In popular zombie media, whether it’s literature, video games or
Hollywood blockbusters, one rule remains in all of them, and it’s “Go
for the head”. A blow to the brain is the only way to neutralize the
zombie. While this may be the case in “magical” zombies, it won’t be
in the case in virus-infected zombies, which also have other
shortcomings.

You do not have to necessarily go for the head. A zombie will still
need oxygen, through blood, to support itself, and food to keep up its
legendary endurance. Defying laws of science, if zombies were to be
taken realistically, its merely impossible. It may not be human,
because it no longer thinks, and is “dead” and decomposing, but its
organs still run, and it is every bit as vulnerable as a normal
person, albeit one that doesn’t feel pain.

Zombies aren’t anywhere close to indestructible. They are constantly
rotting, and in cold
weather, why will stiffen up and their blood temperature will eventually drop
down, and ‘die’, the cells would freze and burst, or may be even
cryogenically preserved. The undead will dry up and shrivel into a
skin bag of bones, and will eventually desiccate in a hot, dry desert
climate (another reason, besides gun laws, that why Texas is ideal).
In a humid environment (D.C. summers, Florida, Southeast Asia,
Hawaii), decomposition will be accelerated, and it will not smell
pleasant, but the zombies’ flesh may be literally fallingoff the bone,
like good barbecue (a bit gross, but true). The choice of humans at
their target also puts them at a distinct advantage. Their only food
source is their top predator and their only method of reproduction.
That’s like a seal trying to get a polar bear to make it a seafood
medley, while it’s trying to have sex with it. Of course, it won’t end
well. A zombie is merely a slow, limping and rotting human, with its
only advantage being its inability to feel pain.

The laws of nature will be upheld on the undead, unless the virus
itself has further purposes. Maybe it photosynthesizes, to produce
glucose to power those never tiring, rotting muscles. Perhaps it
contains an artificial replacement for hemoglobin, allowing the ghoul
to operate even once its blood has dried into dust. This isn’t
possible, yet, with ‘yet’ being the operative term here. Pairing
chlorophyll and hemoglobin with a mind-altering disease, presumably a
prion, and a virus would be extremely difficult, but don’t take my
word for it, I’m not a genetic scientist.

So when the outbreak starts, don’t immediately go for the head,
experiment with body shots.If that fails, use what’s in between their
ears, and destroy what in between theirs.
Written by QAZZY 1-9th

At some point during the zombie apocalypse, you will be running.  It is just a given fact that it will happen.  Hopefully when you are preparing for the day the undead walk the earth, you are doing so with comfort in mind.  With that said, you need to think about what shoes are best to run in.  Thankfully, RunningShoes.com has put together a great list of shoes that are worth consideration.

Check it out here: “Best Running Shoes for Zombie Apocalypse Survival”.

Stay safe. Stay informed. Stay alive.

In this article, we’re going to show you how to set up a hydroelectric power station near a water source. Hydroelectric power is a very efficient and almost unending source of power. If you are near a stream or river, then this information will aid you greatly after Z-day. Granted, this is a very simplified form of a power station, and only requires a few items which can easliy be scavenged.

List of required items:

Shovels, picks, post hole diggers, and other assorted digging equipment.
A measuring tape
Miter Box
A chalk line
A drill (Battery or hand powered)
A hammer
Nails
A hand saw
A metal file
A draw knife or hand planer
A wheel barrow
A garden rake, or concrete hoe.
A 5 gallon bucket
Qwik-Dry concrete (depending on the length of your channel, add bags accordingly)
A level
Several sheets of 4′x8′x1/2″ (again, the number you need will depend on the length of your channel.)
Several 2″x4″x8′
Several 4″x”4×8′
Several 1″x1″x? (length doesn’t really matter as long as its 2+ ft)
1 sheet of steel at least 1/8th of an inch thick. Dimensions at least 2′x2′
2 wooden pallets
20 car batteries
Spools of wire(large diameter wire for connecting the batteries, and home wiring to run from the power station to the Base)
A power inverter(12 or 24 volt will do)
A car alternator
A large pulley approximately 4 times the diameter of the one on the alternator
A steel rod the internal diameter of the large pulley(At least 3-5 feet long. Lowes and Tractor Supply has them.)
Either build or loot a small building to go over your alternator “Power Station”
A piece of hog fence panel to keep large debris out of your canal

Step 1: Excavation
Dig out a canal in a straight line or in a curve made from straight sections. Be sure to leave 2 feet of bank between the start of the canal and the water. Same for the end of the canal. Dig the bottom flat with a flat tip shovel, and level the bottom with dirt or gravel. Check it with the level. Also make sure the sides are as close 90 degrees as possible.

