Retrospective: Long Term Plans (pt. 2 of Terrorists! Plague! Zombies!)

  Going back in time for a bit, I went back and reviewed my old LiveJournal (June 2003 - September 2017) and found this gem I thought I'd share here too. Written in 2003, in the halcyon "before times, pre-Covid, pre-"The Walking Dead", I pondered what to do in a "28 Days Later" style disaster, in two parts. Much has changed in the 20 years since I first wrote this. I have two children now, and the very world has changed. Here are my un-edited "long term plans"Circa 2003. Enjoy.

Short term plans post here:

• Oct. 27th, 2003 at 2:09 PM

the story so far
LONG TERM PLANS


been a bit too busy to do much more on this until now, I had a good talk with arcanumveritas on the topic too . .so here goes

High security habitation:
as noted originally, I would go for a construction site (say a five of six story office building or some such), which I could easily modify to be "skilled climber only" access (once again assuming the zombies can't climb, only scramble.
This site could be readily fortified in the long term, (lots of raw materials and equipment just lying around. My ideal site would have a couple of buildings neighboring, from which a rope traverse could be strung (a two rope bridge - one for the feet, one for the hands), again working on the premise that the zombies can't cope with the skill needed.
Another feature of building sites are the region of clear ground surrounding them, generally, there needs to be room for all the equipment and material drops, so this leaves a pretty good killing zone around your encampment. Equipment keys may be found in the site office, as would plans and such. Having multiple redundant escape routs means that if you are chased home, you can get up either by your main route, or by any of the rope connected buildings on either side.
Hurricane fence around the site would be a plus (solid walls might be bashed down, but the flexi links would give more than break) it might be necessary to cross truss the poles of the fence to better brace them (another good point about hurricane fence is that it is see through, and you can shoot or spear through it without damaging it overly). Again, camping and adventure stores would provide ropes, slings, pullys and the like.
Ground floor should be cleared of all heapable debris, as should all the walls of the structure. First floor should be fortified with more hurricane fence and have noisemaker alarms (snapable twine tripwire holding a can of nails off the roof - I know this works, I’ve used it) around access points. Barrels of fuel or other pyrotechnics (like home-made napalm) could be tipped on approaching zombies, or even set the whole floor on fire - concrete doesn't burn too well, and you needn't set fire to the world, just enough to cook some zombie-ass.
Second floor should be barricaded but could be used for supplies (why would you want to haul stuff higher than you need to, except what was at risk from a "scorched earth" attack see above.
Habitation could be on the third floor (or other floors as long as there were a couple of roofs above you for heat retention in winter and coolness in summer. By lashing planks to concrete support beams it would be possible to nail heavy plastic sheets to enclose areas, making rooms out of bare floors. (Drilling concrete is hard to do right, and no power to drive your electric masonry drills either . . .)
Wood fires in 44 gallon drums for heating (in ventilated "rooms" - duh) to conserve bottled gas for cooking and water purification. Sanitation by over-the-edge-dunny, just like in castles. Sponge baths and retaining "grey water".

Personal Protection Equipment:
As previously stated; waterproof (gore-proof actually) rugged gear like motorcycle leathers and racing suits, motor-cross armor and helmets, 3mm wet suit, respirator/face-mask, gloves and such. In the long term, you would want several full sets, for yourself (replacements) and for any and all survivors you come across.
Industrial containers of cleaning products wouldn't go astray.

Weapons:
As long as there are zombies in your area, there are going to be risks, and after a while, "culling" may prove to be worthwhile (once you are established and secure). Assuming you are not directly competing for resources (-do- the zombies eat or drink?) they still want to kill -you-, and will not stop trying. But you have the use of your thumbs, and long range firearms. Raiding the few rifle stores in the city, police stations and maybe local army barracks might yield some more firearms, and whilst I would keep my shotgun and sword handy at all times, you could do with some rifled weapons to pick off zombies at range. By setting up a killing zone somewhere (not near your habitation, you don’t want to advertise) again, a raised secure location, with a clear field of fire, you could draw the zombies to you; car horns explosions, yelling, etc and pick them off. The risk is of course being overwhelmed. Several fall back positions are essential, as is not only a supply of easy to access ammo, but also of weapons, in case of jams and fouls, just ditch it and grab another - you can always get it back later, its not like they are going to steal it . . . )
Military hardware might be an option if you know where to get it, and there is anything you can use laying around.
Home made explosives and pyrotechnics would likewise be good if you know how to make them (I can do some) but may be just too difficult to use effectively.
Traps around your area (sign-posted for any survivors who stumble into your area [zombie’s cant read]) would also be good; deadfall, pits, spikes (swinging and emplaced). No need to go non-lethal, that will just end in catching a loud zombie, who will bring more friends, and wreck your trap.

Transport:
Likewise, i'd stick with the diesel flat-bed truck i initially proposed, unless i came across an army UNIMOG or ASLAV
and again; stockpile spares, fuel and another vehicle. arcanumveritas suggested that when traveling, coasting the last 500m (as best you can) before stopping and getting out of your vehicle would enable you to arrive without alerting the zombies.
Having a boat might also be of some use, its a mobile habitat, and could move you to one of the islands off the coast, but you would have to see if zombies could swim first to check whether or not that would aid you overly. Similarily any of the big ships in the harbour would make quite the prize, once any gang-planks were knocked down, and ropes were made secure (keeping zombies off) but big ships require crews and skill to move. But they would be nice and secure to live on.

