It's another wonderful day in the neighborhood, well, minus the fact that your entire city
is on lockdown because Umbrella, the biggest employer in your city, suffered some kind
of chemical spill.
As a safety precaution everyone's just been sent a text ordering them to stay indoors.
You sigh aloud and toss your phone, really not what you need right now, when suddenly
you hear a scream.
You rush to the window and can't believe your eyes as you watch a lady trying to walk her
dog get tackled by... a person?
No, it's not really a person, it's skin is all wrong.
And you've definitely never seen a person have a tongue that long before!
As the kindly old lady gets butchered in front of you you realize that maybe your neighbor
wasn't so crazy to stash away a freedom arsenal after all.
The government's definitely not coming for anyone's guns, but the streets are very quickly
filling up with zombies and freakish mutants coming for your limbs and major organs.
So you're stuck inside ground zero of yet another one of Umbrella's accidental T-Virus
releases- seriously, how is this company still around?
A single major chemical spill is enough to have the EPA crush a normal company into oblivion.
Well, logical plot holes aside, how are you going to survive the T-virus?
The T-virus has its origins in a very secluded location in Africa, where it was discovered
growing alongside a unique species of flowers.
The Virus was quickly moved into research labs across America and Europe and experimented
on by the Umbrella corporation, basically the T-Mobile of the Resident Evil franchise
but with better reception.
Much to the surprise of Umbrella's researchers, the virus showed incredible mutagenic properties.
Soon the virus was engineered to carry genetic code from one organism, and then insert that
code directly into the DNA of an infected host.
The virus could also edit host DNA to better accept donor DNA and to tailor an infected
host's DNA as Umbrella saw fit.
In essence, the virus worked as a piggyback agent that could merge DNA from two organisms
together, to create a brand new life form because two is better than one.
The T-virus could have easily been used to alter the DNA of humans with that of cancer
or disease resistant organisms, thereby making all other medicine obsolete forever and making
Umbrella the richest corporation in existence.
Instead, the company decided it would be a better idea to use the virus to create hordes
of monsters to use as bioweapons which were extremely dangerous, could not be controlled
in any way, and very often broke free to wreak havoc on Umbrella installations.
It was a fool-proof plan.
Shockingly, instead of making trillions of dollars off their modified virus, it broke
free- like ten times- and basically ruined Umbrella while almost bringing around the
end of the world.
But now it's your problem, because the T-virus is knocking on your door, so how are you going
to survive it?
First, as with any major pandemic and as many people are currently finding out, the best
way to avoid infection is to practice social distancing.
In essence, by staying away from other humans, you limit the infection vectors of a disease
by not giving it the opportunity to jump hosts.
The disease then infects a host and with no other vectors to infect, ends up dying - sometimes
along with the host - before it can reproduce and spread.
Sadly, the horde of flesh-eating zombies and monsters with uncomfortably long, razor-sharp
tongues beating down your door are making social distancing a bit difficult.
Unlike most viruses that can be treated with social distancing and die with their host,
some versions of the T-virus can actually use the host to spread by increasing their
aggressiveness to animalistic levels, and then transmitting to new hosts via bites and
scratches delivered by the infected host.
Your best bet for survival is to take your social distancing to pretty extreme levels,
and leave cities as far behind as you can get.
We're pretty fond of heading to the mountains in case of just about any major apocalyptic
event, as you've no doubt discovered by now if you're a long time fan of the show, and
there's a reason for that.
Mountains can be difficult to survive in, but that's kind of the point.
The rugged terrain and weather will keep other people from trying to follow you, and in any
virus outbreak, people = bad.
But it's not just people you'll be keeping away in a T-virus outbreak, it's all types
of zombies and monsters as well who aren't going to be keen on following you up a mountainside.
Why bother when cities are densely packed with delicious, gooey cream filling humans
running around in a state of panic?
We know we said just a moment ago that people = bad in a virus outbreak, but in this case
people might be the best thing for you, because they are going to make for great diversions
as they get themselves eaten.
Of course keeping yourself from getting eaten in the first place is going to be its own
challenge, so it's time to enforce social distancing, with guns.
We chatted with our resident military vet, and he told us the following about surviving
a post-apocalyptic T-virus landscape.
“Getting yourself a gun is a no-brainer, but the question is which gun to get?
Well, this is going to make a lot of gun nerds pretty mad, but the truth is you want to stay
away from anything resembling an assault rifle.
Thing is, they make terrible home defense weapons anyways, as they are so high-powered
that a round is just as likely to kill an intruder as it is to punch a hole through
a wall and kill your family hiding on the other side of it.
Seriously, I can't stress this enough- walls don't stop rifle bullets.
Instead get yourself a solid shotgun.
Shotguns are great in home defense scenarios or apocalyptic scenarios, they're super simple
to learn how to operate, so if something happens to you your family can easily pick it up and
put a bad guy or mutant freak down- unlike with an assault rifle.
Also they don't require the same high degree of accuracy that an assault rifle does- which
is why it's far better for home defense.
In a nighttime home invasion, all you have to do is aim your shotgun in the general direction
of a bad guy and he's going to have a really bad day.
Same goes for a blood-hungry zombie freak.
If you're in a post-apocalyptic scenario with mutants chasing you down, the last thing you
want to do is get into a stand-up fight in the middle of a packed city, or have to stop
to carefully aim your weapon.
