Zombies approach the Channel 7 building in Chicago, by Eric Ingrum

World War Z.  Z-Day.  The Zombie Plague.  The Horde.  There are countless names to describe this horrifying scenario.  The dead coming back to life to feast upon the remains of the living.  One bite, and you’ll become one of them?  What hope do we have?  We fight back, of course!

Realistically, the threat of a zombie apocalypse is minor to non-existent, but it does make for an interesting mental exercise (and great marketing. I’ll get to that later).  How would one prepare to survive against a horde of creatures immune to pain, cold, fear and rational tactics?  The steps used in preparing against such an onslaught are similar to what the ‘preppers’ plan for every day… a major catastrophe that destroys the political, social and even physical world around us.  Surviving in this nightmare will be tricky, but let’s plot this out logically.

To begin, let’s set some ground rules.  The Zombie horde is coming.  We find ourselves in an urban environment, with all of the modern amenities to choose from.  In this guide I’ll deal with equipping only ourselves, with a concentration (Of course) on weaponry.  If you’re looking for a serious preppers guide to surviving any apocalypse, I’d check out my brother in law’s blog at ponderingsbyian.blogspot.ca for some no-nonsense advice.  The zombies we face are of the standard, shambling, mindless type.  I’ll discuss faster types, but we’ll stick with them being unintelligent for now.  Plain Ol’ shoot-em-in-the-head Zombies.  Before we talk about what we SHOULD carry, let’s talk about what we definitely SHOULD NOT.

WHAT NOT TO CARRY

Movies and video games have been a horrible influence on choices of things to carry.  Let’s run down the list of things we definitely DO NOT want:

SPAS 12:  This shotgun appears again and again in movies and video games for one important reason: It looks like an anti-aircraft cannon.  Made by Italian manufacturer Franchi, this is the Ferrari of combat shotguns.  It looks incredible, It’s quite functional, and good at what it does but a lot of what you get is style.  There are better guns that are more readily available at a much lower price that are easier to use, and much easier to fix.  Having held one of these in my hands, it’s amazing how cheap it feels, almost like a toy, and not a really shotgun.  Looks great on film, but pass on it in reality.

Desert Eagle:  Perhaps one of the most identifiable pistols in modern cinematic history, the Desert Eagle is everywhere.  Designed by Magnum Research and manufactured by Israeli Military Industries, it is definitely cool looking. Available in a variety of calibres, they look great on film.  In reality, they are BIG.  I mean really big.  I’ve held one before, and although I am a bit on the small side (5’10”, 155lbs), I can’t grip this pistol with one hand.  the fingers of my hand barely make it around the front of the grip to the other side.  There are other pistols that are cheaper, easier to find, and smaller that would be just as effective, or more so.  The calibre it comes in is .50AE which throws monument sized slugs at the bad guys, and the recoil it produces is fierce.  Not what we want in a firefight.  They do look as good on camera though, which is why this thing always pops up in the movies.  I’d give this to the smallest person in the group for comic relief, or give it to the jerk in the group that you don’t want to survive.  NOTE:  Keep this in mind if you’re in a survival group running away from a Horde of zombies, and someone hands you a Desert Eagle.

GAU-17 Minigun, fired from a USMC Helicopter, from USMC Photographer Lance Cpl. Randall A. Clinton

Gatling guns:  Ok, gatling guns are cool.  I spent 7 months in Afghanistan fixing them for the Royal Canadian Air Force, and I can personally vouch for their effectiveness and reliability.  Where the movies and video games get it wrong is that these guns CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT A HARD MOUNT.  For starters, the gun weighs over 70 pounds.  That’s without ammo.  A standard 200 round belt weighs around 13 pounds, and at 3000 rounds a minute, that’s 4 seconds of shooting.  Impractical, and almost pointless, but goddamn do they ever look cool on film.  Here’s me using one over the deserts of Arizona at an undisclosed location while on course.  A complete blast to shoot, but if I was running from the Horde and came across one of these, unless the batteries were there and there was a giant pile of ammo sitting next to the truck I could mount this to, I’d probably leave it behind.

