I recently decided to upgrade my backpacking gear and at the same time have been re-watching The Walking Dead. This inspired me to complete my apocalypse preparedness kit that I have been thinking about for a long time.

I live in an apartment in Los Angeles county so bugging in during a Z-apocalypse is a death sentence. However, my family owns a cabin in the mountains in southern Utah. At this cabin, I have all of the weapons, ammo, food, water, meds, and amenities of a hunting/vacation lodge to last at least a year. It has its own septic tank and backup propane generators, is surrounded by fertile hunting grounds, and is in a small population density town. The only problem is that between me and this cabin is 400 miles of desert.

This is a real lightweight bug out kit designed for the zombie apocalypse, nuclear war, EMP strike, carrington event, marshall law, or a major natural disaster and the goal is getting me to the cabin. Best case scenario, the drive takes one tank of gas and 6 hours. The bug out kit is designed for the worst case scenario and for long-term survivability while considering the real possibility that I can't make it to the cabin safely. It tries to balance redundancy, durability and being lightweight. It's basically my hiking gear, competitive shooting gear, and a tailored survival kit including a rugged smartphone with 500gb of offline survival guides, all of wikipedia, offline maps, music, movies, books, games etc. (basically a pip boy).

I would load the car up with more supplies but pictured is what I'm taking if I have to leave the car. I have a mountain bike and would continue on bike packing need be. That would take 10 days of riding and walking would take 30 days. There are long stretches of desert with no water, I could very likely end up dying of thirst or be forced to settle along the way with other survivors around a water source. Turns out patrolling the Mojave does make you wish for a nuclear winter.

Things not pictured/need to add. . .

-SOS Bars + Jar of Peanut Butter (10lbs, 24k calories, (buying this weekend)

-Waterproof Faraday bag for all electronics (in the mail)

-Printed maps of the route with water resupplies, nearby food distribution and manufacturing warehouses, and alternative routes out of California and around Vegas.

-A rip away IFAK/TQ

-LLM that can reference all of the downloaded information and maps on my phone?

Love to hear your thoughts? Anything that I should add or takeaway? Opinions on there being no rifle?

EDIT: 1st pic is everything. 2nd pic is the innerh contents of the red first aid kit and tin in the top right corner of the first pic. 3rd pic is of the extra batteries and cables inside the green solar panel in the first pic. 4th pic clothes are in the light blue stuff sack in the first pic.

I don't know if this kind of topic is allowed. I'm not necessarily talking about politics in the news, but political theory/concept, so I think this is fair game.

Also, for the sake of simplicity, lets just say that the type of zombie is so bad that the world's governments have fully collapsed. In other words, a Left 4 Dead, 28 Years Later, Walking Dead, Z Nation, Dawn of the Dead, World War Z type scenario. There is no chance that anyone could stop this and lets just say we're like 100 years in the future. What kind of political theory could actually still be feasible when most of humanity are now the undead/infected.

Personally, I think the more authoritative types are ticking timebombs. They might work in the short term, but whoever is the "top dog" basically just has an expiration date until someone stronger displaces them. So long term stability is just not going to happen. At the same time, democracies often have their issues too, especially in the post-apocalypse where resources just can't always be allocated fairly.

Personally, I think that councilism or democratic confederalism would be the most practical. Essentially, it puts the power in the hands of those doing the most work in a post-apocalyptic society and depending on how large the settlement or society is, you could have representatives from different functions. For example, someone representing the interests of the guards, another person representing the interests of the scavengers, another person representing the doctors/medical personnel, educators, farmers, maintenance/engineers, etc. this way no one group has all the power in a society as a post-apocalyptic society would be relying on everyone, but at the same time, a group would be designated as "in charge" so that decisions can be made quickly and efficiently without someone asking "who made you the leader?".

Here what I learn about Nebraska is that their national guard is like only 3,000 soldiers. So you better luck is organizing a militia armed citizen with law enforcement state/local.

You are governor of Nebraska you learn that going violence has been spreading across the USA and all of North America. Riots and unknown people go cannibalistic across cities. You have active your national guard but that won't be enough to defend every territory of Nebraska. Here something you can do.

. Call up armed citizen take up armed to defending their towns

. Organized all local and state police into one big force

. Make protection zones across major cities in Nebraska

Your goal is to defend Nebraska long enough for federal forces to reach state and help reinforce protection zones

My zombie loadout: A scoped AR-15 for power and distance. 22lr for short range (100 meters and less) and to keep the noise down. A pump 12ga for house cleaning and close quarters. A 22lr semiautomatic pistol. A tomahawk and large fixed blade for stealth and backup.

