Zombie_magazine

Issue 02 – 2/25/12

Surviving without an arsenal

Body disposal Portable

solar power Why your plan suck

Zombie Training Issue 1/2012 [01]

Twitter Feed .................................................. 005 Tactics & Training ...................................... 009 Gear & Gadgets ............................................ 051 Stories .............................................................. 078 Brain Picking.................................................. 095 Events & Entertainment ........................... 119 Beginning of the End ................................. 130 Copyright Š 2012 by Zombie Training All rights reserved. This Magazine or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Published in the United States of America www.zombietraining.com

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Armed and Dangerous

By James Hovey

Firearms will be an essential part of our everyday lives in a zombie-filled world. Are you prepared? Without proper training guns can be just as dangerous to you and your fellow survivors as they are to the undead. If you are making any other preparations for survival, you owe it to yourself and fellow survivors to be armed and properly dangerous.

Safety First:

Your first priority with any weapon is to know how to handle it safely, but this is never truer than with firearms. People die each year from accidental firearm related injuries. Many more would die without the kind of proper medical care that will be hard to find after Z-Day. There are almost as many different sets of safety rules as there are gun ranges and firearm-training authors, but the essentials that follow are the core to all of them.

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Keep Gun ted In a Safe Direction.

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Treat Every Gun As If It Were Loaded.

In other words – never point the barrel of your weapon towards anything you do not want to shoot; it is that simple. Following this one rule prevents most accidental shootings.

Never assume that a weapon is unloaded, even if someone you trust tells you that it is unloaded. Until you have personally ejected the magazine and cleared the chamber a weapon is potentially dangerous.

Tactics / Training

3 Until You Are Ready To Shoot.

Do Not Touch the Trigger

If you stumble, fall, or even sneeze you might accidentally pull the trigger if your finger is wrapped around it… keep your finger outside the trigger guard at all times until you are actually prepared to squeeze it and fire your weapon.

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Look Beyond Your Target.

It is very important to know what lies past your target. No one hits every time, and even a hit zombie doesn’t make a very good bullet stop! Depending on the caliber and type of ammunition you are using it is very common for bullets to pass completely through a person and hit something (or someone) else.

Weapon Operation:

Believe it or not, there is a lot more involved in being trusted in the field with a firearm than knowing how to avoid accidentally shooting anyone. Fear, stress, adrenaline, lack of sleep, and all sorts of other variables might come into play when you actually have to use your weapons after Z-Day. It is important that the function of the weapons is muscle memory not something you need to think about to do. The best way to learn is to practice firing your weapons on a regular basis, but some of these can be practiced or learned anywhere. The details are too weapon-specific for me to go into here, so I will just touch on the basic knowledge you need to have.

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Safety Mechanism.

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Reloading.

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Shooting Stance.

If your firearm has a safety you need to understand how it works and be able to know if your weapon is ready to fire or not without having to look for indicators.

Guns without ammunition tend to be really expensive and unwieldy clubs. You need to know the magazine capacity of your weapon and be able to keep track of how many shots you have until you need to reload.

You need to be able to quickly reload your weapon in less than ideal circumstances.

There are several popular stances for firing different kinds of weapons. Find the one you are

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comfortable with and practice to make it second nature. If you haven’t thought much about stance – you should. They exist and are used by professional shooters for a reason.

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Aim and Accuracy.

Can you hit a brain-sized target at 100 feet?

50? 30? If the answer to all those questions is no… you should spend more time at the range! To be accurate you need to know how to use your weapon’s sights and you need to practice. Knowing how accurate you are is important. If you ar e definitely going to miss then don’t make noise, waste ammo, or endanger others near the target.

Malfunctions .

What happens when your gun jams or fails to fire? You need to know how to get your weapon firing again as quickly as possible.

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Ammunition Types.

00 Buckshot or 7 ½ Birdshot? JHP or FMJ? You need to know what those acronyms mean ( Jacketed Hollow Point/Full Metal Jacket), how those bullets perform, and what kind of rounds you have loaded at all times. The ammunition in your weapon affects when and where it is safe to use it.

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Cleaning.

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You need to know how to properly clean your firearms. Failure to do so will gradually affect the weapon’s reliability. Get a real cleaning kit to use now, but more importantly learn the process for when you might not have that luxury available.

Usable Ammo.

Is your shotgun 12ga or 20ga? Is your gun rated for +P ammo? Can you use .357 Magnums in your .38? I can’t answer for your guns, but my answers would be: 12ga, yes, and yes. You need to know what kind of ammo you can use. A box of incorrect shells is extra weight that might get you killed when you find you cannot reload. Pro Tip: Just because a round fits in a weapon doesn’t mean that it will fire the round or not damage the gun.

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Resources:

There are many great sources and tools for firearm training available. I urge you to take advantage of them while you have the chance. You don’t want to spend your last seconds of life wishing that you had! Here are a few I recommend:

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Local Gun Stores.

Even if you already own all the firearms you need they can be a good resource. Many gun stores have classes available for new gun owners or for concealed handgun permits. These classes are reasonably priced and cover the basics of handgun safety and operation.

They would also be happy to help you figure out what kinds of ammo are appropriate for your weapon.

2 ing Ranges.

Shoot-

Practice makes perfect and nothing else you do is better practice than actually firing your weapon. If you aren’t aware of any ranges near you or just want to try some place new check out: http://www.wheretoshoot.org/

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Snap Caps.

These practice rounds are a great way to build familiarity with your guns when you cannot get to the range as often as you should.

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Shoot to Kill Survive

By Simeon Gregory

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e all want instant gratification, now so more than ever. Everything has to be an instant kill, one shot, effortless, gloriously displayed ego boost. Why shoot at all if you’re not aiming for the head?

I’m here to tell you that realistically we do not live in a world of “one shot, one kill”, anymore. Aiming for the head is not conserving ammo if you can’t hit the thing. There comes a time when taking a higher percentage shot or not taking one at all is more practical. Even if that means the enemy doesn’t die on the spot. We can’t kill all of the zombies out there, and it’s just ridiculous to think so. Our best method relies on eluding the enemy and breaking them down.

I am in no way, shape or form saying not to take kill shots, at all.

What I am saying is to only take what shots might be beneficial to you and your group when the re-

ward outweighs the consequence.

Ask yourself if it is worth opening fire on a horde of over a dozen zombies, with only a couple rounds in the magazine and an easy escape route within reach. Is it better to sometimes wound a ghoul in the hip or leg when you don’t have time or steady hands to aim for the head shot on a quickly approaching enemy? Is it really that easy to hit a moving target under life or death circumstances?

Some of you are still asking yourself, “How do we f*cking win then?”

Well, when you’re outnumbered far beyond the ammo or weaponry you will never be able to replace, it can be wise to let time and nature battle the enemy for you. Zombies have a lifespan, they are not immortal. They will rot away, decompose, deteriorate or starve to death, depending on the type of zombie.

Tactics / Training

It’s also foreseeable and unavoidable to have situations which call for that skilled aim you have acquired, hopefully prior to the Zombie Apocalypse. Some of you will just be that damn calm and collected when faced with extreme peril and fit for delivering death to your adversary. I commend you ahead of time.

The dead truth is that most of us will be at least a little shaky in the beginning.

Our accuracy and mindset will be tested beyond what we think and currently know. I’ve been in life-or-death situations and adrenaline moments that test your resilience. I know how I respond in those conditions. I’m still not sure how my body or mind will react the first time a mangled flesh-hungry creature comes barreling towards me.

What can we do to reduce poor aim associated with adrenaline and fear?

Plan ahead and prepare your mind and body for the possibility of different scenarios. Passing mental “what-ifs” through your thoughts throughout the day or week will help keep you sharp.

Practice, so you’re able to maintain a firm grip with both hands on your firearm while taking a steady stance will be

a main factor in hitting your target. Keep both of your eyes open with situational awareness on the surroundings and enemy, because closing one eye reduces your field of vision and may cause disorientation when re-opening the closed eye, especially in the dark.

Know your limits and know each situation calls for different action. Make your shots count, not wasted. Shoot to kill is more of shoot to survive.

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Adapt or Die

By A. K. King

E

very person’s life is composed of a puzzle-piece collection that makes them who they are.

Take a moment and classify all of the many facets that define your life: where you work, where you live, where you go to school, your family, your friends, your routine activities and habits. Add in all the grand and menial choices you make each day, and the ones you have made over your lifetime… all of this and more, completes the package of your life. Our civilization is the foundation that builds our structural, imprinted existence. What do you have when you strip away an established civilization?

You have an apocalyptic environment.

In an apocalypse, everything that defines your life is gone. For every survivor, there are thousands of dead and if you are not one of them, it is likely your family and friends probably are. The only occupa-

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tion is survival. Your home is any shelter that can be regarded as ‘safe.’ The logic shadowing every choice you make and all of your daily activities is very, very basic…cheating death.

You will not have time to acclimate yourself to this new existence. You will open your eyes to find everything you have ever known, including the future you might have planned for yourself, gone. When and where the realization occurs will be your first surprise. Will you wake up in your own bed, and start your routine morning by having over-slept because the alarm clock didn’t go off? The electricity is out, and a hot shower and hot coffee are the first things you have to miss. Or will you be at your employment when the SHTF, with desperate people gathering around as remnants of an expiring society are drawn together for comfort? Instincts and quickthinking must be flawless because how you react and what you do will be your first critical steps in a harsh new reality.

Your next epiphany comes when the ample choices you used to have, significantly shrink. Exit paths, routes of escape, methods of transportation, access to resources, and even those with whom you take refuge, may be dictated by circumstances.

You may prefer to be a loner, but that may not give you the greatest advantage, and you will have to

Tactics / Training fight your personal preference for a solitary existence if you want to survive. Once upon a time, if there was an undesirable individual in your immediate environment, you had the choice to keep your distance. Those who were held with a negative esteem could be easily overlooked with some detachment: the pervert on the bus, the gossiping secretary in finance with orange lipstick, the contractor that buffs the floors while he picks his nose. Individuals that are the least desirable may become the same ones that you must rely upon in a pinch. The strength of a group will usually have an advantage over the strength of an individual and grasping this realization will help you manage better in a struggle. This knowledge is recognized even in the wild where wolves hunting in a pack are fiercer and have a greater chance of survival than the lion that hunts alone.

The crucial moments when alliances are formed and cohesive exchanges of struggle meet with shared successes will make for unlikely partners. Sometimes, the most absurd and unlikely person can be the most effective ally. A co-worker, who seemed to always have questionable hygiene and an indistinguishable, unpleasant odor shadowing their presence, might also have an advantageous black-belt. The next door neighbor who owns an annoying black lab that pooped in your yard all the time, may also own a nice arsenal and know how to use it. Or perhaps you can only make it to the small farmhouse outside of town where the weird lady that sells tomatoes lives, the one who has so many kids, you think she should live in a shoe.

She likely also has a clean well and a substantial garden in her greenhouse. The point is, you no longer have the luxury of hand-picking the company you keep or the members that make up your survival group. You must adapt to whoever may help keep you alive.

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Life will get very difficult very fast. The standards and practices of manners, communication, attitudes, beliefs, and social interactions will suddenly change. Laws within an extinct civilization will no longer exist as still living become brutal in order to stay among the living. Danger will approach from every direction, and the most valuable treasure will be anything that can assist with survival. Secure shelter as well as food and water resources will be in the highest demand. Do not make the mistake of believing that the old fashioned idea of ownership will continue beyond the old society. Your supplies, what you accumulate, and whatever you may have owned previously, will only continue to be yours until someone stronger or more armed than yourself, takes it away from you.

Analyzing just a small passage from anyone’s life today can offer a diminutive glimpse into the changes that may be faced in the future: You get up in the morning, flip a switch to turn on the light and take your time to stretch and wake up. Slowly stepping into a hot shower, you keep your eyes halfclosed, still groggy from sleep. You linger a little longer than you should, enjoying the warmth and turn the dial up on the shower faucet, just a little bit more. Continuing your morning routine, you turn on the T.V. and listen to the news while brushing your teeth, putting on fresh clothes for the day, and taking your cell phone off the charger. You smell the fresh coffee fill the air from the pre-programmed coffee maker, and you run to the kitchen to grab the first morning cup. Pouring yourself a quick bowl of cereal with fresh, cold milk, you slowly enjoy the crunchy vibration that further stimulates your senses while you think about your day ahead. Will you make it to the busy intersection of Peachtree Industrial Boulevard and McGinnis Ferry Road before the rush hour traffic sets in?

Tactics / Training Flipping a comparison segment from a survivalist’s morning in the reckoning of an apocalypse will transmogrify mediocrity into medieval: A noise outside abruptly awakens you from the nighttime, half-rest posture you fell into, and you jump up, clutching the weapon in your hand. Your eyes have not yet adjusted to the morning darkness, as the edge of something weighty smacks harshly into your foot, crunching bones in your toe. You fight the urge to scream out while tears reflexively drop down your face from the pain. With teeth clenched, you continue to slowly make your way to the peephole in the boarded up south window. The burning pain from your foot is unyielding and as much as you try to remain quiet while investigating, you are certain the pounding of your heart is loud enough to betray your stealth. You push your awareness into a strain, using every available resource in the senses to identify the disquieting sound outside. Strong gurgling starts erupting from your stomach as a reminder that it has been too long since you have eaten; and you are uncertain if it is exhaustion, anxiety or hunger that has gripped you into uncontrollable trembling. The intruding noise

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continues outside as dread takes over your fear and your hands start to sweat while you frenziedly tighten the grasp on your weapon.

Will this be the menacing encounter that rips your life from this world?

When a defining moment comes along, you must define the moment, or the moment will define you. The humdrum pedestrian life that you lived will be extinct. The world you knew, the people you knew, the life you knew, will transform into an intimidating future; and if you do not change accordingly, you will be dead. The fittest for survival will refer to a whole new type of preservation. Unlike never before will those fighting to remain alive meet with a more narrowed margin. Absolutely everything will have lethal potential, from contaminated food and water sources to each and every confrontation that comes before you.

Every road you embark upon will be outlined with the threatening stench of your ruin. Will you have the strength and aptitude to flip the switch in your brain, emerging as a survivor? “Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.�

Louis Stevenson

Zombie Brains

by Simeon Gregory

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hat exactly would most likely happen to the brain when a human turned into a deadhead?

Good question, because the brain is a complex system that not even the greatest neuroscientists in the world have fully uncovered. It only weighs 3 pounds, but is the hardest thing to figure out in the human body. We may never know exactly what all goes on inside there. If anyone tells you they know everything about it, they’re lying.

Primitive forms of brain function are seen in lower primates and human infants.

