Getting out of a city.

HA!  Finally got around to posting something else!  Sorry for the delay, and the one to come tomorrow.  I know, the schedule I managed to put together is flolloping around, but I honestly can't help it.  I'm working hard at a bunch of things, and I just don't have as much time to write.  So, unfortunately, I'm going to have to downgrade the update schedule to once every two or three days.  I'm not happy about it, and I'll reinstate the 1 day, 1 post schedule as soon as I can, but for now, I'm going to have to hold back.  I hope you understand.  Now, I'll get out of your way so you can read the new post.

 Cities are extremely dangerous places during a zombie outbreak.  They have the highest concentration of supplies of any location aside from a storehouse, making them the first place many people will go to search for supplies.  Gridlock will spread to every street, making car travel impossible from the beginning.  Riots will break out and arson, mugging, and murder rates will all spike.  Most of the people in the city will be out of shape, stuck in the gridlock, or both, and won't be able to escape in time, causing a super-high density of zombies in the area.  It will be very difficult to escape without help.  Of course, that's the first part of survival in a disaster: band together with other people.  Have someone, or several someones, travel with you to watch your back.  If you can arrange a place to meet some trusted friends during a disaster, like in a park or near a school--wherever it's likely to be safe--do it.  If you can't, or don't have any people you can trust, find people.  Even if you have to share supplies, an extra pair of eyes and hands will help more than an extra day's worth of food, especially in the city where so many doors will need to be forced.
  The second part of survival is just as obvious: have a plan and supplies already laid out.  Even if you can only get a state map, a water bottle, and a few pop-top cans of soup together, do it, because if you don't, you have to scavenge for supplies, and you do not want to do that when the 5-hit (you know what I mean) is going down.  Have your route and supplies ready to go from the start.
  Third, get a weapon.  Supplies help you stay ready for any disaster and keep you alive for the first few days, but a weapon will be critical for surviving the week.  Even if you don't encounter any zombies in the city, a weapon will give you the means to fend off looters and other people who want your supplies but don't want to trade for them.  Target + weapon = less of a target, you know?  Anyways, get something with which to defend yourself.  You might not want to fight, but if you can't avoid a confrontation, it's better to have something besides your words and fists.
  Fourth, just go.  If you have loved ones in the city and want to look for them, fine, but when you're ready to leave, don't look back.  If you left the burner on, there'll be plenty of other fires to worry about so yours probably won't make much difference.  You can find supplies, weapons, and companions on your way to safer lands, but if you haven't left town (or, in this case, city) by the time the infected arrive, you're pretty much boned.  Do yourself a favor and don't stop running until the city is a gray splotch in the distance.

Entertainment.

Alright, it's about time I put out some new material.  Hope you like it.

  When you're bored, you get tired more easily, become impatient, and lose most of your ability to flex with new developments.  You can't concentrate well, either, and that's more likely to kill you than not having a weapon.  Fortunately, the solution is simple: stay entertained.  Play cards, learn new things, tell stories, share ideas, do what you love to do.  Whatever you do for the day, leave some time for yourself.  If you like writing, make time to write.  Keep a journal.  Invent short stories.  Do anything.  You need it as much as you need food or air, because without it you will not survive.  Don't force yourself to have fun, and don't force yourself to be serious: neither one works.  And without some measure of pleasure, life isn't really worth living.

The three bag system.

Since I wasn't able to do any research today (thanks to two several-hours-long events about which nobody felt like telling me), I'm going to move away from weapons for a bit and talk about carrying and distributing equipment.  I call this the "three bag" system, for reasons that'll become obvious.

  First, make a bag of the smallest and most important equipment in your kit.  This is called the carry bag.  You should be able to fit some dried food, water purification tablets, a little medical kit, and other light, vital equipment in the bag, and it should be secure without you holding on to it.  You should carry everything in plastic bags or some other waterproof container.  Slipping my own preference in here, I recommend a fanny pack because it won't carry so much that you're tempted to put in too much, but has more than enough space for the things you'll need the most.  If you want to, you can also keep items in your pants pockets, but make sure that none of them will fall out when you move quickly or upside down and that they'll survive a plunge underwater.  Again, plastic bags come to the rescue.
  Second, make a bag of less important but still very useful equipment.  This is your drop bag, full of the items that'll keep you healthy if you lose most of your supplies, but "droppable" so long as you have your carry bag.  Backpacks work beautifully for this, because they won't fall off if you run but you can still get them off in a hurry if you need to dump weight.  And remember not to carry everything in here: if you need to run, you should be able to quickly strip off anything stopping you from sprinting, including this, without risking your life in the near future.
  Third, fill a bag with the heaviest, least important equipment you have.  If things get hairy, you should be able to ditch this and run while keeping all of your more important things in your drop and carry bags.  If you can retrieve the bag, great. If something stops you, though, you should be able to live off of the things in your other two bags until you find more gear.  I recommend a duffel bag because it's big enough to carry more than what you need, durable enough to survive a fall, and designed to be easy to carry.

Shotguns, part 3.

