The revised, updated edition of The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse includes content unavailable in the first edition, including more illustrations and a new chapter on surviving a Zombie Apocalypse while in a big city like Chicago or NYC. Here’s an excerpt of that chapter, titled “Zombies and the City”:
In Chapter 5 I said, “The most important rule when trying to survive the Zombie Apocalypse is that you stay away from large cities.” Unfortunately, this isn’t always a viable option for people who call places like Manhattan, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, or Los Angeles home. So this chapter will help the big city apartment dweller who, due to unfortunate circumstance, was unable to leave the city before the Zombie Apocalypse hit. You’ll read preparation tips that will help increase your survival chances early, combat tactics for fighting large crowds of zombies, strategies for getting out of a zombie-overrun city, and much more. For everyone else out there, my original advice still stands: do not enter a major metropolitan area during the Zombie Apocalypse. The dangers far outweigh the benefits.
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of developing a Pre-Apocalypse Metropolitan Exit Plan. Practice until it becomes second nature before the first zombie rises to eat its first brain. Your best undead survival strategies are Awareness, Avoidance, and Escape: become Aware of potential zombie threats by watching the news, and Avoid getting trapped in the huge crush of people fleeing the city by Escaping early. The Zombie Apocalypse is very much a worst-case scenario for humanity. Trying to survive the Zombie Apocalypse in a major metropolitan area is the worst case of the worst case, and if you’re in that situation, everything else before that must have gone horribly wrong.
Big city living during the Zombie Apocalypse has a unique set of challenges that make survival a dicey thing for even the most seasoned combat veteran. The three biggest problems you’ll face are:
A Million Against One: In the first several months of the Zombie Apocalypse, major metropolitan areas will be teeming with hungry undead. Densely populated areas will still be densely populated…just with zombies instead of people. Every fight you’re in will involve large numbers of zombies or have the potential to draw large numbers.- Hope You Like Cheetos and Root Beer: Scavenging for supplies in looted convenience stores and abandoned apartments will be the only way you can stay nourished as long as you remain in the big city. There will be no fresh water sources you can trust outside of the bottled kind, any food you eat will come in plastic packages, and every time you leave your Zombie Redoubt to resupply, you run a very large risk of being attacked by bands of wandering ghouls. Oh, and where are you going to dig a latrine in your apartment?
- You Can’t Just Get on the Bus, Gus: Leaving the big city on a normal day can be challenging even with a car or public transportation. Once the subway stops running and the streets get choked with hordes of cannibalistic undead, your best options to get around will be on foot or bicycle. The longer you remain outside and visible, the more likely you are to be spotted by zombies. So how are you going to get out?
Despite these challenges, you can survive big city living during the Zombie Apocalypse. Just treat this situation as temporary. Your goal should always be to leave the city and go to less-populated rural or suburban areas as soon as it’s feasible. No matter how much you may love New York, its mean streets will kill you…or worse.
The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse is the only turnkey zombie survival course you’ll ever need, and it’s available right now from Amazon!
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