Although they haven’t developed full function, there is still activity going on. This level of thinking has various intricacies that seem simple but can be very unpredictable. If a zombie reverted back to a similar primitive form, they would be able to still recognize what is and isn’t food. This would explain why they do not attack each other, for the most part. Fighting amongst each other would not be out of the question, though. When hungry enough, a zombie might attack another zombie for control of its prey. Objects could be recognized but

nothing complex performed. For example; a gun could be picked up and even thrown, but performing action such as pulling the trigger to use the gun would not take place on a conscience level. A zombie would fight to survive and its level of violence would be unleashed with no right or wrong, just the need to feed and kill.

Removal or destruction of the medial temporal lobe, located above the ears, causes complete anterograde amnesia. Basically no new memories can be formed. Any memories before the removal will still be intact. Habits can still be formed but nothing new will be stored or remembered.

This is an interesting possibility that, when mixed with reanimation, could leave a zombie with no past or future memories.

That is if reanimation erases its past lifememory, of course. Habit-forming behavior consists of repetition and subconscious routines; it is something we do not think about when performing. This is one of the simplest forms of learning, known as habituation, a form of adaptive behavior that usually does not associate itself with reward or punishment. A zombie, without knowing what is right or wrong, can easily

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adapt this behavior. Chasing after its victim regardless of being shot at or obtaining its next meal is not thought about, just executed. Although the victim represents food and survival, it is not thought of as a reward to a zombie, but just a part of its life or existence. This could explain part of why they are not afraid of anything. The trigger for this habit is survival, which implements itself into the brain and will remain for the rest of its days.

Thalamus is the region responsible for regulating our sleep patterns. Damage to this would likely result in not being able to sleep. We do not know if zombies will sleep or not, but this would explain if they didn’t. We do know that they share the same grey and white matter in the head as us, the brain.

Although appearing to be an advantage over us in the beginning, eventually this would be their downfall. The inability to sleep would result in destruction of the body and mind to the point of death.

As lightly explored in this article, all it would take is for the virus or source of infection to damage certain parts of the brain to alter the way a zombie functions.

We already see alteration of human behavior in rabies, mad cow disease, forms of bacteria and other parasites of the human brain. We can’t predict or fully understand what will happen to the brain once infected, but we can delve into the possibilities and maybe one day better understand what we’re up against.

Simeon Gregory @zombietraining admin@zombietraining.com

Stealthy Keeps You Healthy Tactics / Training

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By Brendan Bertrand

It has its good Slikeneaking. points and its bad points, every other skill and is

quite hard to do even if you know all the little tips and tricks. The first and most simple thing to learn about sneak is the elimination process.

This involves figuring out the senses the person/thing you’re sneaking past has and eliminating them. For example, an average human has hearing, sight and smell (a zombie will most likely have these senses as well.)

We’ll start from easiest to remove then go to hardest. The easiest sense to fool would be smell, make sure you don’t stink up the place or people WILL know you’re there; if a bath/ shower isn’t an option, try looking for an object around you which can avert their senses.

Of course some deodorant wouldn’t hurt every now and then, but remember cologne or purfume, just might.

The next issue to address is sight, or visibility.

Depending on the environment, this can be the

easiest to remove, however most of the time it’ll be second. A human’s vision is based on movement and light, which means hiding in shadows and not moving will be better than trying to blend in with a tree or bush or running as fast as you can before someone sees you. Test this out with people in your house or anywhere easy to blend in. Wear quite baggy, messylooking clothes and lie down, completely still, in a poorly lit room on top of a pile of dirty clothes.

This is surprisingly effective because no one is expecting anyone to be in a pile of clothes. The best places to hide are most often ignored. Also try following someone you know in your school/ work without them noticing, hide in or behind crowds of people, and use your environment soyou are less likely to be noticed. If you can do this with humans, it may also work for zombies.

The hardest sense to alleviate will be hearing.

In your everyday life it might be hard to notice how much noise you actually make but it’s a lot, believe me. In order to remove any telltale sounds, we need to start with footwear; shoes make more sound than bare feet, but

can protect your feet from objects on the ground which may cause injuries. Footwear can also differ with the different types of ground you’re stepping on. Test all the different floors that you know with different footwear to find out which suits you. Most of you may think that going barefoot is the best option. Sure, that eliminates the kinds of noise that shoes make, but on surfaces like tiles, your feet grip and make an annoying “sticky” sound which gives away your position. Wear socks, preferably large, thick ones so that your sound is muffled as much as possible. Try practicing on any surface you can find, and experiment with bare feet, stockinged feet and different types of footwear, on each.

The second thing you need to focus on is clothing, it’s really hard trying to sneak past someone if your clothes rustle all the time. Wear tight-fitting clothes, it may make you look like a total idiot at times and I personally find them uncomfortable but think of it this way: ninjas wear tight clothes, need I say more?

This third factor is quite hard to accomplish for most people. It’s your weight. You CAN sneak around places if you’re heavier than most people but it is hard and can be a major disadvan-

tage when on wooden floors. I have no problem with this issue, as I weigh a lighter-than-average 47Kg. How to lose weight? I’m afraid I’m not your most trustworthy trainer in that topic, search for someone you know who is light and may be able to teach you a few things. Once you’ve lost weight you will probably notice that it’s much easier to walk on a creaky floor without making much noise. If losing weight is not an option, try training yourself to walk around the squeaky spots, using the outer edges of stair treads and hallways, where constant motion has not loosened the joints and fasteners.

So, as you have probably figured out already, it is quite hard to successfully sneak. I am far from a master at sneaking but I hope I have taught you even a little bit that you may have not known. The best way for you to learn, in my opinion, is to go out and teach yourself. Nobody knows your body quite like yourself so it’ll be significantly easier for you to find out what sneak techniques fit you the best. If you feel sneaking isn’t for you, try something different which might benefit your group.

There’s always room for someone who can handle themselves with a gun or melee weapon, or both.

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Domain of the Dead

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by J.M.Kautz

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he initial uprising of the Walking Dead (WD) has come and gone, a small band of survivors hide out in a grocery warehouse which has been their safe haven for several months as the world they knew crumbled around them.

Sarah, a college student, stands at the brink of making a desperate decision that so many have made before her; to step off the roof and fly to the oblivion of death to escape the horror of this dead world, when suddenly the dark wings of a helicopter answer her silent prayer for hope.

This fast paced, action-packed story is the first in a series set in a tone which is filled with the same rush of a cinematic piece; which keeps the reader turning pages to find out what happens next. The visceral rush of events drives the characters into danger, away from safety and forces them

to move forward in a way the reader can sympathize with. This is brain candy and a a quick read for those who love this genre.

However, if you are seeking a more literary book, pass this one by. The story keeps to a narrow scope, in the classic mold of George Romero’s cinematic style, that allows you to follow the action through multiple view-points of civilians, jaded soldiers, and ego-driven scientists. This leaves many of the characters appearing hollow and two dimensional when paired with the fast-paced action scenes which leave little time for insight or reflection, despite the numerous opportunities for the characters to do so. If you are looking for a character-driven story, know that this book is more plot oriented and spends more time exhibiting pulse-racing scenes of dire situations that force the characters to make split-second decisions between life and death.

Domain of the Dead stays true to many of

the movie genre tropes, such as the constant need to run and to mistrust everyone they encounter; as well as the arrogance of man who thinks that with only a little testing they can find a cure to the plague of this world. It also explores how people will sacrifice everything in an instant to escape; all of which make certain aspects of the plot predictable and almost campy.

I found twists I didn’t foresee and was hopeful about them, but they let me down and took away from the suspense of certain other scenes in the story. Some scenes left me with a hangover of wanting to know happened to the characters that suddenly dropped out of the storyline. Granted this is the first book in the series and I have high hopes for the next book, that it answers the open-ended plot holes and nail-biting cliffhangers.

Another section I was a bit disappointed with was how the author dealt with the virus of the Walking Dead and the origins. There was wonderful banter between the characters who were civilians but the medical explanation and tests to discover the origins were rather weak. Having lived with someone who has worked in a genetic lab on diseases like cancer, most of the explanations were unbelievable and jarred me out

of the story.

Overall, this book is a good example of the zombie-horror genre based on the cinematic hooks that pull most readers to this genre. What this story lacks in literary finesse and character development, it makes up in fastpaced, action-packed plot, gritty, visually-oriented action scenes and excellent writing. I would have liked to have seen more character development and more than a superficial response to some of the real loss and horror that the characters were experiencing in this story.

About the Author Iain McKinnon was born in Scotland in the early seventies. He wrote his first zombie piece in 2005 for a short film entitled Dead Walk. His second book in this series, Remains of the Dead, was voted 2011 Good Reads Choice Awards in the opening round. Currently he lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Zombie Content: 5 Entertainment Value: 6 Defense & Tactics: 5 Score: 5.3

J. M. Kautz @Ladygrail13 jmkautz@zombietraining.com

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CDC Daily Special?

Death warmed over.

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By Violet Gregory

o, the government is going to Sbecause cause the end of the world, of all the nuclear weaponry,

bio-conservation groups and American politics, right?

Now mix this with the ideas of zombie. It has now become vogue to speculate that it is the government that will bring about the end of the world. It stands to reason that a government-run CDC will create the plague of the undead. However, it seems that the CDC may not be the beginning of the problem. They just might make it worse.

Since January of 2011the CDC has actually has on it’s website a short blurb on their cite that deals with zombie lore and preparedness, but it only skims the surface of ZA possibilities. CDC.gov makes clear that “If zombies did start roaming the streets, CDC would conduct an investigation much like any other disease outbreak.” Some how I find that the CDC conducting an investigation into the outbreak, “like any other disease” not exactly comforting. It seems like the CDC’s normal responses to normal situations, like an outbreak of E. coli (as with the one in Europe in June of 2011), are not exactly the best for combating a disease that could spread and practically decimate the world. Simply

quarantining, keeping records and conducting studies just isn’t going to cut it.

The only upside to the CDC’s campaign is that it has prompted other government agencies to consider preparing themselves for the ZA via mock exercises.

One of these exercises happened in October of 2011, in Delaware County, Ohio. It has been reported that “The mock zombocalypse is being organized by the Delaware County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management…First responders will have approximately 2 hours to effectively deal with the hazardous chemical spill that is creating the zombies, as well as assist zombie victims through the decontamination process that will bring them back to normal.” This is an admirable effort but sadly, it will fall short.

With a virus that is as aggressive as this zombie epidemic will be and has so many means of transmission—from zombie bites to inhalation of the virus via the ash of burning zombie bodies—simply containing and quarantining people and studying the effects of the disease will not be an effective tactic. This passive approach also advises people to remain in their homes and only leave if they can travel to one of the CDC “safe locations”.

With an institution full of people that study and at-

tempt to control infectious diseases and pathogens, it seems that there would be a more aggressive and stable procedure in handling some of the most dangerous threats to the populus. The CDC’s regular operating procedure will cause panic and hysteria.

The mere containment of the virus and attempting to find a cure will not be an active enough approach. This will actually make things worse because of the massive bureaucracy and slow response of the CDC’s flow of aid and resources.

While the idea of the CDC working to prevent and respond to the ZA is a wise idea, in the end it will not be realistic; the institution (and its practices, as they now stand) will not be able contain the virus and ultimately will make things worse for the people. The best way to be protected is to prepare today for the outbreak that will forever alter mankind.

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Cardio in the ZA: Josh(?)

we all know “rule #1 of the Zombie AsApocalypse is cardio”.

If you aren’t prepared to run long distances at an intense pace, your survival could hinge more on luck than you would be comfortable with. However, if you do find that you survive the initial meltdown, you could face some unique challenges in getting your cardio up to speed (no pun intended). In the Zombie Apocalypse, going for an evening jog around the neighborhood could turn into a run-foryour-life scenario. So I’m here to teach you a few things that you can do indoors to not only keep your heart racing with out zombie interaction, but also help you run faster, longer.

One of the best forms of cardio is also one of the easiest things to do indoors, and all you need is a piece of 550 para cord and two sticks, unless you happen to already have a jump-rope on hand.

Jumping rope is easy, quiet, and highly efficient. Not only will it improve your cardiovascular health and stamina, but it will also improve your coordination, which in the ZA, could easily be the difference between life and re-animation. I’m sure we all know how to jump rope so I’m going to skip the step-by-step instruction and delve into a few routines.

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Tactics / Training The simplest routine is to just jump rope at a constant pace for a given period of time. You can start off at 3 or 4 sets of three minutes each, and then gradually increase your time as you see fit.

Another routine is much more effective at burning off some unwanted fat and getting you into running shape much faster. It is called High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT for short. You would do about 30 -60 seconds of a slow, consistent pace and then another 6090 seconds at a very fast and intense pace. This rapid increase not only primes your fast-twitch muscle fibers for a sudden burst of energy, but also breaks them down faster and makes the heart rateincrease. Trust me, when you’re running from a pack of zombies, you’re going to want a strong heart.

Another form of cardio-conditioning that could prove invaluable are called “burpees”. These are a compound workout that will target a few areas, as well as get your heart racing. You start by standing up with your hands at your side, then jump back and fall forward, (like you are sprawling out) to land in push-up position; then complete a push up and jump back up to the starting

position. This involves much of the body and will prime your coordination.

A good routine for these would be to complete about 20 burpees per set, for about 3 or 4 sets.

If your house has stairs, you will find that a very good workout would be to simply sprint up and down your stairs as many times as possible. To increase the difficulty of this, leave a jump rope at the top and sprint up, do 3 minutes of HIIT jump-roping; then run back down and complete 15 burpees. Do this three times and you will be pretty worn out.

If you do not have stairs you could do “suicides”, which involve sprinting from one side of the room to the other; stopping in intervals to run back to the other side, gradually increasing the distance at which you run to and back from.

Of course you should proceed with working out and tiring yourself with caution, because nothing would suck worse than finishing your workout and finding that zombies have discovered your location…and you need to flee. So exercise good judgment when choosing an appropriate time to tire yourself out, if almost everything outside of your door is trying to eat you!

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Holed Up with a Shotgun

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By Bob Hoss

Y

ou have a place designated to hole up in during the Zombie Apocalypse.

You have enough food and other supplies to last you until either the cavalry arrives, or the zombies die of starvation. What happens when your infected neighbors come knocking on your door to borrow a cup of brains? You need the correct tool for the job. I am a big proponent of “the gun fitting the shooter�. There are plusses and minuses for using any firearm for defense. In my opinion the deciding factor in firearm choice should be what is comfortable for the shooter. This article will explain some good reasons to choose a shotgun.

We must first address some misconceptions about shotguns.