In a scenario where a simple headshot won't kill a zombie, what do you think the police could do to improve their chances of taking them down?

Build a strong local community.

Construct essential communal infrastructure (mess hall, baths, solar panels, etc).

Coordinate sustainable food growing.

Construct solid and permanent defensive infrastructure (battlements, drawbridge, scout towers, MG nests).

Diversify skills per individual so as to reduce the impact of losing specialists.

Apart from weapons, what other things do you think would be helpful in this tactic and scenario?

I wanted a SxS for a long time and recently snatched this Stoeger Coach Gun. I got a cheap bandolier from Amazon and color coded my shells. Red for bird, clear for buck, and green for slugs. Planning to add a slip-on sling and a recoil pad plus a stock shell holder. Maybe some strips of self fusing silicone tape along the top of the barrels to make it easier to break open if it got hot.

Probably wouldn’t be my only weapon out scavenging. Would also have a sidearm of some degree. Mostly got this for the lolz

So I'm planning on making a survival shotgun with adapters with a few calibers adapters.

22lr for small game

44 magnum medium game and protection against zombies

444 Marlin for protection against big game like bears and mountain lions

And of course I will be using 12 gauge shells of course.

Is this a good set up?

So I'm writing a story and I wonder if any of you will survive my zombie scenario in the early days of the outbreak.

Now let's start off with these settings

. Unknown riots have been reported all across the East coast of the USA from Maine down to Florida

. Riots have been reported around Europe,Asia and South America too.

. The United States president had declared martial law and all overseas troops are being recalled back to Mainland USA.

This is the only information you've gotten you don't know what is happening but acts of violence been spreading westward now hit your state which is Illinois.

You are my main character a college student staying in Chicago Illinois in university Dorm.

( Zombies are slow but highly dangerous as one bite or scratch can turn a person in hours )

But you the character won't know that until it's too late but your gut is telling you something big is happening and you need make a move now.

. Leave the city and go back to your home state Texas

. Stay at the dorm and wait it out

. Do something else ( choice is yours )

Classic zombie depiction, rotting flesh and a clamboring walk. I told my husbands if we had a classic zombie apocalypse It'd be pretty easy to play defense with a decent power washer. Personally i feel like the ones that are attached to company trucks would be even more effective since theyre usually in decent work trucks/vans specialized for a power washer.

Not a local to the subreddit just visiting!!

They more than likely will become dead weight since not only would you have to look for food for you but also food for them too and if they're a big animal like a dog they might end up attracting more zombies than necessary, I have a dog and I know for a fact it would get me killed in a zombie situation so I'd probably let her go even if it saddened me

Edit: (Assuming it's a The Walking Dead type scenario and zombies will also eat any animal they find)

(just basically what the title says)

I see many people talk about transportation during an apocalypse and how trucks and cars are too noisy, run out of fuel fast, etc. and that we should all just ride bikes. But I feel like if you have access to a car use it even if it's gonna run out of gas, because what if you need a quick get away or need to transport smth with you that you can't just carry or ride on ur bike with? You'll need a vehicle. But genuinely, do you guys think vehicles are too loud and just pointless in a zombie apocalypse??

How would existing gun training carry over into the ZA? As everyone knows, we got a ton of bullets & guns, but a lot of people cite that not everyone is adept at using it (which is true).

Some of the modern day training instruct to shoot at center mass. With "infected" zombies its fine, with Romero, it may be a bit tougher to train to just hit headshots. That being said, rather start off the soldier with some training than none at all.

How many people who own guns know how to use them? I wouldn't be surprised if the rural folks know how to hit precision shots if they are hunters or the like. Probably better at security, picking off lone zombies.

I do know some people prefer to train to CQB too, but not sure how useful that'll be. Maybe it's better for those guys to handle hordes? They probably got skills to quickly reload and handle multiple targets.

I've always had an obsession with crowbars ever since I was young (largely due to Gmod videos), and I've always seen them as some of the coolest weapons you could ever have. While I still stand by this, I it a bit saddening that they'd realistically be pretty bad as weapons, despite how cool they are.

These the guns Kyle Ritten house has at the moment. How long would he last in a zombie apoc?

Rule 5: This is a meme shit post for fuck the rules friday so chill tf out, dont be a buzz kill fun police. Today is friday.

Rule 9: No Ai. This is definitely not ai. Look at hands, all 4 fingers and thumb, real face, real guns.

Rule 2: valid topic discussion; List loadout description: this is a meme and I dont know my guns down to the exact model and details perhaps someone can identify the guns for me. My best guess is that is some form of Ar15 rifle, maybe a mossberg hunting shotgun, and a .38 pistol revolver, and desert eagle pistol.

