Personal narrative: rough draft Pete Nichols


This summer I went with my church's youth group to Guatemala. We went for ten days, three of which were home stays.
the time I spent there was truly life changing.
It seemed like days but we had finally arrived at the small town of Pana Winton. A small settlement, high in the eastern
mountains of Guatemala. At least half the homes are connected to family owned tiendas, which sell snacks and fruit that we
weren't permitted to eat because of our susceptibility to food born diseases. The largest buildings are simple dirt floor churches.
These churches are the center of the community. Anything from town meetings to soccer games are held there.

Stepping of the bus, I was immediately greeted by shabby flea bitten dogs. I reached out to touch them but they retreated as if I had attacked them. I later learned that dogs in poor regions of Guatemala are often beaten and starved, so they fear humans. We walked down a long winding path to a preacher’s house to have lunch. Looking out across the mountains, you can see hundreds of small scrap huts made of anything available. The preacher’s house stands in the middle of a cornfield. The small clay compound is home to countless children, animals and family members of the preacher.
While the house is very modest there is a make shift sauna in the back, its barely large enough to fit three people, but it shows how the attitude of these people is overwhelmingly positive.
Lunch was in what I would call the dining building, another small hut with miss matched tables in it. The hosts laid pine on the ground for us, a tradition done for special guests. They served us chicken soup with corn tortillas. It amazes me how much work was spent making food that so many of us barely touched, everything set before us was grown, harvested, washed, and prepared by the people.
After lunch we played games with the children. Games like duck duck goose, Frisbee and soccer. After an hour or so I was completely out of breath, the thin mountain air and the tireless

The colony

a couple nights ago I watched this show called "the colony". It really reminded me of the Zombie survival guide because its a simulation of a global catastrophe, and gives you survival advice. The premise for the colony is that a lethal virus killed spread across the gobe leaving few survivors. The participants have to over come simulated challenges and build a shelter for themselves.
In the episode I watched, the participants chose to build a shower, instead of building up fortifications and security for the warehouse they live in. Later on in the show an attack is simulated on the colony and they lose alot of there supplies, because the warehouse is not secure. This show is very similar to the zombie survival guide. It gives you lots of survival advice and tells you how to live in a fallout situation.
one very interesting section is about traveling through water. you would think that traveling through water is very safe, but zombies don't require oxygen to breath so if you stuck your hand in murky water you could easily get bitten by a zombie floating below the surface. Brooks give advice like staying in deep water, so that zombies cant stand up. he also says to watch your anchor line because zombies are quite capable of climbing up at night when you least expect them. there is a stern warning against relying on the water below you for food and water. this reminds me of kayaking magazines that I've read. they always tell you that water is often not as clean as it looks and may contain disease like dysentery so they are not a reliable source of energy.

on the defense

On the defense gives you advice on supplies and shelter. among the most important is to be off the ground. stilted houses, like the kind at the beach are prefferable. another option is to destroy the stairs. this works because zombies dont have the cognitave abilities to climb.

He also makes several lists of survival items to keep in your home. aswell as tips like filling your bath tub up to save water because in a survival situaion you dont know when the next oppurtuity will arise. The lists remind me alot of the emergancy stores in our basement. things like shake power flash light and canned food . Only ours doesnt contain a laser sighted rifle.

Brooks says the safest practical place to be in an outbreak is a warehouse. A warehouse is ideal because it is spacious and easily secured. the crates and supplies can be used aswell. This once again shows how much thought is put into writing this book. he disscusses numerous places to hide and gives great explanations for them, like this quote. "Building in poorer inner city nieghborhoods tend to be more secure than others, there reliance on razor wire bard windows and other anti crime features make them readiliy defencable...these affluent people rely more heavily on law enforcement and private security (unreliable sources during an outbreak)."

weapons and combat

chapter two discusses weapons and combat technique's. I really like the way Max Brooks inserts humor into the book. He sneaks it in very subtly. "When confronted with the living dead its easy to believe in the super commando strategy: load up with the heaviest and most powerful and go out to kick ass." It reminds you that this is not a serious book.

Brooks obviously spent alot of time "researching" (I use the term lightly because I don't know how much research can be done on zombie fighting). His explanations for using certain weapons over others is very well thought out, he spent much more time on this than I ever could. " the chain saw's lightning quick, rotating teeth can easily slice through flesh and bone... Its roar might also give the owner a much-needed psychological boost... in reality,however chainsaws and other power weapons rank extremely low on the list of practical zombie killing weapons." It's apparent that he spent alot of time thinking about the pros and cons of the chainsaw. This is what makes the book so good. He produce a thourough and well thought out well researched book on one of the most ridiculous subjects.

the zombie survival guide

The zombie survival guide is a fictional survival guide, only it focus with surviving hordes of the walking dead rather than tying knots. i really like this book because when I'm reading it ill catch myself thinking "I should keep this in mind just in case." Max Brooks does an amazing job convincing the reader that zombies actually exist. "Molotov cocktail: this term applies to any jar of flammable liquid with a primitive fuse. its a cheap effective way to kill multiple zombies a once.
the book starts off telling you exactly what a zombie is. Max Brooks's zombie is infected with a virus. The virus takes control of the host and turns them into a sencless savage that literally
cannot feel anything. all bodily functions cease including heart beat and breathing. Zombies are also completely brain dead and can't reason at all. They have a one track mind set on finding prey.
The virus can only be spread through fluidic contact. witch means you can only get the disease by being bitten or transfer through and open wound. once you are infected you will die and turn into a zombie 100% of the time. there is no cure for the disease.
The only way to kill a zombie is by shooting it in the head. A zombie will keep crawling towrd you even if all thats left is a head and shoulders, this mkes them very dangerous. this has alot of
influence on the book. later on when he discusses weapons this is the main thing he considers when picking the right weapon.