So…I‘ve been watching The Walking Dead as of late. I just finished watching season three the other day and I enjoy it thoroughly. Fascinating show…very addictive. Since I started watching this show, it got me thinking. What WOULD happen in an end-of-the-world situation such as this? I know zombies aren’t real. People don’t die and come back to life as a dead person that eats your face off. From what I’ve learned over the years by watching House, ER, and Quincy, MD, that’s pretty well impossible. There’s that one drug you can ingest down in South America, but that’s whole different story. I hear, anyways. Ok, so…the end of the world happens however it happens and I’m lucky enough to be a survivor, if you want to call that lucky.
How would I *possibly* even begin to know where to start to rebuild my life? What do I do first? Do I go out to find food? What about ammunition for self-defense against the zombies and possibly other survivors who might want something I have or would want to take over the throne in my little slice of heaven? Sure, I could try to stick it out in my apartment. If I had to survive only with what I had IN my apartment as of today, I’d last about three days at the very most. After that, I would have to take my chances out on the street going to the food co-op on the next block, and maybe the Kwik Trip on the way there as well. Both of those stores would be pretty empty, I’d assume, as they’re really the only two stores in the downtown area of my city that would sell food in anything resembling bulk quantities so they would be hit right away. But, let’s say for argument sake that I DO find enough food and bottled water to last me a week or so, maybe two at the most. I may or may not have electricity, so I can’t really plan on cooking anything that requires my oven or microwave. I have lighter fluid, so I can use my Zippo for primitive cooking if need be. I can’t grab anything that requires refrigeration or freezing because of the electricity problem again. If it’s winter, the back yard will do just fine and if I get cold I have a sub-zero sleeping bag and plenty of winter clothing, but what if it’s July? It’s going to get really warm really fast inside, especially if I’m using an open flame in close quarters to cook with and have no air conditioning. And when my food finally runs out? Who knows…I guess I’m going out again.
The next thing on my list would of course be self-defense. If I’m out looking for food or what have you and come across a zombie, I am forced to defend myself. It’s pretty much a given according to zombie movies and shows from the very beginning that zombies need to be hit in the head to be killed for whatever reason. I can shoot them, stab them, chop their heads clean off…dealers’ choice in that regard. If I make a lot of noise, more zombies come looking for what’s making all the noise. Unless I’m a REALLY good shot with a silent weapon like a crossbow or something like that (and I’m SO not a good shot with a crossbow or a bow and arrow), it’s a never ending cycle with the noise thing and attracting more zombies and so on and so forth. I’ll need ammunition, and lots of it…the closest of two gun shops is about three miles away in some very open territory that would give me relatively zero cover from zombies, and the next one about a mile from there. Since that wasn’t my first choice of survival preparations, they’ll likely be pretty well picked through by the time I get there so the chances of me even finding any rounds for my weapon (I shoot a .45 caliber handgun) may be very limited. I can take my chances and try to make it to the supersized department store way out on the south end of town which also sells hunting supplies, but that’s at least three times as far as the others across the same type of territory and would likely be very picked over as well. I would probably try to find a rifle and a stockpile of ammunition to match and hope there was enough to last me quite some time. Self-defense would also include the living as well. If I have food and someone else has none, the survival instinct in them says to take my food from me, and MY instinct says not to let them by any means necessary at this point. I don’t say that to be an asshole or anything, but hey…survival of the fittest and all that jazz. Defending myself against someone else who is armed and desperate (or several people) would be a LOT more difficult than a slow-moving zombie who doesn’t know why I’m pointing a gun at its head and does nothing to avoid it. In the event that I was wounded beyond the point of medical attention, I would pray that whoever was on the other end would do me the courtesy of putting me out of my misery so I didn’t get my face eaten off and turn into a zombie as well.
Do I stay in my current apartment? In all actuality, no. I would find somewhere more secure and away from the busiest part of town. I don’t know where that would be, but I’d come up with a place in a quick hurry. I would probably venture north, I think. The winters may be colder and would definitely be more difficult to endure then where I am now, but I would be farther away from a major city and it would be a lot easier to disappear, in my opinion. Outta sight, outta mind as far as zombies are concerned. Also, less populated areas means less human resistance to have to deal with. I don’t like people enough to begin with…I’d like them even less if they were shooting at me and trying to steal my food. Less populated also means less opportunity for restocking of supplies, but I’d take my chances. Six of one, a half dozen of the other.
There are an infinite number of things to worry about should this catastrophe occur. Where are my friends and family? Are my children ok? How do I know if there has been a cure found if communication lines are down? So many things to think about…it would be impossible to fathom them all and keep a level head. In the event of a total global meltdown and 99% of the population turning to zombies, would I honestly stand a snowball’s chance in hell of long-term survival? Not very likely, as much as I hate to say it. I’m just not that smart in that regard, I don’t think. If I were a character on The Walking Dead, I would probably be Jim, the hole digger. I would have been bitten early on, but also smart enough to know that I would become a danger to my friends in a very short period of time so I’d make the call for them to leave me behind as they traveled on. Sadly, given the grave circumstances, I would most likely take the cowards’ way out and leave one less zombie for the next guy to kill.