Step 2: Forming
To build forms for your canal to pour concrete for the sides use the plywood and 2x4s. Cut the plywood in 4 or 8 foot strips for the depth you dug your canal. Cut the 2x4s six inches to one foot longer than you need them so you can drive them into the floor of your canal. Make a 4 inch gap between the wall of the ditch and your form, then drive it into the ground. You can add Rebar if you want, but its not necessary.

Step 3: Pouring
Follow mixing directions on the bags. You’re going to need a constant pour for your walls, so you’re going to have to mix and pour as fast as you can. You can just use the concrete mix, or you can add gravel to stretch it a little farther. If at all possible, have 2 sets of people mixing and one running the concrete back and forth. Pour to the top of the form, then smooth it down level with the ground. After giving both sides 24 hours to set, remove your forms and mark 4 inches up from the bed of your canal and pour the bottom a 4 foot section at a time, that way you can smooth it out without having to reach down from the bank. In the summer it will only take about 4-5 hours before you can stand on the concrete and pour the next section. If you pour one at each end, and work towards the middle, you can accomplish more pouring and get done faster. When pouring the section closest to the beginning of your canal, be sure to place the hog fencing in the mouth of the canal before you concrete the floor. This will act as a grate that will keep large debris out of your canal. Attach it to the sides of canal with brackets and concrete screws so that it doesn’t get washed away. You can also put in a water gate after the grate so that you can stop the flow of water to the wheel in case of a storm, repairs, ect. When Pouring the section closest to the end of the canal, you can put in a slight rise that tapers up about a quarter way to the top of the far end, this keeps the water way full, but still flowing at a good rate while negating back flow from the creek, river, ect.

Step 4: Building your water wheel
You can go old school and build the whole thing out of wood, or make the whole thing from metal. Here, I’ll describe a method for wooden contruction. It worked for centuries, so it’ll do for us. You’re going to want at least 8 radial arms on your wheel. You don’t have to make one like you see on old timey flour mills or anything. One like a paddle wheel will work. Just take a piece of 4×4 and use a draw knife on the corners until you get a nice octogon shape. Then use your drill and drill a hole into the center of your octagonal piece for the metal dowel rod. Using a metal file, file a flat spot on the part of the rod where you want your water wheel then drill a hole through the rod. Now, drill a hole in the octagonal bit of wood near the center. (On one of the eight planes you created.) Then, line the drill bit up over the hole you drilled into the metal rod and drill all the way through the other side of the octogon. Now, put a flush mount bolt through the wood and rod. (More than one may be required.) Now when the water wheel turns, the rod will too. Now to affix your radial arms. Using your 1″x1″s, affix one piece measuring 2ft long on one end of the octogon in an X pattern, making sure that they line up with corresponding planes on the octogon. Do the same on the opposite side. Now, use your miter box to cut a V shape at an angle (45ish degrees) so that you can affix them on the remaining 4 planes on both sides of the octogon. Now that you have 8 radial arms per side, you can connect them, making a larger octogon that looks something like a Ferris Wheel from the County Fair. Where the buckets would be on the Ferris Wheel is where you’ll put your paddles. Use some Plywood for the paddles. Attach them to the under side of each radial arm so that you’re not drilling into the side of the plywood, its not made to join from the sides and it will split, which will make it weak if not a total clusterfuck.