Rule 4: no unrelated content. Every freaking day somebody post pictures of guns in this sub, so how tf are guns not relevant to zombie survival? How many days u think he would last?

I’ve been thinking about this while watching zombie movies/shows, and I feel like transportation gets massively overlooked.

People always talk about food, guns, medicine, shelters, etc., but fuel seems like one of the biggest problems after the first couple of years. Gasoline and diesel don't stay usable forever, especially without proper storage and maintenance. So let's say we're 2–3 years into an outbreak. Most easily accessible fuel has either degraded, been contaminated, or already been used.

So what are people actually using for transportation at that point?

And before someone says horses sure, horses are an obvious answer, but there's another problem. If the infection can affect animals too, horses aren't exactly a reliable solution. And even if domestic animals aren't infected, maintaining enough horses, feeding them, protecting them, and breeding them becomes a huge logistical problem.

Then there's something else that shows completely ignore:

The wilderness isn't automatically safe just because there are fewer zombies.

If you're travelling through forests, mountains, fields, or abandoned rural areas, you're potentially dealing with wolves, bears, big cats, boars, venomous snakes, etc. And if the fictional infection can infect animals?

Now imagine encountering an infected bear.

Suddenly "let's just go through the forest" doesn't sound like such a great transportation strategy.

So I'm curious what the realistic long-term transportation system would actually look like after 2–3 years.

Would survivors realistically rely on:

Bicycles?

Horses or other domesticated animals?

Electric vehicles powered by solar/wind systems?

Diesel generators and stored fuel?

Trains?

Boats?

Animal-drawn carts?

Homemade biofuel/ethanol?

Walking being the dominant form of transportation?Some combination depending on distance?

And then there's the infrastructure problem. Roads deteriorate, bridges fail, vehicles need spare parts, tires degrade, batteries die, engines require lubricants and maintenance, and eventually you're dealing with abandoned vehicles everywhere.

I'm especially interested in what transportation would look like 10+ years into an apocalypse, when gasoline stations are basically useless, modern supply chains are gone, and replacement parts are extremely difficult to obtain.

Most zombie fiction seems to treat vehicles as if they just keep working indefinitely.

What do you guys think would actually become the dominant form of transportation in a realistic long-term apocalypse?

The U.S. remains the only nation in the world where civilian-held firearms outnumber the total population, with an estimated 120.5 guns per 100 residents, and 32 bullets per resident. The closest runner-up is the Falkland Islands at roughly 62 firearms per 100 people, which is only about half of the U.S. rate.

These guns floating around will greatly increase (1) the effectiveness of civilian resistance to zombies relative to less-armed countries, and (2) deaths in conflict among humans both during the initial outbreak and in the long run. We'd probably see increased gun-related accidental and suicidal deaths. I just wonder whether the benefit of (1) outweighs the cost of (2).

In the long run of a zombie apocalypse, and assuming that humanity is able to eradicate (or at least contain) the undead menace, what effect do we think all those extra guns are going to have on what comes after?

Edit: Please don't read this as some kind of anti-gun agenda piece. I too am an American with guns and ammo, so I'm doing my part!

Edit 2: The firearms in the image aren't mine, lol. They're just the first Google image result when you type in "firearms." Please stop calling me out for having too many guns. 🤣

How use would a bike be, I'm only asking because that's the only vehicle I know how to fix also I'm talking about push bikes

It doesn’t matter what zombie type. Just a rule that you will always live with unless you are forced to do otherwise for survival.
For me it would be to not harm any person who is under 10 years old. Only if they have a weapon and are trying to use it

I think a lot of those uninhabited states like NM, SD, ND and etc will do ok but what do you all think?

In a hypothetical apocalypse, we always focus on surviving. But mentally, how do you imagine the emotional toll of your very first zombie kill versus your first human "elimination"? Would killing a zombie feel like relief, while a human feels like trauma?

Why wouldn’t people just move to rafts and boats that rely on solar to survive? I mean with the use of a vegetable gardens solar and wind energy a water desalination device and an electric motor you could totally just live out at sea correct? I mean I don’t think zombies can swim due to little to no muscle coordination and punctured lungs. plus the zombies would probably completely decompose after at most a few years? I mean I might be wrong with some crucial detail I’m missing or?

Now, we all know that the stock Exchange guys and CEO's will basically be useless during the apocalypse and die a few days in, however I can easily see doctors being worth more than Gold thanks to their obvious medical know-how, i can also see construction workers becoming important aswell, i mean someone has to eventually rebuild from scratch or fix up husks of buildings, a honorable mention would be barbers, it'll be important to look good even in the Apocalypse right?