  For all of the rounds here, I have only confirmed their existence in 12 gauge, not in 20 gauge (or any other gauge or bore).  All have their uses, but are best used as supplements to conventional shot and slug rounds.
  First up is the breaching slug.  This round is usually made of metal powder and resin and is designed to destroy locks without ricocheting.  When it hits, the slug dumps all its kinetic energy into the lock and bursts apart into a powder too small to hurt anyone nearby.  It causes massive injury to a human target, just like any other round, but won't penetrate as far and will flatten and spread much more.  If you have these rounds available, they're great for entering locked houses, cracking safes, and so on.  But in order to release its energy safely, the powder needs to dissipate.  If you press your shotgun's barrel against the lock you want to breach, some of the powder might ricochet back into your gun, damaging its barrel.  To avoid this, just hold the shotgun a little ways away from the lock you're trying to blast open.  These rounds aren't as accurate as solid slugs, and they aren't likely to penetrate more than one target, so you'll find the most use for them in a house or other enclosed space where a ricocheting bullet would be...problematic.
  Second is the flash-bang round.  Designed for law-enforcement use, it works just like a grenade of the same name, though with a smaller area of effect.  True to its name, this round bursts on impact with a flash of light and a disorienting bang.  It makes a great distraction, and you can buy it online or from certain surplus stores.  It isn't lethal--the worst this does is bruise its target--but is still a wonderful tool, especially because actual flash-bang grenades are hard to get and (possibly) illegal.  In any case, this round is very useful but not meant for use indoors (unless you fire it from outside).  This kind of round should only be used with hearing protection, and maybe a pair of sunglasses.  Just in case, try to close your eyes before it goes off.
  Third is the incendiary round.  This is...interesting.  I wouldn't go out to buy one, though.  If you want to set something on fire, there are less expensive ways to do it: an incendiary shell, where it's legal to buy, costs between 5 and 20 dollars.  That's for just one.  And it isn't really that efficient, because it fires its payload over a period of  3-5 seconds.  And it would be a horrible idea to eject the round before it goes out--unless you want a flaming, spinning shotgun cartridge near your head.  Also, you shouldn't fire this from a semiautomatic or automatic shotgun, for the previous reason and because it doesn't always give enough recoil to completely cycle the action.  It's a very situation-specific round, best made for lighting things on fire from afar or signalling to people.  Really, this round isn't very useful.
  Fourth is the bolo round.  Its name is derived from the word "bolas," a hunting tool which consisted of two wooden balls tied together with a strip of leather.  A hunter would whirl it over his head and then throw it at his target's legs, entangling them and tripping the animal.  This weapon was very accurate in the hands of an experienced user, and could even kill the target by strangulation if thrown properly.
  The bolo round carries the form of the bolas, but not its spirit: made of of two round slugs joined together by a long wire, it fires inaccurately but slices into soft targets with its wire, causing horrendous wound channels.  This is no sniper's round, but its effect makes the bolo round well worth considering.  Just remember to use it at close range.
  (Note: using the bolo round as an improvised amputation tool is a very, very bad idea, not least because of its random flight pattern and the possibility that it won't cut through the bone entirely.  Don't even think of trying it.)

Shotguns, part 2.

It's AMMUH TIEM!!!1!

  There are two main types of shotgun ammunition: shells, which fire a swarm of pellets at your enemy, and slugs, which are pretty much big bullets in a shotgun cartridge.  Slugs need various things to line them up with the barrel, since there's some extra space in the sleeve that the slug doesn't fill, but you should only worry about that if you're planning on reusing your shotgun cartridges.  If you're doing that, I suggest that you look up detailed instructions or take a class: I'm really not the guy to ask about that.  Anyways, most slugs are best fired out of a shotgun with a rifled barrel: spinning gives the bullet stability by "averaging out" any imperfections in the bullet's weight, just like how a spinning gyroscope would work.  This explains why this weight distribution is called the gyroscopic effect.  However, this rifling also makes shotgun pellets spread out in a ring, thanks to the effects of centrifugal "force."  At close range, this doesn't matter so much, but it becomes more and more problematic the further away you go.  A slug gun isn't meant to fire shot, so it doesn't do it well.  No surprises there.
  A smoothbore shotgun has a smooth, unrifled barrel.  It lets the shotgun pellets fly around randomly, filling the shotgun's cone of fire instead of ringing it.  But--and there's always a drawback, isn't there?--the smooth barrel doesn't give a bullet spin, making any slugs fired from it fly about as well as musket balls.  Normal slug plus smoothbore shotgun equals control failure.  Again, no surprises.
  But smoothbore shotguns have a kind of slug that they can fire accurately.  These slugs have rifling along their outsides which lets them spin in a smooth barrel.  Since spin = gyroscopic effect, the bullets fire true.  With this innovation, the shotgun has surpassed rifled barrels.  A rifled slug in an unrifled barrel may not be as accurate as an unrifled slug in a rifled barrel (I don't know), but it's certainly good enough to hit enemies a good ways away.  Adding that to the shotgun's ability to fire shot effectively, and it becomes the clear choice for versatile use.  Unless you've got a shotgun with interchangeable barrels, in which case that one wins.  Or if you've got a shotgun with multiple barrels and feeds.  Then that wins.

I'll stop.

Shotguns, part 1.

