The (Abridged) Zone Survival Guide

Never trust anyone who claims to have all the answers. There is no reason to doubt that they have all those answers – and every reason to believe that everyone of them is wrong. So you should take this book for exactly what it claims to be – a guide and not an assurance.

That said, here are the ten rules for successfully navigating the zones. It might seem like a lot – but hey, if you can pick this up, you're using ten fingers alright. Furthermore its broken down into two simple segments – five things to avoid, and five to do.

1. Don't Strip the Area

You never know who is going to be the next person to come through this area. Hell, it might even be you doubling back because of trouble ahead. Leave some supplies behind if you've got extras

2. Don't Hold a Grudge

When the living quarrel, only the dead prosper.

3. Don't Rely on One Weapon

Knives get dull, guns run out of ammunition, and swinging a meter long pipe is difficult in a half meter passage. There are those who feel superior because they've gotten their hands on a late model military gauss rifle, and there are those who feel good because they didn't become a reanimate holding an electromagnetic gun. Which would you prefer?

4. Don't Count on Transportation

The Shrimps used a lot of EMP – electromagnetic pulse – weapons to “non-violently” pacify us, and the full fledged H-bombs we used in return didn't help either. Given most cars ran on batteries and electric motors, you can see the problem. The optical computers might survive – but the drive will be slag.

Military multi-fuel vehicles running on biodiesel or alcohol can be found of course. But they have their own problems. For one, they're literally worth killing for – who doesn't want an all terrain six wheeler with built in anti-tank weapons? Secondly, after five years, the gas has almost certainly spoiled.

Trains and ships are out there. I can't recommend being trapped on either one.

5. Don't Raid

A variation on holding a grudge, but an important one. People are willing to trade because they trust the outsiders. Giving them reason to shoot on sight is just going to hurt us all.

6. Keep Notes and Journals

The Sphere doesn't exist anymore boys and girls. While you could've plucked information from the thin air via wires in you veins and marked up everything in your field of vision five years ago – the library is closed now. No GPS and self navigating cars either. Your chance of being able to ask another human for directions is fairly non-existent as well. The only maps are the ones you draw, and the only knowledge is that you gain yourself.

In a worst case scenario, your diary can at least serve as a warning to whoever pries it off your walking corpse.

7. Keep Your Friends Close

Before the invasion, distance didn't matter. Telecommuting or bullet trains rendered cooperation between two sides of the continent only slightly more annoying than crossing the hall. Moving food wasn't a problem when everything was thermostablized, irradiated, and hermetically sealed hours after being picked, and remained good for some ten years after you bought it from the market.

Now the only useful help is that within a few meters of your position.

8. Keep Moving

You don't have to be a nomad, but you should never be idle. If you're going to stay in one place, go about improving it. Build defenses, read books, explore the area, amuse yourself with friggin shadow puppets if thats what it takes. But its boredom and routine that make groups turn on themselves.

9. Keep Alert

Common sense dictates that you always keep an eye out for the Reanimates. However, far too many people simply stop there. The fact is, you need to watch out for everything. Its the little clues that fill you in on the big developments.

When walking down a path in a forest, check the tree branches above your head. Those demon lookalike robots the aliens use are four meters tall – they'll break branches at twice your height.

Be ever vigilant for scabs and lost hair on fauna and people. It could either mean a dangerous radiation source is near by – or they're Betas – those armored skin with claws Reanimate types.

10. Enjoy Yourself

If you wanted (relative) safety, you'd have stayed in one of the government zones. Depending on which one you stayed in you would then only have to worry about explosive racial tension, militaristic theocracy, rampant overcrowding, military civilian relations, or encroaching aliens.

Out in the Anarchy Zone, you're free. Theres no traffic to the birdsong and no street lamps to outshining the stars. Most of the time is going to be spent scrounging for old CAD/CAM disks and food