The Zombie Combat Manual (35 page)

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Rain:
Fending off an attacking ghoul during a torrential downpour can be quite unpleasant. Retaining a strong grip on your weapon may become difficult, and your agility and clarity of vision may also be impaired. At the same time, a zombie may have a more difficult time grabbing hold of a rain-slicked arm or torso. Be aware that your ability to detect approaching ghouls during a rainstorm will also be hindered. Your typical cues—odor, moans, the sound of shuffling feet—will be dampened and harder to perceive as the droplets fall.

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Snow:
Thankfully, this type of precipitation has more of a negative impact on the zombie than the defending human. Although a snowstorm can inhibit your visual acuity, it has a more severe effect on a ghoul’s maneuverability, given the slippery ice and snow crystals underfoot. This makes evasive action after a blizzard easier than during temperate weather. Should the temperature drop below freezing, the limbs of the walking dead will also begin to stiffen and solidify, making it even slower in its movements. As during a rainstorm, you may have difficulty picking up sounds of an oncoming corpse both during and after a snowfall. However, you should also use this natural resource to your advantage. Take note of any prints created in the snow. With practice, you should be able to quickly discern the tracks of the living from the lumbering gait of the undead.

Heat

When assessing the effects of heat on zombie combat, both temperature and humidity of the surrounding air must be taken into account. Both of these elements can have a profound influence on the body’s performance in combat. Although every person is uniquely affected by higher temperatures, it has been generally observed that the higher the temperature, the lower the performance level of the individual. This is particularly true for those engaged in highly strenuous activities, which include fighting off a flesh-hungry cadaver. Cramps, fainting, exhaustion, and heatstroke are some of the maladies that can result from being ill-prepared when facing a zombie in warmer climates.

The most important precaution to take when fighting the living dead in a sweltering environment is to ensure that the body is properly hydrated. It may be impossible for you to take a sip of water while embroiled in combat; make certain you do so immediately after delivering your final blow. Should you expect an approaching confrontation, prepare yourself in advance with a cup of water or juice, which you will inevitably lose by sweating during the heat of undead battle. Alcohol is not a recommended hydration fluid, as it will actually dehydrate your body in addition to impairing your performance.

Be sure to consider the impact of heat during evasive maneuvers. You may typically run at a certain steady pace in temperate climates. This rate of speed, however, may slow considerably as the mercury rises. Athletes have shown a differential of 10 to 20 percent off their typical pace in hotter climates. This difference is critical to account for when calculating the time required to reach a safe station or to elude a mass of ghouls. Also note that although excessively high temperatures seem to impact the speed of human movement, they do not at all affect the pace of the living dead.

Aquatic Combat

There may come a time when, for any number of reasons, you will confront a ghoul in a waterborne environment. You may need to cross a riverbed, traverse a flooded underpass, or swim toward a rescue vessel in the open sea. Fighting the living dead in any type of aquatic setting presents a unique set of challenges and negates some of the inherent advantages humans have over the undead on dry land. This negation of advantage is the reason it is important to understand the various types of marine combat and the limitations that each presents.

Slight Submersion

This level of aquatic engagement is defined by an immersion level at calf height or lower and presents the least amount of difficulty. At this submersion level, land is often a short distance away. Given the proximity to dry terrain, it is recommended that you avoid undead confrontation until you have safely exited the water. If you must begin an engagement while your feet are submerged, note that your leg speed and dexterity are vastly diminished, making any combat techniques you attempt more awkward to execute. This is especially true when facing off with a ghoul in a lake bed filled with slippery algae-covered rocks. Use extra caution to keep a safe distance, and take a wider stance so as not to accidentally lose your footing and slip, waiting to be pounced upon by your undead, water-logged assailant.

Partial Submersion

Engaging a ghoul when partially submerged up to your waist can be quite hazardous, as this effectively counteracts any speed advantage you have over your reanimated opponent. In addition, you must not only contend with the ghoul you can see, but also watch for ones you cannot. At this water level, a zombie can be completely submerged below the waterline and remain unnoticed until a set of moss-coated teeth sink into your ankle. If you absolutely must engage a ghoul at this submersion point, it is recommended that you do so with a partner. While you contend with the upright corpse, your cohort can stand at your back and sweep the water for any unseen attackers.

Full Submersion

Engaging an attacker while you both are entirely submerged in water is the most dangerous of all aquatic encounters. In a full-submersion scenario, your speed and maneuverability advantage is utterly negated, your eyesight is diminished, and any weapon that requires a swinging motion is completely useless. You are limited to using thrusting and piercing weapons, such as stakes, knives, and spears, in this type of aquatic combat. One advantage you do have is that regions on the undead skull that are normally difficult to target when on land, such as the eye sockets, can be somewhat easier to strike when fully submerged.

