Generators

[EvilNed]

Good point Debbie. I never thought of that. What if the sound would bounce? Would the zombies go off in the wrong direction?

[blind2d]

Interesting thought... And yes Ned, REAL ninjutsu, with martial arts, climbing techniques, meditation, weaponry... the whole shebang. It's by this Stephen K. Hayes guy, and it's actually really good. Worth seeking out if you're interested.

[Mike70]

I know how sound travels...at night here I can hear sounds from miles around...the kids playing in the pool at the house 1/2 mile away...I can understand what they say to each other...but a person cannot stay silent forever and if the generator won't give up your location then the gunfire sure as hell will. amen dude, a high five to that. i'm not worried because my area is mostly rural and filled with people packing some serious firepower (this is one place where you don't want to go hiking during deer season). if my generator didn't draw them in then my neighbors busting a cap at anything that moved would. then again, i seriously question how many zombies there would be in an out of the way area like the one i live in. i know one thing for sure - my old man in cincinnati would probably be screwed but he's sitting on top of a literal arsenal of weapons and ammo, so he'd go down old west style with both barrels blazing. truly and for sure the number of guns and the amount of ammo in that house are mind boggling but after 50+ years of being involved in gun collecting and shooting what do you expect. that's the thing that would bother me. it wouldn't be generators and noise, it'd be how my dad was getting along. i know i wouldn't be able to get to him nor would i try, the roads would be fucked. anyway it'd take a frigging u-haul to move his entire kit.

[Debbieangel]

I see exactly what you are saying Mike70 getting to your family would be the biggest problem. I would hope that it wouldnt be too far in the outbreak that my family would be able to get all together or atleast nearer to each other. Also, we have a lot of gun toting people around here too, you wouldnt want to be out unless you had to thats for sure, you would have to have some kind of signal to let others know you are out and about. I would have a plan thats for sure, I have a plan mapped out in a story I am writing and I think it is pretty good. It's what I would do anyway.

[Wyldwraith]

Well, If you have neighbors that abandon common sense and do things to attract lots of zombies then the whole hiding out method isn't available to you. You'd be better off organizing a civilian defense force and a labor corps to construct barriers and bottlenecks to force the undead into. If you had the right sort of topography, manpower and supplies at your disposal I've often thought you could use the singleminded linear manner that zombies go after live humans to corral them into a convenient killing ground en masse. There's this cool scene in the Monster Planet series where they arrange shipping crates to only leave the zombies one relatively narrow passage to get at them (these were those huge blue rectangular cargo containers they put aboard cargo ships), and then they kept smashing them by lowering a multi-ton container onto a mass of zombies, lifting it back up, and repeating the process over and over. Obviously the average person/group doesn't have the means/environment for something that large-scale, but maybe heavy fencing that narrows down to a funnel point? Any way to kill lots of zombies without expending hard to replace ammunition that doesn't involve a high degree of risk to the survivors would seem to be the only long-term hope for clearing/keeping an area clear of the undead. I still stand by the notion that unnecessary noise, visible motion, or illumination at night that can be seen from outside the structure one is inhabiting will eventually cause a horde to pile up on your doorstep. Even the rural areas won't remain safe forever. There'd be a mass exodus by the living away from the urban centers, and the zombies are sure to follow. It doesn't matter to a zombie if your sedan disappeared from sight thirty minutes ago, because unless some closer/more immediate prey derails its attention its still focused on pursuing you. That particular zombie will probably never find the survivor it set out to pursue, but it'll end up SOMEWHERE. This'll be happening all over. That whole notion in Land, about the zombies just standing around like lawn ornaments just didn't strike me as the way it'd be. Wasn't there ANY noise, sight or smell to cause them to wander off in some direction? Guess they precognitively knew via the Undead Psychic Network that they needed to hang around to join the Glorious Zombie Revolution under Field Marshal Big Daddy. Doesn't matter for me though. Like Debbiangel said I've got health probs that'll slow me down enough to make taking it on the road a very bad idea. Would rather just hoard supplies, fortify my home as much as possible, and lay low until the jig was up. At least I'll be relatively comfortable before I need to decide how to check out before I get devoured Ninja Churchmice Forever!

[Thorn]

Solar power for me, I even posted on the old site a cheap and efficient one you can build yourself out of items mostly found around your home with minor purchases made in pre-planning such an effort. They even sell solar powered generators that are portable and camouflaged these days. You do not need a noisy, fossil fuel sucking alternative when you can go solar. It is what I would relay on in the beginning anyway. Personally it just suits my sensibilities. Would I be able to power an entire house with a portable version. Certainly not but I could power batteries for flashlights and electric lanterns. I could use a hand crank radio for updates as long as they were coming in, and my home made solar panels would be great for a fridge. I just am not sure how much I would want to rely on anything just in case.

[Yojimbo]

Solar power for me, I even posted on the old site a cheap and efficient one you can build yourself out of items mostly found around your home with minor purchases made in pre-planning such an effort. They even sell solar powered generators that are portable and camouflaged these days. You do not need a noisy, fossil fuel sucking alternative when you can go solar. It is what I would relay on in the beginning anyway. Personally it just suits my sensibilities. Would I be able to power an entire house with a portable version. Certainly not but I could power batteries for flashlights and electric lanterns. I could use a hand crank radio for updates as long as they were coming in, and my home made solar panels would be great for a fridge. I just am not sure how much I would want to rely on anything just in case. Hadn't thought of the solar method, but great idea! BTW: All this talk of ninjas reminded me of these guys: http://www.realultimatepower.net/index4.htm

[Mike70]

I see exactly what you are saying Mike70 getting to your family would be the biggest problem. mine lives 50 miles away straight across a metro area with 2 million people in it. so i don't think there be much chance of reaching them. even if i could get there, i'd probably find my dad out in the front yard (which has a fence all the way around it) wielding a contraption akin to what jessie the body was using in predator, the flag planted behind him, a case of dynomite on one side and a cooler of beer on the other.