Supplies:
Venturing out would probably be the most dangerous task a survivor would face, and should be done as infrequently as possible, and be done as prepaired as possible. Mid morning departures and late afternoon arrivals avoiding dusk and nightime travel, when not only the zombies are more active, but also visability is lowest. Securing the exit point would be the first step, either by leaving as quitely as possible, and resecuring the perimiter defences, or ifthere are zombies in the area, by killing them off as quickly and efficently as possible, and leaving rapidly. This would leave your compound exposed, and would require patrolling of the interior upon your return, which, would take time, so would by necesity cut excursion time, to allow for daylight search time.
Once local supplies had been exhausted, it is likely that further and further travel would be needed to reteive supplies. By avoiding major routes (Highways and Freeways) which would probably be clogged with abandoned cars you could still reach suburban shopping centers. Backing up the truck, and loading packaged goods in bulk directly from store-rooms would be quick and efficent. Once local and suburban supermarkets are exhausted (which would take some time) the outlying supply depots would be next in line. By collecting supplies in bulk (keeping in mind a balanced diet, as best you can with tins) you would be able to supply yourself for quite some time with a couple of truckloads. Likewise army bases (if you can get to them) would be filled with all kinds of goodies. However, raiding large greeneries may well supply you with garden vegatables and fruits-trees, which you could populate your upper floors with, giving you a source of fresh vegitables, as would orchards and the like, there are several only just out of Melbourne. You might even collect livestock from the proximal farms and bring them back either live, or as fresh meat.
Hopsitals have supplies of medication, saline, and surgical gear, but most of the pharmesuticals have short shelf lives and many need to be chilled.

Community:
Ok, so now io get to address the "save the girls from the college dorm" suggestion taavi made, untill i was situated, i wouldnt go looking for other people, no way in hell. But once settled, it would be worth while. In fact, very worthwhile. An extra set of eyes means extra security, be it on an excursion, or while constructing defences (long, hard and noisy) and if nothing else, for the community of it.

Rescue:

(more to follow)

Retrospective: terrorists? plague? zombies? what i'd pack for 'the hills'

 Going back in time for a bit, I went back and reviewed my old LiveJournal (June 2003 - September 2017) and found this gem I thought I'd share here too. Written in 2003, in the halcyon "before times, pre-Covid, pre-"The Walking Dead", I pondered what to do in a "28 Days Later" style disaster, in two parts. Much has changed in the 20 years since I first wrote this. I have two children now, and the very world has changed. Here is my un-edited "short term plans"Circa 2003. Enjoy.

• Oct. 17th, 2003 at 11:50 PM

so after watching 28 days later i've been thinking about what I would do in the event of discovering that I needed to escape. Now, I have the advantage of having already had to do this for real just before the first Gulf War in '90 (well we never actually left, but we were packed and ready), but I thought I'd have another think, as an excersise in logistics. Major movie spoilers included as background, beware.


Situation:
Terrorists (or misguided animal rights activists) have released a virus which zombifies anyone who gets infected (infection is by fluid-fluid transfer, limited direct aerosol and requires a primate host). The infected undergo minor physiological changes, but psychologically are rendered incapable of rational thought and most survival instincts, such as fear of fire, and presumably feeding and drinking. Their only actions are rest and the pursuit of non-infected individuals to attack and kill or infect. Within days of release the plague has spread throughout urbanised areas, and whole population centres vanish. Government efforts to slow the infection are overwhelmed. Infrastructure such as power, water, gas, food distribution and communications cease. Perhaps one in one hundred thousand people is neither infected or killed. Presumably the infection is worldwide, but this is unknown, without a means of communication.

You (me) wake to find yourself in an empty room, an empty hospital, and empty world. signs of chaos abound; looted shops, car wrecks, and bodies, many many bodies. Scattered newspapers and graffiti indicate the end of the world.
You meet a couple of other survivors, they tell you the rest. You meet some of the infected and flee, some are killed as is one of your fellow survivors, by the other.

What do you do?
First up, I would hole up and assess the situation, it would be freaky and I'd be very freaked out and need a chance to think.

The it would be logistics time.
Where to live? Do you risk the city, or head out into the country? There are supplies in the city, and they count.

So, short term,
high security habitation:
in my opinion, most buildings are not equipped to hold off ravenous hoards, too many fire escapes, glass fronting and the like, sure buildings without fire escapes are "death-traps" but for fighting off the zombies, you want security of flesh, not just of mind. Why not a bank? you might ask, well, most security requires power, to open (and lock) all those magnetic locks, un bolt all those doors and the like. Without power they just sit there, jut like in the movies, they need to be 'opened' by skilled people with tools. well, that's not me, I'm a guy all alone in a dead city. then I thought height. office towers and the like, still, fire escapes. this would require a bit too much fortification. whilst the zombie masses cant do locks and such, I figure they could probable shamble over blockades, bash through simple reinforcing and the like. ever try to cut a fire escape down? it wouldn't be easy.
The other problem with high density populations like in towers would be the resident zombie population, odd are, the more people that used to be there, the more zombies there are now.

So in the end, I figure in rooftops, places where it takes quite a bit of skill to get up to, like factory rooftops or construction sites, where the stairs aren't up yet (remember the lifts aren't working). Go high enough to see around, and to give some space between any noises you make and the zombies listening for you. Get rope (climbing or hardware stores, there are several in and around Melbourne, most cities would have them) Knock down any scaffolding that gives access. When you need to get up, use your rope, when you are up, pull it up after you. Build some shelter, secure as best you can with what you have.

