are valid.
Good luck and get creative!
Richard Marpole
Jennie Ivins
As said in Zombieland: Cardio; be fit enough to outrun the shambling buggers and Double Tap to ensure a kill.
I’d find some kind of closed space and stockpile weapons and food. Kinda like GTA!
I’d lure them thru a 1-way door into a warehouse loaded with explosives & blow the crap out of them using a remote trigger
I would head to the armory & take a aromred humvee, load up my family, food & guns & begin heading towards Montana (seeing that it has scope human population). Of course, along the way we would be forced to slaughter a few 1,000 zombie & save a few humans. But once we got there we would hold up in a farm house with a secure storm cellar. This would allow us to ride out the infestation & still have some sort of life.
I have a child. Locking him in an apartment wouldn’t work. 🙂
Little bit more than 140 characters 😉
I haven’t seen zombies swim yet so I’d hide on a small island with a good supply of weapons and food and wait out the infestation.
You need to read “World War Z”, then. 😛
Interesting. I’ve put that on my to read list.
Lol Kit you beat me to it! 😉
In most Zombie fiction people who lock themselves in attics generally do well! I have a nice window to shoot out of and I can easily get through to the bathroom for water! I think a kettle and microwave and a load of prepackaged pastas and soups (usually 5 years on the sell by date). I’d bring my chinchillas up to my attic and they can listen out for noises downstairs! I’ll also not let anyone in regardless of how healthy they initially seem! I also won’t adopt ant dogs, do any experiments or fall in love with any of the undead!
I’d pour ketchup all over myself and wander around with the wild stare of a night nurse who has just done 7 night shifts… I’ll fit right in !
Learn their language; gain their trust; strike a deal. Live like a meaty king.
GUNS ARE LESS IMPORTANT THAN BRAINS.
Assuming, for a moment, that this is not just an academic exercise and a zombie apocalypse suddenly took place, one’s survival would be determined by a number of things outside of your immediate control.
1. How are other people responding to the emergency? If they lose their heads, you might be killed by rampaging humans instead of the undead/infected.
2. How the authorities, (assuming that there are any) respond(ed) to the emergency. A slow response, or an inability to effectively respond and quarantine people would also ultimately lack the controls necessary to keep the undead/infected from spreading. You might also find yourself killed by the very police forces you are hoping might protect you.
3. How fast the condition spread and the vector for transmission. When it spread, whether it was night or day when the condition was declared out of control. Fast spreading means it potentially burns out of quickly (if its an infection) if you can stop or quarantine the infected. Slow transmission effectively means it would spread everywhere before activating and would likely cover the world meaning you have no real place you can hide.
4. When you first became aware of the apocalypse. Were you caught off guard or were you aware something was happening, even if you did not know what it was?
5. Where you were when the apocalypse was declared out of control? Were you in your home or were you at work? The answer may make a vital difference in your approach to survival.
6. How you responded to the apocalypse and the disaster in general. If you were unable to shed your human responses to the event, you will likely lack the necessary resolve to survive in the days to come. Fight now, weep later.
STOP AND THINK IF YOU WANT TO LIVE.
Any event that completely destabilizes a civilization, especially something like a zombie apocalypse would ultimately require that you get as far away from civilization as possible.
If it spread very quickly, it would likely overwhelm any emergency services in a localized area but would likely be contained and/or containable. If it spread slowly but invisibly, it might spread across the entire world before being able to be isolated effectively, if at all.
If, for example, the dead were actually reanimated and could infect the living, it would be quite different than if the living were suddenly converted into zombies who were forced to live on the flesh of the living but would die, of starvation eventually.
If the dead were returning to life, the effect would eventually overwhelm the living as every dead person would become a zombie eventually. There would also be the added issue of an increasing number of zombies as the starving and dying filled their ranks. This would require the living to destroy every zombie they came in contact with and to destroy their own dead immediately.
Assuming that these dead bodies would continue to attack the living until their bodies were eventually overcome by physical forces, one could expect the zombies to be effectively animated for 3 to 12 weeks before physical decomposition and physical damage made it impossible for them to be mobile.
If it were a virus or other contagion spread by contact, it might be possible to contract the condition without even coming in contact directly with the infected, making it very difficult for anyone to avoid become “zombified” without their awareness. If it were a virus, though, it might be able to be recognized by the symptoms as the host sickened and eventually died.