Before I get into the meat of the subject of shotguns, I need to address one misconception: Shotguns aren't just close-range weapons: in a standard shotgun barrel, any shells you fire will only spread by about one inch per yard--and that's in diameter.  At 25 yards, the shot spread is only two feet wide!  And at close, close range--let's say 4 or five yards--you'll only have that many inches as your margin of error when you fire.  If you use a shotgun, you still have to be pretty much on target, and you'll almost never hit a zombie next to the one you’re targeting.  But thanks to 00 (double-aught) buckshot and dangerously massive shotgun slugs, you stand a pretty good chance of hitting anything behind your target.  Since this might include your buddies, though, remember to check what's around your target before you fire (this applies when you use any gun of any caliber, but if you use a shotgun, you really have to remember this).  Shotguns aren't the zombie hunter’s dream , but they're definitely not a terrible choice of weaponry.  They work like artillery, load about as many different types of ammo (but we'll get back to that later), and destroy in their effective range (which, keep in mind, changes depending on the ammo type you're using).  In fact, they're a great complement to anything long-range, which might be why some people put them under their assault rifles.  Just a thought.

Rifles, part 3.

I mentioned rifle attachments earlier, but never really got into them.  All you really need is a good scope, but goodies like the bayonet are always welcome.  But there are a few options that you really should consider.
  I've got mixed feelings about suppressors.  While they do reduce the sound your gun makes, they cost a lot and are difficult to buy.  You need money, a clean record, and sometimes a few connections just to get a license for one.  Then you need to get a specially threaded barrel to use it, and then you need the suppressor itself. and once a suppressor is worn out, you have to go through the whole system again to get it.  Don't misunderstand me: suppressors are useful.  I want one.  They're just a pain to get and replace, leaving out the whole "suppressors don't work like the ones in the movies" thing.  If you can get one, go ahead, but test out how quiet your gun actually becomes when you use your "silenced" weapon.
  If you're in an urban environment, you'll want to exchange the scope for some sort of reflex sight.  The red dot ones are probably the most famous, but there are other types out there. It wouldn't be a bad idea to pick one up.  They're fairly cheap, as far as attachments go, and they aren't regulated like suppressors.
  Laser sights and tactical lights are good nighttime equipment, and the combination laser/light models are, as they say, "twice as nice," but this stuff isn't actually critical.  Still, take what edges you can get.

Rifles, part 2.

Rifle calibers are a lot like pistol calibers.  However, while pistol round casings are almost always cylindrical, rifle rounds are often tapered.  Not always, as you can see with the .22 Long Rifle (.22LR) round, but usually.

  Now that the warning is out of the way, you’re free to think about what you want to use.  The .22LR is an excellent choice, made for closer range than most rounds but extremely abundant.  The .270 Winchester, .308, and .223 Remington rounds are all good choices as well, and the .30-06 has sniper-level range and precision to make up for its weight.  All of these rounds are useful in their own way, and each is better than its fellows at something.  It’s all give and take, just like with different pistol rounds.  Test each round out and make your choice; it’s hard to go wrong with a rifle.

  Now, let's talk about feeding systems.  There are five in all, though you probably only have access to four of them, and they are as follows: bolt-action, lever-action, pump-action (yes, for a rifle), semiautomatic, and automatic.  Bolt-, lever-, and pump-action rifles are some of the sturdiest and most reliable firearms you can get.  If you operate any of their actions fully, they pretty much will cycle.  They also tend to be the most accurate, shooting accurately at distances approaching--and even exceeding--a mile.  You'll have an extremely hard time of finding a gun more accurate than a bolt-action hunting rifle.

  Semiautomatics are all-around rifles.  They snipe well enough, often as well as the revered bolt-action rifle, and can fire quickly when you need a lot of lead in a lot of bodies.  But since hunting semiautomatics often have small magazines, you'll probably find that this technique works better with carbines.  Still, hooray for options!

  Fully automatic rifles are the ones you'll have trouble getting.  The license to buy an automatic rifle is much more expensive than a normal rifle license, and also harder to get--although this is affected by where you live.  Automatic rifles are excellent weapons, useful for mowing down infected and making any would-be thief’s day very, very bad, but the kick of automatic fire is hefty and takes practice to control, and you probably won't have enough ammunition to justify using five or six bullets on one enemy.  Even if you do have a ton of ammo, it should only take you one or two shots to put a zombie down.  Why waste valuable ammunition on the kill?

Rifles, part 1.

Rifles are excellent weapons for an outbreak.  They're hefty enough to give an enemy a solid whack, but not so heavy that you can't backpack with them.  They have excellent sights, even iron sights, compared to almost any other firearm class.  There are all sorts of rifle attachments on the market, from bayonets to reflex sights, and while they are amazing at long range, rifles can still be used close to an enemy with devastating effect.
  Now, let's move on to camouflage.  If you don't know where you're going (this is bad, but sometimes unavoidable), pick something that fits in everywhere, like grey or brown.  Digital camo works better than solid colors: it makes us think that what we're looking at is background, not worth noticing, and generally the visual equivalent of "white noise."  If you do know where you're going, keep some camouflage sleeves with you just in case.
  You should also get your rifle an accessory rail onto which you can mount a scope.  Then buy a scope.  These aren't just for scoring head shots; they're for scouting an area.  Of the rails you could buy, a Picatinny rail is the best.  Most rail attachments are made to fit it, as was intended in its design.  The better your sights, the further away you can be when attacking infected and the better your chances of surviving the encounter.

Pistols.