Personal Protection Equipment:
So you splatter mrs zombie with a baseball bat, that's great, did you make a mist of her brains all over yourself? woops.
Raincoats, plastic raincoats. Rubber gloves! Goggles and dust masks! id head to a fire station, get a face mask, and a fireman's outfit. Or motorcycle gear, nice and new from the empty shops, wack a raincoat over that and you have a splatter and tear resistant set of armor. Sure, if you know where to find riot gear, go for it.
Detergent and antiseptic! wash wash wash change clothes, get out of splattered gear if its not sealed up good. You may get hot, but when your have to go out, do it safe. Get some body armor, once again, motorcycle shops have it. Some 3mm wetsuit probably wouldn't go astray either, not too heavy, or thick, but tough waterproof and resilient.

Weapons:
Lets be fair, zombie comes after you, you want it to go away, quickly, and from as far away as you can. Me, I know pointy things. screw baseball bats. screw having to hit someone multiple times to put them down. I'm going swords. Sword verses bare-hands gets messy quickly. But that puts you very close to the action, and given the choice I'd be a bit further away. so what to do? a spear or lance is a good idea, especially if you have a cross bar on it, good for sticking your zombie and holding them at bay till the 12 inch, broad leaf head does its job. Even then, that's a bit close for me, id rather not be close enough to have to go hand to hand. That brings us to projectile weapons. initially I thought of bows; quiet, light but a bit slow between shots. Rifles? well not as prevalent in Melbourne as in the US, but more so than in the UK, but again, there are problems, they are loud, and alert the zombies as to where you are and like an arrow, a bullet is a precision object, it either hits or misses. my answer, shotgun. packs a punch, good enough range for venturing out for supplies with added bonus of spray, for those close in situations where seconds would count. sure its loud, but if you are using it defensively they already know you are there. If you were taking the fight to the zombies (which I wouldn't want to) then you might want to find some military hardware (good luck).

Transport:
Diesel, there are lots of trucks, they have big tanks and there would be lots of fuel sitting around. (petrol stations would not work, they have pumps). Flat bed trucks are the way to go I think, plenty of storage room, no where for zombies to hide, pretty good pickup, and range. get one with a bull-bar and you are all set for zombie bashing fun. jerry cans of extra fuel just in case. make sure its got a jack and spare tyres.
Actually finding a vehicle might be an issue to start with, if everyone is dead, where are the keys? I would start looking for depots, "leave your keys" parking lots and the like, get -something- and upgrade later.

Supplies:
No power, no water, no food distribution.
Fresh produce would be all rotten or going that way, but canned and preserved good will last for ages. Presuming they haven't already been looted, supermarkets would be a goldmine of supplies, so would the distribution centers that supply them. Bottled water has become very popular and can be found in bulk. Canned meats, vegetables and fruits are all easy to find as are vitamins and antiseptics. Rice lasts forever if its kept dry and pest free, and also comes in bulk, but needs to be cooked. Batteries and torches, gloves and salt.

Camping stores would supply cooking stoves, sleeping gear and outside wear and adventure gear (ropes, harness and such)

Hospitals would have medical supplies, but how many of us know how much of what to take and when? I can plug a hole, and -look up- antibiotic dosages, but that's long term as far as this scenario goes. They also have plenty of cleaning agents and protective gear.

Syphoning water from tanks would work for a while, until the rains, likewise fuel, from parked vehiclesPart 2 here:

Movie Reviews : Pandemic, Hell, Ravenous

I took the two weeks after Easter off work to be home over the school holidays. I managed to squeeze some apocalyptic movies into my allotted couch potato time when impressionable eyes were elsewhere. I promptly lost this post...   Here's what I thought:

Title:  Pandemic
Year: 2016
Director: John Suits
Origin: USA
Mood: Grim
Style: dark First Person Shooter, suspenseful
Apocalypse Type: Zombie plague
Apocalypse Level: Almost absolute. Total social breakdown.
Antagonists: Cannibalistic bite-infecting fast zombies
Protagonists: mixed military civilian Search & Rescue crew
Outcome: Grim.

CDC doctor embedded with a military refuge in LA is sent out on a Search and Rescue mission to extract the team send to a school supposedly full of survivors. Its established her family live in LA and she suspects are still alive. The 5 stages of infection are established: 1) Flu like 2)debilitating bronchitis 3)aggressive and conscious 4) death-like coma 5) fast hyper aggressive zombie. Infection is spread by exposure and bites. S&R crews equipped with biohazard suits including suit radios and helmet cams with green screen night-vision option. Teams include a medical specialist, a driver, a shotgun equipped gunner and a red-shirt navigator.

It is established that a vaccine is available to combat a Level 1 infection but is in limited supply and only available for the Dr. The crew is expendable. A “field infection test” gun is available to determine if survivors are infected. The Crew is sent out in a modified school-bus to retrieve the previous crew and any survivors from the school and along the way are attacked by swarms of Level 1-3 infected, including a honey-pot roadside trap. Combat is handled via FPS style helmet-cam vision which is a decided improvement over hand-held “found footage” handy-cam shakey-cam styles often used in the genre.

Relegated to foot travel and separated, the team struggles to make it back to the compound alive, battling the infected with improvised weapons, the crew locates the Dr’s daughter and eventually make it back to the compound in a scavenged ambulance with heavy casualties. An enjoyable if predictable zombie plague movie with some nice hooks, and not too many “close the damn door” stupid movie trope survivor errors. The medical science may have been flakey and the crew certainly wasn’t a front line unit, but they weren’t pitched as one either but it was a realistic enough “get it done” movie.



