Zombie Cliche Lookout: Surprise Guests
I’m not a huge zombie survival prepper myself, although I do believe in self sufficiency and preparing for the worst, but every prepper that I know has the same story. As soon as people find out that they’re preppers, they say something along the lines of “When the shit hits the fan, I’m coming to your house”. The implication being that the prepper would have no qualms about welcoming anyone and everyone into their home.
While those people wouldn’t exactly be unexpected, since they’ve clearly announced their intentions, they could certainly throw a monkey wrench into someone’s plan. Those people will likely be minor issues, compared to the truly scary and desperate people who will show up after all the easy pickings have disappeared.
About this Episode:
Welcome back to the cabin in the woods. I’ve tried to reproduce it here as faithfully as possible. It wasn’t too hard since this is a pretty simple build, but still. I did make a couple minor changes in scale, simply because I had more “log” bricks available for the rebuild than when I originally made it.
Discussion Question: Dealing with Unwanted Guests
Let’s say you do everything right. You have a plan, you have supplies, and you take timely and prudent action when the time calls for it. Things are going pretty well for you, relatively speaking. Sure, surviving the zombie apocalypse is never a cakewalk, but at least you’ve managed to set yourself up a few advantages.
So what do you do when people show up needing help? And I’m not talking about people who need a safe place to crash and a meal or two before moving on. I mean people who are going to have to stick around for the long haul, yet bring nothing of real value with them.
Well, this is a nice surprise! There are no typos! 😀 Another 100% error free tag of approval from me for Dave! He’s really getting there if he can make it error free at least once in a while! 😀
Yay me!
I find it ironic, yet apt, that Cheryl is handing Russell a monkey wrench right when Stewart brings some friends back who will likely monkey around themselves if given the chance! 😀
Hah, I even used the phrase “monkey wrench” in my comments this episode.
It’d be really funny if, before they get the chance to answer, that there’s a screech of tires and Murphy and the gang pull up on Friday’s strip and utterly chaotic dialogue ensues between all of these people! 😀
I don’t know how long exactly it’ll take Murphy and co. to get back to the log cabin but I do know that cars can travel surprisingly long distances relatively quickly. So the time for discussing new friends is going to be rather limited here! 😀
Yes indeed, Murphy, Inez, and Brent should be showing up before too long.
The smart way to do it would be to have them actually show up Friday, and have their journey back replayed at a later date in flashback. 😀
That would work.
The question of what to do with outsiders coming to your place of refuge is a tough one. James Wesley Rawles (one of the world’s preeminent survivalists) suggests laying enough by for charity, so that you can give a visitor some supplies and send them on their way. This is in line with his explicitly Christian ethics. And that makes sense, to a point, anyway. I would have to assume that you’d do that only if you were so heavily armed and fortified that you felt you could repel them when they returned for your supplies with a larger force.
My hope would be to remain under the radar for as long as possible. One has to assume that over time you will run into fewer and fewer living humans in this scenario, and hopefully eventually you can relax security a bit. But of course the nature of these things suggests that over time the people you do run into will be the toughest, and potentially the most willing to take what you have by force.
I would have to say that my goal would be to hide what I have, give them a meal “from what little we have left” and put them back on the road. Of course that depends somewhat on who they are, too.
Hey Mike, that sounds like a pretty good strategy.
Regarding Rawles, what are your thoughts on the guy? It seems like people either love him or hate him. I tried reading his site a few times, but just couldn’t get into it.
Honestly I am not a prepper, but I find prepping interesting. It’s like a puzzle challenge for me.
I think he is obviously well informed. I give him credit for being absolutely committed to his ethical stance as well. I guess my thoughts on him are that if you feel it necessary to prepare at a very deep level his site and books are probably a great resource. Personally I do not feel that need and I think he’s a bit too intense (and a good bit too proud of himself).
I read one of his novels when my father gave it to me for Christmas a few years back. I found it to be generally readable, but it reads in toto like more of a manual on survival than a book of fiction. It did hew very closely to one of the current libertarian versions of the end of America.
Okay, very interesting. Like you, I’m not a prepper but find the lifestyle extremely interesting.
Is it just an optical illusion or is that monkey wrench bigger that the LEGO figures?
It’s a pretty huge wrench.
Holy shit that pipe wrench.. Is meant for them REALLY big pipes huh?
Perhaps like the pipes in Mario Brothers?
It’s my birthday today, and I’m now the proud owner of an unissued French FE-55 respirator. Exam season is over and I’ve got 12 weeks off now 😀
I think that I’ve mentioned before what I’d do if people came by- offer them some food and send them along shortly after that.
Happy birthday!
I like that “helping people out as best I can and sending them on their way” has become the default response.
As a single mom with two daughters, I’ll go against everyone else. I wouldn’t let them in. I don’t want them to see my house, my weaponry or my pantry. Sure, I guess I could have the house set up to make us look poor and at the end of our rope, but really it would be safer to just never let them in.
Yay for different perspectives!
You make a very good point, Kim. With two young kids, that’s something I’d have to think about as well.
I have quite a few friends who, like myself, are hunters and can fish and live off the land. I know that while not doomsday folk, we all keep a well stocked pantry and a little more besides. A few of us have talked hypothetically about scenarios similar to a zombie apocalypse. Living near the Rocky Mountains we all felt that “moving to higher ground” and fortifying would be the best response.
As for the possibility of newcomers, if they are willing to give up their weapons for a meal and a day or two of rest, I think that would be a good course of action to follow. I do agree with KimJ that keeping a shabby frontage and not allowing any one in who did not comply with our requirements. Interesting and thought provoking question.
I really like how many of us here aren’t preppers, but sort of on the periphery of it. I too like to keep a good stock of things, and the knowledge to fix and build things as best I can.
I’ve got a discussion question for Dave, and it could probably have multiple topics: How do you deal with drinking types in a zombie apocalypse? We all know a lot of people like alcohol, so how would you deal with someone who is drunk and headed for the nearest zombie in some drink-driven fit of stupidity? Do you just accept the inevitable and try to help them anyway, knowing they might not be of any use once they dry out, or do you just let them go their merry way? 😀
Some good questions here; I’ll take a stab at it for tomorrow’s discussion question.
Ah the dream of living off the land and surviving on your own without the outside interfering. Of course five years later you need somethings that you just can’t create and head the the nearest large city cause the zeds are pretty much gone and their threat is very low. Behold you find the city isn’t dead and 10,000 survivors are living there and you have no currency they’ll accept or items to barter and they REALLY do not like thieves. But hay you have the life on your own.
A little sarcastic but everyone assumes from the movies that everything will fall apart and only they will survive. But World War Z (the book) showed us that a very large organized group will do much better. The Governor knew this pretty well too.