Pistols:
Well, it depends.  Is it magazine-fed or does it have a revolving cylinder?  What will it fire?  How reliable is it?  Is its ammunition common where you are now and where you are going?  Is it accurate?  Can you handle the recoil? Some of these questions overlap a bit, but you still need to ask them, and more.
  What type of pistol are you thinking of?  Each has interesting advantages over the other: revolvers are reliable, have few moving parts, are easy to fix (compared to pistols), can chamber large rounds easily, and have a completely customizable grip, while pistols have high capacity, are almost as reliable as revolvers (some pistols more so than others), and are now used by more people.  Revolvers can be reloaded by hand much more easily than pistols, but a pistol can simply change magazines if one is available pre-filled.  If you want my opinion, I'm inclined to say that a pistol would be a better idea.  Pistols have a clear lead in time spent reloading versus ammunition replenished, so long as you have spare magazines.  They are also, as I said, becoming as reliable as revolvers.  And the spare parts issue isn't really that dire; if you take care of your pistol, you will be able to use it many thousands of times--many more than you'd expect to fire it in a zombie outbreak--without incident.  Still, that's just my preference.  Try both types and decide which you like more.  Now, on to cartridges!
  There are two generally accepted ways to measure the size of a cartridge: caliber, which measures by hundredths of an inch, and metric measurement, which uses millimeters.  Between the two, metric is more informative.  Every metric round tells you its width and length, in that order, separated by an x.  For example, a 9x19mm cartridge has a diameter of 9 millimeters and a length of 19 millimeters.  This helps you figure out which cartridges you can fire and which ones you can't. Even then, though, you have to be careful: most cartridges have nonstandard "loads," with either more or less powder.  For example, an overpressure cartridge--a cartridge filled with extra propellant--can damage a gun not designed to fire it because of the additional pressure in the barrel (hence its name), while a standard cartridge may not fully push back the slide of a gun designed for overpressure loads.  Fortunately, most overpressure ammo is marked with a little "+P" sign somewhere on its base, and really high-pressure stuff is marked with a "+P+." That stuff can blow a normal barrel apart!  And that's why you should always know what your gun takes for ammunition.
  Finally (for now), reliability.  Read online reviews on the pistol you're planning on buying.  Go to gun shops and ask about its reliability.  Ask owners about how it feels, how often they shoot it, and how many times it's failed versus how many shots it's fired.  It doesn't take all that much effort, but it's the main difference between choosing a reliable piece and a comparative junker.  And reliability isn't the only thing you need to consider: think of the features you want, the recoil, the report, and how many are in circulation.  Colt 1911s, Beretta 92Fs and 92FSs, and Glocks, have all proven themselves to be reliable, durable, and accurate, and have many "relatives" that you can salvage for parts (especially the Glocks).  Take the time you need to research the pistols you've got in mind, because if you pick the wrong one, you won't get a retry.
  Calibers and cartridges:
There are a lot of different cartridges from which to choose.  All have their unique advantages, circumstantial perks that you can use with certain tactics.  However, I find that these six cartridges in particular are suited to the zombie apocalypse.  Maybe you'll like one.
  First, the .22 Long Rifle (abbreviated to .22 LR).  It's a small cartridge, but it's racked up as many brownie points as any other cartridge.   First, it's easily the single most common cartridge available.  Pretty much every gun store has tons of boxes in the ammo section.  Second, it's tiny; you can carry ridiculous amounts of .22 cal with ease.  You won't run out and you won't be loaded down by the ammo.  It's true that this cartridge doesn't have as much punch as larger calibers, but, as you've probably heard from numerous sources (I certainly have), it'll rebound in your enemy's skull, causing massive damage to his or her brain.  Even if it passes through the enemy's head without that brain-scrambling rebound, you'll still be shooting him in the head.  And although the .22 might not penetrate a skull at long range, we're talking about using this in a pistol, a close-range weapon.  The .22's lack punch won't be an issue at fifty feet, or even fifty yards.  Ultimately, despite its deficiencies, the .22 LR is an excellent cartridge.
  Next, the 9x19mm.  This is, I'll openly admit, my favorite cartridge.  First, while it does plenty of damage to the average infected head, it's small enough that you can cram around 16 or 17 rounds of it into a pistol without extending the magazine.  It's light, so you can keep plenty with you, and it'll protect you from both raiders and infected.  Finally, the 9x19mm cartridge has been around since before World War II, on both sides of the conflict.  It did its job then, and still does it now, maybe even better if you consider all the advancements we've made in gun technology.  Plus, it's metric.  Now, on to the next round!
  The .40 Smith and Wesson cartridge (abbreviated .40 S&W) is also a solid chambering.  it's a lot like the 9x19, but just a liiitle bit larger at about 10 millimeters wide.  This, in turn, means that it takes more flesh and bone with it as it passes through a zombie's body, creating a larger wound channel and destroying more flesh.  And while it travels more slowly than a 9x19, it still gets to--and through--a body very, very quickly.  Whatever your preference, you can't say that the .40 S&W isn't a solid round.
  Next, we've got the .45 ACP.  This is quite possibly the most recognizable cartridge in the US.  It served in the US army for close to a hundred years and in several commendable weapons, including the ever-popular Colt M1911 pistol.  In fact, the main reason for was because the US wanted to be able to share ammunition with its allies during a war.  Every country had to be able to able to make the same ammunition, and since the rest of the world is metric, we had to pick a metric round.  Anyways, the .45 ACP is a powerful, popular, reliable cartridge.  You can fit around 13 rounds into a double-column magazine without extending the mag past the butt of your pistol, and while it is heavier than other rounds, the .45 is still small enough that you can easily carry a few hundred without too much trouble.  Overall, this is an excellent round to choose.