Sniper Rifles: Picking off the zombies one by one from hundreds of yards away is a waste of time and effort.  Time spent sniping is time that could be spent running away.  You’ll never kill enough of them this way to make a dent in the Horde, not to mention attracting attention to yourself.  By their very nature, these types of rifles are also quite long, and heavy.  We want to be able to move fast, and stay light.  Maybe keep one back to defend the homestead, but when you’re moving, leave this behind.

Explosives and Fire Weapons:  I’ll lump these two into the same category for the same reason.  both are indiscriminate killers that will end up working against you.  If Zombies in your mythos are not afraid of fire, flaming zombies is a very bad idea.  It takes a long time for fire to burn through enough flesh to cause enough nervous system damage to drop a zombie.  That time is time the zombie spends on fire, still attacking.  Explosives are just tricky to deal with, finicky, and incredibly destructive.  Unless you happen to be an expert in the setting and calculating of charges, I’d leave these alone.  One misplaced charge in a building, and the whole thing can come down on top of you and your fellow survivors.

WHAT TO WEAR AND CARRY

So what do we carry?  let’s establish our criteria.  Life is not a video game.  Things have weight.  As great as it is in games to be able to carry a Gatling Gun, a Shotgun, Two rifles, Two pistols, a chainsaw, and that Special rocket launcher you have to use against the boss on level 3, there is no way we could be expected to carry all of that stuff any appreciable distance.  Especially not while running from a Horde of shambling undead.  All objects must be of a simple, robust nature, so no Swarofski Crystal miniatures collection, sorry.  Weight is a critical concern, so it must be conserved at all times.

Clothing: No matter how hot or dry the climate is, we’re talking long pants and a long-sleeved jacket of a durable material.  Stay away from denim, as it chafes severely when wet, and make sure the clothing is comfortable and loose.  Wear a belt of suspenders.  Look to the military for help here.  Their uniforms are designed to be worn in combat, for long periods of time, and remain comfortable and long wearing even with long periods between washings.  Remember, even the hottest deserts get frightfully cold at night.  Depending on how long the Horde stays active, you may be out in the wilds for a long time.  You cannot rely on your ability to scavenge supplies and more clothes, so here it’s better to pack an extra jacket and hat than hope to pick one up on the road.  Those of us in more Northern climates may have to take snow into consideration.  Remember that layered clothing is warmer than one big layer.  More practical too.  A few pairs of gloves are a must.  Oh, and extra socks and underwear.  Ever heard of trench foot?  Soldiers during WWI Living in the muck of the trenches would leave their wet socks on, never having a chance to change them, or dry their feet.  Eventually the skin on their wet feet would die, and slough off, bringing with it extreme pain and crippling their ability to move.  In the more severe cases, infection and gangrene would set in, leading to amputation and death.  The objective is to not die by a Horde of zombies.  Being killed by your own wet feet would make a horrible epitaph.  Change your socks.  Enough said.

Bags: A sturdy backpack large enough to hold all of your belongs is a must.  Removable pouches on the outside are handy, and could be clipped to a vest or smaller pack if needed.  Line all of your pouches and bags with garbage bags, it’ll keep the contents dry.  If you have time, put all of your clothing and perishables in Zip-lock bags.  A load bearing or tactical vest of a type you find comfortable is also a plus.  In your vest (which you should almost never take off) should be the items you cannot survive without: Water, First Aid Kit, Cleaning kit for your weapons, ammunition, knife, and whatever else you cannot go without, even for a second.  If you need to move in a hurry, and need to ditch your pack, the things in your vest should give you enough to survive for 24 hours.  With your pack, you should be good for 72 hours to a week.  Think about that as you pack.
Footwear: A good pair of hiking or combat boots are almost a most.  Durability, good ankle support, and comfort are your prime factors.  Try to have them broken in before Z-Day so you’re not fighting blisters as well as fighting your way through a mob of shamblers.  Remember that thing about trench foot?  Let’s not get infected blisters either.  Take care of your feet.