Tactics / Training One of the most common ones is that the shotgun-blast will protect you behind a veritable wall of lead. Across a room, a .00 buckshot will have a pattern the size of a softball; across the house maybe the size of a basketball. Another misconception is that you don’t have to aim. Contrary to popular belief, you can miss the side of a barn with a shotgun.

Although multiple projectiles increase your chances of a vital hit, with any firearm it takes practice, practice, and more practice to consistently hit your target.

No matter how many video games you have played, a shotgun will not blow the head off a zombie.

What is the best choice of shotgun gauge? Gauge is defined as the interior diameter of a shotgun barrel as determined by the number of lead balls of a size exactly fitting the barrel that are required to make one pound. The main thing to remember is that the bigger the number, the smaller the projectiles the gun will be shooting. Again, this all boils down to what you are comfortable with using. If you get a ten gauge and it has too much recoil for your comfort, then you aren’t going to practice with it.

A twenty gauge is more effective for a smaller-framed person if it is what they

are comfortable with. Twelve gauge is the most popular in the United States, and therefore has more available choices for ammo.

What about the barrel? The barrel should be small enough to maneuver around your make-shift bunker. The legal minimum length in the United States is eighteen inches, but once the Zombie Apocalypse hits, feel free to say “fuck you” to Uncle Sam’s guidelines, if you want. A barrel of even eighteen inches will limit the size of magazine extension you can add to a pump shotgun. A magazine extention is a tube that can be added to increase the number of rounds that a shotgun can hold. I prefer to lose a little maneuverability to gain more shots before reload. The bore of a shotgun barrel is changed by chokes.The smaller the choke, the tighter the pattern is when it exits the barrel. Most fighting shotgun barrels come in cylinder bore, but if you want, you can use improved cylinder or modified to tighten your pattern.

What type of “action” should your zombie-killing shotgun have? The action of a gun is how the cartridge is cycled into the chamber to ready it for firing. I would not advise using a single shot or double-barreled shotgun for defense

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against zombies. A good pump-action is affordable and the most customizable, but don’t pick it because of the sound it makes when chambering a round…a zombie will not shit his pants at the sound of a shotgun racking, like other household intruders might. A high quality and properly maintained semi-automatic can be just as reliable as any pump. A semi-auto has the added benefit of lessening the recoil a bit, because some of that energy is used to chamber the next round.

When picking out a zombie-killing shotgun, remember to pick out one that you are comfortable with. Shoot your friends’ or others’guns, to find out what gauge feels right to you. Try out different sized stocks to see which one is a comfortable fit. The stock is the part of the shotgun that presses into your shoulder when firing the gun, so be sure that it is sized appropriately for you. Above all else, the most important thing about any gun is the shooter. You must practice often in order to make your shotgun effective for zombie defense. A comfortable shotgun that you are familiar with shooting will go a long way towards defending you and your loved ones in any place you decide to hole up.

QuikClot Advance Clotting Sponge

by TS Alan

O

ne of the most important items you should have with you for Everyday Carry (EDC) is an emergency medical kit.

Most EDC kits are under stocked or not thought out properly. Sure you may carry a few bandages with an antiseptic spray and an antibacterial ointment, but if that is all you carry then you are overwhelmingly unprepared.

Accidents happen everywhere: home, office, while traveling via car, bicycle, or any other mode of transportation.

They can occur when you’re out for a hike in the woods or the urban jungle, or simply walking down a sidewalk. An unplanned and unfortunate event that results in serious injury can happen any place and at anytime. That is why they are called accidents, not on-purposes.

With that in mind you should be prepared for most any accident, espe-

cially under conditions where medical assistance may be slow in arriving or non-existent.

A proper EDC kit, or any medical kit, should contain a proper absorbent haemostatic agent to temporarily stem the flow of blood from a moderate to severe wound.This allows you time to find more advanced care, to wait for medical treatment to arrive or to aid you in saving your own life when there is no one left to help (don’t forget to practice your suturing skills). There are several brands of traumatic wound treatment on the market, but the most recognized brand name is QuikClot, mainly because it is based on the same QuikClot haemostatic agent (first generation) originally used by the US military, federal agencies, EMS, police and fire departments.

Adventure Medical Kits, a subsidy of ZMedica Corporation, makes a product line for non-professional medical use.

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Tactics / Training Their QuikClot Sports Pack series is marketed towards the active-minded individual. It offers two varieties, Sport or Sport Silver; with a choice of a 25g mesh bag of QuikClot or a 50g mesh bag for larger wounds, respectively. They call their mesh pouch an “Advanced Clotting Sponge”. With the Sport Silver, “there is an added antibacterial advantage of ionic silver,” that prevents growth of bacteria and fungi. The sport packs are bare bones, what you get is just the clotting sponge. For our review we purchased, instead, the Trauma Pack.

The Trauma Pack is listed on their website, not under the QuikClot heading, but under “medical kits”, because it is a medical kit rather than a simple sports pack. Sealed inside the 6x6x1.5” air-tight pouch are: QuikClot trauma pads, sterile gauze, wraps and duct tape to secure dressings or improvise a seal for a sucking chest wound, non-latex gloves, a bio-hazard disposal bag and an instructional sheet with information on how to quickly diagnose and treat wounds. Add one of these trauma packs to what you already carry and you should be prepared for most life-

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threatening wounds.

Many consumers have complained that their QuikClot arrived in a hardened state.

This is not how the sponge should arrive.

It is meant to be flexible. If it is hard, then the air-tight pouch has been compromised and you should return it for an exchange.

Ours arrived in its proper state.

There have also been reports that QuikClot burns. All QuikClot over-the-counter products are made with a natural mineral called zeolite. The mesh bag “sponge” contains the non-hydrated mineral in granulated form, which can cause exothermic reactions if not used properly (like packing the granules inside the wound).

There are several professional product lines parent company Z-Medica produces.

The First Responder and the Combat line are restricted to trained medical professionals only. The Combat line is also the only haemostatic agent used by all branches of the US Military for treatment of severe hemorrhage. There is also one major difference between the professional products for licensed healthcare practioners and the over-the-counter consumer products. Where the consumer product is made from non-hydrated zeolite, the combat and first responder series use a naturally-occurring inert mineral

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called kaolin. The active ingredient, kaolin is bonded to the surface of nonwoven polyester/rayon gauze and does not cause burning.

You can purchase the first responder and combat line if you do your research, without having to prove you’re a medical professional. But be aware that both lines tend to be expensive and for most purposes the QuikClot sponges will be effective for temporarily stopping moderate to severe bleeding until further medical help is available. However, if you are preparing for the worst, a doomsday scenario where medical treatment may not exist, then I highly recommend purchasing the combat line.

If you are budget-minded and desire an over the counter product that won’t burn, then an alternate to QuikClot is Celox. Celox is made with chitosan, a natural polysaccharide that is not known to burn, and any residuals left in the body are naturally metabolized. It is currently being used by the UK Ministry of Defense and has been deployed to Afghanistan. It is also used for veterinary applications on cats, birds, dogs, horses and even elephants.

TS Alan @TSAlan1 tsalan@zombietraining.com

Just remember, whatever you decide, think smart, shop wisely, stay vigilant and be safe.

46 Alternate Armor: When you insist on Protection over Mobility Tactics / Training

by TS Alan In the last issue I discussed the pros and cons of wearing full-body armor along with your bug-out bag, weapons and other gear you will be carrying when you are fleeing a zombie apocalypse. Using the low-end of the weight scale of what an Army Ranger candidate would be equipped with on their backs for training (65-90 lbs.), plus weapons and tools worn, your load-bearing weight was approximately 83 lbs. Adding head-t- ankle body armor, including a ballistic helmet, full face mask, fully equipped outer tactical vest with all its components, along with a collar and groin protectors, elbow pads and shin/knee guards) the load-bearing weight came out to be approximately 125 lbs.

With all the weight it will be extremely difficult for even a highly trained military troop to flee quickly from any living or undead threat, except perhaps the most degraded living corpse who can barely propel itself forward. My conclusion was that all the gear that is supposed to protect you will instead harm you by limiting your mobility, and potentially bring about your demise.

While I don’t totally disagree that body armor can protect you; my issues are with the functionality and prohibitive weight. I knew there would be some hardcore survivalists that would disagree with my assessment and feel that head-to-toe body armor is essential to prevent being bitten, infected from splatter during a melee, and/or ballistic threats from hostile survivors.

It doesn’t take a great deal of bite force to puncture the skin. Approximately 10-15% of human bite-wounds become infected. Saliva

Tactics / Training contains as many as 100,000,000 organisms per milliliter, representing as many as 190 different species. However, there is only one type of bite-wound to be concerned about, the kind that can only be treated by a bullet to the head. Let’s face it; the undead will be more of a threat, especially during an initial breakout, than a band of marauders trying to steal your gear or do you bodily harm. So for those of you, who have voiced your endorsement for full armament, let me offer you these alternatives to that heavy load: Ballistic Helmet; 2.98 pounds (large): Ballistic helmets are made for protection against fragmentations, not direct gunfire. Try a bike/skate helmet with tough aero-styled ABS shell, usually weighs less than a pound.

Full Face Mask; 1 lb: Instead of an Airsoft goggle-system face mask, try a neoprene half face mask or neofleece combo scarf. It can be used not only to

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protect you from blood splatter but from the dashing winds and extreme cold. Couple it with a pair of Airsoft or ATV vented, anti-fog frame goggles and you’ll have full-face, head, and neck protection from the most fierce winter storm and zombie blood splatter.

Weight is less than 14 ounces with goggles.

Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV) with all its components (front, back & side ballistic plates with collar and groin protectors; 30-35 lbs: Unless you’re going to be in a fire fight and exchanging automatic weapons fire from all sides, skip the heavy tactical vest. Remember it’s bites you should be concerned with, so try an upper-body suit used by motocross or pro-bikers. You’ll want to purchase a suit with: Armor made of high-impact injectionmolded plastic (co-polymer).

Protectors on elbows, forearms, shoulder, chest, and spine guards with tail bone protector; sewn onto light-weight durable, stretchable, mesh fabric.

Perforated E.V.A rubber padding under all the parts for maximum air flow.

Tactics / Training Removable shoulder guards.

Adjustable shoulder and forearm straps. So that you could adjust the position of armor around the chest and elbow.

If you still insist on having ballistic-threat protection, you will need to decide if you need/want protection from pistol threats or rifle threats. Soft, 100% woven pAramid vests stop pistol and fragmentation threats, but it takes a rigid rifle plate to stop a rifle bullet, and this is where weight comes into play. Even a DoD-issued IOTV does not protect against heavy .44 Magnum ammunition and it is only designed to stop up to three hits from 7.62x51mm NATO M80 ball ammunition (M14, M16 and AK-47 rounds). So that heavy military vest you think will protect you against all ballistic threats, won’t.

For handgun protection it is important to know that Level II-A, Level II and Level III-A all stop the overwhelming majority of pistol projectiles you are ever likely to encounter (plus 12 gauge, OO buckshot).

Level II are often worn by police officers. It is a great balance between blunt trauma protection, versus cost, and thickness, conceal-ability and comfort. Level III-A is a little thicker, heavier and stiffer, but will stop more of the uncommon pistol threats, such as 9mm sub-machine-gun and .44 Magnum rounds. Weight is 3 to 5 lbs. depending on level and size.

Elbow Pads; 1 lb: Avoid this purchase by buying an integrated upper-body suit. Weight 0.

Shin/knee Guards; 2-4 lbs depending on type: There’s no need or reason to go out and buy expensive and lessthan-lightweight motocross/motorcycle leg armor. You should be wearing a good pair of boots that will protect your ankles and lower shins. Besides, if you got anklebiters grabbing at your feet or if you’re on the ground worrying about your kneecaps being chewed off, then you’re in serious trouble, the kind of trouble that you won’t recover from. Forget the knee guards, they can inhibit mobility. Weight 0.

Gloves, 2 ounces: The thicker the glove, the less easy it will be to pull the trigger on your weapon. Find a pair that won’t limit dexterity while maximizing protection.

Weight, 2 ounces.

Clothing: When choosing your under-armor garments you will need to take into consideration movement, overall bulk, weight, weather conditions, ability to be maintained and washed, durability and protection. Leather and neoprene are excellent bite inhibitors, but retain heat and can lead to dehydration, especially neoprene. I would go with 5.11 Tactical TDU pants and a 5.11 Tactical TDU shirt. It made of polyester and cotton, which makes it lightweight, breathable, durable and washable.

With my recommendations you can trim your body armor down from approximately 44 lbs to

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less than 6 lbs while still maintaining center-mass ballistic protection. For those who are looking for more simplicity while still achieving maximum protection, you may want to consider a Xelement men’s black and gray Level-3 Armored Jacket with removable arm sleeves, paired with their advanced Level-3 black and silver leather-trimmed Tri-Tex™ fabric Motorcycle Pants. The outerwear is lighter weight, less bulky and provides highest CE Approved Protection over traditional motorcycle jackets, and has an ergonomic design with higher impact absorption while still allowing free movement. Pants and jacket combination weigh less than 18 pounds.

For the diehards out there who still want to suit up from head to toe, there is a modular system that may meet your needs: It is called The FX-1 FlexForce Modular Hard Shell Crowd Control System, made by Damascus Protective Gear, for high-threat-level riot control. It is a non-ballistic modular hard shell system that covers most of your body. The suit is lightweight and ranks highest in easy to put on or take off in a moment’s notice. The modular flex design allows for all shapes and sizes to fit comfortably without sacrificing much-needed mobility. For extra protection you can add-on a thigh/groin protector and forearms protectors from their Imperial line. Be aware it doesn’t come cheap; it’s around $700 without the add-ons.

Just remember, whatever you decide, think smart, shop wisely, stay vigilant and be safe.

TS Alan @TSAlan1 tsalan@zombietraining.com

Back2Basics

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by Casey Rostorfer

Part 2

Shelter: Ok, you have your life sustaining fire. Things are looking good at the moment; as good as they can during the end of civilization, anyway. And, just like that, Mother Nature decides to betray you once again, as the heavens open up and rain begins to fall. You need to protect your fire and keep your wood dry at all costs. This brings us to our second basic need, shelter.

Everyone’s zombie situation is going to be different, so there will be no one set way to define shelter. You could be in a fortified house structure, the top floor of a high rise, roughing it in the wilderness, or camping in your modified RV (the latter being my personal choice). Shelter is another situation where a little preparation beforehand will pay off immensely. If you have to leave what you consider to be your permanent home base, due to fire or being overrun by a horde of your undead former neighbors and townsfolk, don’t leave empty-handed or unprepared. You are going to have to think quickly and use your environment to your advantage.

