These are MY Guns:

This gun, is my up-close-and-personal buddy. It's a Mossberg 500 12 gauge pump-action shotgun. It holds 8 shells and is surprisingly light. I don't plan on it being my primary arm come Z-Day, but for home defense and close-quarters it preforms spectacularly. Due to the shorter barrel and lightweight it has more of a kick than you'd expect out of a 12 gauge. (currently on loan to a friend, temporarily have a Marlin Lever-Action in return)



Next up, a Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic long rifle, equipped with a scope, a skeletal carbine-fiber jet black stock, and a digital camo barrel. Currently sporting your average 10 shot rotary clip. I threw the 25 shot banana clip away for good reason. Doesn't pack much of a punch, but it will penetrate the skull and ricochet around inside the brain of a deer with a well placed shot. I'm not much of one for keeping antlers anyway.


And lastly we have my Henry "Golden Boy" repeater. This is a .22 magnum lever-action rifle that holds 12 rounds. It packs more of a punch than my Ruger, but just like it's picture, it doesn't have a scope (I prefer iron-sights anyway). It's also a good deal heavier than my Ruger, but makes it up by being PERFECTLY balanced. If you've never owned a Henry, get one. Never before have I had a rifle in my hands that was as balanced as this one. My Ruger is extremely top heavy (due to the skeletal stock), but lighter in general. Plus, there's nothing quite like a lever-action.

These are MY guns. DO NOT touch my guns without first gaining permission. If in the unlikely scenario I am bit by a skin-job, I want you to do me a favor. Take one of my guns, aim it at my head, and pull the trigger. I have no desire to join their ranks. Know that I will do the same for you.

The Stash (Gear amongst other things): (This is still a work in progress)
Apparel-

We'll start with the boots, just for kicks (har-har). These are my Chinook Tarantula size 13 boots. Made of genuine leather and a practically indestructible steel toe. The tread of these boots is literally thicker than most tires. How thick is it, you ask? After two years of day-after-day abuse the tread is still 1.5 inches of solid rubber. Completely water-proof (not water-resistant, water-proof) and extremely durable. One downside to these monsters though; they are heavy for footwear. Running long distances with ten pounds on your feet isn't exactly easy at first in comparison to your standard pair of Nike's. If you want a pair of these you can get them online for $99.95. I got mine on sale for only $40 at a local retailer.

Tools-

These are my three primary blades. A machete?But don't you warn against the use of a machete later on? Yes I do. That is because this machete is a tool, and nothing more. I live in the woods and go hiking and hunting all the time, having a machete for blazing trails is a must here. Come Z-Day I'll have the machete on my person for this reason and this reason alone. None of these blades are to be used as weapons unless I absolutely have to. Above the machete is my boot-knife that I sharpen religiously and further above the boot-knife is one of three identical survival knives I have that all have sheathes that can be strapped onto my arms, legs, and belt. The back of the machete has plenty of sharp teeth that work quite well as an improvised saw. Once again, they are tools used for various purposes first and a weapon only in extreme circumstances.



My thoughts on:
Zombies: I believe that 'zombies' will very much be alive, and not the shambling undead we are used to in 90% of the Zombie Fiction out there. The two most frequent explanations we get from their origins seem to be disease/infection or a parasite. Both of those have one thing in common, they both NEED a LIVING host to survive, procreate, and eventually infect another host. This leads me to believe that 'zombies' will require food, water, sleep, and oxygen. The brain needs oxygen, and since 'destroying the brain' seems to 'kill' a 'zombie', that would signify that the 'zombie' is in-fact alive. In addition, 'zombies' are known to both moan and either breathe or gasp, this means they have working lungs. What does this all mean though? It means that if my theory is correct, our 'zombies' will need to sleep, be affected by fatigue, will need to breathe, will need to feed, and will most likely retain reasoning and basic knowledge (if not more). Also, if true, 'killing' a 'zombie' could be accomplished with more than destroying the brain or removing the head. Perhaps stopping their breathing, causing them to bleed to death, or anything else that could potentially kill a human.

