STEP FOURTEEN

In this step, you will be going out. So get your bad-ass outfit on, sharpen your knives, reload your guns, and prepare to kick zombie ass. This is perhaps the fourth or fifth day of the dead walking about killing your neighbours. So there will be more of them. There will also be more dim witted, scared shit-less people running around with no plan, making a big kafuffle for no reason.  But over time, the ratio to idiotic survivors to zombies will tip in the favour of zombies. So be on high alert at all times.

For this step, you are going down to the pawn shop. This step only matter if there are any in your area left that haven’t been completely robbed. Even if there are a few that look empty, get out and take a look anyways.

A pawn shop will probably be the best place to hide out for a zombie invasion; be careful when you enter. If you see a lot of blood or bodies by the front doors, do not go in. If the place looks deserted, but with unbroken windows, chances are someone has already claimed the pawn shop. DO NOT go in. The pawn shop has everything from sharp cymbals to fully functional guns. So who ever is inside, is deadly and won’t take kindly to strangers.

If the pawn shop looks like people have broken in, proceed with caution. Go in quietly with your group. Most of it will be taken, yes, but remember to think outside the box. There will probably be old knives, pens, shields, helmets, etc. Remember that anything can be a weapon. So take what you can. Check every inch of the store before leaving.

Hopefully you now have enough weapons and food to survive a little while.  

TIP: BITTEN PEOPLE

In the previous step, I mentioned to know procedures. Before the flesh eating zombies start to overcome the masses of people, you need to lay out a plan if someone becomes bitten.

 There will be no cure, you will like to think so, but there won’t be. Even if the government did invent a cure, it won’t get to you in time. Once a person is bitten/has the virus in their blood system, they will turn. It might take a few days, or a few minutes, but eventually, they will try to kill you. They will no longer be the person you once knew. They may look the same, but there will be nothing left of the person you once loved inside. If you hesitate to kill them, they will kill you. And if they get bit outside, and you bring them inside, once they turn you will have a zombie inside your fort. You NEED to kill it. It doesn’t matter if it’s your mum, lover, roommate, or cat; they will turn and try to kill you.

It is important that everyone in the group understands this. It only takes one stupid person to think their mum is still their mum, and let the creature into the base, brining in several others behind it. You need to have the law in the group stating: “Once a person is bitten, kill them”. It’s blunt, but it is what needs to be done. Kill them before they turn, so they don’t have to go through the pain of slowly dying, and then try to eat you alive.

STEP THIRTEEN

You have turned the outside of your house into a fort. You have boarded up the windows and blocked the doors/windows from the inside. Now you need to make procedures.

You need to get everyone familiar with exit plans. Make sure that everyone knows what to do when zombies break in from one side of the house. You need to chart out how/where you would go if zombies took over your fort. Have a backup plan. Remember, you want to go somewhere close, safe, and familiar. Like Ed from Shawn of the Dead says: “If we hole up, I want to be somewhere Familiar, I wanna know where the exits are and I wanna be allowed to smoke”. Make sure that where you plan to go next is just as safe and reliable as your current place. Have everyone know how you will get there, so if your group splits up, you can try to regroup. Know that the zombies will follow you, so you need to have a route that could potentially loose them. Even try to find a midway point to hide out for a bit, so the zombies continue walking on past you. Only leave the house when you know there is absolutely no way you can fight them off anymore.

Take only weapons and a little bit of water. The zombies won’t care about food; you can come back for food the next day. Remember that you have two exits, so each exit will probably need a different route. The location can be the same, but how you get there will be different.

I can’t stress this enough when I say, “MAKE SURE EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT TO DO/WHERE TO GO WHEN YOUR FORT BECOMES OVERRUN”.  Don’t worry about leaving someone behind. Once the fort is taken, everyone get the hell out. Don’t be a hero and try to help everyone. There will be no need to be a hero for everyone, if everyone can be their own hero.

STEP TWELVE

If the cars you have found are drivable, find out its information. The internet is still running, Google the car and learn about it. Compare it with your current vehicles; consider gas mileage, size, how many seats, amount of storage, engine type, working parts, condition and color. You only need enough space for the people in your total group. It is a waste of gas if you try to maintain all the vehicles. Just use the cars that work and the ones you can rely on. The worst situation to be in is needing to escape a pack a flesh eating zombies when your car craps out. You also don’t want to use a car that sounds like a shot gun going off every time you start the engine. Also make sure the cars you keep have working locks/windows. You also need to make sure the car has a working radio; if the military/government is trying to send messages to civilians, they will be using radios.

If the cars you have found are not driveable, keep them. You can use them for spare parts for your working cars. Strip the car of its wheels. The rest of the car parts might not be needed, but the wheels are essential. Once you have taken the car’s main parts, you can use the car bodies to block up your house. Obviously you will have to roll the car to where you want it before you take the wheels.

Roll the cars to block off main entrances. It won’t be able to stop a person, but it will be able to stop a zombie. Block off the front door for sure, or a ground floor window. Depending on how many spare cars you have, block off any entrance to the back yard (unless you have a fence). You want to create only two enter/exit points to your house. You need two because if zombies get in the side door of your base, where are you going to go? You need two possible exits; if they come in the side door, you go out the back. If they come in the back door, you go out the side. So roll the cars into a position that blocks zombie’s flow of traffic. You need to seriously plan out where the cars are going; you only have limited cars and probably a lot of ground you need to barricade. Be wise.