  Finally the .357 Magnum and the .38 special round out this list of cartridges.  While they sound like they've got dangerously different specs, the .38 and the .357 actually have exactly the same case diameter.  When S&W made the .38 spl, they measured the case instead of the base of the exposed bullet.  The case had a .379 inch diameter, rounded off to .38 inches (hey, "thirty-eight" is easier to say than "three-seventy-nine").  The .357 Magnum, on the other hand, was measured at the bullet's exposed base, giving it a different measurement.  The upswing of all this?  The similarities give a revolver chambered for the .357 Magnum the ability to fire the .38 special.  However, this doesn't work in reverse: thanks to the .357 magnum's longer case (and the extra powder inside),  it's fired at a much higher pressure than its parent cartridge, and a revolver built for the .38 special can be damaged by that extra pressure.

  You probably noticed that I was talking about using the .38 spl and .357 Mag in revolvers.  This is because a magazine-fed pistol is designed for a specific diameter and length of cartridge, whereas a revolver can almost always shoot shorter cartridges, so long as they are of the same diameter as the cartridge for which they were chambered.  If you want to fire either one at your option, get a revolver (or a second pistol, but that's more weight).  Both cartridges are common enough that you'd probably have enough ammo for them, but if you want a revolver, I'd suggest the "Caliber .357, Magnum load."

Useful skills and knowledge, part 7.

Carpentry:
Absolutely awesome.  Before steel and iron, wood will be your primary building material.  And with this, carpentry will become your best friend.  You'll be able to build defenses, traps, equipment, even carts and wagons.  Sounds good, doesn't it?
Metal is everywhere.  In traffic signs, buildings, appliances, tools, and millions of other things.  If you can get at it, you will need a way of working it.  Cutting and welding are easy enough skills to learn, and very useful for reinforcing structures and making weapons.  Sheets, bars and spikes of metal all become workable material.  Just think of all the things you can do!

Weapons, part 7.

Spear:
I like them.  Spears are reliable weapons, both easy to make and good for fighting.  You probably won't be able to hit an infected in the head with one, but a chest stab will stop a zombie dead(er).  If you make a spear with a crosspiece, you can stab repeatedly without worrying that the spear will become stuck too deeply in your adversary.  With time, skill, and a straight bit of wood, you can make a balanced javelin to throw at pursuers and save your arrows and other, less common projectiles.  You can make lethal barricades with spears, add them to pits and swinging traps, or even just jab at your enemies during a siege of your base (all of which, incidentally, is belong to us).

  Alright!  I think I finished everything worth covering except for firearms, explosives, chemicals, poisons, fire itself... you know, I'm absolutely nowhere near done.
  ...It's probably best not to think on that too much.  One post at a time: that's how I should think of it.  One post at a time with the best ideas I can think of.  But I am glad to have finished most of the things that don't go boom, sizzle or crackle when you use them.  It makes what's coming next sound even more fun than it is!

Finally, I'll be covering pistols, carbines, rifles, and shotguns in the next two posts.  They will be biased, but then, what hasn't been, so far?  Toodles!

Shameless pedantry.

PEDANTRY BEGINS.
In gun terms, a magazine is not a clip.  A magazine is the container for the cartridges, shells, or other projectiles and is loaded into the firearm prior to usage.  A clip is a piece of metal that is used to hold cartridges in place to either load them directly into a firearm or into a magazine; it may of may not be inserted directly into the firearm, as is the case for an M1 Garand, but if pops out once the cartridges have been loaded.  Magazines are vital to the operation of a firearm, whereas clips are helpful but not vital.
PEDANTRY ENDS.
That said, I'm still going to use "clip" as a term for a gun's magazine.  Screw the grammar, I have artistic license!

Useful skills and knowledge, part 6.

Parkour:
Great for urban areas.  You won't want to be in a city during the apocalypse, but if you have to gather supplies or find people in the concrete jungle, free running and a crowbar will get you almost anywhere.  It doesn't take much practice, and you'll get athletic training as a bonus.  Overall, this skill is very useful--although I wouldn't say it's vital.

Medical training:
I've already indirectly covered this in the "basic survival skills" skill group, but medical training is important enough to mention twice.  Sometime during any disaster, you will get hurt.  Maybe not much--scrapes, bruises, even just sunburn--but for any serious injuries, you'll have to know how to treat and move people without hurting them.  This ranks in my top 10 skills to learn for any disaster--natural or otherwise.

Weapons, part 6.

And finally we reach the ranged weapons.

Bows:

Excellent weapons, so long as you know how to use them.  A trained archer can easily put down several infected with a bow before they notice where the arrows are coming from.  You can make your own ammunition, which is a massive plus when you may have to face thousands of zombies over the course of a zombocalypse.  However, you need to be strong, well-fed, and trained to use a bow with enough poundage to inflict serious damage.  The highest draw weight the average newbie could manage would probably be about 20 pounds, maybe 30, assuming they didn't need any kind of accuracy (not that they'd have any, being new at archery anyways).  After a month or so of training, you'll probably be able to consistently hit a 6" target at 25 or 30 feet.  This isn't very good for a silent weapon, but it gets better.  Also, if you use a compound bow, everything gets easier.  They give you more power for the same effort, have a bunch of accuracy-improving attachments, and can be used for most of the things that a normal bow can be used to do.  However, Their strings can be a pain to replace, and they fire a bit more slowly than normal bows, generally speaking, so choose carefully when choosing between the two types of bow (recurve bows count as "normal" bows in this).