Step 5: Mounting your Water Wheel
To mount your Water wheel, what you want to do is pretty much build a table, but one that won’t go anywhere when there’s a load applied to the wheel. Cut 4 of your 4x4s down to 5 feet. (Make sure and adjust the height from ground to fit your surroundings, if 4 feet is too high, then lower it so the wheel makes better contact with the water.) Now, make a rectangular table with the 4x4s as the legs and use 2x4s for the table sides, measuring 2 feet wide by 4 feet long. You want the long side parallel to your canal. Dig holes 2 foot deep for each of the legs, and concrete them in the holes. Wait till the concrete has set up, then use another piece of 4×4 as a bearing, on either side of the table by drilling a hole just large enough for the rod. The large pulley will go on the rod between these two bearings. You now need a plug to hold your wheel in position. Cut a 4 inch square of 2×4 and drill a hole in the center so it will fit on the rod. Get your water wheel positioned where you’d like it on its horizontal axis, and file a flat spot where you want to put the square you just cut. Drill though the square and flat spot like you did for the water wheel and put a bolt through this as well. Now you have a lateral motion inhibitor on one side. Do this again for the side of the rod inside the “table” and now the wheel will have no horizontal movement when in use. If you hadn’t done this it’d be all over the place or just run till it fell out, trust me. Now that your water wheel and large pulley are mounted, you want to put a few pieces of 2×4 on the opposite end of the table and mount your alternator. Be sure to align the pulleys so they have less than 1/4″ difference in their verticle orientation or your belt will constantly jump off the pulleys. A long level works well for this alignment. Build a shed around your “Power Station” and run your wires to your battery bank, which should be inside your base on wooden pallets.

Step 6:Finishing Your Canal
Now that you have finished the walls and floor, and built your power station, you’ll want to remove the earth thats keeping the water from flowing through your canal. Remove the far end first, then the beginning. If you built in a water gate, then you can open and close it at your leisure, but do so slowly, so that the rush of water doesn’t damage your water wheel or power station. If you didn’t build a gate, remove the last earthen wall slowly, letting water pour over the top as you remove the rest.

Step 7: Building your Battery Bank
Ok, we said use 20 or so car batteries. Since no one else will be using them, try and use all the same type of car batteries. Scavenge them from Auto parts stores, walmart, ect. Put them on wooden pallets over a concrete floor. A garage is the perfect place, just never ever use an open flame around it, car batteries vent hydrogen gas, which will explode. Now you want to wire them up in PARALLEL, NOT IN A SERIES. This is how you do that. Now that you have all of that accomplished, pat yourself on the back. Take a 5 minute break. We’re not done yet. To make this all work so that you can have power in your home, you have to use a power inverter. Just run wires off of your battery bank to the inverter, and then you can plug in an extension cord, power strips, ect. Just watch the volt meter on the inverter. If it gets below 10 volts, stop using electric until it goes back up. You run the risk of depleting your batteries. You need a good power managment system to run stuff constantly. Make a list of priorities and stick to it, don’t abuse your power grid.

Now you can really celebrate, because you now have electricity! Yay! Now you can have cold beer, cook food without fire, stay warm, stay cool, watch dvds, and all that neat stuff you did before the power grid failed. Now if you can augment your hydroelectric with a touch of solar power, then you can really run power night and day.

If most people are to be believed then the zombie apocalypse will occur in the matter of hours, or at most days, swiftly covering the world in a rotting, moaning, ever hungry blitzkrieg. However, is this how I will occur? Where and how will the infection spread?

While often times those who are preparing for the rise of the undead are prepared for massive onslaughts and waves of the undead is this really what will happen? If one is inclined to step back from the fear of the undead and look at the reality of our world, one will come to realize that the spread of the undead will take time and not be a quick conquest of us. Here are the reasons why.

1.       A wide spread species: Mankind is not a tight knit species, we are spread all over the world with really three major land masses as our home. While the infection can spread with unprecedented speed compared to other eras, there is still time and space required for it to get from one place to the other. Even an infected man who has yet to turn and who is one able to fly, and two capable of obtaining a plane may die and turn before he reaches an uninfected area. Also, even if the infection does reach a population center, those in the rural areas are not likely to be in immediate danger from the infected.

2.       Technology: News travels fast, and even if those spinning the news do not know what the zombies really are they are likely to spread the news to untold numbers giving those of us who have prepared an opportunity to get ready for the fight, get to our safe areas, and to block the infection from reaching us.

3.       Resourcefulness: We are nothing if not resourceful and inventive. Under extreme circumstance men of action have forever found way to overcome and thrive. Those willing to fight and who are strong willed and minded can often times find ways out of situation where the average man would just give up. A man with a will may find a way to escape and fight back.

4.       The undead: Even as dangerous the undead are, they are not gods. They are slow, stupid and predictable. They do not plan, they do not organize but in the most basic of the concept of organize. They can be beaten, they can be defeated.