Multitool:  In the spirit of conserving weight, let’s tap into our inner MacGuyver.  Instead of carrying a hammer, screwdriver, knife, pliers, toothpick, file, magnifying glass, and about a hundred other things, why not carry one tool?  A Leatherman, or Gerber, or even an old-fashioned Swiss Army knife will do you very well in this situation.  Keep it close, and never go anywhere without it.  It might not kill a zombie, but it will save your bacon about a hundred other times.

Armour: No, I’m not talking about a full suit of medieval armour here.  If the Horde is indeed coming for you, there are some simple steps that could be taken to prolong your suffering survival against the Horde.

They are going to come at you with teeth, claws and a feral, bestial attitude.  They want your brains, or your flesh, or both, and they won’t stop until they get it.  We need to protect ourselves, especially exposed vital zones, so #1 in protective gear against zombies is a gorget.  Pronounced Gore-jay (with a soft “j”), a gorget is a leather and steel collar worn around your throat.  This protects the vital blood supply to your brain as well as your windpipe.  Designed for medieval sword fighting, they come in a variety of styles, and are relatively easy to find thanks to the SCA, WMA, and other Medieval fighting organizations.  I got mine from Zen Warrior, a subsidiary of Triplette arms, a company that also makes competitive fencing gear.  Cheap, light and comfortable, it looks like an oversized dog collar with steel plates riveted through the padded leather.  Comfortable enough to wear all day, and vital protection when needed.

Gloves:  If you can’t hang on to your weapons, you can’t fight.  Fingers and knuckles are the first things on your body you throw at your enemy, and should always be protected.  Leather gloves properly fitted to your hands will protect your knuckles and joints from the impact of striking dead flesh, and against abrasion.  The downside to gloves comes with a loss of manual dexterity.  Picking up and manipulating small objects becomes harder, which is why a properly fitted pair of gloves is vital.  Take the time here to find a pair that really fits, and practice all of your firearms handling again and again and again with your gloves on.  Train as you fight, fight as you train.

Eyes:  At the very least, we want to protect our eyes.  Perhaps the most important organ in our body in a survival scenario (The other most important organ only comes into play ~AFTER~ we’ve survived).  Glasses or goggles with ballistic lenses are cheap, and easily available at any sporting or hardware store.  Don’t skimp here, get good ones.  The Sawfly by Revision is a great, inexpensive option with proven protection for your eyes.

Head:  The US military has recently acquired ballistic facial armour for its troops, marking a sudden shift forward in defensive thinking.  Still too rare and expensive for the civilian market, this would be the ideal setup to use to defend yourself against a horde of people intent in eating the contents of your head.  Watch them try to make it through Kevlar.  The few seconds this buys you might be enough for you to draw your backup weapon or shout to a fellow survivor, warning them to get away as you get devoured.

Joints:  While running for one’s life, we might suffer from momentary lapses of attention.  That happens when one is shooting former co-workers, trying frantically to make it to the fire escape.  Running into a desk while looking over one’s shoulders could seriously hurt.  We need to take care of our joints, especially our knees and elbows in a run and gun scenario.  Of course, in a straight survival role this becomes less important.  We want to put the maximum amount of space between us and Horde.  However, if we find ourselves in the thick of it and need to move at top speed, a good set of skateboarding knee pads might not be a bad investment.  Your knees will thank you later.

First Aid:  Your vest should have a first aid kit in it.  Now, unless you have high levels of training, anything fancy here is probably just wasted space and weight.  Carry the essentials.  Clean dressings, surgical gloves, tape, scissors and antibiotics.  A neglected cut (even a shallow one) can get infected very quickly.  Infected cuts in post appocalyptica without proper medical treatment can be deadly.  A few water purification tablets here are also a good idea, as you will want to purify all water you drink after your own supply runs out.