Title:  Hell
Year: 2011
Director: Tim Fehlbaum
Origin: German-Swiss
Mood: Grim, Gitty  dystopian escape and evacuation road-tip
Style: stark and bleak
Apocalypse Type: Environmental disaster. Drought, famine, scorched Earth
Apocalypse Level: Almost absolute. Total social breakdown. Near total Biosphere destruction
Antagonists: the Sun, other survivors and scavengers
Protagonists: family of survivors
Outcome: Grim.

Final Thoughts: get some effective hand weapons that you can use!

An upswing in solar activity has blasted the Earth, baking the surface, evaporating water leading to widespread drought, famine and death. In typical Mad Max style, survivors scour the wasteland for food, fuel and water in a cramped and stuffed station-wagon with bars on the windows. Goggles and dust masks are all the rage. Desperate survivors battle lone hermits for petrol station supplies and we get an idea that exposure to the sun leads to 2^nd and 3^rd degree burns and blindness rapidly. Some excellent post-apoc scavenging in the checking of toilet tanks and hydronic radiators for good water! Poor personal security movie-tropes made me yell at the screen.

Downed power pylon over-road made for an excellent improv road-block and ambush point, but removing it was not when I would have chosen to teach my child-survivor how to drive. Good scavenge the flipped wreck scene gave an opportunity to “split the party” as well as a chance for a piss-break to establish the adult female got her period and was not-pregnant, contraception being an issue often overlooked in survival movies.  

Raiders kidnap the child and in the ensuing pursuit the male survivor badly breaks his ankle. Taking shelter in a mountain side rail tunnel the female lead sets off alone to rescue her sister and “get help”. She encounters survivors who operate a farm and discover they are cannibals, escaping a “marry-in or get eaten” proposal, the ensuing flight through open ground sheds some of the “sun is a murder ball” tension built up earlier.

The survivors take shelter in a cave in which they find a ready source of water. Survival looks bleak but possible.

Final Thoughts: better married to a cannibal than served to one as dinner

Title:  Ravenous ( Fr. Les Affamés)
Year: 2017
Director: Robin Aubert
Origin: Fernch Canadian
Mood: Suspenseful, realistic setting
Style: believable escape and evacuation road-trip
Apocalypse Type: Infectious Zombie plague
Apocalypse Level: Almost absolute. Total social breakdown. Zombie swarms
Antagonists: Cannibalistic bite-infecting fast zombies
Protagonists: family of survivors with kids
Outcome: Grim.

In the woods in rural Quebec a farmstead is holding out against the zombies by being vigilant, quiet and risk-adverse. Two adult male friends patrol in a pickup truck until lone is lost. The survivor finds a bound woman with a suspicious bite mark who claims it was a dog not zombie. He befriends her and takes her with him. They encounter   a small girl and take her in.  Returning to the farmhouse they encounter a group of zombies building towers out of trash in a peculiar ritual. They accidentally alert the swarm of their presence and their flight leads the swarm to their farmstead. Instead of barricading and bugging-in the opt to bug-out and go cross country to a cold-war bunker they are aware of.

Taking limited supplies from the dwindling larder of the farmstead the survivors make a harrowing flight through woodlands relying on bush-craft and stealth to avoid roaming zombies and other hazards. Good use of hand weapons ( machete and hatchets) to avoid the noisy pump-action shotgun. They escape detection by mimicking the zombies carrying items to the ritual piles and eventually make it to the bunker only to discover its been stripped bare of resources. A note suggesting  a direction to search for more survivors is discovered before the swam arrives and decimates the survivors. (They didn’t close the bunker either).

Final thoughts and lessons: They should have bugged-in where they could. A stocked trap-door cellar would probably have been secure against fast-but dumb zombie swarms.

Home Front: Home defence and preparedness.

The folks atSimpliSafe home security, have done a lot to help everyone understand the importance of protection. This month, they're having everyone think about the subject and hear how we'd survive if we found ourselves in one of our favorite scary movies or shows. I wanted to give you all my take on what items would you utilize to protect yourself and your home in the case of a zombie apocalypse or lawless nation?"

The idea being how it's hard to find accurate survival movies, and we can all agree there is nothing worse than an incompetent character trying to survive in a film. Being such an avid survivalist myself, or at least a vocal one, I wanted to give my take on protecting my home from the most terrifying of scenarios. Bug-in-style.

So first up, lets talk scenario:
Without going too supernatural, in which a lot of options are right out, I'd like to go for a grounded, realistic and scary situation, the top of my list would sit at the 28 Days later or Dawn of the Dead style zombie apocalypse: mass casualties, civil disarray, utilities slowly winding down as infrastructure collapses, total lawlessness, and fast, savage, infectious and hungry semi-living foes.

Not a lot of lead up, maybe a couple of days at most as the situation escalated from "this just in..." news on the TV to "martial law" and then "....static ..." of the fall of civilisation. Sure it would be possible to talk about "how to best make a fort, but I've covered that kind of thing before. This situation is "hey, the world just ended, how do you make your house safer?"

