Zombie Cliche Lookout: Put Your Best Foot Forward
When you’re about to meet a potential ally in the midst of the zombie apocalypse, it makes sense to try to make the best first impression possible. Especially if that ally happens to own a small grocery store that also stocks ammo. Allies like that are probably pretty hard to come by. At any rate, there’s no sense in alienating someone before you even know if they can help you. And if there’s someone in your group that can make a really good impression (someone with a position of authority, perhaps), put them out in front.
So if you have one of those people in your group that’s maybe not a “people person”, it’s generally best to leave them behind, at at very least, mitigate their impact on the situation.
About this Episode
So the time sort of got away from here a little bit leading up to this episode, hence the fairly simple set. I had thought I’d have most of the day free on Sunday to work on the comic, but that didn’t quite work out for me.
So how pressed for time was I? Did you happen to notice those colored lines behind the store windows in the background? That’s a box of tissues I found in the upstairs bathroom. Yeah.
Discussion Question: Beating/Getting Beaten By the Elements
This weekend I packed up the family and headed to the beach for a few hours to try to beat the heat. When I got there I piled on the sunscreen and wore a hat when I wasn’t in the water. And you know what happened? (Note: the preceding isn’t the discussion question). I got burned anyway. I can’t think of a summer where I haven’t burned by face or the top of my head, so why should this summer be any different? (Neither was that one).
At any rate, today’s question is, when the corner drug store’s been overrun by zombies and you can’t get your hands on sunscreen, bug spray, or calamine lotion for that poison ivy you stumbled through while running from zeds, how are you going to keep up the good fight against Mother Nature? What can you do in order to survive the many dangers out there, from the minor issues like sunburn, on up to the really scary stuff like riptides and packs of wild dogs? In the zombie apocalypse, we won’t have the luxury of only worrying about the zombies.
“So it you have”? typo alert.
Fixed. Thank you.
well dave, i think that an effective item to have, is a trash bag, you can can carry items, sleep in it as shelter, and its even an effective poncho, (And i think that you and I had a converation about that at some point Dave.) That’s 3 in one for only $10 a bag! Heres how you order…
Trash bags are totally handy, especially if you get the heavy-gauge contractor bags. Those things are awesome.
And for you fat people who can’t get a girlfriend, theres Glad Odorbags with fabreeze
You can be fat and have a girlfriend or wife. Just look at me.
That is a cruel and unnecessary accusation. Just because it’s true for me doesn’t mean it’s true for all overweight guys.
Hah!
well i thought that you had abs Dave, besides, no one whose overweight will survive the zombie apocalypse for long, just saying
Hey! You said before you were a body builder a while back when did you get fat O.o
Sadly, I’ve always been fat. I have abs, since they’re just part of basic human anatomy, but they’re don’t have any actual definition or anything like that.
i never said i was a bodybuilder, if i was, i was being sarcastic, i’m not the fittest, or the fatest guy, but i get out a lot and do stuff, so i’m alright. I just don’t enjoy the ultra fat bastards, the ones who live on welfare their whole life, those are the guys i don’t like, basicly anyone above 325, i have a problem with
Hey. You need intelligence to survive the zed attacks too. Brain often wins over brawn, you know!
Yeah!
Regarding the discussion question, I don’t know. In a few generations time we will regain whatever general knowledge we once had about surviving without all the crutches we have right now. But aside from that I just don’t see how Humanity as it stands now could survive without technology. whether or not we have people-eating corpses to deal with is irrelevant.
hamof hamof hamof, i think that we can survive without tecnology, i remember doing my CRT’s this year at the weber state collage, well my mom gave me $5 to get something from the vending machine, well the power went out at lunch time and i hadn’t eatten breakfeast that morning, and when the power came back, the machine only took $1 at a time, i assure you, i was just fine, i even got to keep the $5! That was a great day.
What are CRTs? Cathode ray tubes?
There’s a difference between surviving without technology and surviving without a vending machine, If all infrastructure collapses (which it’s bound to do in the event of a zombie apocalypse.) the hospitals and other things that we take for granted won’t be there anymore, everything we have in the way of “crutches” today would just be gone. hell we’d even run out of guns after a while.
Yeah, we’d definitely lose a good percentage of the popular while adjusting to the change. No question about that.
LIFEGUARD TIP:after every application of sunscreen, wait a good 30 minutes before entering the water. Reapply sunscreen every 2 hours.
Where were you yesterday, Silent-sigfig?
Hah, I noticed the stripes before you mentioned the box of tissues. I thought it were ‘plates’ of Lego, posing as curtains… The box works perfect 🙂
I don’t know how I’ll protect myself…. the sun; t-shirt and a hat maybe… for the rest, I ‘ll just have to see when it comes, you can’t know everything in advance, If you have thought of 20 things that could happen to you; the 21st will really happen in my experience (with non-zombie-things 😉 )
One of the things I’d like protection for is my teeth… so I would try and get my hands on toothbrushes and toothpaste…
I was definitely going for “curtains” or something similar. Glad to see that it worked.
Good call on teeth. A good dentist will be hard to come by.