The attacking ghoul faces a disadvantage as well, as it will have a much tougher time grabbing hold of a submerged forearm. If at all possible and available, it is advised that you don swim goggles before entering a full-submersion encounter in order to improve your underwater vision. In a fully submerged situation, your best defense may be to simply swim away from your attacker, as the speed of your paddling will undoubtedly outpace a bloated, floating corpse.

Night Combat

What can be more frightening than being attacked by a walking corpse? Not being able to see the attack coming. Imagine opening your eyes to pitch blackness, knowing that a rotting cadaver is within striking distance, but being unable to spot it until its teeth rip into your flesh. This is what makes low-light undead combat so nerve-wrackingly intense.

In the dark, the dead have an edge over the living. Although they do not possess any exceptional or extrasensory perceptive abilities that make locating prey at night easier, zombies seem to have no less difficulty finding unlucky victims in the wee hours of the evening as they do in the daylight. Humans without adequate illumination or a night vision device, on the other hand, awkwardly stumble through the dark, staggering around locations that are well familiar to them in the daytime. Luckily, you can use several strategies to improve your odds in situations in which light is lacking, but the living dead plentiful.

Avoid the Darkness

The first logical tip to successfully fighting in the dark is to avoid it altogether. Plan your travels accordingly, and ensure that you are already settled in a secured zone or temporary shelter by the time the sun sets. If you find yourself out in the open as dusk approaches without enough time to reach a safe fortification, locate a short-term refuge where you can allow time for your eyesight to adjust (see the strategy that follows).

Let Your Body Adjust

The eyes require an average of twenty to thirty minutes to completely adjust to darkness, plenty of time for a ghoul to attack. As night falls, it is better to stop and permit your eyes to acquire their own natural night vision abilities, rather than press onward and risk running into an attacker you cannot see. Individuals have varying degrees of night vision, and there are several ways to improve it naturally. Be sure to ingest adequate amounts of vitamin A (carrots, mangoes, and cantaloupe are all excellent sources) and avoid nicotine, which can impair eyesight in general. The flickering ember of a cigarette also hampers your eyes’ ability to adjust to the dark.

Open Your Senses

A diminishing of one particular sense means relying that much more on the others. In the absence of light, your sense of hearing and sense of smell should provide you with clues as to the presence of a zombie. Just as in daylight, an attacking ghoul will make itself clearly known by its mournful groans, which hopefully will provide you with its approximate position. Its odor should also help you determine its general location and distance. Thankfully, your cadaverous opponent does not have the forethought to use a covert approach in its attack.

Keep Low

Rather than standing starkly upright, taking a slightly stooped, crouching stance may help in low-light situations. Not only will you make yourself a smaller target to any assaulting ghouls, staying lower than your surroundings can help silhouette approaching individuals against any existing light sources, such as a star-filled, moonlit sky.

Stand Ready

Keep your body prepared for night combat by holding your arms up and in front of you, much like a boxer’s stance, with your preferred weapon in hand. You can also use your longrange weapon effectively as a “feeler,” much as an insect does with its antennae, to help pinpoint and locate a ghoul within a viable combat distance. Do not, however, extend your arms fully in front of you as if to feel for any oncoming obstructions. This is a common error made by those who believe that an extended hand may keep the attacking ghoul at bay before being seen. More often than not, your probing fingers will wind up in the jaws of a waiting zombie.

Watch Your Back

Should you find yourself in an unfamiliar location in the black of night, attempt to guard against as many attack angles as possible until your eyes have time to adjust. An unnerving aspect of low-light attacks is the potential for an unseen attack from any direction. Mitigate ambushes from the rear by moving with your back pressed against a solid structure. “Dig the corners” by situating yourself in a corner position, thereby thwarting unknown assaults from the back, left, and right positions.

EVASIVE MANEUVERS

I met Chris along a stretch of Highway 51, right outside Porthill. Huge guy, had to be about six-three and two-fifty. Biceps the size of my thighs. I was just about to ask him if he played any football in high school when we met up with a nest just past Copeland. It seemed like too large of a pack to manage with just the two of us, but Chris just plowed into forty of them, hatchets swinging. I told him to ease up, that he’d brought down enough of them for us to get going, but he bellowed that he was having too much fun. By the time he was done and we were back on the road, he was pretty beat. I suggested we take a break while I stand watch, but he waved me off and told me to go on ahead, that he’d be right behind me.

After a few miles, I decided to slow down and wait until he caught up. I stopped for a while, then finally decided to head back for him. I got that sinking feeling in my gut when I came upon three ghouls that looked like they’d recently fed from a fresh kill. I found him another two miles in, not far from where I left him. His hatchets lay across his lap, like he never even saw them coming. If I had to guess, he probably sat down to catch his breath, lay back, and fell asleep.

I waited another fifteen minutes, until he started to stumble to his feet. I put him down quickly, buried him in a shallow trench by the side of the highway, and was still able to make it to the Bonners Ferry rescue station just before nightfall.