Third Day After the Outbreak

Time frame: 3 Days after Outbreak
Phase: Self-Sufficiency

At this point, everyone in your group will probably still be on edge since the inception of the Outbreak. It is absolutely vital that you pay attention to the well being of your group, as you are relying on them for your survival, as much as they are relying on you. It is important to keep the following in mind:

• Everyone who sees or experiences a zombie outbreak is affected by it in some way.
• It is normal to feel anxious about your own safety and that of your family and close friends.
• Profound sadness, grief, and anger are normal reactions to zombie outbreak.
• Everyone has different needs and different ways of coping.
• It is common to want to strike back at the zombies who have caused great pain. It is important to realize that at this point, your goal is survival and self-sufficiency. Trying to go on the offensive against a zombie outbreak will probably get your group overrun.

Those in your group probably will not have been sleeping well and the stress of the situation may start having adverse effects. Identifying these signs will help you help your group deal with stress:

• Difficulty sleeping.
• Low threshold of frustration.
• Limited attention span.
• Headaches/stomach problems.
• Tunnel vision/muffled hearing.
• Colds or flu-like symptoms.
• Disorientation or confusion.
• Difficulty concentrating.
• Depression, sadness.
• Feelings of hopelessness.
• Mood-swings and easy bouts of crying.
• Overwhelming guilt and self-doubt.

It is very important to be able to distinguish those that are suffering from stress, and those that are infected. Stay on the safe side and quarantine as necessary. Try to maintain a sense of calm and confidence within your group, or one of them may have a lapse in judgment and create an opening in your defenses, or worse, let the zombies in (a la Day of the Dead).

Second Day After the Outbreak

Time frame: 2 Days after Outbreak
Phase: Self-Sufficiency

Now that you've established Containment around yourself and your group of survivors, you now need to ensure that those inside your safety bubble survive inside it. The survival rule of thumb is: 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food. Since you've established shelter with your base, next task to tackle is water. Within a day of the outbreak, public utilities will probably still be running, but the question is, for how long? Assuming the workers responsible for bringing water into your city are infected and the water systems contained, your base should still get water for at least a few days without human interaction. Scour the building for large containers that can store water. Store as much water is possible in these containers.

As long as your water keeps flowing into the building, you should continue to use it while it lasts. This means keep everyone in the group hydrated, drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day. Also, utilize the running water for fecal waste disposal. Accumulation of this not only promotes the spread of disease, but may also attract nearby zombies because of the smell.

One should take note however, that if the particular zombie virus strain may be waterborne, measures should be taken to prevent infection by water. Since boiling the water may or may not prevent infection, one method for prevention of group-wide infection would be sample testing. Rather than drinking directly from the water line, have the group only consume water from the water supply. As one water container is emptied, it should be filled up from the water source. One person shall then be designated to drink the water and then placed in Quarantine. If the person doesn't turn, then the water is labeled "safe for drinking" and stored with the rest of the water supply containers.

If/When the water source runs dry, you will need to figure out how long the water will last. The minimum water requirement for replacement purposes, for an "average" person, has been estimated to be approximately 3 liters (3.2 quarts) per day, given average temperate climate conditions. Based on these numbers, you can calculate your total stored water supply based on the number of people in your group. This way, once this happens, you know how many days before the group needs to get a fresh source of water.