A Sensible Guide to Preparing for the Zombie Appocalypse

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. Continue reading

Part 4 of A Ballistics Guide for Geeks, Writers and Geeky Writers: Terminal Ballistics

A Fired .38 caibre Hollow Point round, completely expanded and deformed after striking its target. From Wikipedia, by user Rickochet

Welcome back! So far we’ve talked about the flight of projectiles, and how things change as our projectiles and the atmosphere around them change.  Now lets talk about what happens to our projectiles when they actually impact with something!

These projectiles that we’ve thrown have now flown from their projector to the other end of their ballistic trajectory.  Eventually, they’ll hit something other than the medium they are flying in.  Wether it’s the intended target, something that happens to be in the way, or one of those weird bubblegum asteroids those Sci-Fi writers keep dreaming up, something will happen. Continue reading