Aside from providing a secure wireless security system, the folks at SimpliSafe had this cool Layered Defense presentation that made a lot of sense, in a regular world security perspective, and I thought I'd build on that:

1.  The Safe Room: safe, flashlight, mobile phone.
2.  Inside the house: TV & lamp timers, hidden valuables, obstruction under windows, heavy drapes, wireless alarm systems.
3.  Walls, Doors & Windows: Garage with multiple locks, solid reinforced doors, waring signs, security film, keyed window locks.
4.  The Grounds: security lights, gravel, outdoor lighting, prickly plants, dog.
5.  Locked gates: low level fencing, more warning signs.
6.  The neighbourhood: Know your neighbours, street lighting, neighbourhood watch.

So that's a lot of good points. Do we have a "safe room" well, given the layout of the house, the best option is probably Tactical baby's room, which has a single window facing the side of the house next to us, and no access to it elsewhere. Protection through obscurity.

More on the neighbours houses later ...

Inside the house we have a lot of things covered, blinds and locks, including sliding windows blocked with rods dropped into the rails to prevent unwanted sliding, even if unlocked. In this situation, you wouldn't want timers switching lights ON at night, but rather, OFF, to obscure your presence, even if there were still mains power.

Our grounds could do with some serious work, but the solid wall of houses on one side acting as a double protection, the biggest concerns are the bay-window facing the street.

My plan would be to barricade this inside and out, using futon-bed slats as a basis to bar it and layers of cladding to seal it up. Higher windows aren't as much of a concern, except for noise and light discipline.  Our backyard fence is a bit rickety, but can be reinforced from the inside, and materials salvaged from our shed could also assist in reinforcing it, and barricading. In the worst case, we could just fall back, and barricade the back of the house, abandoning the back-yard. If I could rig up hurricane fencing, even on the inside of the wooden slat fence, I'd be a lot happier. as its a rental, the chances of getting the fence replaced is pretty slim.

Our front yard, with its white picket fence, and big windows presents its own problems. Not high enough or strong enough to obscure the home, or repel hordes, it does offer a buffer, and allows you some visibility as to what's going on. By reinforcing and barricading the windows, again, with shed walls, and bed-slats, you could quickly rig up a hurricane and zombie resistant house-front.

We recently replaced the aging fly-wire and aluminium frame screen door, with a steel mesh and framed security door, complete with new wooden beams to fit it to, giving us a much more secure front entrance. Coupled with our Strike Plate lock, the front door is more secure now.

Here's where my plans get devious. Given the scenario laid out, our home isn't great, defensively, but my neighbors house is. Walled in by our house, and their other side neighbors, and again at the back. Walled garden at the back. Solar power, rain tanks. Roof access between their and ours (the gap is only about 1.5m).

If the world came to a horrid, zombie infested end? We'd secure our place as best we could, and make plans to move one house over. Know your neighbors. Know your neighborhood. Be well respected, appreciated and valued. Look out for each other and be ready to help when called, and you'll be welcomed in times of adversity, AND know where the best bolt-holes are.

Movie review: Viral

I had a early-to-bed, doing work-from-home, kid-free evening this week, so got to watch a movie of my own choosing. It was pretty cool. Not the movie, getting to choose a movie. Actually, I choose the movies fairly often, but this time I didn't have to take anyone else's interests in account. So I chose one that seemed to be near to my heart. A infectious disaster zombie movie! Yay!

End of the world movies! With science, and zombies. Yay.

 The movie I selected was "Viral" a 2016 straight-to-DVD, as far as I can tell. Here's the basic synopsis from IMDB...

Emma and her sister Stacey are normal teenagers in a small town, when a mysterious infection begins to spread. With the town quarantined, and their parents stuck on the other side of the barrier, the girls have a blast eating junk food and sneaking out to go to parties. But when the disease starts to infect people they know, the girls, together with their neighbor Evan (Emma's secret crush), barricade themselves into their home.

But it may already be too late, as the infection is already in their midst, and Emma will be faced with a choice: protect her sister or survive the virus.

The infection, it turns out is NOT a viral infection, its a multi-cellular parasite, a nematode. A worm. Brain worms! This bothered the scientist in me, as the damn title of the movie was misleading, like if "The Lion King" was about the king of leopards.  However, they did some pretty cool stuff with the premise. Making comparisons to the fungal brain zombie ants,  the "eat me, eat me" behaviour in Toxoplasma infected rats and the flesh burrowing botfly maggot, the disease is spread by a bloody cough from an infected person, victims who become more an more aggressive and essentially, zombied as the worm interacts with the brain.

As a zombie survival film, it was really good. Government intervention in the form of military isolation, martial law, CDC quarantine with spot-checks, house-confinement and eventually, internment and "sweep-and-clean" roundups, followed by liberal airstrike-firebombings.

The disease/parasite aspect was not badly handled at all, and apart from a bit of "too smart / controlling" suspension of disbelief being required, it also had some really good aspects. The infected became blind when the parasite took over, relying on hearing to guide them to new victims which was a nice touch.

The quarantine included delivery of CDC goody boxes of MRE's and survival gear.  Flares (used to signal the military in the event of an infection in the early stages of the outbreak), face-masks and poncho's (for preventing / reducing he risk of contamination) and the like. It was also good to see "we are prepared for this kind of thing" reactions from the populace: under-stocked cupboards, closed and emptied shops, early evacuees and armed cordons. All good things to expect from a dangerous outbreak.



I really enjoyed the movie from a disaster preparedness and response perspective, only had a few "nooo! shut the door, what are you doing?" moments from the kids, and apart from the one or two bits of "hive-mind/pseudo-science" junk, it was remarkably believable and internally consistent.

