I’ve been fascinated with the world of the undead since I was a kid.  Though it gave me endless nightmares, i just love watching shows or movies about them.  But what creeped me out the most were zombies.  Just the thought of rotting people chasing you as prey makes me giddy with excitement and terror.

The past few weeks we’ve been hearing a few real-life zombie stories, from cannibalism to the dead waking up and asking for water and then dying again, and people unfazed by being shot at while they mutilate their own bodies.  If you’ve been reading or watching the news, you probably know that some of the zombie cases were drug-related, and that the Center for Disease Control already issued a statement that there’s no zombie apocalypse, drug or virus related.  But seriously, these recent incidents still creep me out.  So to make light of things, I’ve scoured the internet for the tech, apps and games that will prepare any geek for the zombie apocalypse.

Surviving the apocalypse

First off, what are zombies?  According to Wikipedia, a zombie is an animated corpse brought to life by magic or witchcraft.  There are various types of zombies depending on the culture, but the most popular zombie is from George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, wherein a radioactive contamination resulted in the zombie outbreak.  Zombies are characterized by their inability to feel pain and their affinity to feed on the living.

Now that we have an idea what zombies are, here some things that would surely be useful if a zombie apocalypse does happen:

Gadgets

SpareOne – the ultimate emergency phone that runs on one AA battery.  The phone doesn’t have a screen, it’s not rechargeable but it allows you to make important calls during emergencies with its 10-hour talk-time and 15-year shelf life.

Handheld water tester – though you might fancy some bottled water, it may become scarce when everything is in utter chaos.  So the best thing to have on you is a water tester to help you identify if the water source you’ve found is safe for drinking.

Solar powered alarm – when you find a zombie-free zone, better keep your perimeter safe by setting up solar powered alarms.  You don’t want to wake up being eaten by zombies, right?

Lasers – this powerful light source is great for communicating silently with other humans, help you target zombies or blind other humans trying to steal your gear or food.

Rugged gadgets – I’m not talking about gadgets that look rugged, I’m talking about gadgets, such as laptops, satellite phones, tablets or even PDAs, that can withstand any kind of weather, is water-proof, dust-proof and can handle any torture humanly possible.

Juice booster – you’ll probably be travelling during the outbreak and the problem with this is draining your gadget batteries with no place to recharge.  So it would be great to have a Powerbag – it can carry all your gadgets and at the same time charge them on the go.  Just be sure to plug the bag during your stopover and hope that your pitstop has electricity.

Apps

Facebook/Twitter– these apps are great for connecting or finding friends and families.  Since Facebook and Twitter are popular forms of social media, you can bet that if there’s 3G or 4G network, people will login to those to keep people updated as to what’s happening around them.

Maps – this app will help you find your way.  If a place gets over run and you find out on the news or from Facebook that a certain city is zombie-free but you don’t know where in the world that place is, a map will become your best friend.

Find My Friends – this app helps you locate people, as in their exact location, so if you don’t hear from them or they don’t answer your call or text or even answer your message on Facebook, you can track their exact location with this app.  Just hope their battery’s not drained yet or they haven’t turned into a zombie by the time you get to them.

Fuel Finder – as you make your way to a zombie-free zone, you need your gas tank to be filled up and this app will help you find gas stations along the way.

Flashlight – in a zombie apocalypse, there’s a huge chance that the power would go out.  So at night, you need something to help you see.  Most of us don’t have our flashlights with us, even in our vehicles, so the next best thing is your mobile phone but the light it emits is a bit weak, so you need an app like Flashlight to help you.

First Aid – this app helps you figure out what to do with the first aid kit you have or if you don’t have an actual first aid kit, this will help you think of which things you do have you can actually use to put on a wound or stop things from bleeding.

Zombie apocalypse training

There’s no better way of preparing for a zombie apocalypse than participating in a mock ZA.  In Melbourne, Australia, a group of ZA enthusiasts are developing Patient 0 – in-real-life zombie video game where in survivors would be armed with laser guns, to kill zombies, and “healthbars” which signifies their lives which can be refilled or stacked up by finding health packs throughout the game.

“It’s not just a shooting game,” said David Leadbetter, a freelance television and film producer behind Patient 0. “It’s not just running around mindlessly shooting like in paintball … There’s a deep back story that our players will be immersed into from the moment they purchase their tickets.”

But for those who think games like Patient 0 or Outbreak Manila, a marathon laced with zombies whose sole purpose is to get your life, signified by flags, are too physical, you can still train for ZA by playing the following games which are coming out soon:

Lollipop Chainsaw –  a cheerleader who practices her kicks and flips by fighting off zombies;

The Walking Dead: Starved for Help– the game based on the popular TV series which is actually based on a comic book;

ZombiU – a zombie annihilating game for the upcoming Nintendo Wii U that puts people in different bodies when they die so players can trackback and find the infected characters when they continue playing;

Resident Evil 6 – popular characters Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield will be coming together in this latest RE installment to try and rid the infested world of mutated creatures;

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2: Zombies – the zombie mode of Black Ops 2 will have a new twist – the Nazi zombie soldiers “are going mad and want to have fresh soldiers slices.”

Here’s another way you can prepare for a zombie apocalypse, listen in on podcasts at Zombietech.tv.  where engineers, scientists and inventors give their thoughts as to what technologies would be needed or you could do without if an outbreak occurs.