STEP NINE

Once you have collected the required items from the auto repair shop, regroup at your base. Unload everything. If your team is up for it, get ready to go back out there. But don’t go back out if it is already dark outside. I don’t care if you are all hyped up or in the mood to kill some zombies; you are not ready yet to fight at night. If your team is not up to it or it is dark, stay in for the night and go back out tomorrow.

Either way, this is the next step.

Leave you newly found cars from the auto shop (if you found one or two) at base. You don’t know the cars well; use the ones you can rely on. Leave who ever knows the most about cars at the base, so if there is anything wrong with them, they might be able to fix it. If they can’t fix the car, make sure they know where the manuals/guidebooks to repair vehicles that you stole from the auto shop are. Internet/power is still working, so they could even Google it.

Get your Bad-Ass outfit on, get your weapons, and go out into zombie-vile. For this run, you are hitting up any small-time convenient stores in your area. This might take a bit of driving around, so keep it local and quick. If you see any with broken windows/a lot of cars in the parking lot, leave it. Don’t risk the fact that there may be people hiding inside with better weapons than you. If there are a lot of scattered cars in the parking lot that means people have tried to go in, and have failed to get out.  Go to a place that not many people know about, or have a really nice owner. You are living in hell now. If you are nice and polite, you will die. You need to be mean to survive. If you know of a store with a nice owner, that is the place to attack. No decent person will break into a small time business with a generous shop keep. No decent person would. But the days of decent people are extinct now. It is time to think for you self. Anyone who gets in the way of your survival must be pushed out of the way.

Once you have found that perfect store, slowly and quietly break in. Don’t know how to break in quietly? Good.

Follow for “Step 10”. That will be what to do once you have broken into the store.

Read “Tip: How to break in quietly” on how to break in to any place, without raising awareness of other people or zombies.

STEP EIGHT: AUTO SHOP

After dropping off what you can from the hardware store, get your BAD ASS outfit on the day is not over. If you don’t have a BAD ASS outfit yet, put that on your “To Do” list.

Now that you’ve geared up and hit the road, drive to a local auto repair shop. There you will find valuable items, such as car parts. It seems like a dumb idea, but eventually, you WILL need them and they won't be around forever. Also, car parts make really good weapons (mostly). You can find spare tires, car batteries, oil, manuals/instructions to fix certain parts, tools, car ordainments, etc. Stereotypically, car mechanics carry around guns: so if you’re lucky, you may just find one! If you’re really lucky, there might even be a working car lying around. Since this is only day two, and your phone still has service/power, you can Google “how to hot wire a car”. Or save yourself some time, and hot wire the tow truck the auto repair shop most likely has, and tow the car along. Now you got two extra vehicles; a car, and a heavy tow truck that will come in great use for running over masses of zombies.

Gather what you can, but be careful of other people with the same intentions.

Once finished, go back to base to drop off your newly found gear. If it’s too late, or maybe you’ve had a lot of encounters with other people and you need a rest, take the night off. If you and your group are up for it, go right to the next step: “Step 8”.

TIP: LOOK BAD-ASS

Now that the zombie apocalypse has FINALLY come, the name of the game is “Bad Ass”. The more badass you look, the less likely people are going to mess with you. If you “walk the walk” right, most people won’t care if you will actually “talk the talk”.

To “walk the walk” you need to “look the look”.... BAD ASS 

First of all, safety first: eye protection (goggles, sunglasses etc.), knee pads, elbow pads and gloves.  To bump it up an extra notch, wear a mask. Nothing too extreme, you need something practical. Something that covers your face, but is light, can breathe, has good eye holes and doesn’t lower your hearing. You don’t need a mask, only if you feel it would work. If you don’t have a mask, a bandana will work.  Don’t wear baggy clothes. Not only does it look unprofessional, baggy clothes are easy for zombies to grab a hold of. Wear darker clothes, it looks professional; just as a business man wouldn’t wear a bright pink suit to a meeting. As far as foot wear, don’t wear any open toe shoes (sorry surfer dudes). Wear anything that would be effective for kicking a zombies head in, i.e. boots or thick sneakers.

Carry two main weapons and two small ones: the more weapons you have, the more dangerous you look. Example: Cary a base ball bat in your hands. Have an axe slung around you; hanging on your back. On your belt hold your gun. If you don’t have a gun, keep a knife or two. Specifically, two of the biggest knives you have. I know I said not to use knives before, but these are just for show. Here is a line from one of my favourite movies, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels which explains my point:
“Also I think knives are a good idea, you know, big fuck-off shiny knives, the ones that look like they could skin a crocodile. Knives are good because they don't make any noise, and the less noise the more we're likely to use them. That'll shit 'em up and make us look like pros”.
Using knives can be a bad idea when dealing with humans, but is okay for zombies. But for now, knives are for show.

Look mean. Look scary. Look bad-ass.

STEP SEVEN

Once you get everything you can gather from the hardware store, go back to base. You should unload everything you have found, even if it’s not much. Whenever you leave your vehicle, make it look like it is empty. These days, anybody will break into your vehicle if they see anything valuable or neat you’ve left on the seat. So go to base and empty all you findings from the vehicle and into the house. If you leave them in your vehicle while checking out another area, the ones in the back of your vehicle might get stolen by other scavengers. Don’t try and put a tarp over your gear to hide them: that just makes other people more suspicious about what is in the back. Look at the picture, when the worlds gone to hell, wouldn't you look what's under the tarp?