NO GOOD NEWS SO FAR…
The first rule of the zombie apocalypse is observation without contact. So your first mission would be to get clear and find a way to block yourself away from the contagion. Then keep a low profile until you could determine:
1. How zombies hunt – do they have good hearing, do they have a good sense of smell, do they just wander until they bump into something that is NOT a zombie?
2. What is the ratio of zombies to humans – how fast is the contagion spread? Is it merely by contact, by bite, saliva, blood, or is it airborne? It would definitely be to your best interest to determine how zombification takes place. When in doubt, your best bet is to simply stay as far away from them as possible. Touch nothing you do not have to, and dispose of anything that gets zombie fluids (assuming they have any) or matter on them until it is determined how the condition is transferred.
GEAR UP
1. Dress for the weather, be mindful of the season. If you can find it, get a backpack that is waterproof, relatively large so that you can keep spare clothing there. Don’t carry too much. In a world of zombies, there should be plenty of shopping to be had for quite some time.
2. Get some good fitting shoes, tennis shoes, Timberlands or other waterproof foot protection for your feet. An injury to your foot is the same as signing your death warrant.
3. Protect yourself with armored clothing if you can find it. Particularly if the condition can be spread by contact. You are not trying to contact it, but if it can be transmitted by a scratch, it would be a shame to get it because you were showing off some skin. Heavy denim would be best, light strong and durable, consider light hockey gear for location protection. Goggles, to protect one’s eyes, and a medical mask, if the disease is spread by viral or bacterial contagion.
4. Weaponry: no matter what you see in the movies, a zombie apocalypse would be a disaster unlike any seen in human history. Being armed would be a difficult proposition but not because guns would not be effective. They would likely be the most effective means of dealing with them, but guns make noise, likely attracting more zombies. With that said, my recommendation would be a combat shotgun.
A combat shotgun is a shotgun that is intended for use in an offensive role, typically by a military force. The earliest shotguns specifically designed for combat were the trench guns or trench shotguns issued in World War I. While limited in range, the multiple projectiles typically used in a shotgun shell provide increased hit probability unmatched by other small arms.
The pros of the weapon are its devastating close range firepower. The cons are its very short range and need to reload regularly. Since we would likely not understand the causes of the Event, it would make sense to destroy as much of the target as possible. Smaller firearms might be useful but may only aggravate the zombie without stopping it. Work the head-shot for stopping power. No matter what you see in the movies, confronting zombies with firearms would be my last choice.
REMEMBER, IF THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD, LOOK BOTH WAYS…
Terrain – it can work for you as well as against you. Put as much terrain between you and the zombie hordes as possible. Stay out of places with only one exit, unless you are confident that that place can be securely defended.
Health – there are no doctors, so you cannot get sick. Get rested, stay rested, stay warm and dry. Change clothes when you can, be mindful of what you eat, bury your wastes far away from yourself and your camps. Raid a pharmacy if you can get, first aid supplies, simple antibiotics, and painkillers. You might want to read up on those in advance.
Mental Wellness – your mind or the minds of others you ally yourselves with are vulnerable to shock and instability. Be mindful of strange behavior in yourself and others. Remain confident in your ability to survive. Be upbeat. If you can find musical technology that you can keep running (using batteries or rechargeable solar technology) use that to keep your mental health in order. Find a hand cranking radio to keep an ear out for official broadcasts.
The Living or Uninfected – The living or uninfected may be as dangerous as the zombies as their resources dwindle and their sanity likely unraveled. I would be as cautious of the living as I was of the dead (undead). Maybe I would be paranoid but I would definitely prefer to be alive.
This seemed to be such an innocuous question but the more I thought about it the more I realized that the world as we knew it was over and that normal thinking was so not going to cut the mustard. I know there are books about how to survive the zombie apocalypse but actual survival would be much harder than people know, no matter what they have seen in movies.
My final advice: Think fast, stay frosty, remain calm, be ruthless, run fast, and most importantly, for God’s sake, DON’T LOOK BACK, THEY MAY BE GAINING ON YOU.
Stay warm, nimble, pack light, protect your feet, stay away from people, zombies, cities, grow, resist, learn, survive. Rebuild better.
I’d grab some seeds & a gun and head for Saskatchewan. One good winter should wipe out most lingering zombies, then I can grow my own food.
under a crawling mound of beheaded zombies i would probably be able to move around ok. also i’m invisible.
