barriomulas.com - Siege Mentality

I dig zombie flicks. I mean, I really really dig them. Other apocalyptic movies are also well received.

I don't know. There's just something about a few struggling survivors camping out in a basement or shopping mall that attracts me. With nothing but scarce supplies, innovation, an outside threat, and fear, characters become more of the threat than the zombies themselves. There's also always a moment where a character is forced to kill somebody who he once knew, slightly hesitating before slamming the axe down on their face. Zombie movies, I feel, are "realer" than those prime time reality shows.

Sometimes I wonder how I'd deal in such a situation. "No! Your totally doing it wrong dude!" I'll find myself screaming to the screen.

"Can't you just accept the fact that chances rule out your wife's survival? Don't go back for your family, dude, just run!" I always think I'd be the first dude to shoot a buddy who just got bit by a zombie. "Sorry man, I gotta' do it" ::bam::

And when your in the final scene, surrounded by zombies with no chance of survival? Save one bullet for yourself, my friend. No glory in going out with a bang in a zombie flick. There's just too many of them to gloriously blow yourself up with a gas tank. Plus if it doesn't work, your pretty much fucked.

But seriously. I think I'd fare pretty well in an apocalyptic zombie attack. First of all, I live in a remotely rural area, so my neighborhood would probably be one of the last ones to "convert". Upon the zombie siege, I'd grab a couple anarchist cookbooks from my bookshelf, my night vision goggles and binoculars (thanks, Dad), a water bottle, a machete from the tool shed, and I'd simply just run into the mountains. Other supplies I can pick from remote, rural grocery stores that have been abandoned.

No clumsy zombie is going to be able to chase me in the hilly jungle. Also, I know enough about the local plant life to know what I can eat (plantains, yautia, and �ame galore). After a few weeks of bathing in the river and sleeping in a hammock strung up 30 feet into the trees, I would scope out portions of the surrounding jungle that border urbanized areas. If I can find a vehicle to ram into the local police station, then I'd stock up on conventional weapons and supplies and head back into the mountains.

Fuckers aren't getting me. No dude with a broken leg is gonna slow my ass down, neither.

I'm sure that if I run into another survivor around this time, that they're probably pretty efficient and creative. I'd propose building a makeshift jungle supplies depot with bamboo and palm leaves where we can start bringing the injured and defenseless.

I haven't really thought about what I would do if they were fast zombies like in 28 Days Later or I Am Legend...