Prepared soldiers will have already obtained

lightweight, portable camping gear like pop up tents, tarps, ponchos, duct tape, and possibly, the most useful “roughing it” tool of all, the Swiss Army Knife. By choosing your area to camp wisely, and with just those few items, you can construct a temporary shelter to protect you (and your firewood) from the elements, quickly and efficiently.

Take a moment to decide which direction the rain and wind are blowing in from. If you have chosen to set up camp in an area with trees, unbutton/unzip your poncho or spread your tarp; then, using the duct tape you were smart enough to bring, secure the plastic across the top (of your item) to the two closest trees. Use other components of your gear to anchor the bottom of the plastic, making a wall, so that the wind cannot blow through. If you are not fortunate enough to be in an area with natural anchors, like trees, build a barrier from the elements for yourself using whatever materials you can find. Car parts, animal hides, garbage, anything can get your hands on to stack against

Tactics / Training the wind and water and keep your fire going and yourself fairly dry.

Traditional debris huts have been used by survivalists for years and, while simplistic, offer excellent protection against the elements if properly constructed.

Debris huts also have the advantage of needing no special tools to construct. Those of you who have had to escape but nothing with the clothes on your back will benefit greatly from this structure. Think of your debris hut as a giant, water-resistant sleeping bag.

Begin by locating a downed tree limb (or cut one yourself), that will support your bracing tree limb which will be the back bone of your structure. Next, find a decent sized tree stump, or crook of tree to support your limb. In terms of size, you want to only build your structure large enough to fit yourself and six inches of debris on each side that will serve as insulation.

Gather smaller sticks that will act as supporting walls to your hut and stack them along the sides of your shelter, placing them 2-3 inches apart. Cover the structure in leafy branches. If wind is an issue, lay heavier sticks over your leafy debris to keep it in place. Use your driest debris closest to you on the inside of the hut, and lay it on the ground underneath where you will lay to insulate you from the ground temperature, as well as the air. Stuff more of the driest debris around you in your hut to insulate your body heat.

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In terms of shelter, do not underestimate the importance of sheltering your skin and body from the elements.

Dressing in layers is of the utmost importance if you are on the run. Leaving home-base in a sweater and jeans on a cool morning may seem like an appropriate choice, but once the afternoon sun begins to bake you, you run the risk of heat stroke and dehydration. If you choose to strip all your clothes off and run around in your birthday suit, you leave your exposed skin open to sunburn, scratches and cuts from the environment. One bad cut that becomes infected can equal death in a world with no doctors, hospitals, or medications. Severe sunburn will not only dehydrate you, but inhibit your ability to move comfortably and quickly.

As well as protecting your skin, you must protect your feet. Comfortable, broken-in, sturdy boots are the shoe attire of choice during a zombie apocalypse; but in a pinch, your comfortable running shoes will do as well.

You need to be able to move fast when needed, through a multitude of environmental factors. Take breaks whenever safe and air out those tootsies; keep those boots and shoes as dry as possible in order to avoid fungal infections and skin rot. A limping, whimpering sun-fried human with gangrenous foot rot will be considered a zombie delicacy of the highest caliber.

Casey Rostorfer @caseykassidy caseyrostorfer@zombietraining.com

Survival of the Fittest

by A. K. King

Part II

Health Making my weekly visit to the local grocery store is never taken for granted.

I always look forward to examining the latest fresh fruits of the season, smelling the freshly baked bread in the bakery, and choosing from the plethora of consumables. These supplies will cease to be renewed with the progression of unfolding volatile events. Freshly stocked produce will decay into moldy pools of goo and it will be no more edible than the soured dairy or the rotting remains encased in the deli. Perhaps, you are one of those with a preference for the more synthetic types of foods. Maybe your favorite grocery aisle should be labeled ‘Keebler.’ There are people who find a breakfast consisting of Coca Cola and Pop-tarts as perfectly normal. When the biological sensation of hunger strikes, their first response is to run to Wendy’s for a ‘Baconator.’ The average idea of a snack for many of these folks involves

a bag of Cheetos and a Dr. Pepper (or two) and although these types of foods will not expire as quickly as the fresher varieties, the days of manufactured food will be gone, and you will be left to deal with an encumbered biological machine.

Taco Bell will no longer be able to give you a Beefy Burrito fix, and if the contents within your stomach generally consist of MSG, corn syrup and hydrogenated soybean oil, you WILL go through withdrawals of one form or another.

There is a growing body of evidence proving that fats and simple sugars can act on the brain in the same way as nicotine and heroin. How effective will you be during the most dangerous portion of the encroaching chaos when headaches and cravings set in? How much risk would you be willing to accept at that point, for a few twelvepacks of Mountain Dew from the gas station down the street? Will your senses

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Tactics / Training be sharp and your thoughts keen after three or four days without your beloved caffeine product?

If the nutritional fare you tend to consume is more processed and artificial than an E! Channel reality show, maybe it is time for a healthy reassessment of yourself. Preparation needs to begin with what fuels your system and the habits you create. Making a few smart choices now, can help you make smarter choices in the future. Markets are overloaded with bacon-flavored, extra-cheesy, extra-creamy, extraflavored crap that we happily buy up and exist on.

Growing up with orange-flavored juice and French fries starts the addictive behaviors and we impound them with years of grabbing a sweet beverage rather than plain water. Some people have gone so far as to call soda the new tobacco, with the average person consuming nearly 50 gallons of the stuff a year. No matter whether you prefer Coke, Pepsi, Diet Whatever, or Sweet-Tooth Juice, your choice will be made for you in the future when you jump for joy just to find H2O that is ‘mostly’ ok to drink.

This is not rocket science, and you do not need to be a member of some elitist, tree-hugging, organicnutrition diet club to know right from wrong in keeping your systems healthy and optimally performing.

You know what happens when you put bad fuel in your car. The biological vehicle is not much different. If you expect your muscles and cardiovascular system to perform the extraordinary tasks that will grant you the status of survivor, start thinking

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about small positive changes you can make in your dietary habits.

There is no need to believe that one must become the portrait of dining perfection. Moderation and common sense are your allies. When you go to the grocery store to stock up, be aware of what you are putting in your cart and start making one or two small healthy exchanges. Treat the fast food chains like old friends that you visit once in a while, savoring the experience.

It is ok to moderately enjoy some KFC while the opportunity is here, but in the meantime, don’t forget how to boil a pot of beans. There is no way to predict what you may have to exist on in the future. Start getting your machine healthy now to prepare it for what you may have to endure later.

Being aware of your weaknesses can only help you.

The next time you feel the urge to grab an icy cold, sugary beverage from the fridge, experiment some self-will on yourself, and try a simple glass of roomtemperature water, instead. The next time your stomach is urging to be fed, and the cravings for a Big Mac are so bad you would trade your soul for a bite of that salty-meat-ketchup-bread concoction, step away from the car. Go back to the kitchen and eat a handful of nuts as a replacement. Satisfied?

Welcome to the jungle baby.

A. K. King @Malapheece akking@zombietraining.com

Michael Rooker

/ Tactics /Tactics Training Training

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by Simeon Gregory

I recently got a chance to talk zombies and have a few laughs with Michael Rooker, who plays Merle Dixon on The Walking Dead. Wrote an interview about it, like to read it? Here it goes.

Note: If you don’t like spoilers, you might want to look away on a few questions. Specifically the one asking if Merle is returning or not.

ZT: We’re going to jump out of the gate talking zombies. How would you rate your level of preparation for the ZA if it happened today? From 1 to 10, with 1 being a comatose paraplegic, and 10 being a master survivalist.

Mike: I'd be a ten.

ZT: Would you say more mentally or stockpile prepared?

Mike: I'm completely well rounded, I have everything I need. Mental preparation, food, water, weapons of choice. Whatever I need I got. [laughs] ZT: That's good! [laughs] I try to prepare for any disaster. But zombies just make it a little more fun. I think the biggest problem would be mass-hysteria and panic, which would be our biggest enemy.

Mike: Yep. [both laughing] Some people would be freaking out [mass hysteria] and some people would be having a good old time.

ZT: Is it true that you announced your involvement in The Walking Dead originally on Twitter?

Mike: I tweeted it, and the people from The Walking Dead tweeted it as well, and then of course it was on magazines. The original information got out via twitter.

ZT: How did you find out you got the part as Merle?

Mike: Oh I knew I had the part before anyway. Once I was able to chat with Gale [Anne Hurd], Frank [Darabont], and the cast. That usually happens

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ZT: Was there anything that surprised you when filming that they ended up changing?

behind the scenes. They already knew my work, so they basically gave me the role.

ZT: I’m actually a huge fan of Gale and her work. So I was even more excited about The Walking Dead.

Mike: Yeah, she’s a great producer.

ZT: I know they keep things pretty secretive, even to cast members. Have you had anything that surprised you and you did not see it coming?

Mike: In the script, you mean or as far as on a separate day of shooting? They pretty much just lay everything out ahead of time.

Mike: Things changing on the day is usually because of certain things, something not working out, or the location is not working out, or the line. You know things like that, you tweak a little bit sometimes you have to change a little bit. But usually with AMC the script is pretty accurate. So when you read the script you can envision and have an idea of what it’s going to be like mostly. Little Changes but not drastic change.

ZT: If they haven’t told you if you’re coming back yet, as a person or a zombie, can you share your thoughts on what you believe will happen with Merle?

Mike: Merle is definitely coming back, so you'll be seeing more. But beyond that I can't or at liberty to say or give out any type of events or information to you. I'm sorry. I don't know if you would want to know anyways, everybody says they want to know but in reality they want to be surprised. So really they don't want to know.

Tactics / Training ZT: I actually agree with that, I like to be surprised. I like the way the show doesn’t stick to the novel or else it would be boring and predictable.

ZT: Did anyone make a pass at you or try to take advantage of you while handcuffed?

Mike: Oh yeah, from the beginning of The Walking Dead they decided not to stick to the graphic novel. There are characters that are not in the novel. Several of us were not and several have developed on the show. I enjoy that we don't stick to the graphic novel.

Mike: No,.. no... nobody got me.

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ZT: I want to ask you about the rooftop scene in the beginning of season 1. I’ve heard about it being close to ‘hell on earth’ temperature wise. What did you think and how long were you handcuffed up there?

Mike: Oh yeah, it was pretty bad, about 110-115 degrees. It was really bad shooting. Once we did the original scene and when I appeared, there was about a half a day of shooting. Maybe one day without the handcuffs and the rest of the week was shot in the first episode that I was in. I was on the rooftop every day and I was in handcuffs for the rest of the episode. Then the next episode I had a monologue and that four minute monologue I was on the rooftop for another half day.

ZT: IronE Singleton [T-Dog] is an Atlanta-native and he even said that it was pretty bad up there.

Mike: Oh yeah dude, couple of the actors were getting all burnt. The weather was really messed up, you are getting heat from the sun radiating down on you and it's bouncing off the rooftop. Crazy situation.

ZT: Were there any jokesters on the set at that time or anyone play any pranks that you can think of?

Mike: We all tried to keep everything a little fun, I mean I joke around a little bit and I think other people do a little bit too. Sometimes you have to; you are there for 10-12 hours a day. It’s fun you have a good time doing it.

ZT: I heard that Atlanta SWAT responded or was called to the rooftop scene. What was the story on that?

Mike: They were rolling on the way and people had seen me walking across the rooftop from down below with the rifle, so they called the police. So they were rolling on the scene and our local representative told them what was going on. I'm very happy and lucky they didn't show up and decided to take me down. [laughs] That would have been a bad day for me. [laughs again]

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ZT: That would have ruined things just a little bit.

Mike: Oh my god, crazy.

ZT: Tension was high and emotions were played out between Merle and T-Dog. Rick had a good hand in that as well. What are your thoughts about what happened?

Mike: Personally, it's a good day when everybody walks away unhurt and with no scrapes or scratches. So we all did our job, no real human beings got hurt in that scene. So that’s always a good thing.

ZT: What type of revenge (if any) do you think will occur from that incident, when Merle shows back up?

Mike: Hard to say, hard to say what the writer is thinking and stuff..... The ball is rolling down the hill. There are always things that can change, because the dominos stop rolling - the ball goes one direction and maybe another so we will see what happens. Whatever happens is going to be very exciting and interesting. So I'm hoping there’s going to be justice, and challenging, and from the stuff that I've done I'm sure it will be. I'm not sure what's going to happen, hopefully I get to see the script pretty soon, because the writers will be writing away... and getting stuff ready for us to shoot for the next season and stuff. So yeah, they are busy down there in their busy cubbyhole writing away. We will see.

ZT: Yeah, that will definitely be interesting, and I'm interested to see what happens with Merle’s brother. Daryl has had a rough time integrating within the group. Some could say that he has found his place within it though. He also seems to try and hide the fact that he likes the idea of being part of the team.

Mike: He is very fun; he's conflicting and has a lot going on. In one scene with him, he is delusional about what's going on in his brain, trying to figure out if he is really truly part of that group. Especially the way he would like to be. I'm sure as you can tell, he has his doubts. Those doubts are played, and now he is tired of listening

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to the decisions that they make. He is not a follower. We grew up pretty much raising ourselves and on our own, someone like that is really hard to integrate.

do anything to survive. So if he had to cut off his hand, I don't think having one of his hands cut off will affect him, but we shall see.

ZT: He is definitely a survivor, that's what makes the character, and that's what I like about him.

Mike: That’s right, that’s right.

Mike: Well of course he is a survivor. He is putting everything into action that Merle has taught him over the years.

ZT: Is it fair to say that Daryl would instantly jump on ship with Merle when he comes back?

Mike: I don't know. I have no idea what he would do or what’s going to happen. It's just going to be a lot of fun to watch it being played out, I'm sure. People are expecting things to happen and maybe they will get what they expect, or maybe get something completely different. I think it's kind of fun how folks speculate a lot about these types of shows and are sometimes dead on correct and sometimes totally different. It'll be a HELL of a good time no matter what happens.

ZT: One could say a lost hand is better than a lost foot in the zombie apocalypse.

It would still be hard to defend yourself, especially if it was your main hand, but at least you could run from the zombies. Have you thought about some of the survival handicaps that go along with this?

Mike: I don't think there is any handicap, especially with Merle, with a lost hand. He is half bleeding out with a lost hand and made it. I don't think a lost hand is a handicap....it all depends how much fight is in the dog. You could be whoever, the old time saying is it's the size of the fight in the dog, and what you're doing to survive.

From what you can tell Merle has already demonstrated that he'll

ZT: Adapt or die.

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ZT: If hordes of the undead appeared everywhere; would you rather be caught with your pants down in a public restroom or in your car during rush hour traffic?

