What’s the best way to get kids involved in prepping? Make it fun! That’s why building a zombie survival kit together is a great way to introduce your kids to the concept of building a bug-out bag for kids, and also teach them what items they might need in the case of a genuine emergency that might or might not involve mindless brain-dead ghouls.
It probably won’t involve the mindless brain-dead ghouls – but we can always hope.
There are many different types of disaster that might cause us to need to build a survival kit, including fire, flood, etc. The catastrophes that might most closely mimic a zombie apocalypse, for which you’d actually need a zombie survival kit, would be civil war, terrorist attack which knocks out our infrastructure, or a grid down scenario caused by just about anything.
If the grid goes down in large portions of the country for weeks or months, there will be a complete breakdown of law and order – same as there would be for a zompocalypse.
Whether the walking dead are roaming the land or not, the panicked masses would mob grocery stores and empty them out immediately. Want to fill up your gas tank? At this point, it’s too late. Gas stations typically have about 12,000 to 24,000 gallons of gas on hand and sell about 4,000 gallons a day, but if everyone knows the end is coming, gas stations would empty out quickly.
So, for our fictional scenario, let’s challenge our kids to imagine what would happen if we had to flee our home on foot. Let’s also assume, optimistically, that you and the family already have your bug-out plan and therefore you’re headed somewhere specific and safe, and you just have to survive a few days.
Zombie-Specific Survival Items
- Bite-proof clothing. Seriously. Every time I see someone running around wearing a t-shirt in a zombie movie I want to slap them. Wear a thick jacket with long sleeves, wear thick pants with long sleeves, wear some sturdy gloves. This will enormously reduce zombie bite infections.
- Motorcycle helmet/bike helmet. Zombies were once human. Human teeth can’t bite through helmets.
- Comfortable shoes for running…from zombies.
- Bow and arrows. This is a kid’s zombie kit, so I can’t advise pew-pews. However, once it’s the end of the world, all bets are off.
- Baseball bat, for bashing zombie brains in. Nobody wants close combat with a zombie, but when you gotta bash, you should at least have the right tools.
- A timer, so if one of your party gets bitten, you can estimate how much time they have left before they turn.
- Plastic face shields. If you bash a zombie’s head in, you don’t want to get any zombie goo in your mouth or eyes.
- Disinfectant for zombie bites. Depending on what kind of zombie it is, dumping alcohol on a bite immediately after being bitten might help.
- Alcohol, gloves, and cloth for cleaning off your weapons/baseball bat after you bashed zombie brains in.
- A rain poncho to keep that zombie splatter off your clothes and gear.
- A zombie survival guide.
- A slow friend. Sorry not sorry.
Now, moving on to the items which would make up the perfect bug-out bag whether or not zombies are involved…
How Long Does Your Zombie Survival Kit Need To Last?
Remember, in our fictional scenario, we need a zombie survival kit because we’ve been forced to flee our home and we’re walking to another destination that’s at least a few days away.
This is a good time to discuss with your kids how long it takes to walk on foot versus how long it takes to takes to drive somewhere. People walk an average of three miles an hour and few of us are in good enough physical condition to walk more than 10 miles a day. Let’s call that three to four hours of walking. Cars can drive up to 100 miles an hour, but that’s rarely safe; 40 to 60 miles an hour is going to be more common.
Now, let’s imagine your safe destination is 30 miles away.
What once would have taken you half an hour to drive, will now take you at least three days to walk, and let’s add an extra day for emergencies and unexpected detours and just being exhausted from walking way more than you’re used to.
So in our scenario where you’re walking for three or four days, your zombie apocalypse survival kit needs to have at enough food to last four days, at minimum, and you also need water. Let’s talk about water first.
The recommended daily amount of water for an adult human to consume is 1 gallon, which is 16 cups. Now, if you’re bugging in and there’s not a lot of physical exertion, you could easily get by on less than that, but if you’re being physically active – like running from zombies, or walking 4 hours a day – you are going to need to re-hydrate and you’re likely going to need at least a gallon per person if not more.
However, a gallon of water weighs a little more than eight pounds. (8.34. if we’re being specific.) It’s not realistic to think that most of us could pack even one gallon of water, much less four gallons to last four days. A bug-out bag should weigh about 10 percent of our body weight unless we are in absolute peak shape, so the gallon of water would take up most of it. It’s also not well-distributed weight; it would really drag your bug-out bag down.