I’d join them and become one with our new zombie overlords…even though zombies are mindless and lack a societal structure.
I would head for warmer climates where hopefully the increased temperatures would speed up the decomposition process thus rendering the zombies immobile. Of course I know nothing of wilderness survival, so I’d probably die of dehydration or something long before the zombies actually get me.
I plan on having my Scout troop around me AND I will be issuing different merit badges for zombie kills. I am, in fact, writing a novel to that effect. My troop loves hearing about it a the campfire.
Grab the husband, grab the evacuation essentials, grab the swords (kept by the door for just this sort of outing), the edible plant ID book and the bikes. Get in car, drive to parents’ house (aka the armory, they have a small chainsaw on a pole, among other things). Drive to remote location. Become nomadic.
Don’t assume: Observe. Learn. React. ‘Killing zombies’ is not a priority; survival is. Join with others, secure supplies, and then … plan.
Go onto space – you don’t get zombies in space.
Or underwater – they can’t swim!
Thanks and I hope I win a copy!
Survival entails being on the winning side and since the zombies always seem to win the only logical course for survival is to join them.
Get infected early. Rise to be queen of the zombies. Take over the world.
Many a gym treadmill. Outward facing, around my house. No Zombie can pass 😀
Simply put, survival is going to require getting as far away from civilization as possible. From there, it’s a battle of self-sufficiency and survival skills. Working knowledge of sustainable gardening, self defense, first aid and medicine, and animal husbandry will be useful. Everyone seems to think it’s going to be a battle with the zombies, but I think the bigger battle is going to be providing for oneself after the systems collapse. Getting out of civilization is the first step, the long haul is maintaining.
Twitter Replies:
HuFraize william fraize
@FantasyFaction How to survive the Zombie apocolypse? Disguised as a Zombie, of course!
15 Apr
Bobsgirl66 Melissa
@FantasyFaction Or failing that nip to the winchester pub lol xx
15 Apr
Bobsgirl66 Melissa
@FantasyFaction I would fly off in my private helicopter that’s in my back garden with a bottle of vodka and redbull to the isle of man lol
15 Apr
cissikat Sharla Long
@FantasyFaction I would survive by leading the zombies to a local mine shaft and letting them fall in then throw down a stick of TNT
15 Apr
Theyeballkid Stephen Jack
@FantasyFaction With my golf bag full of weapons and a JCB.
15 Apr
witchslinger Joseph McGee
@FantasyFaction I’d go to an oil rig. There is food, medicine, supplies and isolation. You can fish, filter water. Easy defense. Oil rig!
15 Apr
RuthMarianna Ruth M Tesdale
@FantasyFaction I’d ast like a zombie with tomato ketchup round my mouth and a wierd look in my eye
15 Apr
WalterWriter Elizabeth Walter
@FantasyFaction I would wear biker leathers (bite thru that zombie) and head out to a farm in the country and breed zombie cows.
15 Apr
Merillo Michael Merillo
@FantasyFaction to survive a ZA you don’t have to the fastest, you just can’t be the slowest. And I’m not above tripping people.
15 Apr
thunderbirdsGO thunderbirdsGO
@fantasyfaction with common sense! Plus lots of ammo, weapons, powersources, food supplies & a strategically placed fortress of a hideout!
15 Apr
Clara0015 Clara Bee
@FantasyFaction I’d do aShaun of the Dead and pretend to be a zombie, they’d never suspect a thing!
15 Apr
Nikkiopia Nicole Shahsafdari
@FantasyFaction Would find a Vampire and Werewolf to protect me! 😉
15 Apr
Kemcaflipflops Kirsten Murphy
@FantasyFaction I wouldn’t survive cos I know my sons would sacrifice me to save themselves!!!
15 Apr
KTScribbles Karen Reay-Davies
@FantasyFaction -with a chainsaw.
15 Apr
JennaKateKelly Jenna Kelly
@FantasyFaction lots if weapons, food and an underground hide out! I have it all planned to a T! I watch too many zombie films!!