Mike: Being that it’s a public restroom, I think caught behind my car door [laughs], opposed to being out in public with a swinging door bathroom. You can always somehow use a car as a tool and deadly if used properly. Just me and my pants down in a public bathroom, not so much. I don't know you would have to be a quick runner and it's interesting. I’d rather have my V8 engine and have the opportunity to possibly drive away.

ZT: Yeah, both are deadly, but they usually only have one entrance or exit to a public bathroom.

Mike: That’s right.

ZT: Your weapon of choice for the ZA?

Mike: I would go with some sort of assault rifle [AR-15] with several extended mags. Just as long as you keep them clean, fun to shoot.

ZT: Good choice, I’m an AR fan over the AK. Both are great weapons, mainly for me it’s just preference and more readily available ammo for the AR-15.

ZT: Any last words before you’re devoured by the living dead?

Mike: [Laughs] Cursing the mother fucker before biting off my head, and whatever four letter words I can think of. [laughs] Simeon Gregory @zombietraining admin@zombietraining.com

First, Do No Harm

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by Kristin Flanagan

In an unprecedented decision, the life sciences community, the government and secular agencies which support it, delayed publishing the results of scientific studies out of deep concern for the “dual-use” nature of the information, if published in entirety. The term “dual-use” in this context, describes beneficial scientific or technological research and/or advancements that can also be used with malintent, for destructive and harmful purposes against the US or the human population, in general. The subject of the manuscripts in question is focused on the communicability of H5N1, more commonly known as the “bird flu” virus, in an effort to determine the natural mutation possibilities and to better under-

stand whether or not this pathogen could potentially become the source of a pandemic.

In an effort recognize and safeguard dual-use biological research, and thus inhibit potential misuse of information for the purposes of bioweaponry, a study was undertaken in 2002 by various factions within public and private sectors, to explore the safety measures already in use for the security of biotechnology and the potential need for more direct oversight. Dr Robert Fink chaired one of the more prominent committees that examined the topic, the Committee on Research Standards and Practices to Prevent the Destructive Application of Biotechnology, which was convened by

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National Academies. This committee’s findings, often called the Fink Report, proposed (among other things) the formation of a governing body which would directly oversee the research and publication of [dual-use] materials.

Subsequently, the National Science Advisory Board (NSABB) was created in 2004, after the recommendations of all the contributing groups, to do just that. The NSABB falls under the direct jurisdiction of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and works closely with other organizations and agencies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO). The 25 voting members, as well as ex officio (non-voting) members include individuals not just from the scientific community, but also from other government agencies and organizations who have vested interests in life sciences.

Two of the most prominent publishers of such scientific research are Science and Nature magazines, but scores of medical and scientific journals present such reports and research manuscripts to the public and the scientific community, all over the world. The general belief is that research and experimentation results should be shared, in whole, in the interest of advancement for the common good of

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mankind. Research in biotechnology is undertaken with the idea that in order to cure diseases, stop or prevent epidemics/pandemics, develop immunizations and effective treatments, we must first understand what we’re dealing with.

Enter Drs Fouchier and Kawaoka, who, upon researching the transmissibility of the H5N1 “bird flu” virus (which does not normally pass from human-to-human or mammal-tomammal), developed a new strain in their respective labs, which does.

Typically, humans infected by the bird flu are those working closely with infected fowl, usually by inhaling the feces of said birds, and the occurrence of human-to-human transmission has been extremely rare. So, in order to understand whether or not this deadly virus has the natural capacity to mutate into an airborne strain, which could cause a pandemic, killing large numbers of human beings, the studies were undertaken in an effort to prevent such a thing from happening.

Because they share so many physiological and anatomical features with humans, ferrets are often used in research, particularly with flu viruses. The new controversial strain of H5N1 passes intratracheally between ferrets in the lab, and is equally as lethal as the parent strain. Now, there is much

debate regarding whether or not the studies should have been done in the first place, and as to whether or not these researchers went “too far”.

However, the most heated point of debate in this particular matter is not whether the research should have been undertaken…but how to share the process and findings without furthering the possibility of bioterrorism or hindering the progression of life sciences studies. Because this strain is now transmissible by aerosol expiration/inhalation, there are grave concerns about publishing the reports, in full, as that makes it more likely for those wishing to cause harm to replicate the process and results.

After extensive review by NSABB, NIH, and HHS members and officials, the general consensus was that publication should be withheld until the reports can be redacted. In a statement issued on Dec 20, 2011, following months of deliberation, NSABB said, in part, “Following its review, the NSABB decided to recommend that HHS ask the authors of the reports and the editors of the journals that were considering publishing the reports to make changes in the manuscripts. Due to the importance of the findings to the public health and research communities, the NSABB recommended that the general conclusions highlighting the novel outcome be published, but that the manuscripts not include the methodological and other details that could enable replication of the experiments by those who would seek to do harm. The NSABB also recommended that language be added to the manuscripts to explain better the goals and potential public health benefits of the research, and to detail the extensive safety and security measures taken to protect laboratory workers and the public.”

Upon the recommendations of HHS, the two researchers who offered manuscripts for submission and review both willingly agreed to delay publishing and halt research for 60 days, to allow for further consideration by the „governing bodies’. Even though the self-imposed moratorium ended on March 20, 2012, the authors (as of the time this article was

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written) have still held off publication, until recommendations are made, and according to NIH, “The NSABB is being convened on March 29–30, 2012, to review two unpublished manuscripts on the transmissibility of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus and to provide recommendations about the responsible communication of such information. In addition, representatives from the Intelligence Community will present a classified briefing to the NSABB.” While the efforts and concerns are completely laudable, the real problem stems from the fact that the United States can only control publication within American jurisdiction. The First Amendment grants us freedom of speech and the right to freely exchange information, but does not govern the actions of foreign countries. So, in effect, even if the DHH and NIH and other government agencies dictate that these manuscripts cannot be published in full, here in American journals/publications, they may well be published elsewhere. In a world in which information can literally be found at our fingertips and high-tech devices or equipment can be procured with a few keystrokes, the risk of bio-terrorism using dual-use re-

search findings increases exponentially by the day. Therein lies the rub. Many people, the world over, petition and fight against such research, citing animal cruelty and unethical practices, yet it is incontrovertible that such research is absolutely integral

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to medical advancements. Without such experimentation, we would not have the benefits of immunizations against diseases that maim and kill the human populace; nor would we have the medicines that cure infections or alleviate symptoms. Without such research, we may well become defenseless against the microorganisms which inhabit this planet that can decimate huge portions of our populace. If we, as a sentient species, cannot understand or predict how (or perhaps, when), an outbreak may turn into an epidemic and then into a pandemic, how do we prevent, cure or prepare?

And if the scientific community cannot freely share and/or access the information, how will progress ever be made? Currently, there is an outbreak of an extremely drug-resistant form of Tuberculosis (known as XDRTB) in India, which has begun to spread to Western Europe, and has been nicknamed “the white plague”; an exceptionally resistant form of streptococcus, MRSA, (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus); another form of “staph infection”, named MRSA Strain USA300-FPR3757, “which causes rapid infections including the „flesh-eating bac-

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teria’, known as necrotizing fasciitis.”; and Streptococcus pneumoniae, a drug-resistant form of pneumonia. Do we cite “natural selection” and let nature take its course, allowing people to suffer horribly before (possibly) dying, allow diseases like these to spread to others, in the process? Or do we continue to examine, experiment and study, in efforts to find ways to cure and prevent?

For many of those in the world who believe that such a viral or bacterial outbreak will be the start of an apocalyptic event, a world-wide pandemic that might even cause the reanimation of human corpses and contamination of the living, the debate is often more heated than of those who argue for and against the ethical treatment of animals…it becomes bioerror vs bioterror vs evolution. For all who have opinions on scientific research, the debate over whether or not we should be conducting experiments in biotechnology, has been long ongoing, and likely, will continue, as long as there are human beings conducting such research. And since there are scientists the world over who are conducting these kinds of experiments in the interest of curing the sick and maintaining the healthy, the question now, is, how do we share the information amongst the credible, vested sources …without providing detailed, instructional “weaponry manuals” to those who would do harm?

Sources: http://nih.gov/ http://oba.od.nih.gov/oba/index.html http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/03/nsabb-members-react-to-request.html http://oba.od.nih.gov/biosecurity/about_nsabb.html http://oba.od.nih.gov/biosecurity/pdf/Federal%20Register/FRN_March%202012.pdf USA Today, Thurs, Jan 26, 2012, „Scientists engineer bioterror fears’ http://www.livestrong.com/article/28797-list-drugresistant-bacteria/#ixzz1qWy174xt

Kristin Flanagan @aWeeG3 kristinflanagan@zombietraining.com

Combat Cookery: Cooking without Fire

by J.M. Kautz

In many survival situations, cooking food is going to be one of the top methods of avoiding sickness by bacteria and other foreign invaders. However, if you are running for your life, creating a fire which will attract enemies and unwanted attention with smoke and light might not be the best option. Therefore to be prepared, you must educate yourself in cooking without a fire or exactly what types of fire to use to avoid attracting that unwanted attention. Cooking always requires a number of steps from gathering ingredients to cooking tools to the method of cooking such as fire, microwave, oven, etc. Being on the run you must consider how much stuff you want to carry with you, what you can build on the fly, whether or not you will have access to a heat source and how hungry you are willing to feel. All these things determine how you will ration, prepare,

and use your food to allow you to survive at the best of your ability.

First off, if you have access to electricity you can always use items like a microwave, electric burners or grills, then all you need worry about in the way of smoke is if you burn your food.

But let’s assume that even if you have electricity, you do not want to waste it on cooking; carrying a microwave with you when you are on the run is impractical.

Other resources are propane or natural gas stoves and BBQs, but these too will be in limited quantities due to the fact that once you use up the fuel there is no way to refine and produce more. Natural gas stoves do offer a smokeless option as well, as long as you are careful, but again this is not recommended. Granted, small camping stoves with solid fuel options such as Sterno, Esbit, Trioxane, or Hexamine will store with little space but

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Tactics / Training finding replacement fuel will be difficult. These require a heat source like a match or lighter to ignite the fuel source or if you are really creative something like a lens or magnifying glass.

Now we turn to the resource that, unless we have a nuclear winter, is always available, the sun.

A person can build a cheap solar oven that will allow the user to cook, boil water, and sterilize items with this handy little tool.

The solar oven does not produce smoke (unless you burn your food), requires only the sun for fuel and is light and portable or easily replaceable if you have to abandon it when on the run.

For full instructions on how to build your own solar oven check out Instrucatbles. com. (http://www.instructables.com/ id/How-to-Make-a-Simple-CardboardSolar-Oven/) With the solar oven, good camouflage, and luck you can do all of your cooking out in the open, on a rooftop, hidden behind a dumpster…heck anywhere, as long as you have access to sunlight, which also makes keeping an eye open for enemies or zombies that much easier.

Another way to cook without fire is through the use of chemicals, which is called acidity cooking. Unfortunately, this does not kill all food-borne illnesses as the solar oven would, but it does kill some. The most common chemical used to cook with is lemon juice,

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which has the added benefit of also preventing scurvy. Lemon juice has often been used to cook fish without a fire and it gives a pleasant flavor. One classical dish is called ceviche, made with raw fish, lemon juice and spices.

Other chemicals used to cook or pickle food are vinegar and salt, which will also preserve your food supplies for later consumption.

This method of preserving food is wonderful in a survival situation because it does not require that the food being pickled be completely sterile for the brining process and natural fermentation will kill most of the bacteria and other microorganisms.

The down side to pickling is that you must contain it in jars and these can become heavy and cumbersome to carry.

In the end, how you prepare your food will depend on the resources available, the safety of the kitchen and the skills of the people involved. From what we have predicted of the future of zombie uprising is that they will be drawn to us the same way an enemy might be, through our movements, smoke, noise, etc, but this does not leave out smell or heat signature. If the latter prove true, then chemical cooking may be the best solution; if not, the solar oven may well become your best friend.

J. M. Kautz @Ladygrail13 jmkautz@zombietraining.com

Group Prepping

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by Ry Lickliter

Benefits of Common Items The& Interchangeable Parts Perhaps one of the most important ideas to fully wrap one’s head around when looking into their Zombie Apocalypse prepping needs is one that is surprisingly difficult to grasp. It would be an understatement to say that the convenience and comforts of modern life have softened us a great deal. Whatever you may possibly need is, quite literally, right at your fingertips, but once the SHTF, all you have is all you are going to get.

No more McDonalds, no more medicines, no more Adult Swim. What you have in your physical position when things start to crumble will be your only lifeline. This is why group prepping is an extremely beneficial tactic to use. Whether you are thinking about starting your ZA prepping supply horde or you are stocked up and think you have everything you might possibly need, the following tips could be incredibly useful, if not save your life.

Firearms - If you are thinking about dropping the money on a nice piece of defensive firepower, keep the following in mind: All guns, including the simplest revolvers, use an extremely integrated mechanism to fire their rounds.

Damage and wear to any one of these parts can render your weapon useless. To make this situation even more complicated, the parts that each make and model

Tactics / Training of firearm requires, varies like snowflakes. Where it isn't in the average Joe's means to own replacement parts for all possible malfunctions, keeping your choice of guns universal with your prepping group, may it be close friends or family, will supply a quick remedy.

When planning with your prepping group or family, stick with not only the same makes but the same models. If you, as a group, decide that a 12-gauge is a must-have, do your research and choose the same shotgun. If you have a Remington 870 and your brother chooses a Mossberg 500, in the event that either or both of these fine weapons is damaged, you will have a couple really nice clubs instead of one functional shotgun.

There is a great deal of appeal to having a wide variety of firearms in your prepping gear, but keeping it simple and consistent within your group or family could save your life.

Ammo: The one thing worse than not having enough ammo, is having ammo that doesn't work. Following suit with purchasing the same make and model of firearms, buying the same ammo as a group is an absolute must.

This point tends to be truer when purchasing handgun ammunition than shotgun or rifle ammo, but should be kept in mind nonetheless.

Any seasoned shooter will tell you that each one of their firearms reacts to different ammo in their own way. For example, one of my .45s doesn't handle hollow-point rounds well when loading and due to this, I stock only round-tip rounds. While this may seem like a less effective choice, a round-tip out of a Remington 1911 will be a lot

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more useful than a jammed hollow point in a Hi-Point JSP. The only way to be sure that your group ammo stash will be absolutely effective is to get out to the range and put a few hundred rounds through your gun.

Once, as a group, you have chosen a make and model of rounds that works best for your group weapon of choice, not only will you almost completely rule out the possibility of loading errors, but each member of your group can research retail locations that sell the ammo that will work specifically with their weapon of choice.

Battery Powered Electronics: The goal of having the exact same make and model of communication devices and flashlights is easily achievable in your group prepping, making sure that your devices as a group work on the same power supplies.