5.       Mankind itself: Man is inventive, and those in rural areas that are not infected during the opening outbreaks, they will be able to prepare and through trial and error, as well as communication between other surviving groups they may be able be to find ways of combating the undead while at the same time prospering.

In the end the infection will not spread as quickly as some believe. It will take time and those who stay alert and watch from the first signs may be able to get away from population center before they are infected, before the cities fall. The likely outcome of a major outbreak, a worldwide outbreak, not a mankind killer, but one where tens of millions are killed, is that man will flee population centers and a more agrarian society may likely form.

For those that might not be aware (those like me) Discovery is airing season two of a very interesting and pertinent series titled “The Colony”.  According to Discovery, the premise behind this series is as follows:

“THE COLONY is an experiment that simulates a post-apocalyptic world in which volunteers are tasked with surviving and rebuilding everything from scratch, using only raw ingenuity and supplies they scavenge from their environment. Here’s your destination to learn more about these bold experiments into a dark future that holds the promise of hopeful regeneration.”

Their season premier caught my eye immediately.

But the show is not about zombies, right?

Correct.  It is not about zombies.  However, when the undead walk and pillage the earth, would that not be a global catastrophe?  Surely many, if not most, of the issues the colonists in this television series face could apply to a post-outbreak world.  The basic concepts of survival and pushing beyond such a horrific event would still apply.  How do you know that your way of finding out about the attack would not come from some type of instant quarantine where you have very little control over how you react?

Despite what many believe, when zombies attack, it will not be as simple as grabbing your fully automatic shotgun with unlimited ammunition and hopping into the tank that is parked in your backyard. You will most likely not find yourself in a totally secure area with loads of basic supplies.  Chances are you are not an excellent marksman with years of training as a survivalist.

Chances are, you are a regular Joe.  If that is the case, how would you survive.  And not just that, how you would move forward?

So while this series is fictional and not surrounding a zombie-centered plot, The Colony is great research for gathering and collecting survival tips for when we are finally face to face with the zeds.

The study of soldiering, especially tactics, is very important. We have a 4 thousand year recorded history of war, it would behoove you to study it. Besides, it’s interesting stuff. I have included a list of books that I have found useful in the study of military history, revolutionary warfare, tactics and skills. The list is long, but far from complete. They are not equally useful so I have added comments that might help you pick some or prioritize.

The Ranger Handbook
by the US Army Infantry Board
This is perhaps the single greatest book on small unit tactics out there. The sections on fire support and Army aviation are about useless to us. But there are excellent sections on operation orders, patrolling, movement, battle drills etc.. Look out for the version you get. Some our a nice handy pocket size but might approach unreadable (due to the fact that it has been copied and downsized.)

Book of two Guns
By Tiger McKee
Getting instructional information on practical shooting from a book is pretty hard. It is a “hands on thing” and there is no way of escaping this. But, Tiger McKee makes a good job of it here. The book is basically his observations from taking classes from and teaching practical rifle and pistol marksmanship for many years. There is a lot of interesting “mindset” and psychology of combat information up front that I really liked. Then the book gets down to business and covers various shooting, malfunction and tactical drills. While the book is mostly about the 1911 pistol and the AR carbine most of the skills will apply to any rifle/pistol combo. If you read and then practiced what he says you will learn much faster than just practicing on your own. Some people might not like the format, basically the book looks like a classroom notebook, hand written and all, but I think it’s pretty clever.

Light Infantry Tactics: For Small Teams
by Christopher , E. Larsen (Author)
This book maybe replaces the venerable Ranger Handbook for the Citizen Soldier. This book does a very good job at outlining various dismounted infantry skills. It does it in a way that escapes the pitfalls of military FMs… i.e. to much stuff that doesn’t apply to the civilian, poor print quality etc. It is in an easy to read format that makes the information accessible and understandable. Illustrations are timely and helpful. It addresses individual skills, leadership skills and group skills. Individual skills cover things like camouflage and hand signals, leadership skills cover things like patrol planning and op orders, group skills are communications and various tactics. I would like to see a small, pocket sized field version, but that is a trade off for readability.