Crossbows:

Bows with a few trade-offs.  They don't shoot nearly as quickly, but you fire them in almost exactly the same way as a gun, making familiarity nearly instantaneous.  Also, loading, drawing, and aiming are all easier with a crossbow than with a bow, and you get an even longer accurate range to boot.  Essentially, a crossbow is a silent, arrow-firing gun.  And you can still make your own ammunition!

Useful skills and knowledge, part 5.

Cardiovascular training:
Cardio is useful for walking, running, jumping, lifting, carrying, swimming, biking... a lot of stuff.  You'll probably do all of the things on that list before the end of the apocalypse--heck, before the end of the first quarter.  End results: with cardiovascular training, your chances of survival rocket upwards.  Without that training, your chances are depressing.  And as a side note, this is better than eleventh or twelfth on this list.

(I'll post a second skill here tomorrow.)

Useful skills and knowledge, part 4.

Leadership: worth learning.  Any group, no matter its purpose, is held together by two things: a common cause, and a good leader.  Without either, the group is severely hampered and will often dissolve.  This is especially true for small groups.  To survive in any sustained disaster, every member of the group has to act in union with the others, backing each other up and working for their goal.  For this kind of cohesion, the group needs a figure they respect and trust, someone whose word they will follow.  They need a leader.  You.

Teaching skills: never useless.  Teaching the other members to do your job ensures that they can cover for you if you are injured, and makes your group feel that they are doing something beyond survival.  That sense of progress, of achievement in a seemingly hopeless situation, will keep the group going.  Even if you have no destination, no goal beyond survival, you can keep morale high and your team hopeful by teaching and learning.

Useful skills and knowledge, part 3.

Worl... let's begin.

Concentrated weapons training: You can sometimes manage with a general knowledge about weapons, but if you want the best chance of survival you can get, you will need to specialize.  Be it camping sniping, hand-to-hand combat, or even rock throwing, if you're really good at it, you will be able to design tactics around your strengths.  This also improves your value to a group, should you create or join one.  Someone who can do one thing perfectly is infinitely more valued than someone who can do everything fairly well.  But going back to tactics...

Tactics: This isn't hard.  Tactics against zombies are (almost) as easy as knowing where to stand.  Find higher ground for melee combat, a camouflaged perch for sniping, and so on.  When barricading a fort, leave one or two hidden emergency exits.  Booby trap and alarm the area around your base.  Use loud noises and flashes to distract pursuers and searchers.  Keep a backup weapon.  Walk at night, when vision is heavily impaired.  Sweep for hostiles several times before you relax.  Most of this is common sense, but you still need to learn it, and well.

Useful skills and knowledge, part 2.

I should clarify my previous post: on every posting day, I'll add a few more skills, bits of knowledge, or what have you.  Why not every day?  Because I'm a lazy bastard.  Moving on!

Environmental awareness: I don't mean recycling; notice your surroundings.  That glint in the window?  You see it.  That rustling in the tree over there?  You hear it.  That nasty stench off to your left?  You smell it.  And you pay attention to each separate thing, no matter how unimportant it seems.  You can't afford to be blind, in any sense, to your surroundings, because missing just one thing, one detail, can kill you.  Pay attention.

General survival knowledge: knowing several low-tech ways of making a fire, what materials are best worn in which environments, what common plants are edible, and so on.  If you've already learned basic survival skills and knowledge, go over it again.  Meticulously.  You need to be able to remember these skills without even thinking about them.  It has to be reflexive, like playing the piano or driving a car, so you can concentrate on other things like whether that rustle in the bushes was just the wind... or something else.

General physical condition: stay fit.  Honestly, the general benefits should justify this without an explanation, but if you need encouragement, think of this: between a fit, healthy man and his overweight cousin, who has the better chance of escaping a zombie horde?  If you really need justification beyond that, I rate your chances of survival at less than three.  Out of nine thousand.

Combat skills: you knew this was coming!  Honestly, it's difficult to decide where this should go, but your life is almost certain to depend on this eventually.  Start with martial arts.  When you learn a basic technique, practice it until you can do it perfectly and reflexively.  If you can spar with classmates, do so.  Every edge you can get is one you should take.  Once you have a heavy grounding in martial arts, learn to use all manner of weaponry, from staves to wrenches.  The more weapons you can use, the better.  It gives you more options, and more options equal a better chance of making it out alive and uninfected.  And you want that, yes?

Useful skills and knowledge, part 1.

The first thing you'll need to make it in any emergency is common sense.  Common sense is a mixture of logic and life experience and lets you make smart choices and gives you insight to how things work.  Without this, you're zombait.

Weapons, part 5.