AAA & AA batteries are the easiest to find and recharge via solar power, making short range walkie-talkies and flashlights/lanterns that rely on them extremely useful. If, as a group, you decide to go the route of a solar battery charger that works with AA batteries, choose all your electronics based on AA as their power supply.

This simple little idea will insure that your whole group’s electronics are powered well into the future.

These are a just a few examples of how group prepping and interchangeable parts can prove to be life saving.

Be creative with your prepping and work in numbers!

Ry Lickliter @RyLickliter rylickliter@zombietraining.com

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Shadow Tech Knives: A Cut above the Rest

by Ry Lickliter

I need to make a confession. I have never been that into knives. Don’t get me wrong, on junior high field trips to the International Festival I always spent all my lunch money on a knife that I bought from some crazy gypsy who didn’t think twice about handing an incredibly dangerous weapon to any 12-year-old who had some cash (like).To be totally honest, even the $200-$300 knives I have had the opportunity to try out all seemed to focus too much on form rather than function for my taste.

Because of this I always approach looking at a knife with the same mentality. If I don’t love it, I don’t buy it. The fact that I am 31 and without a proper knife should prove that I am pretty hard to please. That all changed though, when I discovered Shadow Tech Knives.

Shadow Tech creates a line of 100% originally designed, handmade knives that can bring a smile to the face of even the harshest critic. Owner John Benson of Galena, Ohio was nice enough to send me five of his amazing products to check out and review their usefulness, in the inevitable battle with the undead. All the knives I received were built like freight trains, they were rocking a ruggedyet-sexy black powder coat finish and came razor sharp right out of the box.

One of the other things that all the knives have in common is an incredible handmade sheath. With just a flathead screwdriver you change the carry style to as many as 32 different positions for both righties and lefties. Vertical mounting is possible thanks to the amazing strength of the sheath.

With no clips or ties, you can rest assured that your knife won’t be lost thanks to this remarkably sophisticated, yet simple, design.

Due to the fact that I am so smitten I could talk forever about each one of these knives, I will be forced to only review my favorite three (the other reviews can be found on our website). After a quick review of the pros and cons (it might just be con, singular), I will explain which I have chosen to be my first major knife purchase and rate accordingly.

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The Raptor

I can’t say that I was a huge fan of the look of this knife when I first picked it up, but a few minutes with it in hand and I changed my mind. This doubled-edged fighter knife in the right hands is as lethal as they come. With an overall length of 7” (blade length of 3”), the Raptor sits well in your hand. What I first thought to be too much weight in the handle, grew on me as I worked with it more.

I actually found that the weight difference made it function incredibly well.

While I can’t say that this is would be my first choice for a defensive weapon, there is no doubt that it could do the trick. Made of a solid piece of 1095 high carbon steel and RC rated at 57-58, the Raptor is a ridiculously awesome back-up knife. If my back was against the wall with all shells spent, I wouldn’t be heartbroken reaching for it.

The Scorpion

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When I first noticed Shadow Tech’s booth at my local 1500 Gun & Knife Show, it was this model that immediately caught my eye and drew me in.

The 9” (4” blade) single piece of O1 high carbon steel is an odd creature, to say the least. Its .5” cylinder blade has an incredibly steep grind and needle sharp point which make this rock-solid beast (RC 60) phenomenally versatile.

The handle with its „round crusher end’ and its grip made of 550 paracord proved to be effective whether you need a tool or need to defend yourself.

Weighing in at 9 oz, the Scorpion is nearly indestructible. There is something so different yet comforting about holding this knife that I won’t be able to do it justice. Hold one and you will see what I mean.

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The Raptor

Every once in a while old clichés will prove themselves worthy of their stature by being the perfect way of describing a something.“It just feels right,” is all I can say about the Ranger. The second I felt the 9”, 13.5 oz knife I was amazed at how well-balanced it was. Incredibly rugged and strong (RC 57-58), there is a certain simplistic elegance to the Ranger that made every person I showed it to fall in love.

The model I received was black-on-black with a tonto grind, which just happens to be my personal favorite. Other grinds include: dagger, bowie, tanto, modified tonto and spear point. The versatility of the Ranger is really only limited by your imagination. This is one of the few knives that I have ever seen, that I can say with all honesty, can handle anything you can throw at it. If you’re going to only invest in one knife, this should probably be it.

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So which of the Shadow Tech knives would I want on my belt come zombie killing time? The choice for me is the Scorpion. Before you judge me, let me explain why...

If you are ever in the situation where you are cornered, out of an ammo and left with only the knife on knife on your belt, you better hope that it can wreak some serious havoc on a skull. The length, weight and cylinder design make you wonder if the Scorpion wasn’t designed with dropping the undead specifically in mind. It can literally enter a skull as quick and seamlessly as it exits, making it the ultimate closequarters combat knife available. When you add in the fact that the Scorpion can be used for your everyday needs with its razor sharp, remarkably durable grind (and is available with the optional finger guard); it’s a no brainer (word play!).

My choice was reinforced when I rewatched the first episode of this season of The Walking Dead. About 18 minutes in, T-Dog is face-to-face with a zombie attacker and Daryl swoops like a redneck ninja. With one quick, accurate thrust, Daryl drops the zombie in perfect silence with a simple screwdriver. Any doubt I had about the Scorpion was gone.

The probability of there being 4 knives and a check on the return trip to Ohio is very, very high.

For more information about Shadow Tech Knives, an interview with the owner & more reviews, visit ZombieTraining.com.

Durability: 10 - I just about went full “Nigel Tufnel” and gave it an 11 but my amps aren’t built like that. Seriously though, this is what people would shank Superman with in the prison showers and have it work.

Efficiency: 8 – With all short blades, you are going to have to put out more energy to get a solid return, but when it comes to braining a zombie, the Scorpion leaves very little to complain about.

Design: 9 – Virtually flawless.

Overall: 9

Ry Lickliter @RyLickliter rylickliter@zombietraining.com

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I Am Zombie

by TS Alan

Part 2 Keith Saunders stepped into the elevator and depressed the lobby level button. As the elevator made its way up one flight, he retrieved his sidearm from its holster and placed the pistol against his head. He shut his eyes and grimaced.

The elevator doors opened. He opened his eyes and looked out to the empty corridor. As the elevator doors shut, he put the Beretta to his head again, closed his eyes, and then grimaced.

He couldn’t pull the trigger.

He must have sat in the elevator car for hours, he wasn’t sure. He tried desperately to muster the courage to take his life, but couldn’t. Now he was ill, extremely ill. He knew if he didn’t shoot himself in the head now, he would be too weak to try later. He closed his eyes once more, and then pulled the trigger.

The bullet discharge cracked as it left the barrel and then promptly lodged into the elevator’s control panel. The panel sparked and hissed as the electrical circuitry shorted. The elevator began to descend, returning him to the maintenance level. The doors opened, then closed, and then the car began its ascent back to the main

level. The elevator repeated the trip continuously, and after the sixth time Keith Saunders stumbled out the doors and into the lobby and haphazardly towards the security desk.

Keith could not find the courage to kill himself, and he felt cowardly. Self-sacrifice, he thought, would have been easier if it had been done in the act of proactively protecting the men Sterns / I Am 1 that served under him. There was no higher cause or reason in killing himself, except to spare himself the fate of becoming a zombie, an outcome he wouldn’t realize.

He stepped in front of the security consoles and looked down at the red-colored panic plunger that he had depressed earlier. He pushed it down, rotated it left, and the knob released then returned to its ready position. Next to the knob was a green button, inset in a control panel and covered by a clear screen. To its right was a card-reader and accompanying keypad.

He stared down at it, perspiration rolling off his feverish face and onto the console.

There was only one way he was going to kill

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Tactics / Training himself, he tried to rationalize, and it was if he was faced with no other choice—a throng of the undead ready to rip him apart. That was the motivation he needed. He fumbled with his security card, slid it through the reader and then began to enter his code, but stopped. He couldn’t remember all the digits.

He stood staring down at the keypad for a moment perplexed. He swiped his card again and began inputting his code, this time entering all the numbers.

The clear cover plate to the release button slid back.

He depressed the button.

He saw the undead waiting as the gates rose, receding back into the ceiling. Keith Saunders picked up the pistol he had set down on the console counter and pulled the trigger. His body slumped to the floor. # Having failed to remove enough concrete from the frame of the door, the men prepared to move out.

Seeing that several of his men were perspiring heavily, Sergeant Jackson immediately checked their neck glands for swelling and tenderness, the two outward signs of initial infection.

Sterns / I Am 2 Mackenzie moved several steps away from the two men and then turned back with raised weapon, and pulled the trigger, but his weapon didn’t fire. He grabbed another assault rifle from one of his men and tried again, but the two he tried to kill confronted him. The Marines pulled their triggers, but

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their weapons failed to discharge. When Mackenzie attempted to relieve Corporal Clarks of his weapon, the corporal turned the tables on the sergeant.

“Check your glands, Sergeant,” the corporal demanded, seeing Mackenzie was also perspiring heavily. You’re running a fever too. Aren’t you, Sergeant?”

Jackson put two fingers to the side of his neck. Clarks had been correct. “Damn,” the sergeant muttered, and Clarks pulled the trigger. The corporal’s weapon was also out of ammunition.

As they all looked at one another with suspicion and alarm, they quickly realized that they were all infected. The men sat down knowing that in eight to twelve hours, they would lapse into unconsciousness; and shortly thereafter, would die and be resurrected as the living dead.

As the hours passed they grew weaker and weaker, edging closer to death. As they neared the final moments of consciousness, a rumble and squealing came from the rolling security door. The heavy-duty door struggled to rise, and as the bottom rose to the halfway point, the roller track gave way along the area in which the explosive charges had been detonated, and the tracking dislodged. Through the open door came a dozen men in bio-safety suits, some with guns in arms and other with gurneys in tow.

Within a few minutes the platoon members were placed on the wheeled stretchers and removed from the tunnel. As the tunnel door lowered it struck the

Tactics / Training dislodged roller track, and the door motor strained as it attempted to finish its downward journey.

“Shut the power down, shut the power down,” one of the armed, suited men shouted through his communication link, as the ceiling motor began to churn out bellows of thick smoke.

Sterns / I Am 3 Within minutes a four-man repair crew had arrived and began torching away the twisted guide rail. As the men began to drill into the concrete abutment, the undead arrived, moving promptly towards them.

Two sentries opened fire on the pack, easily cutting them down, but as they reloaded their weapons, Keith Saunders and a large group that followed him reached the archway. The crewmen fled leaving the guards to cover their retreat. # When Keith Saunders awoke his mind was blank, except for one driving thought: Meat—fresh meat. Atop of him was a body, he pushed it off, rose, sniffed the air, and joined the others of his kind. The large group of undead bumped into one another as they aimlessly roamed the lobby.

Up and down, from lobby to maintenance tunnel level the elevator came and went; the noise of which at-

tracted the attention of some of the undead, including Keith. As the elevator door opened again, he and seven others stepped into the car, and it descended once again.

More and more of the undead found their way to the elevator and onto the maintenance tunnel level.

As they began to fill the hallway, they also began to wander towards the tunnel entry. As more and more undead exited the elevator, the ones ahead of them edged beyond the tunnel’s egress.

There was noise at the far end of the tunnel and it attracted those who now sauntered deeper into the passageway. Hearing the noise they began to follow the metallic, resonating sound. More began to follow, and as the leaders of the procession neared the midway point, they Sterns / I Am 4 suddenly stopped and sniffed the air. Meat. Fresh meat! The scent of the living excited them. Their inquisitive lumbering quickly turned into purposeful pursuit.

Keith also smelled the unmistakable odor of living flesh and it made him excited too. He followed the group and others followed him.

TS Alan @TSAlan1 tsalan@zombietraining.com

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Outliving the Dead

by Bob Hoss

Chapter 2

The Police Station and the Dead Tank sat handcuffed to a chair against the wall of the police station. He eyed the door and the cop nervously as he thought about his predicament. He was waiting for the sheriff’s department to transport him to the county lockup. His arresting officer had been called away to some major disturbance and had left him to wait at the local station.

“This ain’t right, sittin’ here like an animal ready for slaughter,” thought Tank.

The rookie cop was answering call after call, and then radioing in directions to the mobile units. The small town of Oakdale didn’t have a dispatcher. People were supposed to call the county and let their dispatchers handle it.

Tactics / Training People rarely do what they are supposed to do, that is why there needed to be cops in the first place.

All hell had broken loose in this usually boring town, and he had got stuck directing calls, just like he got stuck directing traffic anytime there was a wreck, or a parade, or a fucking party at the mayor’s place. It is hell being the new guy.

“I didn’t kill nobody. Not that was human or alive in the first place.

My grandma from the bayou told me „bout them things. They was zombies.”

The rookie cop tried to ignore Tank’s mumblings, as he fielded another call, “First and Main? That’s right across the street from the station, ma’am. I will check it out personally!”

“Gotta take head shots. Can’t kill „em any other way,” Tank tried to tell him.

The officer screamed at the ungainly prisoner, as he headed for the door, “You stop with that crazy talk! I will be right the fuck back, don’t you goddamn move a muscle!

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This whole town has gone apeshit!”

He opened the front door with authoritative violence. It slammed against the wall and came crashing back on him as he exited the station. He pushed the door off him, fumbled with his gun, and disappeared outside, leaving it wide open.

Tank heard the cop shout from somewhere outside, “Police! Get off that woman!”

A few minutes passed and there was a gunshot- then two more.

He listened, literally at the edge of his seat, with his hands cuffed behind him.

“Ahhhh!” the scream cut through the air and trailed off into a gurgle.

Tank eyed the agape door uneasily.

“Motherfucker musta’ been born in a barn,” he thought, with growing unease.

He may have been held captive before, but at least he felt safe then.

Now, the door was open, the cop with a gun was probably dead, and he was sitting there looking like big, black, beefy, zombie bait.

Tactics / Training Slowly a figure stumbled into the station. Two empty eyes stared at the large black man. The figure in front of Tank had some sort of head wound with blood drying to his face. His t-shirt had what could have been holes from the rookie cop’s shots. The thing slowly approached Tank.

“Oh, fuck this, motherfucker! Stay away from me, you- “ Tank threw himself to the floor to keep out of the grasp of the thing that was reaching for him. The chair came with him and was pulling at his handcuffed wrists. He pushed himself to the wall and stood up with the chair dangling behind him. He kicked his undead attacker in the chest with all his strength; it tumbled backward and hit the floor hard. Slowly it started to stand, never taking its horrible eyes off Tank. This thing wasn’t that strong, it would be easy for Tank to kill it if his hands were free. With the chair hanging from him like an anchor, he decided that the easiest course of action would be to knock the damn thing down again and run for the door.

