Day 44: Humans vs. Cannibals vs. Zombies

It is truly amazing how clueless some people can be about the perils of the New North America. 'Know your enemy' has more meaning than ever now, and yet there are still survivors of the nukes who are turning into corpses in this world because they are unable to adapt. Here is a tip if you are one of them; there is a big difference between cannibals and zombies, and not knowing it can cost you your life.

Cannibalism is a rapidly growing concern in the southwest and along the former Canadian border. It is starting to creep east as the tribes food dries up, and there are unconfirmed reports of Appalachian mountain tribes abducting people for food as well. They raid settlements, trick survivors and put drugs in food, so basically they will try any technique to eat people and loot their stuff. Yes, they can speak perfectly fine! Do not expect a cannibal to look like a Tarzan and start chasing you down yelling like the former howler monkey.

There is a simple way to know if it is a zombie or a cannibal, and help yourself survive. If it limps, has missing limbs, groans, and is covered in blood and rags, its a zombie. If it walks up no one has seen it before, introduces itself but doesn't say where its from, is overly friendly and offers you food, you shouldn't trust it anyway and it is most likely a cannibal, or a con artist.

Day 34: Flying Machine Tips

fictional apocalypse airplane, drawn before the apocalypse

For the more industrial citizen of the apocalyptic wasteland, a car can be an inadequate vehicle. Who wants to drive through dangerous territory in an exposed car when under six months ago jets were breaking the sound barrier? Aircraft have started to make a comeback recently in the sky, as more are getting recovered and repaired. The road is dangerous, but the sky always gives you an edge.

Scavenging a functioning bicycle is difficult enough, so where is someone supposed to get an aircraft? Most major airstrips have been pillaged of everything up to the copper wire in the wall, or if they are in tact, guarded like Fort Knox and Buckingham Palace combined. Only the para-military units and the strongest gangs can hold a major airport, and as a result control most of the remaining post-nuke airplanes. Because of this it is necessary to find an aircraft that does not require an air field, like a pontoon plane if near the coast or a helicopter if inland and in rough terrain.

Helicopters, while slower, offer more maneuverability in dogfights or air-to-ground combat. The more obliterated areas are not likely to have a runway for airplanes to land on. This wont affect a small airplane that can land in a nearby lake but that is a big chance to take. For any aircraft however the most essential thing to remember is the need for fuel. This land has turned into a dry Bic lighter that everyone is trying to flick for one last flame. Beware of straining your supplies if a car can actually do the job just as well. An easy solution is to use a less wasteful aircraft like a hot air balloon, which in turn would make the user a ridiculously easy target. Stealth and street smarts are what keep wastelanders alive now.

Day 21: The groups you may encounter

     Any survivor who thinks his gun and his pickup truck are going to be enough to sustain him in the wasteland is sure to be eaten by zombies or become a radioactive corpse within five days. 

     Just because someone has everything they need in the nuclear wasteland does not mean they know how to utilize it to its maximum potential, and certainly not alone. Cities along the East Coast such as Boston are destroyed and crawling with danger, not big empty cities still in tact waiting to be looted as some might think. The truth is those are the most heavily bombed areas, with whole communities gone and radiation blanketing the surrounding area. Any one who lived through the destruction and poisoned environment knew that there was safety in numbers, and with the lack of a government or police force the gangs and militias sprouted up like giant nuclear mushrooms.

     In the center of Boston in particular there is one of the most savage packs in the Northeast, made up punk survivors and radiated escaped inmates. They call themselves the Green Monstahs, and true to their name they have erected massive barriers throughout the city, painting them green. This is a defense tactic against a larger, better organized gang called the United Peoples Army, though the only reason they are united appears to be the iron-fisted leadership of there insane commander Richard Hertz, formerly a general in the now extinct United States Army. While he claims to be the highest ranking leader left alive after the Bombing it is only propaganda, as his power does not go farther than New York City, where no fewer than five warring gangs fight for control and fight a zombie horde that numbers in the tens of thousands across in New Jersey. 

Green Monstahs; imagine a more sinister looking,

 shotgun toting figure

     Beyond that, the rest of the country is still unknown, and not one survivor, even those with salvaged computers can truly say what is happening beyond the lines on the map. Right here and now though, there is a key phrase that is graffiti-sprayed in the outskirts of most East Coast cities that sums up the situation: safety in numbers.