Fire:  If it doesn’t scare the zombies, you’ll still need fire for warmth, cooking, and purifying water.  Always carry a few means of making fire.  A few cheap lighters in a zip loc bag, and a waterproof container full of strike anywhere matches weigh almost nothing.

WHAT TO FIGHT THE HORDE WITH

And now the reason we all came here.  Weapons.  Let’s talk guns.  When we’re talking about hunting zombies, the name of the game here is inflicting as massive a trauma injury we can, in as short a period of time.  The most efficient way of inflicting massive trauma (short of running them over with a bulldozer, which would be hard to get a hold of, and would run out of gas) is with a firearm of some kind.  There are hundreds of models and dozens of types of firearms, and we can whittle that down very quickly to one or two specific weapons.  We need to inflict massive trauma, in a relatively simple, shoulder and/or hand controlled weapon.  It needs to be light, robust, simple, easy to maintain and clean, and completely dependable.  As previously discussed, there’s no point in dreaming up fantasy plots where we’ll carry the backpack minigun that Jesse Ventura carried in Predator.  That thing would be way too heavy to carry all day, the backpack would hold enough ammo for approximately 10 or so seconds of firing, and to boot, it’s battery-powered.  So let’s talk, practical common sense ways of doing damage to a zombie horde.

What do we want to do with our guns?  Survive.  Get rid of the romantic notions of sitting on a roof top with a sniper rifle picking off stragglers as a hobby.  It will attract attention to your location, force you to move, and expose you to more danger.  It looks cool in the movies, but we aim to survive.  I will also almost completely discount pistols as a primary weapon.  Pistols are incredibly hard to aim, and require years of practice and mastery to be able to consistently hit man-sized targets out past 25 yards.  Getting the Horde within 25 yards to start making headshots is inviting disaster. A pistol would make a great backup weapon, a secondary choice in case your primary goes down, you run out of ammo, or it gets ripped from your fighting hands by the undead.  The only reason someone should be carrying a pistol is if they are too small or weak to carry a rifle as a primary weapon.  On that note, I need to immediately discount the two-pistol akimbo thing.  Completely and utterly pointless.  It might look cool in the video games, but two poorly aimed shots are worth nothing compared to one life saving shot.

US Coast Guard Sailor holding a Remington 870P with attached Holographic Sight. USCG photo by PO Milke Lutz.

Primary Weapon: In a zombie/survival scenario, my #1 choice has to be a 12 gauge shotgun.  More specifically, a Remington 870.  They are relatively cheap, very robust, made by the millions and can be found all around the world.  If you were stuck in a survival scenario with a broken 870, I can almost guarantee that you can find the parts for it with a bit of scrounging.  The bore diameter of a shotgun is about 0.72″, and a slug weighs about an ounce.  So picture an ounce of lead, three-quarters of an inch across, moving at over a thousand feet per second impacting into a solid object.  You wanted bang for your buck, well here ya go! Pump action shotguns are also incredibly simple to maintain and clean, and if you need to face off against other survivors, there is a huge amount of intimidation factor with cycling that slide in their face.  I chose a pump-action over a semi automatic for a simple reason. Diversity.  Some semi automatic shotguns are very picky on ammunition.  Most semi automatic shotguns use the recoil impulse of the fired round to cycle the next shot.  As different manufacturers make loads various intensities, Some ammunition will not work in all guns.  This requires time to experiment and try.  This is not something we wish to do in a survival scenario.  Our Shotgun should remain as universal as possible because they can be loaded with a wide variety of ammunition, much wider than a normal rifle or pistol.  From shot shells loaded with light shot for taking down game birds and small prey, to larger, heavier buckshot for taking deer and large game, to slugs capable of taking down any animal in north america out to a range of about a hundred yards, to a myriad of less than lethal loads, signal flares, etc.  Having one gun in your hands that serves as your self-defense tool, your food gatherer, signalling device, and warning system (with less than lethal rubber shot or beanbag rounds), its hard to beat in a survival scenario.

