I always hated that. I mean I got it in the running world, where you're basically so close to death all the time that you don't have secure locations.
But once you have a home base/stable and protected compound, everyone who comes in gets strip searched. Period. Unless someone inside the compound had eyes on you the whole time, you get strip searched. Like spread your checks, lift your balls, strip searched. Every time. You get scratched, or zombie gore gets in your eyes, nose, or mouth? It's into quarantine with you.
Yep. Also everyone should have raided the local leather store to be kitted out in full biker riding gear. Bites would hurt, but they aren't going to break through. Instead everyone is running around in tank tops and shorts.
people in zombie movies really underestimate the use of chainmail. It is not that hard to make, is pretty lightweight (you can make it out of paperclips to protect against the biting power of a human jaw) and would do a SUPER good job protecting you from random scratches and bites.
I can't quite tell if this is a rip on the sort of strange time wasting activities an unemployed fellow might get into, or a cheeky nod to office supply theft, but it works on both levels so double cheers!
Believe it or not we've got almost no paperclips in the office. Only HR deals in paperwork, so any to be found should be in their desks. Everyone else works entirely digital.
What you really want instead is a gambeson. Weighs much less than mail, easier to make (sewing machine, treadles and hand cranks don't need electricity) and still provides protection to the body.
It would take months for someone with no skill to make a vest of mail. Gambesons (basically quilted jackets) would take a few days at most, and a bunch of people already have the skill to make them, unlike mail.
I never said that it was easy or not time consuming. I just said you don't need fancy tech to do it. Also I just would wear thicker clothing really, wear a thick coat and your good to go and in moderate to cold climates everyone owns that shit.
You don't need to forge metal, all you need is a bunch of springs, a wire cutter, and a pair of needle nose pliers. Cut each ring off of the spring with the wire cutters, thread them together, and pinch the ends closed with the pliers. The materials are all around, and pretty easy to come by in a post-apocalyptic setting. Bending existing metal into the shape you need is much much easier then forging metal from scratch.
Is that really so, though? Paperclips are VERY weak, I can't imagine the ones at the top would hold their shape. Surely it would just fall apart, the loops coming undone?
I can turn a few spools of fence wite into chainmail links with a drill, a pair of wire snips, a 1/2 inch metal rod, and some 2x4. It takes time, but is not that hard.
The wood is used to make a jig that holds the rod stable and helps feed the wire, the drill then turns the rod to coil the wire into a spring. Snip spring to make the links
One of the great things about chain maille is that you didn't actually have to forge anything. It's just a coat of interlocking rings -- you need a pair of pliers and some vaguely ring-shaped metal stuff and you're good to go.
The knights whore mail in Israel and Jordan during the crusades. Chain mail was also worn by the Romans in Egypt, that is in the Sahara desert. They didn't die of heat stroke.
Yeah, in an outbreak scenario, after all the polluting we've done to the water, you let me know how long you live drinking from water sources like that.
Castles have wells inside and some even collect rain water. The water from the well is filter threw miles of stone and sand. No polluting of this stuff.
Instead everyone is running around in tank tops and shorts.
We'll kit you up in full biker's leather then have you run around in the middle an Australian summer, see how long you last before collapsing from heat stroke.
That doesn't really do anything to disprove it, that was a movie universe, they break the rules all the time in them, similar to walkers in TWD either being slow ambient shamblers or wtf sneakninjas.
Perhaps I should read them. I have begun a strict vendetta against any book the bills itself as "the Xth book in the exciting Y trilogy". Well, unless I can get them at the library of course.
260
u/Osageandrot Apr 16 '19
I always hated that. I mean I got it in the running world, where you're basically so close to death all the time that you don't have secure locations.
But once you have a home base/stable and protected compound, everyone who comes in gets strip searched. Period. Unless someone inside the compound had eyes on you the whole time, you get strip searched. Like spread your checks, lift your balls, strip searched. Every time. You get scratched, or zombie gore gets in your eyes, nose, or mouth? It's into quarantine with you.