Trench knives:  Light and accurate, made to stab through the toughest of wartime and into the skull, the trench knife is a deadly weapon against a zombie.  Some were improvised by soldiers from bayonets, some simply bayonets, but the best were purpose-made tools of war.  You would be very well off if you could have one of these made by a sword smith, with a knuckle duster grip and a thin, durable spike.  But I'm getting off track.  A trench knife is a very useful weapon, but you have to get in close with it to strike.  For this reason, it would be best as a reserve weapon, a backup, like a pistol.  You don't want to resort to it, but if you do, there's no stopping you.  Overall impression: beautiful and powerful.

Normal knives:  Whether you want one or not depends on the knife.  If it's a dagger, made for thrusting, you can use it to stab deep into vitals and kill your enemy quickly.  If you have a slashing knife, though, you'll have a much more difficult time taking down anything.  Small cuts don't bother a zombie, and even long knives just don't have the range or leverage to chop off a head.  You should always carry one, mainly for use in daily tasks, but the knife, generally speaking, is not meant for fighting anymore.  Overall impression: very useful for survival, but not so much for fighting.

Swords:  Very effective once you've trained with them.  A well-placed stab can kill a zombie almost instantly, and a good slash can lop off a limb-- or a head.  I'd suggest getting a one-handed stabbing sword in favor of a slasher, since stabs give the best range, cause more damage to the vitals, and are quicker.  Plus, you can do them quite effectively with one hand, even with only the most basic self-training, leaving your other hand to do important jobs.  If you want to use a two-handed sword, though, it will cause massive injury regardless of your mode of attack.  It won't be good inside most buildings, but you can inflict massive cuts on zombies, slicing through several limbs and necks at once.  Remember, though, that it doesn't need to be a katana to be powerful: European swords cut extremely well, and are built to block if needed.  Overall impression: you won't get much domestic use out of them, but swords are excellent weapons when wielded properly.

Weapons, part 4.

And here's the next batch.

Saws:  Useful for construction, but not very good weapons.  Most saws are designed to slowly remove material, regardless of hardness.  They don't have a real edge.  And any saw that could actually kill a zombie is too inconvenient.  A buzz saw is stationary, has bad range, and splatters zombies everywhere, while a chainsaw is still heavy, dangerous to the user, and messy to use.  They're meant for making.  Overall impression: they cut trees a lot better than zombies.  Keep them in a tool box.

Rocks:  Decent in certain situations.  It's best to drop them onto zombies from a good ways up.  You can stockpile them easily enough in your fort, and there are so many of them that you don't have to worry about running out of ammunition.  You can launch the smaller pebbles from slings, too.  Still, if you're reduced to using these outside of a defensive position, you're probably already got a lot of problems.  Overall impression: best for static defense, but not very useful outside of that.

Crowbars:  Not too heavy, good for cracking skulls, and giving you plenty of leverage, a crowbar is a very handy companion.  It can strike with power, has good range, and even works as a walking stick in a pinch.  There are many kinds of crowbars, but the one you want will be obvious by its heft and feel.  As a bonus, the crowbar can open almost any door and dismantle any homemade barrier, giving you access to almost every house ever made.  It's the master key of the hardware store.  Overall impression: incredibly valuable.
Next up: trench knives, standard knives, and swords.

Weapons, part 3.

Finally, the really good stuff.  And on time, too.

Hatchets:  Awesome.  Hatchets have sharp, heavy blades, durable wood or steel handles, and good grips.  An overhead swing can cleave right through a skull and into a head, instantly killing any zombie stupid enough to charge you (and, well, they all are).  Axes, the big brothers of hatchets, have the bonus of leverage, adding cutting power unheard of in most other weapons.  You can cut down a tree or break down a door with one of these, and still have enough edge on the thing to cut down any zombie attracted by the noise.  This is an absolutely vicious weapon.  It's the thing your multi-tool wishes it could be, both deadly and utilitarian.  However, even the axe has its drawbacks: weight, though not a huge problem, is still an issue.  Axes are nothing if not weighty, a necessity for the axe to do its job.  And an exceptionally powerful cut will sometimes lodge the axe in its victim, which you will have to kick near the axe head to free your weapon.  Still, the axe and hatchet are excellent weapons and tools, among the first made and improved on in our known history.  They have proven their value billions of times over hundreds of generations.  Overall impression:  on a scale of one to ten, OVER 9000!!!

Hammers: good, but a little more limited than a hatchet.  What you can do with it depends on the type of hammer you pick, but most will have a hefty head and a solid grip.  The best hammers for zombies are long-handled and have a reasonably large head, but should be light enough to carry on your shoulder when not in use.  The hammer may not have a hatchet's edge, but it can still do plenty of damage.  Plus, you never have to sharpen it!  When you need to make a barricade, a hammer can drive in nails (or screws, with a bit more effort) to hold wooden planks in place and reinforce doors and windows.  As with the axe, weight is an issue, but exercise and practice will help you overcome that problem with both weapons.  Overall impression: very, very good.  Competes well with the axe.

Weapons, part 2.

Baseball bats:  You could do worse: they've got a good hit range and are light enough for long trips on foot.  Unfortunately, they aren't designed to crush: they're meant to hit balls as far as possible.  To achieve this, most modern-day baseball bats are made of pine or aluminum, both springy materials.  Metal rings (if you can get them) will make wooden models more lethal and durable, but you'll still need to hit most zombies several times to make sure they're dead (and if you haven't got a good arm, forget single-digit swing counts).  If you use this, you should probably get used to running away.