This choice of primary weapon does come with some down sides too.  The ammo capacity is rather limited, usually to about 7-8 shots, depending on the length of the magazine tube (found under the barrel).  In a run-and-gun across the city, perhaps a 30 shot, magazine fed rifle would make a better choice, but in a strict survival environment the shotgun wins out.  What I mean here is that if our goal is to strictly survive, we should not be engaging the Horde directly, we should be using our shots carefully to escape to fight another day.  8 shots should be plenty.  If you need more than 8 before you can escape, it’s a horrible day in Zombie-land.  That’s what the backup weapon is for.  Shotguns also do have very limited range.  A slug through a good, long slug barrel will get about 100-125 yards accurately.  A standard hunting rifle can get easily 6 times that.  But being that this is a survival scenario, engaging the Horde at 700 yards is not necessary.  If they are 700 yards away, you should still be moving away from them.  Rate of fire is also slower than magazine fed semi automatic weapons, but with practice, those shots came out quickly and precisely.  Spraying into a crowd with a rifle is a bad choice except in the most dire of circumstances.  We want guaranteed hits causing guaranteed trauma, not wild-fire.  Spraying wild is wasteful of valuable ammunition, and not guaranteed to be effective.

Secondary weapon: We have picked a rugged, reliable effective weapon as our primary weapon, but being prepared for most eventualities, we should carry a backup.  There might come a time when reloading or clearing a jam is too slow, and secondary firepower is needed RIGHT NOW.  It’s those situations where we draw our sidearm.  Sidearms should be carried in a holster on your hip, thigh, or on your vest.  Personal comfort here is the key, but the weapon should never leave your side.  It’s like any tool, the second you need it, is the one time you don’t have it on you.  So what do we want as a secondary weapon?  Also, a relatively easy choice.  We want a pistol that’s rugged, reliable, with as few parts as possible, and plentiful ammunition.  This leaves me with two choices.  A Colt 1911, or a Beretta M9.  I pick these two as they are the two service pistols of the American Forces.  The Colt served until the 80s when it was replaced by the Beretta. Both are easy to carry and maintain, shoot well, and were made in the millions.  Both are in popular calibres (.45 and 9mm), and ammunition should be plentiful.  The Colt has the benefit of a much heftier round, which will create much more trauma, but that comes at the price of increased recoil and reduced ammunition capacity.  The Beretta is chambered in 9mm, and although not as stong as the .45 it will still stop an unarmoured human very well.  The point of ammunition capacity is also a moot point.  If we need to empty our magazines into the Horde, we should be running instead.

The downside of carrying a pistol as a backup weapon is the lack of range.  Most shooters are hard-pressed to do anything accurately out beyond 25 yards with anything but dedicated competition pistols.  An assault rifle would make a lot of sense as well, but being as this is a survival scenario, the range and firepower advantages of an assault rifle lose out to the weight and bulk of the weapon and its ammunition.  Now, if in your particular scenario you are dealing with roving gangs of angry survivors, or lots of fast zombies, a rifle makes sense as a backup to the shotgun.  Larger ammunition capacity and much longer range work in your favour here.  Also, if the zombies are attracted to noise, they are easy to suppress with screw on silencers.  I refuse to get involved in any large debates over which brand or make of gun is better than an other, so lets just leave it at this:  There are two large families of incredibly popular assault rifles in the world today.  The M-16 and AK-47 families.  They are both still being made today, by the millions, in any of a hundred different variations.  At their core, they remain true to their roots, and parts are easy to find.  They are both used by armies around the world and are plentiful, rugged, reliable and accurate.  Which one you choose is up to you, but I would base my choice on geography.  If I were fighting zombies in Africa, the Middle East or Eastern Europe, I’d look for AK’s to carry.  In North America and Europe, the M-16 and it’s variants are bound to be more plentiful.

Ammunition: A gun is just a projector.  What does the killing is the bullet the gun fires.  Settling for cheap or ineffective ammo here could be your end.  Keep your bullets dry and safe from impact, abrasion and fire.  Happy bullets make dead zombies.  Also, insert your magazines upside down their pouches.  That will keep the majority of the crud and water from dripping into the magazines, and will also make sure that if the top round in the mag does become loose, it falls into the pouch.  Every bullet counts, especially in a survival scenario.

