Zombie Cliche Lookout: Improvised Barricades
When you’re inside and the zombies are coming, it’s time to fortify your position. Don’t worry about making it pretty, quick and dirty will slow the zombies down enough that you should be able to reinforce it before things get really bad. At least, that’s the hope. The important thing is, slowing them down enough for you to keep working. Hopefully you’ll get everything buttoned up before the zeds can get through.
Of course, every interior is different. The more windows and doors you have, the more work you’ve got to do to secure the place. Not to mention the more raw materials that are required. With any luck, you’ve got enough lumber, screws and nails, and time. If not, well, maybe being eaten alive by a horde of zombies isn’t as bad as it sounds.
But probably it’s just as bad as it sounds. Maybe worse.
About this Episode:
And we’re back in the store, although now it’s looking a little bare. It seems Brent’s been having a good time shopping. Where did he get the wheelbarrow? I imagine the store had one or two lying around back.
Discussion Question: Old Fashioned Skills
When the proverbial shit hits the fan (okay, so there’s no proverb about that, but roll with me), our high tech world is going to get mighty old school in a hurry. So the question is, how do you cope? What sort of skills do you have that could make you useful to the rest of the community?
I don’t know about you guys, but I fly a desk most of the time. My regular job doesn’t really require me to know how to – say – hand-turn wood on a lathe, or wash clothes without a machine. Now, how about you guys?
I can play vydja games real good.
By the way, if you can fly a desk Dave? Then holy shit you probably have an unlimited amount of airspace and a constant commodity of desks. You crazy wizard you.
I’m very talented.
Murphy’s going to try and get in, and I wonder if the zombies will even notice that flimsy looking shelf in the way? 😀
Hah. Maybe these aren’t very persistent zombies and get easily discouraged?
I’d say they’ll get more easily distracted by the tasty snacks wandering around outside! 😀
Maybe so.
I’m constantly looking over articles about zombie apocalypse preparing and I know a lot: How to make herbs into food, I know how to use stuff like duct tape to fortify cars’ windows, cook out of a working engine, create lightbulbs with no electricity needed to work and even turn sea water into drinkable water. Plus, I’m still in school, so I’m sure I can learn some useful stuff in chemistry.
Creating lightbulbs?
Yes. Well, improvised ones. Basically, you can create light placing water and bleach inside a plastic water, and the water will reflect the sun. It only works on sunny days, but’s something
I can’t fly a desk but I have been known to swim a garden or two. ..
What? j/k. If it isn’t destructive I’m going to have issues. I confess I badly need to do some food survival intel. If I ran out of food I’d be Rick’n it up with my no pig having farm too. Get them motoes Rick, pick’em well
Hah. Hot pockets will only last so long after the power goes out.
I’m pretty good around the garden. I’ve done raised beds here for years, with no more technology than running water (I never use chemical herbicides/pesticides). As for my job, I do a fair bit of low-tech nursing in terms of assessments and treatments, especially wound care. Unfortunately, the highest acuity treatments are very high tech. For instance, where will we get insulin in a Crunch?
I recommend everyone get some books on low-tech living. I don’t know if they’re still in print, but the Foxfire books are about the best I’ve read on the subject (do an internet search on it).
I read the first Foxfire book and had a hell of a time getting through it.
How was that? Was it too technical? AS I recall, it had a chapter on planting by the stars. That might be a little too much for the average cube-dweller; but the stuff on canning and butchering is spot-on.
I need to get copies of my own, though. I don’t own them.
It’s been a while now, so I might have just been impatient reading it. I should really give it another shot. It didn’t help that it was a badly done PDF version.
New paperbacks are 15 bones on Amazon, and Prime eligible…
Might be worth an investment. It seems like every prepper online recommends these as a resource. That tells me I approached the subject wrong and need to give it another try.
You also need to take them slow, since the authors preserved the vernacular of their subjects in the writing. Deciphering and translating Kentucky holler-dweller can’t be easy.
That was likely part of my issue the first time around.
Here in Michigan, we have a whole different sort of backwoods way of talking.
Pushing shelves against the doors reminds me of Resident Evil 4 😀
Man, I haven’t played that one in a while. I should dust it off.
Again, if they’re shambling zombies, just push the wheelbarrow briskly to the truck…
“They’re so slow! We could walk right by them.”
My fear here is that Murphy will come back for Brent, but Brent will think Murphy is zombie and shoot him.
That wouldn’t be good for Murphy. Or Brent, for that matter.
Did you catch the Mythbusters Zombie Special? Most of it was just amusing, but I liked the last segment about barricading the door. According to their test, if you go at it half-assed, zombies will get through. However, if you go “all out” you can hold them off. My only ciritque with this is that while the “living zombies” of their test will give up, dead zombies are less likely to.
And if you don’t fortify your barrier, a zombie horde will walk right through that gate without breaking stride.
No, I sure didn’t. I wonder if it’s on Netflix. Sounds kind of awesome.
I can shoot, make a shelter, some first aid, and other very good survival skills. Though I wish I could learn how to fly a desk. Could you teach us a little about it, Dave? 😀
Future discussion question: How would diversities (Langauge or religion disagreements, etc.) play out in the apocalypse?
Awesome question! I’m totally using that.
Sorry Nom, trade secret.
Hmmm, apoc transferable skills.
Well, my wife and I are running a garden that is pretty productive, and all it needs is a bit of water in the dry spells, so gardening would be one.
My dad is a builder, I love DIY, and have done a bunch of stuff and learnt off dad, and I have built several projects including a nice big shed made out of wood (which could easily be lived in), so I’ll throw building in.
I have been a leader/manager of people at work, on the sports field, and in other facets of life for as long as I can remember, and generally put my hand up to lead reluctantly (not for glory, just for the good of the group). So I would say this would be a transferable skill in the bad world.
And generally I’m an outdoors type of guy, who likes to get out there. I have done trapping, hunting, multiday hikes, felled big trees, all sorts of random stuff that gives me a good solid grounding in a lot of things that will keep my family and I alive. Oh, and I am always reading, learning and trying stuff out to get better.
Could add a bunch of other skills, fishing, abseiling, knots/lashings (don’t need nails to build), sewing, minor electronics, minor mechanical and cant forget LEGO building!
Heh, if cave men can utilise every part of the animal from eating the flesh to making clothes, then so can I.
This is a great discussion question… really gets you thinking on what you would be capable of doing, and how confident you are in the stuff you have learned over the years.
Others in my family (such as brother) would need to learn how to do stuff from scratch as they are very reliant on others doing stuff for them… I guess there is more and more people like that now days.
LEGO building; that’s a valuable survival skill right there.
Yes… someone noticed! 🙂
Hah!