Screwdrivers: you only have one way to attack with a screwdriver, but it's a good one.  Stabbing under the jaw or through the heart will end most fights in moments, and their smooth shafts are easy to withdraw once you've made the stab.  As a bonus, screwdrivers are amazingly useful tools: you can use a bit set and an adjustable wrench to dismantle or build just about anything.  Overall, I give it a rating of "very, very useful."

Clubs:  You can find or make them very easily, reinforce them, and even make them nice and shiny, but it'll take a lot of muscle to use one well .  A club isn't a baseball bat: baseball bats are light and springy; clubs tend to be stiff and heavy.  You can do a lot of damage with a club, and some are well-made and  but it would probably be better to find a different weapon.

Weapons, part 1.

Alright, weapons or skills, weapons or skills...?  Skill with weapons?  No.  Today is a weapons day.  'T's get started.

Wrenches:  Large or small, adjustable or fixed, heavy or... not quite as heavy, wrenches are hefty, effective weapons.  A good whack from a wrench can do a lot of damage.  Lighter wrenches may not have the cracking power of larger models, but you can throw them from high up for fantastic results.  As a bonus, you can dismantle about nine pieces of technology out of ten with an adjustable wrench and a screwdriver with a bit set.  However, wrenches are heavy and unwieldy.  You could do as much damage with more accuracy and less effort using a hatchet.  Wrenches also tend not to have "grippy" handles.  Some tools are made for swinging, so they get nice, shock-resistant grips.  Wrenches are designed to give you leverage when you're turning a nut or screw, and since they don't need grips to do that, they're not made with them.  You can wrap electrical or sports tape around the handle for a rough surface, but it won't be as good at absorbing the shock of a blow.  Generally, it's usually better to have a wrench in reserve than as your main weapon.  Still, if it's what you've got, use it how you like.

Shovels:  A bit tricky to place.  You certainly want them for construction-- building houses, walls, trenches, booby traps, that sort of thing-- but they really aren't made for combat.  If a zombie were coming at you, it wouldn't just slow down for you.  Hitting a fast, head-sized target takes practice and timing, and the shovel makes that job even more difficult by being overly heavy, awkward to grip, and, depending on the shovel, prone to breakage.  And the first swing, if it does connect, will probably just delay the zombie for a few seconds as it gets up from your attack.  On top of that, a shovel has a ridiculous delay between swings.  Even if you use the edge of the shovel, you have a very low chance of getting a kill.  It's incredibly useful, and you certainly want to bring one with you if you can, but mainly for building defenses and fortifications.

On zombies (again).

Okay...  I haven't covered weaknesses yet, right?  Yep.  So, what is the biggest weakness that zombies have?  Well, they're stupid.  This hypothetical zombie virus would be a lot like rabies in its symptoms, but not in its (Sorry, this bit of the article is under construction as of 06/06/12, 4:36 PM)
  Also, live zombies would die from anything that would normally kill a human.  Still, they would ignore pain and probably survive mortal wounds through sheer not-noticing-they're-supposed-to-be-dead-ness.  That really happens, actually.  Animals with rabies can ignore injury that would kill them if they weren't rabies victims until blood loss or further injury destroys something without which the animal couldn't function.  Regardless, cutting Fred in half might not immediately kill him, but it would sure as hell incapacitate him.  This means that you have a lot more options when you try to kill a zombie.  Shotguns, with their ability to cause massive blood loss in any creature they somehow fail to kill outright, are excellent weapons.  Machine guns are again the boss, even if they are wasteful with ammunition. Grenades own zombie ass.  All sorts of chemicals can kill zombies in seconds.
  Right now, you may be asking yourself "why, if there are so many ways to kill viral zombies, would the zombocalypse ever happen?"  There are a few simple reasons, the first and most sticky being medicine.  No sane government is going to start killing these people if there may be way to cure them.  There might not be a cure for years (or ever), but it doesn't matter.  If the government doesn't try to cure the victims first, the press (problem number two is bad publicity, by the way) will hold a vicious social "trial" in which they will roast the government for "slaughtering" x number of "innocent victims."  Third and perhaps most problematic is time.  In the time it takes to verify that there is no available cure for the virus (or that it won't work on the people who were exposed to the virus more than z hours ago), said virus will spread quickly to a bunch of other countries by people seeking treatment overseas.  On top of that, the problem will worsen drastically in the country or countries in which the virus first turned up.  The army will be deployed eventually, but not nearly in time to stop the virus from spreading.  And so we get a zombie apocalypse.

On zombies.

Zombies have been described in many ways, but from a logical point of view, a successful zombie is pretty easy to imagine: a fast, live human infected by a virus with an incubation period of two to four weeks.  Fast because an effective vector virus would use its victims' abilities to transmit it to other potential victims, like one of rabies' strains does.  People can run, so why not these zombies?  Corpses don't move all that much either, so obviously you need a live victim.  There are other possible culprits for zombiism (that's now a word), but they all have problems compared to the virus option: parasites are more difficult to transmit, bacteria aren't "smart" enough to rewire your brain, and chemicals just don't do that sort of thing.  Radiation?  No.  Viruses are also pretty good at multiplying, so the onset will be reasonably rapid, but it will take weeks; viruses can explode in population once they've gotten started in the body but they still take time to get up to force, and taking over a brain to any degree isn't a simple job.

All that is kind of obvious.

Antlion.