15 Apr
n76seary Nicola Seary
@FantasyFaction I’d get a gun,Machette and a baseball bat and aim for their heads and learn to run fast
15 Apr
TheAmorousPrawn The Amorous Prawn
@FantasyFaction It’s already the Zombie Apocalypse round here on a Friday. Turns out that Donuts are the answer :p
15 Apr
Bobsgirl66 Melissa
@FantasyFaction Me and my family would go to the woods away from the towns and city’s and live off the land as best we could x
15 Apr
Catalytical Shane Gormick
@FantasyFaction Hijack a cruiseliner full of supplies and a generator and enjoy catching tan at sea until all the zombies decompose.
14 Apr
LouMorgan Louise Morgan
@FantasyFaction Buy private tropical island, set up own distillery. Learn to like mango at every meal. And… relax. What zompocalypse?
14 Apr
chloehsmith Chloe Smith
@FantasyFaction divide (limb from limb), and conquer!
14 Apr
wafflerain Erin
@FantasyFaction Fly spray. Plus some flame action, if they’re being difficult. I have a feeling it’ll work.
14 Apr
IuchiAtesoro Tony Lane
@FantasyFaction Having been the evil scientist that started the whole process I am immune and control the hoards with thought waves MWHAHAHA
14 Apr
Bakin_Goddess Kimberly Flood
@FantasyFaction Ensure I have enough ammo & bats, get to unpopulated area with family, tools, weapons & food/way to grow food. Set up camp.
14 Apr
Theyeballkid Stephen Jack
@FantasyFaction Infect zombies with highly contagious, airbourne flesh eating virus. Make sure I am immune.
14 Apr
MadameNottm Mrs Hurst
@FantasyFaction #Zombiesurvivaltip Run like hell and don’t get bitten. Simple but effective.
14 Apr
laurenbeukes Lauren Beukes
@FantasyFaction Get infected early, rise to be queen of the zombies. Take over the world.
14 Apr
dk_stevens Dominic Stevens
@FantasyFaction I would dress up as Micheal Jackson and lead the zombies in a recreation of the classic hit video ‘Thriller’
14 Apr
mikeisonthenets Michael Wong
@FantasyFaction Stockpile food, ammo, & head to Orlando where the heat and humidity will rapidly decay them into juicy meat piless.
14 Apr
sjmborg Steve Maiczan
@FantasyFaction Chainsaw, flame thrower, axe and a very strong sense of survival. And run like hell. Zombies should expect no mercy.
14 Apr
awdscrawl Alister Davison
@FantasyFaction Run! Find weapon, use repeatedly. Run! Throw now useless weapon at zombie. Run! More around corner. Scream! they’ve – Aargh!
13 Apr
FunkyScarecrow Daniel Brown
@FantasyFaction Only befriend unhealthy folks; then I don’t need to outrun zombies, just my “friends”.
13 Apr
KitEmbleton Kit
@FantasyFaction Pull an “Autumn”; go out into the middle of nowhere and hunker down until it all blows over.
13 Apr
Caliclia Chelsea Haller
@FantasyFaction #ZombieSurvivalStrategy Baricade myself in tall building with shotgun and bat and food. If breached throw self off building.
13 Apr
Paul_S_Maynard Paul Maynard
@FantasyFaction Fear, Run, Overcome, Evolve, Kill. Find others. Remember before. Love while I can. Live. SURVIVE!!
13 Apr
ebonstorm Thaddeus Howze
@FantasyFaction I took on your Zombie Survival strategy challenge. I think most movies are right. People will die in droves. #fantasychat
13 Apr
kris_alexander Kris Alexander
@FantasyFaction #Zombie survival strategy: ‘hole’ up at a golf course: land/water for crops, clear fields of fire, isolation #writing
13 Apr
cha0tic cha0tic
@fantasyfaction #MyZombieStrategy Stay mobile, but find wide spread safe places to hole up, rest & keep supplies.
13 Apr
Maischeph Molly H.
@FantasyFaction My #ZombieStrategy is to go north (Canada) to the middle of nowhere and be adopted by a tribe of abominable snowmen.
13 Apr
marymayf Mary Mayfield
@FantasyFaction Zombie survival strategy? Head to the Winchester!!
13 Apr
Shaina_Jade Shaina Boswell
@fantasyfaction I would grab a shotgun, rounds and a team of humans. Then start heading off onto our adventure to seek and destroy zombies!
13 Apr
NikkoLee88 Michelle Knowlton
@FantasyFaction my zombie survival strategy? Move to a fortrified island in the tropics.