The thing started toward Tank yet again. This time he met its advance, lifted his right foot off the ground, and stomped hard on its kneecap. The thing collapsed to the floor with a sickening crunch. A pitiful moan escaped from it. Tank could see the sweet freedom of the open door finally within his grasp. He stepped over the body of the thing and headed towards the police station’s exit.

“Fuck!”

Fingers tightened their grasp around his ankle. He tried to pull free, but just lost his balance and tumbled to the floor. Pain shot through his arms as the cuffs dug into his flesh. The thing was pulling itself on top of him. He tried to stand, but he was so tangled up and encumbered by both the chair and this monstrous creature that he just flailed around on the floor. The thing was face to face with him. It opened its mouth and almost seemed to grin.Tank did the only thing he could do- he screamed.

The sound of a small explosion ripped through the air.

The creature’s head jerked violently back, and then its body slumped down limply on top of Tank.

“What the fuck is going on with people in this town?” a voice shouted from the door.

Tank looked up and recognized the guy he had punched last night while he was drunk. He found the strength to lift himself out from under the dead thing and stand, with the chair still dangling behind him.

“Everybody’s turning to zombies,” Tank replied.

“What in the hell is a zombie?” Frank asked.

“A zombie is a dead motherfucker that is too lazy to lay the fuck down.”

“Ooooh kay, how did you end up here? Punch some more innocent people?”

“Nah. Bagged a zombie, but they don’t believe me.

Now get me outta these cuffs, man.”

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“Well, since there are no cops left to argue and you are the only non-fucked-up person I have seen, I will. Let me go get the keys off the cop I got this gun from.”

A few more shots rang out, and Frank was back with the keys.

Tactics / Training

“There were a few more of them wandering around out there.”

He unlocked the cuffs that bound Tank and let the chair drop to the ground. Frank bent over the corpse that had been accosting Tank. He seemed to be examining it.

“Fucking great!”

“Wha-“ “He has bite marks all over him.”

“No shit. So?” Frank turned to the huge black man, pulling the collar of his shirt down to expose the wound he had received earlier this morning.

“I got this from the girl I met at the bar last night.

She got bit by one of those things after we left the bar. I am feeling pretty rough. I think I may end up becoming- like that,” he said as he nodded towards the lifeless thing on the ground.

“The docs at the hospital...” Tank offered.

“Maybe, but the whole world’s falling apart out there, I don’t know if we can even make it there in time. Hospital is all the way in Princeton. It looks like it will be just about impossible to take the highway.”

“The clinic then.”

“It may be my best bet. I doubt there is anyone there with all of this going on, but I am willing to

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try anything at this point.”

“Shit, it’s a few blocks. Let’s get out of the cop shop.”

“You’re coming with me?”

“Figure I owe you one. Hell, the last time I left ya’, sum bitch nearly ate ya’, and not in a good way,” Tank smiled.

Frank took the keys he had taken from the dead cop, and tried a few in a cabinet. He soon found the one that fit the lock, and opened it up to reveal a small arsenal. He grabbed an AR-15 and handed tank a combat shotgun.

“Let’s rock and roll!”

They both headed out the door. Frank abruptly stopped as an “oh shit” escaped his lips. Tank didn’t notice his halt in movement and plowed over him, causing them both to land face first on the pavement outside. They both looked up to see the scene around them. It seemed like the whole town was out, walking the streets. Terror filled the two men as they realized the crowd was infected with the mysterious disease.

Bob Hoss @bob_hoss bobhoss@zombietraining.com

Survivors of the New Age

Tactics / Training

78

by Brendan Bertrand

Part 2 It’s been a day since the rioting began. The infected could easily infect without being caught, spreading the disease around the city in a matter of hours. Then, after many more hours, the amount of infected grew. They attacked all over the place, people mistook them for rioters. The police were dispatched and people joined the rioters and looters. The

day passed and the riots fell silent. The streets were filled with confused civilians, blood and a few rotting corpses. It was safe to loot certain places. If I was lucky I could have entered an abandoned building, though I chose not to take the chance. The undead rose again near the night, I guess there’s a certain amount of time before a person changes.

The survivors that roamed the streets were picked off one-byone. Some tried grouping together and fighting the infected. They failed. All this was broadcasted through the local T.V. station, although they stopped broadcasting yesterday. It’s quiet now and I’m running out of food, all that’s left is a few cans of soup and spaghetti, I want to save those for later.

It’s been 4 days.

Today is Thursday the 4th.

I closed the large, brown journal and placed it back inside my bedside table. I let out a long sigh and rubbed my eyes. I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in awhile. I counted the stacked cans of food on my desk again in my head then grabbed the two bats I kept directly next to my bed, one metal and one wooden. The rest were spread around the house. I picked up my empty school bag and placed 2 cans of spaghetti, a bottle of water and a can opener inside, just in case I can’t get back to the house before the sun went down. I didn’t have

any scarfs so I tied a black shirt over my mouth and nose. I tucked a carving knife from the kitchen into my belt and stood in front of the door. I was scared shitless.

My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

I wiped sweat from my brow with the back of my hand. This was it, my first time leaving the safety of my home into this completely new world. I slowly turned the handle and swung the door open.

Both bats in my hands, I snuck towards the end of the property. The street was almost completely empty. I took a good look at everything while slightly crouching, cars were mainly parked on the side of the road, one smashed completely into a house further up the street and a few sat abandoned in the middle of the street. Blood was everywhere, that’s the best way to describe it.

I swallowed to keep the vomit from rising. To my right was an undeniable severed head, my neighbour. I couldn’t hold it back; I keeled over and spewed all over the side walk.

I dropped to my knees. The world

Tactics / Training had ended, it was all over. What could I, a student, possibly do? I was going to die, end up just like poor old Mr. Perkins. I heard a disgusting gurgling sound. What was it? Where was it coming from? I looked up and, to my horror, saw Mr. Perkin’s head opening and closing its jaw, trying to get a meal from the kneeling mess sitting a few metres from him. Shock and horror filled my body, my mind went blank and before I knew it, my metal bat had crushed Mr. Perkin’s head.

The munching stopped and I stared at the cracks in the footpath just in front of him. The blood oozed through, I wasn’t sure how long I stayed there like that and I don’t remember what went through my mind. I was pretty sure I started giggling a bit but it all seemed like some large nightmare.

I was back at home, in the living room staring at my hands. The hands of a murderer. I shook my head; it’s not murder if they’re already dead, or undead. My stomach grumbled, I remembered what my mission was. I gathered my equipment once more and headed out, avoiding the disgusting view of Mr. Perkin’s brains.

There was a general store a few streets away, I walked quickly and quietly. The blood didn’t bother me if I didn’t focus on it, I felt sick but I could still make it without vomiting. I passed a few bodies and there was movement inside some of the houses, but I kept on walking,

I felt that if I stopped, I’d die. I made it to the store, basically surrounded by houses. I was uncomfortable, it was dead silent and the house owners were probably

lying in wait for some unsuspecting traveller to come by for dinner. The power was off at the store so the electric doors didn’t open. I pulled on it with all I had, it took awhile to get a large enough opening but it was better than smashing the glass and waking the neighbours. I squeezed in through the small gap and checked every

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corner and hiding spot in my eye sight. It was clear for now. The shop had long rows of merchandise running toward the end of the building, so you could see the counter on the other side; and on the far right were the fridges where people would buy milk, ice creams or other drinks.

My runners made an unnerving squeaking sound on the shiny floor whenever I stepped, I slipped them off and tip-toed through the store silently. The same squeak sound echoed through the store. I slid in between two of the rows and pressed myself against the one on my right. My plan was a basic ambush, should be easy, as long as my hands stop shaking.

The sounds got closer, louder. A tall man passed by, covered in blood and chunks missing. Again my mind blanked and he turned up with my bat crushing his skull. Unbelievable, I just killed another person. He dropped dead like a ragdoll. I laughed a little. These things, their lives were mine to control. I felt like a god, able to end lives in an instant. My fantasy was interrupted by a loud BANG! I ran to the window, a man about 6 feet tall was running down the street with a pistol, he’d be useful, I decided to help.

Brendan Bertrand @King0zero0 brendanbertrand@zombietraining.com

Trail of Tears

Tactics / Training

80

by K Flanagan

Part 1 “Over here!”

“No, man, it’s this way! I’m tellin ya, it’s comin from over this way…”

“Will you both shut up, for Christ’s sake??

Stop arguing and move!”

Stephanie shook her head after shaking a fist at the twins, Carl and Stan, who inevitably argued over everything. She felt like a damn den mother for a gaggle of 8-year-old Cub Scouts, when in fact, she was 12 years younger than their 38 years. The twins immediately separated, giving Stephanie the center line, leaving the other 3 “hunters” at her back to bring up the rear.

They’d been out checking the snares they’d been laying out on the smallgame trails around the farm they’d come to occupy, when they’d heard the first (extremely disturbing) mewling sounds.

It didn’t sound like a „dead-thing’…but it didn’t matter. Whether living human or one not-quite-dead, it had to be dealt with, before it drew unwanted atten-

tion. The group silently moved through the thick woods toward the source of the sound, when suddenly, the mewling sounds turned to screams. They froze momentarily at the implications, all six thinking, “Human!” or “Alive!”, before bolting…no question now as to what direction to go in.

The wildly frightened creature clawing at the leaf litter didn’t have the presence of mind anymore to bother with such questions as to the length of time she’d been alone, or crawling on hands and knees through the thick Southern forest, or even when, perhaps, she’d last eaten. She was nothing much more than an aching, empty shell, dragging herself along the ground… unable to face any more of the horrors the world seemed intent on forcing down the collective throat of humanity…or whatever might be left of humanity.

It didn’t even occur to said creature to wonder why she hadn’t just laid still and let the rotting, hungry corpse put an end

Tactics / Training to her misery…she was beyond thought. But it was clear to the odd bunch that finally found her that she was human, and that her will to live was still strong; both facts evident by the way she’d been scootching and fumbling backwards, away from the reach of the

obscene leer as it stumbles toward the prone (and still screaming) woman. It hadn’t managed to catch its prey, because it was missing its left foot and some of the shin, too, making it much slower than “usual”. Stan swings a machete at the thing’s neck from

advancing zombie. No one had time to wonder why she didn’t get up and run, as Carl and Stan approach it from its fetid flanks to dispatch it. “Bless them”, thinks Stephanie, as her stomach turns at the sight of the gruesome, limping undead thing. ) Half the flesh is gone from its skull, making the mouth seem like an

one side, as Carl swings a bat in the same direction, from the other.

“Good thing Carl’s a lefty”, thinks Stephanie with a grimace, and she wants to gag at the perverse “game” these two have made of decapitation, but doesn’t allow it. Since zombie heads are still extremely dangerous,

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still capable of biting until the brain is destroyed, the twins have come up with a perfect way to make sure the heads land well away from live folks: as one man deftly removes the head from its body, the other sends it flying, like a baseball toward the Green Monster for the game-winning home run. “The sad part is,” Steph thinks, “they’ve had too much cause to perfect their swings.”

Unfortunately, the now-headless creep lands directly on the poor woman who’s still scrambling and screaming, making her screams turn to screeches as she struggles out from under the putrid mess. She manages to flip over and begins scrambling on hands and knees, trying to get away. The others finally, slowly, bring up the rear, eyes scouring the woods for unwanted guests; and Carl bends down to get the poor, filthy and panicked creature on her feet. But she stops moving and goes silent, as she sees David’s feet stop directly in her path. She begins making the awful mewling sound again as she tries to move backward away from him; and when Carl manages to get his arms around her waist, Stephanie can’t help but compare her to a cat that doesn’t want to be held…all four limbs flailing and pushing in all directions at once.

“Hey!” says Carl, “HEY! Stop! We ain’t gonna hurt’cha!

Relax.”

“Zombies don’t talk,” she thinks, and it’s the first lucid thought she’s had in days, maybe weeks; but all that comes out of her mouth is a startled “whu”. Instantly, she goes limp and quiet, with eyes wide and her entire body trembling, she reaches out as if to touch Carl’s

Tactics / Training face, so Carl puts her on her feet. But she can’t trust her mind anymore, doesn’t know how to tell reality from nightmare; and as she gazes round at the small group of people gathering around her, she begins to moan and wail a little, turning this way and that, convinced she imagined the sound of a still-human voice… and begins to panic again.

Carl opens his mouth to speak again, when David’s fist connects squarely with the woman’s jaw, knocking her out. Carl, Stan and David all start shouting at each other: “what the fuck” and “screw you” and “she’s gonna get us all killed”, before the words turn into a tousle.

The twins are on David in an instant, and Steph allows herself to think that the only thing scarier than the two fighting with each other…is the two of them banded together against a common enemy. So, she steps up and smacks both David and Carl in the backs of their heads.

They turn, both ready to swing at her, and then drop their hands when they realize who’s hit them. They all drop their heads after taking note of the expression on her face; but, a second later, all heads snap back up and open their mouths to defend their actions.

Steph puts a hand up and says quietly, “Enough,” and they fall silent. She jabs a finger at David and states simply, “You knocked her out…you can carry her back.

Let’s get the hell out of here now, can we?” As she watches Carl and Stan help lift the woman onto David’s shoulders, Steph thinks, “Well…at least now we know who the gear we’ve been finding belongs to.” She sighs and then motions

silently for the rest of the group to get back into formation, Stan and Carl head out front, and the other three

again bringing up the rear. Several of them half-expect to find zombies “nomming” on the string of small game they’d left hanging on a tree when they’d gone off to

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take care of the “noisemaker”, but only the living had heard the ruckus, it seemed.

The first thing that registers in the foundling’s waking mind is the brightness, so she scrunches her eyes shut tighter. The second thing she realizes was that she was lying in bed! A small “huh!” of a laugh escaped her lips as she rolls over and mashes her face into the clean, soft, fluffy pillow, thinking herself a fool for being so frightened of the nightmare she’d been having. She hears Seamus in another room, and calls out to him, with a laugh and a lilt in her voice, “Seamus? Seamus!

You wouldn’t BELIEVE the dream I just ha…”

A new bout of fear and panic seizes hold of her when she rolls over and sits up to find she’s not alone in a room that isn’t hers. Her feet shove and push furiously as she backs herself up against the headboard, whimpering and mewling, as one of “them!” sits down next to her and grabs hold. She wiggles and tenses, waiting for the inevitable bites…until she realizes “it” is speaking to her. She had shut her eyes and turned her head, ready to give it her neck and be done with this neverending horror show life had become. Now, her head spins round to stare directly into Carl’s clear green eyes.

