Moral-Flexibility.Net

You’ve decided to make a break for it (or you’ve been forced to leave your fortified shelter due to a breach or lack of supplies). You’re going to brave the zombie badlands, and seek some refuge in the relative wilderness.

What do you need?

Glad you asked, this section tries to prepare you for life on the run from the zombie hordes, as you give up the relative safety of permanent shelter, and flit from one temporary strongpoint to another.

It isn’t going to be easy, good luck!

Regardless of whether a zombie outbreak has just begun, or you’ve been bunkered for weeks, at some point you will have to leave your relatively secure location and venture out into the zombie badlands. This presents several distinct challenges as you are in danger from both the living and the undead….

Much time could be spent debating the various pros and cons of civilian and military vehicles, the bottom line here is that you do not likely have time to “Shop around”, any vehicle that functions is likely a good vehicle. You may have to change vehicles on the fly, so be sure to package your supplies in a manner that allows rapid transfer to a new ride, or by hand if you must continue on foot.

Quick and dirty rules for driving in a zombie infestation:

1. Your vehicle is a conveyance, not shelter. The moment it ceases to “convey” it loses all value. Abandon it, find another mode of transport or continue on foot.
2. If you MUST smash through a barrier or obstacle in a vehicle, do it in reverse. You are less likely to cause damage to the engine if you smash through debris backwards.
3. Flat tires limit your mobility, they do not END it. In an emergency a vehicle can be driven on rims for some distance, just beware the degredation of control and the significant change in handling characteristics.
4. Package all supplies in a manner that allows them to be carried. Improvise shoulder straps or handles that allow you the use of firearms while carrying them.
5. Acquire fuel from abandoned vehicles ONLY when the circumstances are in your favour (clear fields of vision and clear escape route).
6. Daylight is your friend.

Case Study #2:

The three of them had been hiding in the house for days, the mobile lifeless husks stumbled by the windows from time to time but for whatever reason had seemed to lose interest in them altogether. They had run out of food a few days previously, and the stagnant water they had left was almost gone.

A short conference brought unanimous consent that an escape should be attempted, and they decided that they would try to get to the car parked in the driveway at first light. They packaged their remaining water, and distributed the ammunition for the sole shotgun between them.

When dawn broke, they rushed from the house and to the car. Fighting with the keys, nervous fingers fumbling as the throaty moans from the zombies seemed to draw closer. Then, just as suddenly, they were inside the car and driving down the street.

“Where to?” Tom asked from the drivers seat, only to be met with a stunned silence from the other two. While the passengers considered the options, Tom braked the car sharply finding the major artery that crosses his sleepy residential street blocked with a solid wall of cars.

“Fuck!” Tom blurted, painfully aware that several zombies nearby were now converging on the motionless car. “Screw it!” Tom mumbled as he floored the accelerator and aimed at the point between two motionless cars.

The sound of rending metal, a sudden lurch to the right, and somewhat upward and then all was quiet. As Tom tried to clear his head he heard the blast of the shotgun coming from the backseat. Grabbing at the ignition he turned it to hear a screech coming from beneath the hood.

“It’s still running?” he hissed, as he threw the car into reverse and stomped the gas. The car lurched backwards a few feet and stopped, the engine howling. Tom frantically tried to rock the car off of whatever it was hung up on to no avail. The reports of the shotgun become more and more frequent from behind him.

The next sound caused Tom to experience an icy chill, the sound of hands beating on the cars body, frantic exclamations from the backseat as Harry tried to reload the shotgun. Jim glanced at the front passenger seat and observed that Richard was slumped against the passenger side door, which had buckled slightly in the impact and was now ajar. Even now he could see the rotting fingers of the undead pulling at the door, reaching in for Richard.

“We gotta get out of here!” screamed Tom, only to realize that it was too late, there was nowhere left to go. A scream from behind him and the shotgun fell silent, Tom pushed at the door, trying to push against the weight of the zombies, but finding hands plucking and grabbing….