You want to run and gun, always working towards fleeing your situation.
When you're in a panicked survival situation, unless you're a disciplined shooter a shotgun
is always going to serve you better.
Plus, they deliver far more stopping power at close range than any rifle, completely
obliterating anything made of flesh and bone within twenty feet of your position.
I know everyone thinks they'd be the ultimate apocalypse bad-ass, but I've seen even well
trained troops freeze up or break down in a fight or flight situation.
I'm not saying assault rifles aren't good by the way, I just wouldn't want one personally
in a home invasion or in fighting my way out of a T-virus infected city.
Unless, I guess, the mutants could somehow shoot back at you from range.
The question though is what kind of shotgun to get?
Well, you've got two real choices here- semi-automatic or pump action.
The only real difference between the two is that a semi-auto shotgun will automatically
load the next round into the chamber for you, so all you really have to do is keep your
sights on target and squeeze the trigger.
A pump action shotgun is exactly like it sounds, you have to pump the rounds into the chamber
manually.
Personally, I prefer a pump-action shotgun in a combat or doomsday scenario, simply because
it eliminates mechanical complexity by getting rid of the feeding mechanism and is thus far
more reliable.
As anyone who's fired hundreds of rounds at a time in a very stressful situation can tell
you, even the most reliable automatic weapons will eventually experience malfunctions.
I'd rather not risk it, and while a pump-action is going to be slower to fire, it's far more
reliable.
Plus, again, these things will absolutely obliterate anything stupid enough to stand
in front of it.”
Alright, so it looks like our resident vet has a clear favorite on zombie-destruction
tools, but there's more to surviving a T-virus outbreak than just weapons.
Doesn't matter if you exterminate every zombie or mutant freak that comes your way if you
end up succumbing to infection later anyways.
For that reason, one key piece of equipment we recommend you pick up is a face shield,
of the same style used by doctors.
We guess you could go for a more badass post-apocalyptic look and pick up a welding mask or something
similar, but whatever you get it should provide protection to your face holes from dangerous
splash-back.
Living bodies tend to pop like overripe tomatoes when facing the wrath of a 10 or 12 gauge
shotgun, and you want to keep all that infectious blood and guts from getting into your mouth
or eyes, two common transmission vectors.
Ultimately though, you're going to probably cross paths with the most dangerous form of
the T-virus- the Tyrants.
These are superhuman creatures with greatly enhanced strength and endurance, as well as
an incredible regenerative factor that makes them virtually impervious to all gunfire.
While the best bet is to flee from these monsters, the truth is that they are nearly tireless,
with incredible endurance, and can crash straight through walls to get to their prey.
And because they are created to hunt down humans, you are very much their prey.
You're going to have to fight, but how?
Forget bullets, it's time to seriously upgrade your firepower.
Sure, it would be nice to come across a piece of discarded high powered military equipment,
but that type of firepower is going to be in very short supply come the apocalypse.
Plus, learning how to operate a recoilless rifle or something similar isn't something
you can just learn on the spot.
Instead, you'll have to improvise, and while regeneration makes Tyrants virtually immune
to gunfire, no amount of regeneration can stop fire.
While high powered firearms deliver great shearing and tearing forces to flesh, fire
can destroy it at the molecular level, reducing it to lifeless ash.
Problem is that Tyrants have such an incredible ability to regenerate that you have to ensure
a significant amount of their flesh is destroyed in order to stop the regeneration completely.
Napalm is both easy to make, and extremely difficult to extinguish, while burning at
incredibly high temperatures.
While in this scenario it wouldn't be as effective as white phosphorus such as that used in military
weapons, it'll more than make do in a pinch against a rampaging tyrant.
All you'll need is a healthy amount of gasoline or diesel fluid and styrofoam, which will
create a very sticky, extremely flammable fuel which burns for a long time.
Tyrants aren't particularly bright, and are extremely single-minded in their purpose,
so luring one into a napalm trap should be extremely easy.
Once on fire, you have to make sure the Tyrant burns long enough to destroy most of its soft
tissues.
Best way to do this will be to slow it down, and the best way to do that is to use your
handy-dandy shotgun and blow away its kneecaps.
Sure, normally the Tyrant will be able to heal in a matter of minutes and keep coming
after you, but once you've dropped him on his face by taking out his knees, all you
have to do is make sure it stays down long enough for the napalm to work its magic.
Once your tyrant is a smoldering pile of ash, it's time to get the hell out of dodge, because
where there's one, there's probably going to be a second one coming your way soon.
Head for the hills like we said earlier, and wait out the end of the world in your mountain
solitude.
Eventually the zombies and mutants will run out of people to eat, and most will die of
starvation before moving out into the countryside to eat regular animals.
In a few years time the population of mutants will plummet, and while they will probably
stick around as a new form of predatory life on earth, once the human population rebounds
it'll be easy to exterminate them.
If humanity has proven one thing over and over again, it's that when we want a species
dead then by God we get it dead.
Want more tips on surviving a zombie apocalypse?
Check out Survive the 2019 zombie apocalypse challenge.
Or perhaps you'd rather watch this other video instead.
Click one now, you'll be glad you did when Umbrella turns all your friends into zombies!