 It really held the tension, and bleak prospects of a widespread, martial-law enforced (and out of control) quarantine as well as the worm-zombies. Well worth catching on your local streaming movie network of choice.

Events: OzApocalypse - Zombie Apocalypse

I had the opportunity to go and run through the Oz Apocalypse Zombie Experience over the weekend, and wanted to give you my thoughts on it.

There has been quite a bit of controversy around the event, primarily as it changed hands very late in the piece and there was quite a disparity between what the original promoters/organisers (IRL Shooter, who ran Patient 0 in 2013) and the Zombie Apocalypse Survival Experience: LAZARUS event being put on by OzApocalypse and Horror Corp Entertainment. This mostly stems from OzApocalypse "buying up" the Pozible Campaign that for whatever reason IRL Shooter found itself unable to present.

This was NOT the sequel that IRL Shooter had promised, this was an event put on by OzApocalypse that drew on that event, its fanbase, and premise. I think that in several aspects it was not as impressive as IRL Shooter's Patient 0 (it wasn't nearly as large or sprawling, and didn't have the embedded story).

However, it was also superior in several ways. The technology for one, I felt was significantly better.

The irM4's from iCombat sync wirelessly to the smart bandoleer we all wore, which recorded shot data, accuracy, and more.  The irM4's were fitted with a 150 round SmartMag and additional magazine kits can be purchased. If a player is eliminated, their gun shuts off for a period of time preventing cheating! The best thing about the new weapons were that they had CO2 powered sound and recoil. you could feel every shot, hear every rapport.

I knew if my teammates were firing, even over the din of the event space, and that was  a crucial improvement in the experience.

The bandoleers were tied to our irM4's wirelessly, and reported back to a central computer, and more importantly, they tied into the headbands worn by the Zombies, these were similar to the bandoleers we wore, and acted as emitters to make proximity to the zombies damaging. Get too close, and they "bite".

Shoot the sensors and they flash and go solid with a kill, and the actors dropped. All this data was fed back through to the behind-the scenes control and scored were generated, and passed against the membership cards we were given at registration, giving you reciprocal rights at other iCombat sites, and the ability to accrue rank in the network.

The OzApocalypse website made mention that there was the ability to customise your irM4, but this is a bit of a misnomer, in that there were a second set of weapons, the short barreled, and Picatinny rail mounted short barreled "Commando" irM4's in their armory, fitted with vertical grips, there wasn't really the facility during the Zombie Apocalypse event to do any customization other than adjusting the buttstock and in my case, fitting my own sling, the trusty 215Gear sling.

Other than this it replicates one of the most known assault rifles in the world, the M16/M4, and is used by law enforcement and militaries all over the world.


It has the same form, fit, and function as the real thing and brings the word realism up to a whole new level. I really enjoyed the "Tap, Rack, Bang" functionality. Removable clips, internal sensors and fully functional parts, from mag-release to selector switches . The weapons and sensors made the event for me. No more reload button or hard to hear electronic sounds. You hear and feel every round, in a longer engagement, if you were kitted out with spare mags you could drop your mag and slam a new one home. They bypassed this by assigning everyone a cylume glowstick, and had a reloading station where we were restocked by a technician, but you can see how it could be easily enough facilitated in a more longterm event.

And that's all before we even get to set dressing, gameplay and the actors! I was really happy with what we faced when we passed through the containment doorways.

 When OzApocalypse took the event over, they brought on Horror Corp Entertainment from the US, engineers who specialized in Haunted House and Zombie Apocalypse Experience "in real life" gaming environments. They have three decades of experience in visual, sound, event and multimedia production, creating theatrically-based, interactive horror and genre projects. The event at the Melbourne Showgrounds takes place in a blackened-out, light-controlled battle zone, it doesn’t matter what time of day it is,  – players will step into an ominous world to fight ravenous zombies. The Prop and Set Designers as well as Makeup Artists create a film set style environment that immerses players in the Zombie Apocalypse survival experience.

Combinations of lighting, (and lack of lighting), selected use of smoke, as well as a really harrowing and oppressive sound-scape really put pressure on the player as they navigate a maze or debris and horrific scenes.

I had the good fortune to get to go backstage and saw the interconnected passageways the actors could take to move from area to area, where they would emerge and lay in wait for the passing players, in and around the sets. The hospital area bugged me the most, as I work in them, and have done the graveyard shift...

The maze was a CQB nightmare, with blind corners, concealed alcoves and all manner of cover for the zombies to lurch from and come at us. Importantly though, for all its twists and turns, it was a "safe" environment, from an OH&S perspective and you could easily cope with the 6-8 person teams recommended. We ran it in a team of three, and were like a well oiled machine. I didn't have to worry about anyone actually getting hurt for real during even an intense simulated combat.

We weren't rushed along as we had been in the Patient 0 event, and even though the maze was relatively small, much more in line with a Haunted House event rather than the sprawling warehouse/factory sit utilised for Patient 0, and we went through the maze twice, as a part of the gameplay, I certainly didn't feel any less fearful of my life when zombies came at us from dark corners, or rattled on us from behind chainlink walls as we faced more direct threats.

Back in the registration area, the stark lighting, clean floors and all too living other players was a more jarring experience. I wanted back in to my comforting darkness, screaming and sirens. The one upside of the "real-world" was that I got to fool around with both the Glock training weapons. The Glocks had the same "real features" as the irM4's, removable clips, wireless targeting and scoring, and ammo-counts. Unfortunately due to limited battery capacity, and high accuracy, they weren't really suited to the spray-and-pray zombie hoard threats the game presented with.