Total Resistance: Swiss Army Guide to Guerrilla Warfare and Underground Operations
By Major H. Von Dach Bern
The Swiss long planned to be overrun in the next major European conflict. This was the manual they came up with, a guide for citizens to continue the fight against a totalitarian occupying force. It has a lot of stuff you will have a hard time finding elsewhere. Including a lot of stuff on tactics and logistics specific to resistance movements, supplies and setting up a secure resistance organization.

Other Military Field Manuals
There are a whole lot of these out there, many of them can be found online for free (in downloadable PDF format) you might want to check “Global Security” for this, or on Amazon. The problem is that most of them assume that you will have the resources of the Army writing them. It takes a good bit of sifting to figure out what is useful for you. I have listed a few that I find helpful.

FM 5-31 Boobytraps
– Includes a lot of pre-made, yet unavailable to you stuff.

FM 21-75 Combat Skills of the Soldier
–Very good for beginners (including all of us)

FM 7-8 Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad
–Similar to Ranger Handbook

FM 90-10-1 Infantryman’s Guide to Combat in Built Up Areas (MOUT)
-Good info in urban high intensity combat

There are also good Canadian FMs out there. Search for Canadian Field Manual “Ambush,” “Fieldcraft” and “Patrolling.” Each is a separate manual. I find that they provide a useful non-American viepoint.

Leadership and Training for the Fight
by Paul Howe
Howe is a retired Master Sergeant with many years in the military’s special operations community. You might remember him as “Sanderson” in the movie Blackhawk Down. This book is his bible on how to prepare for serious conflict. It gave me more insight on preparing for combat than any book I have read. Some of the stuff will be useless for the most of us (particularly the stuff on selection), but it is well worth the read.

SAS Survival Guide Handbook
by John ‘lofty’ Wiseman
Considered by many to be the end all of survival manuals. It covers valuable (non-combat) survival skills in a clear and concise way. You can’t fight if you die of exposure folks! If you can find the smaller version I would get it… the one I have is a bit large to fit in a pack.

How to Survive Anything, Anywhere
by Chris McNab
Chris McNab should not be confused with Andy McNab the SAS vet and author of several books. Chris primarily rights books on military history, but also writes excellent books on survival and combat skills. This book might be a slight bit better than the SAS Survival Manual listed above, if you are only going to get one. What it has, that the SAS manual doesn’t, is insight into how to survive more manmade disasters, and “street” survival skills.

The Counter-Insurgency Manual
by Leroy Thompson
I’m not sure what Thompson’s credentials are but this book brings together an eclectic number of topics. There is a review of the works of Mao, Che Guevara and Marighella that will alow the beginning student of guerilla warfare to skip them (for now.) There are also interesting topics that will not apply to the citizen soldier. There are good explanations of ambush and counter ambush techniques and information on small unit patrolling, with diagram. It also brings in examples from just about every low intensity conflict fought since the 1950s, with a lot of good pictures. What this book lacked is a good editor, it’s like a high school student wrote it.

Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook
by David Werner
This is a comprehensive book on medical care beyond first aid. Most civilian medical info is geared towards “get them to a doctor as fast as possible.” As the title suggests this is what you do when you can’t. There is also a “Where there is no dentist,” out there. Probably as useful, but I haven’t read it.

Blackjack-33
by James Donahue
This is a story of how unconventional warfare, how it should be done. It is the personal history of the author as he served with the Mobile Guerilla Force in Vietnam. While short on actual skills you will learn, or equipment lists etc. It offers valuable insight in to what it takes to fight this kind of war. I enjoyed it immensely. This is the middle book of a trilogy, all are good but this is a decent place to start if you might not have time to read them all.

On Guerrilla Warfare
by Mao Tse-tung
No, I’m not a communist, (in fact I’m a dedicated ANTI-communist) but this is an interesting book on the Guerrilla war waged by the Red Chinese against the Japanese. Most US Military manuals assume you are fighting within the constraints of the larger military machine, with all the advantages that gives. You will more likely be fighting alone on the streets or in small bands and have none of these advantages. It would do any armchair soldier to read something written by a man who actually did it. This is available free online in several places.

Guerrilla Warfare
by Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Same as above, but with a more modern perspective and more interesting stories. Che was “in the grass” more than Mao. You can tune out his Communist/Socialist diatribes. This is also available free online in several places.

Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla
by Carlos Marighella
I hope you’ve heard of Mao and Che, but maybe not Carlos Marighella. He was a revolutionary in Brazil. Some of the types of operations outlined may seem distasteful to you, but reading about them and keeping them in your toolbox can’t hurt. Still the same as above, but geared towards the “urban guerrilla.” The tactics are better outlined and explained.

Phantom Soldier: The Enemy’s Answer to U.S. Firepower
by H. John Poole
Poole is a Marine Vietnam Veteran and serious writer on the things that are wrong with the US Military (and they seem to be listening.) In this book he examines several enemies of Americas past. He focuses on the Vietnamese and Japan, but the gist is methods that they used to overcome America’s technological superiority. It is well illustrated with diagrams of positions and tactics. This is a truly handy book, and a must for every library on this sort of subject.

The Tiger’s Way: A U.S. Private’s Best Chance for Survival
by H. John Poole
Another Poole book. This one advises ways to enhance military training to face the changing battlefield. It explores the mistakes of the past and suggests ways to correct them.

Home Workshop Explosives
by “Uncle Fester”
Explosives manufacture and use is an important skill area. Of course, it is also illegal for just about everyone. I don’t suggest you do anything in here, but having this book set aside for a rainy day is a good idea. If you don’t have a little chemistry background though, it might be next to useless. Also. “Uncle Fester” is a nom de plume of a guy who (I think) would agree with my thoughts. I don’t blame him for wanting to remain anonymous. He has written other books on drug productions (something I don’t recommend.) I think he writes to “stick it to the man.” Not a bad thing in and of itself. Anyway… explosives are

Improvise (d) Munitions Black Book volumes 1&2
by The US Army
These books achieve about the same thing as Uncle Fester’s book above. But it has a more “from scratch” methodology. By this I mean you probably won’t need a background in chemistry, but the end results probably won’t be quite as useful. There are also pages on how to employ these things and copious diagrams. Again, I suggest you only have this book as a reference.

Tactical Advantage: A Definitive Study Of Personal Small-Arms Tactics
by Gabriel Suarez
Gabriel Suarez has written a lot of books on tactical shooting. I would suggest this book as a guide to in the house “CQB” tactics for the interested civilian. Lots of good advice, with good pictures and diagrams to explain it. I would ignore the stuff up front though. His comments on mindset are way off the mark and he may be the cockiest writer I have ever read.

To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth
By Jeff Cooper
Ex Marine Colonel Jeff Cooper is considered to be the father of modern practical shooting. While the shooting we do now has evolved a great deal, it is worth it to read it from the beginning. This book is a collection of Coopers articles. Very few of them deal directly with shooting. They are more “philosophical.” It is darn good reading though. If you’re looking for direct shooting advice there are better books, some by Colonel Cooper.

Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
by Mark Bowden
War is a horrific ugly thing. This is even truer in the modern day and age. Just to get away from thinking that it might be a merry good time I suggest you read this book. It is of course the story of the Battle of Mogadishu where 100 or so Army SpecOps types fought thousands of local Militia in an African shit-hole. It is in your face reality based on the eyewitness accounts of dozens of participants on both sides. It is also a good example of what happens when well-trained and equipped warriors meet up against a savage undisciplined mob.

This was brought to you by www.everycitizenasoldier.org
This guy has his crap in order. I suggest you guys read some of his site to gain valuable insight into survival and military training. A well prepared soldier can hold off many times his number in unarmed combatants. ( I.E. Zombies)
It also may help you to watch some videos on youtube of this guy doing shooting drills, we’ll be doing many of the same things at the Z.A.C. T.A.C.T. event.

http://www.youtube.com/user/excurrahee

Those who are preparing for the zombie apocalypse often assume that the zombies that they will be facing will be a cookie cutter scene removed from the movies. The dumb, shambling, slack jawed and gore covered moron that has no situational awareness and begs to be put down like an ailing pet. But what if they weren’t?

                While there are those who will claim that there will be no difference between zombies when the time comes one must assume that since there are difference between humans there will also be differences between the undead.

                What the title of this article implies that there will be those zombies that we may run into that possess a degree of intuition. They are not necessarily  smart, or smarter, but they possess certain powers of reason. They do not make like lemmings and walk off the edge of the cliff but stop and go around. They avoid fire and understand that they can use ladders to find victims.