Another thing…because nothing goes the way you planned during a zombie apocalypse – I mean who ever expected zombies? (me, but I’m special that way) – maybe it takes you more than three or four days to get to your safe destination. Maybe it takes you days, or weeks.
And humans can survive a few weeks or more without food (not very comfortably, but they’ll survive) but you can only expect three days of survival without water.
So, what to do, what to do?
One of your essential items will be a water bottle or canteen, of course, but you’re going to have to find a way to get more water every day as you walk. You may not be able to find clean water on your way; you could be drinking water out of puddles. Or lakes, or rivers.
So one of your most necessary items is going to be a method of water purification. There are water purification tablets, water purification drops, Lifestraws which allow you to stick a straw right into a dirty puddle and suck water through a filter (but it requires a LOT of sucking power. May be too hard for kids), and a host of other options which you can find online, or at your nearest outdoors store.
You can also boil water, as long as the smoke coming up from your fire isn’t going to draw the attention of any zombies, or other unfriendlies. What can zombies see, or smell? Can they smell smoke and are they attracted to the smell? Scientists – hidden in bunkers – are still debating this.
Whether there’s a zompocalypse or just regular ole end of the world societal collapse, during any type of disaster, if you have to bug out, it’s a good idea to attract as little attention as possible.
Next up for your bugout bag: Food that’s lightweight but packs a lot of calories and carbs to give you energy.
Some good food ideas for your zombie survival kit:
- Granola
- Peanut butter
- Dehydrated meals – if you have access to safe water
- Candy bars with nuts (if you’re not allergic, obviously.)
- Protein bars
- MREs
- Raisins
- Beef jerky
- Beef sticks
- Hardtack – easy to make, high in carbs, lightweight, lasts forever as long as it is stored somewhere dry. Must be soaked in liquid for at least 10 minutes before eating.
- Dried fruit
All of your food should be stored in tupperware containers so they don’t get squished, and they don’t attract bugs if you’re sleeping outdoors.
Other items that every zombie survival kit needs:
- First aid kit. But not for zombie bites, we all know those aren’t curable. Just for the average injuries you and your friends/family get when running from zombies. Blisters, cuts, etc.
- Medicine. Also not going to cure a zombie bite, but bring any prescription medicine that you normally take.
- Sewing kit. You need to be covered head to toe, and you can NOT afford any rips in your clothing. Zombie saliva might seep in.
- Duct tape. See above. You can tape shut any cuts in your jacket to keep the zombie cooties out.
- Camping shovel. For digging holes for your outdoor toilet, or digging a grave for the zombie you just dispatched.
- Toilet paper.
- Lightweight utensils.
- Lightweight, foldable pot. Not for cooking and eating your friends. HEY – are you a zombie???
- Spare pair of socks. Your socks are going to get pretty ripe from fleeing from zombies.
- Extra set of clothes.
- Flashlight.
- Extra batteries for the flashlight
- Hand-crank radio, to keep you up to date on where the zombie hordes are thickest
- Walkie-talkies with extra batteries.
- Sleeping bag and sleeping pad. You and your friends/family should take turns sleeping and keeping watch for…you guessed it…zombies.
- Waterproof matches.
- Candles.
- Multi-tool
- Can opener
- Rain ponchos – you can get lightweight ones that fold up to the size of a deck of cards.
- Swiss Army Knife
- Fishing line and fishing hooks, so you can improvise a fishing pole. Do not, repeat, do not, fish in any rivers or lakes where zombies are floating by.
- Maps of the local area, which map out your route to the safe destination.
- Emergency blanket.
- Glow sticks as a back-up for your flash-light. Also, if these zombies are attracted to light, you could make a trail with some glow-sticks to distract them and lead them away from you.
So you and your kids have put together your zombie survival kit. Now what? You’re going to want to pack up this zombie survival gear in a back-pack that fits them, and is comfortable. Now, take your kids and their back-packs on a hike, so they can get used to carrying the weight. Regular hiking with your kids is a great way to make sure that if the family ever has to bug out on foot, you’ll all be in physical shape for it.
And there you go. You’re more prepared for a zombie apocalypse than 90 percent of the population!