A regrettable technical difficulty, but one the organisers preferred to keep it out of the game, but available for range use! I also got to use the notorious pain-belt! It was a really, really unpleasant experience and I heartily recommend it for all gamers. Again, it apparently was not suited to use in the zombie game, but us perfect for PvP shooting. I tried it on the low setting, which was startling and also all the way up at high, which was curse-making, but didn't hamper me as soon as it stopped. Incentive not to get shot, for sure.

So, all in all I was really pleased with the OzApocalypse Zombie Apocalypse event. I was a Pozible campaign ticket holder, and I feel it was pretty amazing that they would offer to honour the IRL Shooter LAZARUS ticket holders at all, which was super generous. It certainly is NOT a sequel to the Patient 0 game, and its really hard to compare the two events as apples and apples. I really enjoyed it, and really look forwards to going back for more.

The Zombie Apocalypse Experience is running for two more weekends, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays while weekdays and weeknights give those who love games like Call of Duty the chance to combat team vs team combat in the BATTLE APOCALYPSE arena, which is the same area as the Zombie Apocalypse event, but with the connecting areas opened up, some walls opened up, and more personal threats, with pain belts available on request, I believe. I'd really recommend you get along and enjoy it, in either its Zombie Apocalypse, Battle Apocalypse or even the kid-friendly FAMILY versions, before it finishes.

AND, thanks to the organisers, I can offer all my readers a whopping 35% discount with the code "COYOTE0415" (thats charlie-oscar-yankee-oscar-tango-echo-zero-four-one-five).

TICKETS: Lazarus www.flavorus.com/ozapocalypse
Battle Apocalypse www.flavorus.com/battleapocalypse
Group Bookings (minimum of eight players) email tickets@ozapocalypse.com

Facebook and Twitter OzApocalypse
Instagram ozapocalypse.com.au

Home Front: self storage facilities.

I was recently called upon to help a friend empty a storage container at a self-storage facility. I've moved house so many times that it's pretty much second nature to me, and I can Tetris pack a truck or car like no-ones business.

What struck me, at my first visit to a self storage facility was the wide open space that it covered, and how nondescript it was. From the outside, beyond the high fence the unadorned corrugated walls of the facility offer little indication of what lays within, and also blocks off almost any of the lines of sight into the premises, other than via the coverable gate.

The other thing that struck me was the size of the site. There were two distinct warehouse sized buildings, the main one was two floors in size.

In the building we were in there were 40 storage lockers to a corridor, and three corridors, upstairs, and single set of 40 below, with road access. Two sets of metal stairs permitted access, one fright lift. The lockers didn't reach the ceiling. on the ground floor or on the first floor. This gives both clearance for ambient lighting, and reduces fire risks.

The floors were laminated chipboard over a steel grid frame, perhaps not the most structurally sound substrate, but cheep and easy. Each locker we individually roller-doored and padlocked, and offered full enclosure, and were approximately 3m tall, by 4m wide and 1.5m deep. When you do the math, that is a lot of cubic meter storage in one of these places.

Why does any of this matter?

 This place screamed safehouse to me.

Out of the way, in an industrial area, few to no staff, or regular clients-on-premises it is the kind of place most people would drive past and never give a second glance to. And it is potentially filled with a variety of trash and/or treasures

 The upper areas were spacious, airy and well lit even on a cloudy day by the skylights. The floor was a good 4-5m off the street level thanks tot he steel girder legs and there were no motion or light exposing side windows.


The cross-building connector bridges  gave a look-down view over the central driveway, again, without being exposed to the street, and offered more covered and lit areas. I could imagine hanging gardens doing really well here, fed by rainfall collected from the wide flat roofs.



The whole structure, baring the floors was sheet steel and girder, if you discount the polycarbonate sunroof sheeting. I can imagine that it would probably weather a great number of environmental disasters fairly well (apart from tornado strike perhaps).

A potential source of loot, (and looting, parties, lets be fair), and lacking in basic infrastructure, this is however the making of a modern day walled citadel.

Let the walking dead, the floods or plagues come, this kind of facility might make a good refuge in a urban environment.

Unless you are trapped in one with an angry alien, perhaps.

Interview: Zombie Dog Tags

I ran into some fun folks when visiting OzComicCon, who made and sold custom dog-tags. When I wast told they had a Kickstarter going locally to me, to take their product to the next level. I got in touch with Sgt. Slaughter from Zombie Dog Tags.com to talk about their products, vision and their Kickstarter Project.It finishes Thu, Feb 6 2014 1:00 PM AEDT.

So, in a departure from my usual style, here's the interview...


Q: What is a Zombie Dog Tag?
A: Zombie Dog Tags are your way to show your support for humanity in a post-apocalyptic world. Zombie Dog Tags come in a range of styles and designs from engraved Zombie hunting permits, to the fully personalised MILSPEC embossed dog tags. Our hand anodised aluminium, USA made tags are engraved in Melbourne Australia and offer a smorgasbord of colours, images and text so you can dish out zombie carnage in style. Our super tough battle proven military grade dog tags are USA made, and embossed in Melbourne Australia on the same military equipment that has already seen action in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are built to last and will ensure you will be ready to defend the world when the invertible happens.