Main Weapon Ammo:  One of the main perks of choosing a shotgun as our primary weapon is its adaptability.  Wether hunting for food, hunting the horde, or dispelling a crowd with less than lethal ammunition, there are hundreds of choices out here.  When fighting the zombies though, there really is only one choice.  The Slug.  Shotgun slugs are nearly three-quarters of an inch across.  They weigh over an ounce, and they travel at over a thousand feet per second.  The trauma that they inflict to living (or in this case, dead) tissue is immense.  If if stopped by modern body armours, the kinetic energy that they travel with will cause significant damage.  Now the slug does come at a price.  Most modern shotguns (especially those used for competitive trap and skeet shooting) use a device at the end of the barrel called a choke to squeeze the shot into a tighter pattern.  This gives you a tighter shot dispersion, and allows for longer ranged shooting with shot.  It also makes shooting shotgun slugs potentially dangerous.  You can’t squeeze a solid projectile very well, and this could have deadly consequences for you.  Some shotguns have removable chokes, and this would be the best bet.  If you plan on shooting a lot of shot, maybe carrying slugs is not the best idea.  Loading one and accidentally forgetting to change your choke would suck.  Buckshot would serve you well in this scenario.  Buckshot pellets are traditionally about .30″ across, and a normal 3″ shell holds about 7-9 pellets.  Highly effective against deer out to about 30-50 yards depending on the length of the barrel and the choke you have fitted.

Sidearm Ammo: For our sidearm, there is really only one choice for ammunition, and that’s a Hollow or soft point round.  We want something that will deform upon hitting the target, changing its shape to ensure the maximum amount of kinetic energy transfer inside the target.

Best Marketing Strategy Ever:  Famed ammunition manufacturer Hornady has caught on to the Zombie craze and released a line of ammunition which they claim is designed for killing zombies.  Called the Hornady Z-Max, what it ends up being is an incredibly clever ad campaign.  The Z-Max is just their Hollow Point FTX Critical Defense bullets, but with bright green plastic tips.  These bullets are incredibly effective, known the world over for their effectiveness as self-defense rounds.  What Hornady has done here though is tap into this social phenomena to try to garner more shooters into the world of competitive shooting.  They even sponsor “Zombie matches” across the Americas.  Imagine tactical shooting matches where the targets are the living dead?  They are wildly popular, and a lot of fun. They do command a bit of a premium price tag but If they were sitting on the store shelf, I’d use them with no hesitation.

Another note needs to be made here from the world of Safari hunters.  Those that hunt the biggest and most dangerous animals on the planet actually do not use deforming ammunition.  Game like Elephants and Rhinos have hides so thick that this type of ammunition will not sufficiently penetrate, and will not cause enough trauma to kill the animal cleanly.  A wounded, charging Rhino is a horrible thing to face.  These hunters use a solid, non deforming projectile (called a Monolithic bullet), of truly giant sizes and weights to transfer enough kinetic energy to the animal to help ensure a first round kill.  For all intents and purposes, our shotgun slugs will do the same thing, without needing the very rare and expensive safari guns, and keeping the adaptability of our shotgun intact.

In the event the CDC can no longer control the plague that will eventually spread to all of mankind, dooming us to a Hell of forever running away from the ravenous undead, I hope this guide leaves you just a little bit better prepared.  So ditch those twin pistols, put away the chainsaw and pick up a sturdy shotgun and head for the hills.  If you do it right, you might never have to take a shot.  But if you do, it will be a well placed, effective shot that gets you to safety, to carry on surviving until you can find the secret government bunker that holds the cure.  Good Luck my friends, you’ll need it.

 

I could go on, but at almost 5000 words, I’ll stop here.  If people want me to continue, of course I will.  Future topics that still need covering:

• Realistic transportation
• How do design and defend a Hideout
• Hand to Hand weapons