“It’s OK, darlin,” he says, quietly, “no one here’s gonna hurt you, I swear. Just take’er easy, OK?” Stephanie had a moment to wonder in pure amazement over Carl’s gentleness. It stunned her, really.

The twins were real Southern rednecks, through and through, and Carl was the gruffer of the two. If you’d told her he had such gentle compassion in him, she’d

Tactics / Training have laughed in your face…but there it was.

Instead, she focused on the woman, and asks, “Do you have a name, kitten?”

The wide-with-fright, dark-brown eyes fly to Stephanie’s face, and narrow to slits.

“Whups,” Steph thinks, “she’s awake now.”

Out loud, Steph says, “Are you with us? Can you speak?” Steph looks like a wolverine sizing up an opponent, and Carl’s guts clench at her tone. Despite being the youngest adult in their rag-tag group, Steph is, without question, their (mostly) fearless leader…and Carl knows she’d dispatch anyone who might jeopardize the group’s well-being, without pause. If Steph doesn’t like her, trust her or find her fit enough to assimilate…he puts the thought from his mind, looks back to the frightened lass, and wills her to come to her senses.

The poor refugee is a sight to behold: long brown hair a tangled mess, strewn with leaves, grasses and earth; dried blood, mud and dirt covering most of her exposed skin; cuts, scrapes, bruises evident underneath the filth… she looks like hell, they all think so. “She don’t smell so hot either,” Steph thinks, but doesn’t say, as her own expression softens just enough to make Carl more comfortable.

She wasn’t bit, they know because they’d

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disrobed her to check; and the scratches look like road rash and pokes from rocks and twigs, not fingernails. Seeming to realize that the bodies surrounding her were alive and relatively well, she relaxes just a little, even though she’s still mashed and curled against the headboard. Carl can’t help but think she looks like an assault victim, and his heart reaches out to her. There is, however, nothing at all “victim-like” about the gaze the foundling now offers; first to Steph, then David, Stan and Robbie. “I’m…,” the woman fumbles her words and cuts short as if she can’t remember, and the hawk-like expression turns to one of sorrow and confusion as a sweet voice carries in from the other room. Her head drops as her hands cover her face, and she sobs, just a little, before lifting her head again.

“My name…” she starts again, but the sound of that light, sweet voice trickles in again, causing her to leap from the bed in a tumble, stumbling even more upon realizing she was almost naked. But she pushes through the doorway, just the same, shouting, “Seamus?!

Seamus!” in a voice more whimper than she likes. The sound of her son’s voice stops abruptly as she enters the living room. She gazes around, uncomprehendingly, at the group of strangers gathered by the couch,

Tactics / Training trying desperately to find the source of the voice. And then she realizes it had been coming from the small video camera, not… …and she crumples to the floor in a heap, before sobbing from the kind of grief that only a mother who’s lost a child can possess. “oooooomy baby…,” she’s moaning, and the grief she expresses turns every heart in the room to molten lead. She looks up beseechingly, as if begging for someone in the room to reveal him, tell her it’s all a bad joke, and then crumples again when she realizes they won’t, they can’t…

“We came down the Trail of Tears…he was all I had left…he was…they took…they surrounded us…he... he…” is all she can manage, before her throat closes in on her.

She wants to explain, but can’t get the words out. She’s trying hard to get a hold of herself, starts growling and punching her thighs, and then lets out a rough screech of anger and frustration. She raises her head once more, and opens her mouth to speak, as David’s son Mark enters the room, with his mother (David’s wife) in tow. Stephanie, Carl and Stan were the only three of the nine in the room who watched in horror as the woman’s face bluntly turned into a parody of madness for an instant; and all three sighed relief when it changed to a look of bewilderment. “This is Hell,” she thinks, “I’m in Hell and being tormented.”

The boy and his mother are wearing matching expressions of mild shock, surprised to see this half-naked wild-woman on her knees on the floor. Holly, David’s

wife, drops the plate she’s holding, and puts both hands on Mark’s shoulders, ready to whisk him away as the stranger reaches out to touch the still-chubby cheek of the boy standing before her. “Sean??” she whimpers. Mark shrugs off his mother’s hands and steps forward, and takes her face in his tiny hands. The expression of compassion on the wee child’s face is far too old and experienced for a child so young. He simply shakes his head, then hugs her. Stephanie steps forward just in time to stop Holly from snatching the lad back, and makes a “wait” gesture with her hands.

The battered, scruffed-up woman draws back from the hug, and begins turning her head, obviously looking for something. She spies her pack and points at it; Stan hands it over with a suspicious leer. Without saying a word, her dirty fingers deftly unzip a tiny pocket at the front of the backpack, and slide a plastic baggie from within. Silently, she hands the baggie to Mark, imploring him with her eyes to understand…

Mark looks down at the baggie full of photographs,

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and says in a voice full of wonder, “Whooooa. That boy looks just like me, Mama.”

Holly takes the package from her son, looks at the photo on top and breathes “Jesus,” with the same disbelief.

“You have three kids? Little boys like me?” asks Mark,

with a little excitement at the prospect of having people closer to his own age around, again.

“No, baby, not anymore. I…,” she chokes on the words, “I used to…,” she implies and offers a weak smile. She turns to the woman holding the video camera, and

Tactics / Training says, “Play it.”

Instantly, the room is filled with bright, cheery laughter as the boy in the video begins to chastise his mother for a bad joke. The camaraderie caught on the device makes everyone but Carl, Steph, Mark and her, smile a little…the others hadn’t picked up on the implications of what she’d just said.

She whispers, “You may not want him to hear this,” to Holly, with a nod at Mark, and Holly squeezes two large tears out of her eyes before ushering the 8-year -old out of the room.

Carl and Steph stay put, as everyone else gathers around the couch once more, to watch the video; each of the two pretty sure they know what’s coming, and also sure hearing it will be more than enough. The pair on the tiny screen are joking and giggling, not loudly, but with real mirth. They are both covered head-to-toe…boots, chaps, jackets, gloves and helmets…and they look odd riding on the pair of horses that are slowly making their way along the Appalachian Trail. The mother on the video is gently teasing her son, and he’s feigning outrage in a silly voice…and all of a sudden, Stan explodes, “Jesus Christ, lady, what the hell is wrong with you?! You think this is all some kind of joke? Were you trying to get your kid killed? Fark!”

“I was trying to teach my son to remember what we’re struggling and fighting so hard to preserve. I was trying to find and make moments worth living for.”

Carl shoots his twin brother the nastiest look he’s ever mustered (there’s been many between them, over the

years), and hisses, “Shut up.” Stan’s eyes go wide for a second in disbelief, and he shakes his head before turning away and throwing his hands up in resignation. The bubbly laughter continues from the tiny speakers on the camera; she clenches

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her jaw and squeezes her eyes shut as she hears Seamus asking if he can remove his coat and helmet. “No,” she whispers, “no baby, don’t do it…”

But the mother onscreen acquiesces, after gentle prodding and begging from the 12-year-old riding by her side. “Mum, pleeeeease, I’m SO hot, please let me breathe a little. We haven’t seen anything more dangerous than a chipmunk for days, pleeease, Mum…” “Fine, OK, OK…but just for a few moments, OK? Please?” The video-Mum’s voice is overwhelmed by a loud whoop from the youngster, as he shouts his glee and victory; then she’s heard hissing, “Seamus! For Pete’s sake! Shush!!”

The people watching the little screen see the mother there look around anxiously, her helmeted head turning this way and that, and they hear her quietly chastise her son for his outburst.

The virtual pair ride along easily for a few minutes more, immersed in conversation about “the fine, five-star meal” they’ll have that night, joking about shrimp cocktail and filet mignon…when suddenly, the youngster says, “Hold up, Mum, I gotta pee.” He’s off his horse and running into the brush on her right before she can tell him not to; and as she opens her mouth to do just that, something grabs her left leg.

Tactics / Training Whatever melancholy amusement that had begun to develop amongst the viewers died instantly as they watched, from the videoMum’s point of view, as a half-rotted corpse began trying to chew on her leg; felt a twinge of relief as they noticed it had no lower jaw to bite with; and then all gasped in horror as the camera began to swing wildly, unwittingly capturing glimpses of several other not-yet-dead things stumbling out of the woods. “Seamus!

Seamus, RUUUN!!!”

But Seamus didn’t run. As a boy of 12, he’d been feeling the stirrings of puberty; he was the only man his Mum had left in the world…and he foolishly ran forward to save her. The video jumbles and tumbles, the strap accidentally gets hooked on the saddle’s horn, and the next sounds heard were that of a shotgun booming out rounds, the horrible groaning of the walking dead, the screams of a mother terrified for her son… and that same son screaming, “MUM, RIDE!!

GOOOOOO!!!” The horrified viewers watched, as the on-camera view turned upside-down, the young boy with the sweet face was set upon and ravaged by the mindless, ravenous, walking, biting, tearing corpses. It was Stan who snaps the camera shut, and says, “That’s enough.”

The entire group sits in stunned silence, staring at the woman still nearly-naked and prostrate

on the floor. “It’s my fault, if he had his gear on, he would have been OK. I should never have let him get down off his horse, we had a system, for gods’ sake! I never should’a let’im…I never should’a let’im…” No one moves, no one breathes, they merely sit in silent witness as the grief pours out of her like lava, just as hot and equally as concerning.

After throwing dirty looks at everyone else present, Carl wraps a blanket around her, lifts her from the floor, and then sits on an overstuffed chair, pulling her onto his lap. He simply sits holding her, while she cries it all out. She takes the old blue bandana from his hand and scrubs her face with it, while he apologizes to her; explaining that they’d removed her clothes to make sure she hadn’t been bitten or scratched. With a pointed, nasty look at his newfound, unlikely friends, he also apologizes to her “…for them being so rude as to go through her things like that”; issues a tight, quiet, “Put it all back!” to the group with a jab of his finger toward her backpack. He turns his cool, clear green eyes back to her face, trying to catch her gaze. But her mind isn’t quite all-the-way “in” the room yet; she’s doing what her daddy had taught her to do: assessing the situation and everyone in it, first, before engaging.

A woman (Bonnie, as it turns out) stands up and tries to hand her the video cam, but she

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Tactics / Training waves it away, almost gagging; and upon spinning her head away from the memories, realizes she’s sitting in a strange man’s lap, and inadvertently coughs out a sick laugh in his face. With a look of apology, she takes Carl’s face in her hands, and kisses him gently on the

room with her eyes and expressions.

“My name, is Alice,” she says, finally, and bows her head again, thinking of how her husband used to tease her every time she said that, always alluding to the Alice in Resident Evil. Then, while drawing a breath

forehead. She doesn’t know that it’s the sweetest bit of a gesture he’s ever received. She whispers, “Thank you,” in his ear, and gently slips from his lap. With a deep sigh and her feet steady under her, she raises her head; and with a steady gaze, greets each person in the

so deep it seems to inflate her, Alice straightens her bent back, squares her hunched shoulders and raises her head. Tears pour steadily down her cheeks, but she only slowly wipes them from her chin, when they reach it; she won’t bend or bow, cower or flee, ever

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again. She begins speaking in an eerily steady voice that doesn’t belie the obvious inner…turmoil…they all knew too well.

For an instant briefer than a flash of lightning takes, the loveliest expression plays across her face; a swift, bright smile lights her as a wisp of laugh puffs out from between her lips. And in that lightning-flash of illuminating beauty, Carl falls in love, for the first time in his life. Despite the dirt and the tears making silver tracks down her dirty cheeks, he sees that brilliant smile, and loves her all the more for being able to still call one up.

He can feel Stan giving him the Hairy Eyeball, but ignores it; his gaze rapt on her, instead, as she continues.

“Alice Maeve Connelly-McGuire, as a matter of fact,” she quips, and with a funny lilt, finishes with her favorite phrase, “and I’em my fah’ther’s dawter.”

Steph shocks the room by barking out a merry laugh… it isn’t the laugh per se, which stuns everyone in the room into holding their collective breath, but the honest mirth in it. As Alice’s head turns to Steph, she raises an eyebrow, quizzically, amusement playing around the corners of her eyes and mouth like a rambunctious puppy.

“HO-ly shhitt!! You’re from New Ham-shuh!” caws the usually-deadly-serious Stephanie, to the utter amazement of the entire group. What amazes them even more is Alice’s equally unexpected response. “Friggin Flatland’es,” she says, through laughter of her own, “It’s New Hamp-shure’, not „New Hamm-SHUH.” Heads snap back and forth, from one woman to the

Tactics / Training other and back again, as if the puzzled onlookers are watching a tennis match, while the two women rib each other from opposite ends of the room.

Having dispensed with the ritual teasing of the long-standing, lighthearted “rivalry” between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, their laughs peter out to giggles, as they once again become aware of who they are and where they’re at. And the raggedy gaggle of survivors around them begin to realize that these two women, so drastically different from each other, are like two great Greek Titans purveying each other, then accepting one another as kin. The relief that settles across the room like a blanket, is palpable. Alice and Steph throw similar silent apologies to everyone with sheepish grins on their faces, before casting one small laughing glance at each other. More than one stunned onlooker is thinking, rightfully, that these two women, if they banded together, could rule the world.

They both settle their feathers like great raptors would, and both settle back into the presence of the room, back into reality, back into their individual selves. Both are grateful for those moments just past, but both know moments like those simply cannot last too long, or happen too often, anymore… not in this new life, this obscene and macabre dance between the scrambling, terrified living and the stumbling, hungry un-dead. Alice heaves another great sigh and the New England accent disappears

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as she begins to recount the story of how she’d got to be there. She speaks clearly and concisely, as always, as she was taught. She gestures to Steph, and then herself, as she says, “I’m sorry, I just…I laugh when I’m, uhm, „excited’. Like, adrenalin, you know, when I’m like nervous or hurt, or whatever. I pretty much laugh through everything but fear and anger, so…uh, please, please don’t think I find anything too funny anymore…,” she trails off for a moment, then begins again in a low but audible voice.

“My Daddy was a US Marine in his day, his tours ended just before the „Police Action’ in Viet Nam went all to hell in a big, ugly hurry. But, you know, „once a Marine, always a Marine’, they say. So, I guess, my big brother Garrett and I were grunts, for the most part; no gender biases to the grunt work, no separation of the sexes…oh! Unless of course, I had to put a dress on, then I had to act like a lady….”

Alice pulls a face on the word “lady”, and the other people in the room found themselves delighted by their own quiet laughter; it had been so long, too long, for all of them, since there’d been anything worth laughing over. They settle into an easy feeling as Alice continues; the fact that she’s well aware that everyone in the room has a story similar to her own is plain of her face.

Kristin Flanagan @aWeeG3 kristinflanagan@zombietraining.com