This is however just my 'theory', and will remain a theory until proven. The only way to prove it is to wait for the Zombie Apocalypse and find out.

Combat: Fighting is almost unavoidable is a Post-Zombie Apocalyptic world, you can't run forever and sooner or later you will have to fight either some skinjobs or another human. To minimize personal injury/infection chance I have decided that if confronted with a situation where I had to fight, I would first try to use range to my advantage. This is where firearms come into play, simple enough. If range is not an option and melee combat is the only way out, I plan to be carrying two different melee weapons. The first of which is a steel spear, over five feet long it will easily keep any skinjob/humanoid farther than arms length and can easily puncture the skull, or any other part of the body. The second is a steel hatchet. The hatchet, or hand-axe, is small and light enough for close quarters combat, like in a corridor where a spear is too big to use. With only a light swing the momentum is enough to break bones or cause serious damage. It also doubles as a very handy tool for cutting wood, chopping down doors, getting past locks, and many other uses.

Why not a machete? Yes, the machete is a valuable tool and has been used as a weapon many times before. The problem is, finding a high quality machete in America is much harder than a good hatchet. Even if you have a machete your more likely to injure yourself than an enemy. Machetes are known as 'wrist-breakers' because the improper technique when using one will very, very easily break your wrist. A busted wrist ruins that entire hand, causes an extreme amount of pain, and slows you down a bit. In addition, if a machete were to cleave a skull, it would most likely become stuck in the tissue and become very difficult to get out, an axe on the other hand is wedged and therefor easy to remove, not to mention absorbs the shock from hitting a solid object much better.

Bases: There are many places that could make a good base to hole up against zombies, but I have one idea in mind that seems to top anything else I can think of. I wish to hole up on either a freighter, barge, or aircraft carrier. Why? They are all large, movable, floating fortresses that are inaccessible unless you hoist a gang-plank or fly onto one. You don't even have to leave port, as soon as you get on just hoist the gang-plank or draw up the small bridge. This protects you from skinjobs completely and denies any human access if you don't wish it.

As soon as you take control of one you now have complete access to who you let on/off of it. Now we can move on to the size. These structures are HUGE and can easily house a small colony of survivors comfortably. Some, like the aircraft carrier, have complete living quarters already built into them (including housing, kitchens, break rooms, etc) and you can do with the flat top-deck what ever you want to, perhaps house livestock, grow a few crops (if you bring soil, but growing crops is always difficult and will not sustain a colony with only what you can grow) or anything else. Hell if you can pilot one (which I really doubt you can, but hey.. if you can then you should already know the usefulness) you can go anywhere you want.. assuming it's close to the body of water your floating in (ocean would be preferred). Let's not forget the ability to fish safely without having to keep an eye out for skinjobs and being caught unprepared.

A few more things that make these floating citadels worth while are that most already have generators in them, all of them should have a radio in it to broadcast for other survivors, a small amount of supplies should already be there, and you can sit back and pop open a cold one as you work on that tan you've been meaning to get.

Original-Sin's Top 10 Things for Z-Day (in no particular order)
1. A weapon, any weapon. Some are better than others, but most all are better than nothing.
2. A good pair of boots. You will be constantly on the move if you wish to survive the first 24 hours.
3. A vehicle. Something to get you from one point to another quick and safe.
4. Preserved food, because who knows if those berries are edible?
5. Medicine, being prepared is key, have a band-aid for your boo-boo's at the ready.
6. A Bug Out Bag. Have all of this ready to go before Z-Day hits.
7. A destination. Are you going to hole up in that Wal-Mart or that old military bunker, know ahead of time.
8. A knife/multi-tool. They are an invaluable tool to have. Get one.. it most likely will save your life.
9. A friend, because you sure as hell don't want to go it alone
10. A plan! Get it sorted out now so you don't have to worry about it then!