Don’t spend too much time at base; you still have stuff to do! You are going back out there, so if you can, upgrade your weapons. If you found anything better than the weapon you took to the hardware store, swap it. Leave the masses of weapons with the people at your base camp, but take the best weapons for yourself if you are one of the people going back out. Grab the most dangerous and scary looking weapon. Anything that makes it looks like you mean business, because you might have some close encounters coming up. You need to look bad-ass, which is the next blogs theme. STAY TUNE FOR THE “How to look Bad-ass” TIP!

STEP SIX ALTERNATIVE

Okay, let’s say the hardware store you go to is already cleared out. All the gardening equipment, water, paint, wood, guns, food, etc are gone. What do you do?

 If it the hardware store looks like no one is in there, park up and go in with caution. Everyone in your search group should have some sort of weapon. Go in and try to scavenge anything you see. But move around the store in case there are a few brain dead zombies sneaking around, or even worse... people.

Some places may have a “Home Renovation” department. There you will find things like, doors, toilets, cabinets, tiles etc. Have a look through there. Especially look for staircase railings. Some places may have the railings cut up into base ball bat like shapes. If you find any tables and chairs, screw off the legs: they could do some pretty nasty damage to a human head. Things like table legs are something you will find because no ever thinks to look at tables or chairs in a zombie apocalypse. Go to the toilet section, and screw off all the toilet seats (not the “U” shape seats with the hole, the one on top that covers it). Those things are pretty heavy and could easily be used to smash a zombie over the head with or could even be turned into a shield. Yeah. A shield. I know it’s not the middle ages, but when zombies are all grouped around you and they want to bite your face off, being able to push them back (without using your hands) with a toilet cover, isn’t such a bad idea.

Remember to think outside the box.

After you clear out what you can, get back in your vehicle and think about any other hardware stores in the area that you think could be safe. Check them out. Don’t travel too far, the last thing you want is an hour’s drive back with your friend in the back seat screaming because he got his arm ripped off in a zombie encounter. So keep your search close to your main base.

STEP SIX: DAY TWO

Congratulations, you have survived your first night of the apocalypse! Or at least most of you have.

Now the infection is growing. There aren’t a lot of zombies walking around, but there a lot of more people bitten and on the path to changing. Keep someone on the lookout from the top floor windows. You need to be aware when it is safe to go outside. Because today is the day you need to do some shopping.

Today you need to make a run for the closest hardware store. Don’t go to one that is in a complex of stores; go to one that stands by its own. The bigger the shopping mall, the bigger the parking lot, and the harder it will be to drive through.

You need to go to the hardware store because you need to gather more deadly weapons than a frying pan and a potato peeler. But it probably will be closed, so be prepared to smash some windows. You need to gather up weapons that will take down a zombie or a person. Gather anything that is either sharp or blunt, and preferably made of light metal. If you are struggling to pick it up on the first go, it’s not worth taking. Go to the “gardening” section for the best weapons: axes, pickaxes, hoes, hand hoes, rakes, hand rakes, chainsaws (and as much fuel for it as you can manage), sheers, edgers, saws, shovels (flat heads and round heads), hammers, hedge clippers, etc. Remember anything can be a weapon.

Some hardware stores may even have a “gun/hunting” section. If it already hasn’t been gutted out, take what you can. While you are there, get some cans of paint (the reason will be explained later). Grab some 4x4s, some hammers and nails (later you will need to board up the house). Also, clear out the vending machines and collect all food/water you see.

SPECIAL TIP: Go to the “home keeping” section and grab the “ironing distilled water”. The water is made to add water to your iron for ironing clothes. BUT it just distilled water, fine for drinking! Not many people will think of it, so it has a good chance of being there!

Make the trip fast. You don’t want to get caught with all the goods when other people show up trying to do the same!

STEP FIVE: Household weapons

Now that you have secured your temporary living arrangement, you need to gather up items throughout the house that could be used as a weapon. It’s not that you’re going to bash anyone who comes to the door over the head (just yet). But if anyone succeeds in breaking into your house, you need to be able to protect yourself. Obviously the best weapons for fighting off humans (or at least persuading them to leave your property) are guns. Right now, if someone breaks down the front door and you point a gun at them, they will be more scared than if you had a frying pan. But not everybody has a gun lying around the house. So the next best weapon is some sort of big blunt object, such as a baseball bat or shovel.

And I know what a lot of you are thinking: “No, obviously a sharp knife or a sword of some sort will be better”. No. With a sharp knife/sword you need to get in close with your enemy, and physically plunge it into their body; killing them. Two things: one, getting in close to your attacker with a knife is dangerous because chances are you aren’t trained with using a knife, but they might be. And two, not many people have it in them to physically shove a knife into a living person’s body. The reason why a baseball bat or a shovel is better is because you don’t have to be too close to hit them, and hitting a person over the head is easier than stabbing their throat. Although big ass knives are intimidating and effective, they are not as practical as a longer range weapon. But don’t give up on knives/swords, they still work.

Don’t be afraid to get creative with these house hold weapons: everything is a weapon.

Baseball bats, shovels, axes, pitchforks, kitchen knives, chair legs, chainsaws, power cords, coat hangers, glass bottles, musical instrument (guitar, drum sticks, mini keyboard, flute etc.), printers, computer monitors, pens, pencils, speakers, foldable stools/chairs, walking sticks, rocks, water jugs, sculptures, deodorant sprays, hard hats, ANYTHING. These weapons don’t have to kill anyone on the first hit (although it helps), but anything that will cause pain and slow them down is required.

Everyone should have two to three weapons each. A big weapon, and one or two small weapons. My preference would be a shovel (with a metal tip), a hatchet, and a small kitchen knife.

Keep calm and protect yourself.