STEP FOUR: FIRST NIGHT

This is still day one. There is no need to place bear traps on the lawn or booby-trap trees to fall down, just yet. The number of people infected is still very low, but for the moment, that’s not your top concern. Right now you need to worry about the living too. There will be swarms of frightened people breaking into houses, trying to steal supplies.

Killing brain dead zombies with a shovel is easy (child’s play really), but do you have it in you to kill an intruding, living person? And unless someone in the group happens to have a gun, you will have to kill them, up close with a household weapon. You will need to be prepared for this moment. It could happen at any time.

To prevent this situation from happening you need to properly barricade the house.

It’s only the first night; you probably won’t have any 4x4s laying around the house to board up the doors. You will have to pick them up from the hardware store another day, but not tonight. For now you need to have better security than just the locks on the doors. All the doors in the house will need to have a big piece of furniture wedged under the handle. NOT a just a simple chair. A person willing to break into a house to steal supplies will be stronger than a chair. You need a couch or a cabinet; something strong enough to stop a living breathing person. Later on when the human population decreases, this tactic will change. But for now, the reinforced doors need to be a tough as possible.

The first door a scavenger will try to break into is the back door(s). The back door(s) needs to be the strongest; enough that it feels impossible to break into, influencing them to give up and move on.

All the windows that can be seen into from the street, needs to be covered from the inside with carpets. Basic curtains and/or blinds won’t hide all the light from the inside completely. The top floor doesn’t need to be covered (unless necessary); you’ll still need to be able to look out once in a while. But remember that any room with an uncovered window must be closed off at night (i.e. closing the door to the room) from any inside light source.