Sunscreen? We don’t need no stinking sunscreen. Stay out of the sun or endure the result. Poison ivy? Stay out of it or suffer the consequences.
My family wasn’t exactly the type to go running to the store for whatever OTC promised to “fix” a self-limiting problem. ;D
As for the more serious stuff, well, I’ve had my fair share of camping fun, so I’d say I’m a little more prepared for the wilderness than most, though hardly an expert. At least I’m not diabetic or something, and can actually survive a few days without the aid of modern society.
Campers and hikers will definitely have an easier time, so long as they’re not “RV Campers” (a contradiction in terms if even I’ve seen one), of course.
I have slept in everything from an expensive multi-person tent to nothing but a cheap sleeping bag on a bed of leaves, but I’ve never even been in an RV, let alone camped in one.
As an aside, my favorite tent is probably the old tarp military ones with no floor and usually a couple of cots to sleep on. You can almost stand up in them and unless you have to camp in one some idiot put up in a flood zone (that was very “entertaining”), the floor doesn’t matter. Not the best choice if you are scared of creepy-crawlies though.
Hmmm… I should look those things up and see how expensive they are. I don’t have any tent to speak of right now anywho. Might be nice to take one out in the woods. Haven’t camped in many years…
Huh. A quick Google search has failed to locate the type of tent I am referring to. They were heavily used by various Boy Scout camps some years back. Two man tents, olive green canvas, maybe four foot high walls, with a sloping triangle top, two cots inside… Guess I’d better call up one of the camps if I want to find these things. Can’t imagine they’d be all that expensive.
When there is a food store with ammo you always gotta make a great first impression!
Damn straight!
Well I’m not an expert by any means, but I believe if I were in an end of the world type situation I could do worse than using mud. Mud can be used as both sunscreen and insect repellant. And I know when to replace it, as it will start to flake off. Beats getting eating alive by mosquitoes or being baked in the sun.
Mud seems like a good start to me. Like you said, I’d rather be dirty than burned and eaten alive.
hey Dave, my friend Noah had a series of places to go in the apocalypse, he even had the idea of going to Lagoon (Bo totally knows what i’m talking about.) Lagoon is a great amusment park that has apparently been around since 1886. They still put in new rides though, but what do think? Is an amusment park a good place to hold up? Or is it a good place to cage up zombies?
I can’t really see the benefit to going to an amusement park. Big space to secure, lots of blinds spots/areas to hide, not much in the way of resources. Not for me.
well my brother said that some good weapons to have are some bear spray, some weed killer, a hammer, and a good knife, pretty easy to find added to survival cart
Weed killer?
weed killer can carry a lot of poison, spray it just right, and it can disolve their insides, and bear spray is just the distraction, use bear spray, weed killer, then you run away, and if its not enough, hammer ’em in the head. My rule is, don’t pull your gun out unless theres a horde.
I’d say, immediately find something to fortify, and never ever leave. Ever. Except when you need supplies or to clear the area of zeds. But that’s what teammates are for, right?
Yessir. Turtle up.
well, i think that you should stick near where everything is, the stores, the farms, and the churches, thats were you stick near. Also, if you have to barricade your house, don’t make it christmas decorations in July, baricade from the inside, then keep a car parked in the back, and your good, also have many locks on stuff.
If you’re concerned about nature & its cruel annoyances, then you can always just pre-apocalypse google these things and make it knowledge to yourself. There’s a lot of things that can be used that are rather easy to obtain that can help against the odds.
Well said, Calicade.
Pretty much along the same lines of what I was thinking.
There are plenty of populations out there today that survive fine without sunscreen, bug repellent etc. and our ancestors all survived as well. So the knowledge is there, we just need to remember/ learn it for ourselves. To me knowledge is one of the biggest parts of being prepared, so I’m constantly reading, learning and doing stuff to be prepared.
In NZ, the ozone layer above us is pretty much non existent, so if you go out unprotected in the summertime, you will burn in about 10 minutes some days. So if you want to test your apoc anti sun techniques, come for a visit 🙂
I’m glad you kept Inez alive, because I love those little extra side characters that people seem to always leave behind to die. . .
Heh, people want to see Inez go down because she is constantly being a cow to Murphy. So the poor cameraman had his tape smashed…. boohoo…. people have lost family and friends here, get over the material possession obsession or die in a zombie apoc.
I like Inez, myself.
This is a serious obsession with me. Maybe it’s my profession. Maybe it’s just that, obsession; but I am seriously into staying happy and healthy in nature. My LBE is loaded with a small bottles of bug spray, camping soap, lip balm, and a stick of sunscreen (like chap stick).
My advice is to wear sturdy boots, long sleeves, and a hat in the summer and winter. Stay hydrated. Use soap as often as possible. Change and wash your socks often. Remember you can’t run or fight if you go down to a heat injury, blisters, poison ivy, etc. When you’re at your local camping supply or army/navy store, look for travel sized DEET, sunscreen, soap, toothbrushes, etc. They’re not luxuries or “nice-to-haves”. These are vital to survival in the elements. If you get sick or even distrated you could end up dead.
Did I miss something?
Who is this guy they are after?
The owner of a small store they’re hoping they’re hoping to bring into the group, or at least get supplies from.