                While this may not seem plausible to some there is a very real danger. That danger lies in the laws of probabilities will bring forth the fact that with a large enough population you will invariably get a confirmation of your hypothesis. While there will be a large number of those who ignore this completely, on must consider that while you may never engage a zombie with any degree of intuition the idea that they may save your very life. Thinking that your enemy is smarter than they truly are may seem simple but preparing for the worst can be the difference between walking away and shambling behind the survivors.

They are emotionless, unflinching, they fear nothing on this Earth, they do not complain when given an order, or do they fear their own demise. They are but machines. Truly that is all a robot is, a machine, perhaps extremely complex and expensive, perhaps intelligent and capable of telling the difference from friend or foe, they are nevertheless machines.

At the dawn of the twenty first century the military is testing and fielding robots, while not the killing machines of the movies they are more than capable of destroying a man. Mounted with machineguns, rocket launchers, the latest Metal Storm weapons, and the odd sniper rifle, they provide a stable gun platform that can rarely be imitated by a human and at less danger the our own men’s lives.As with the personalities of man, these robots have just as many flavors. There are armed and unarmed, mobile, and stationary. They are powered by batteries, and solar powered, controlled by man and independent of manual control. There are ones that are designed to search and destroy and wait for extended lengths of time for the foe to come their way.

And from the science fiction books and movie scientists are now becoming capable of producing, at least on the small scale, nano technologies. Robots so small that they can travel in our blood.

However, against an undead foe, the zombie, what use can such weapons be? This is the question I leave for the readers, can these weapons of the future be utilized against our foe? Or are these hopes for artificial intelligence and nano technologies saving mankind nothing more than a good show, and wishful thinking?

This might delve into a more debated issue regarding the origin of the zombie, however, would you entertain the notion that someone could take on the characteristics of a zombie without actually being undead?
Via CNN and VBS.tv comes a story about the “Zombie Drug”.  This drug, which is claimed to have only two uses, to rob or to kill, is said to render the victim unaware of their actions.  One victim reported waking up in a park, beaten.  If under the effects of such a drug, could one be confused for a zombie?  Further, could a widespread use or application of the drug cause a faux outbreak that would be misinterpreted as an undead apocalypse?

Eric Lanford talks to a VBS.TV reporter about a deadly Colombian drug that can turn people into zombies. Watch the video via CNN and decide for yourself.

 

New research has pushed a new theory forward on why the undead, living dead, or more commonly, the zombie are driven to feed upon the living.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, Ga

In many horror movies zombies can be seen lurching forward in an effort to catch and consume the living and, as a result, creating more zombies in their wake. What is never explained is why these zombies attempt to do so. Hollywood takes wild stabs at possible theories, however, much like their attempts at zombie survival tactics, their dissemination of correct information falls short.  Lately, a team of researchers have been working to answer the question of why zombies attack. Their research brought forth a theory that has been untouched as of yet.

Researchers, after an exhaustive study, now claim the zombie is not driven to devour the flesh of the living in a need to feed, rather the zombie is driven to reproduce.

This theory came about by looking at the behavior of both zombies and living creatures in nature. Most living creatures, including humans, are driven to spread their genetic materials through offspring to continue the species and their own legacy. The theory is that the virus that creates and drives the zombie is no different. It is driven to spread and reproduce, but unlike amoebas which through binary fission, or splitting into two identical parts, or mammals which reproduce through sexual reproduction, the zombie instead can only reproduce by infecting a person and to do so there must be a transfer of fluids which contain the virus.

Many studies have proven that the saliva and blood of the zombie contains the greatest concentration of the virus that causes the change of a human being into the zombie.

“Through classified government resources, we have been able to simulate undead behavior.  An independent third party of behavioral scientists along with our team of researchers has compiled a comprehensive study which we feel will change the way zombies are viewed,” stated an insider who shall remain anonymous.  “With this information, not only can we adequately prepare for when the dead walk, but we might be able to create new methods to combat them.”

While the theory is still in the testing phase, it holds great promise in understanding the zombie and its nature. With luck this will be one of many breakthroughs to come in understanding the zombie menace and why it acts how it does.  The team also hopes to use the information to develop an early warning system, despite skeptics among the group who feel their governments will never allow the information to go mainstream.