Q: What made you think to design and make your own dogtags?
A: We were involved in a Zombie related website that photographed models in their apocalypse gear with knives and swords.
Each model had their own unique serial numbered dog tags which they got to keep after the shoot. The dog tags proved so popular we ended up having to buy more and more. We were paying a fortune for crappy quality embossed dog tags and we had no flexibility when we wanted to change them as everything had to be ordered a month in advance. So we decided to buy our own US Military Dog tag embossing machine. After the massive crate arrived with our new pride and joy, we sat around talking about how great it would be if we could put images on our tags and create other Zombie related dog tags. After a bit of investigation, our options were cheap crappy production in china or invest in our own equipment and make high quality ones ourselves. We talked to friends and family and everybody said we were crazy as no one would want a Zombie Dog Tag so that was good enough for us, we love a challenge so we purchased a machine and here we are. Of course it was an overnight success and these days we have primetime shows like the Walking Dead and Hollywood movies with Brad Pitt fighting Zombies so of course everyone gets it now!

Q: How did zombies in popular culture influence your designs?
A: I’d say our biggest influence is when we’re sitting around watching Zombie movies and one of our team says ‘That person needs a tag that says …’. We love the classic symbols used like the biohazard sign, but we’re also trying to create our own, for example the crossbow in the Daryl Dixon quote tag we make ‘I ain’t nobody’s bitch’.

Q: What about other apocalyptic disaster situations?
A: Not so much currently, we’re fixated with Zombies right now, but we do have future plans to expand into different genres.


Q: What uses do you foresee your dogtags playing in survival situations?

A: I’d say the most important tag would have to be our bottle opener tag, just because the world has been overrun by Zombies, doesn’t mean we should stop drinking beer! But we do also have a more serious side to our tags. We’ve created tags with parental contact information for children with disabilities, tags with vital medical information and tags for sports people with next of kin information (who takes ID with them when they do things like jogging at 5am in the morning!). ICE (In Case of Emergency) doesn’t need to be boring, and we’ve found people are much more willing to wear a tag like ours rather than a generic ICE tag.

We’ve also supplied members of the US Military with embossed tags which i’d say was our biggest challenge as we had to setup our machine to perfectly match tags from photographs, which was completely different than the usual army tags and in a layout we’ve never seen before.
The end result came out perfectly and was approved for use, we created MILSPEC and Special Ops Black tags so who knows where these tags are right now or why this different layout was approved. Maybe we have a bunch of top secret Zombie killing super soldiers running around wearing our gear!


Q: What are your KickStarter design options, and what do they represent?
A: Via Kickstarter we’re introducing a whole new concept, the personalised Zombie Hunting Permit, each tag has a personalised name and a unique serial number. This has never been seen before! We have 7 different tags suitable for Zombie haters, Zombie Lovers and we even have ‘INFECTED’ tags for Zombies! We’re also giving away FREE embossed tags with some pledges. We’re currently running a vote so the Kickstarter community can decide what goes on these bonus tags.

Q: What conditions do you expect your dogtags will survive?
A: We have the 2 types of tags, embossed and engraved. Embossed tags are battle proven and the same as used by the US military and are created by punching the letters through the steel so they are raised, just like the plastic letters on a credit card so you can’t get much tougher than that! The engraved tags is diamond drag so we actually remove metal from the tag rather than just burning the coating like laser engraving. We even engrave the tag twice to get the perfect deeper shine. I’d say both types of tags will outlast all of us in most situations!

Q: What materials do you use, and why?
A: We use the best materials we can source. This does come at a huge cost to us but we feel its the only way we can stand behind our product. The embossed tag blanks are USA made and our supplier also supplies them to the US military.

The Aluminium engraved tag blanks are also USA made & hand anodised in the US too. The chains we use on all the tags are also USA made. Both types of tags are embossed or engraved by us in Melbourne Australia. We have many options for cheaper materials and faster production, but that's not what we want, we don’t want to be the biggest seller of tags in the world, we just want to be the best!



Q: How did you get started in finding the equipment you needed?
A: A lot of phone calls! This isn’t standard equipment you can buy locally. After months of research we ended up managing to get the last military embosser available at that time from the USA.

  It was a big struggle for us as we could of easily purchased a ‘commercial embosser’ that would of produced a similar result and been much cheaper and faster, but we wanted the same as the US military use but you don’t just walk into a shop and buy that type of machinery. We ended up getting hold of the same machine that has seen action with the USA military in some of the worst hotspots on earth, if works for them, then its good enough for us. The engraver was easier and we imported that from France.

Q: What resources would you need to keep going, if SHTF?
A: Our embosser is classed as portable as the US military would obviously move it around a lot. It has a hard steel outer shell and a handle plus a few pins you can put in to stop things moving around on rough journeys but as far as moving it goes, its a very heavy machine! It works on both 110v & 240v so wherever we go in the world it’ll work. If we lose electricity then we go old school and we can use our manual embosser. Our manual embosser can be tailored to work with any piece of metal, so if things got really bad, I think we’d be cutting up old car panels up and using them for dog tags!

Q: What designs do you have in mind in the future?
A: We’ve been having a lot of fun at conventions like Comic-con, Supanova and Armageddon so we’ll be increasing our Zombie range for those shows. The biggest thing in our future will be more customisation, we’d really like to offer a whole range of personalised Zombie Dog Tags. We are getting close to making this happen now so stay tuned as we might have some nice surprises coming up this year!


So there you have it, my thanks to Sgt. Slaughter and the ZombieDogTags team.