Things I’d Want to Have in a Zombie Apocalypse: Getting into Hot Water

Mmm, hot water. One of the true marks of civilization. Absolutely indispensable in an emergency situation, like the zombies beating down your door.

No, really. After all, that zombie contagion spreads some way – and if it can spread by a bite, it can probably also spread by ghastly fluids getting into a nick or scrape. Given that destroying zombie brains can get a bit messy, you’re going to want to clean up after every fight – and one of the best things for that is soap and hot water. Antibiotics are good, antibiotics are very very handy, but in a zpoc world they will be in short supply. Besides, they don’t work against the Virus anyway – or at least we have to assume they won’t. (Antibiotics don’t work against viruses anyway, but given at the start we won’t know if the zombification is bacterial, viral, or Other, assume the worst.)

Soap and hot water, though, work by either frying, denaturing, or physically removing whatever might make you sick. So long as you get the ick off before it hits a skin breach, that should work.

Hot water will be important for many other reasons, as well. Here’s just a few: Tea. Hot cocoa.  Avoiding food poisoning by way of dirty dishes.  Avoiding lethal waterborne illnesses by way of everything else. Low-tech weed and insect killer. And never, ever, ever underestimate the morale boost of a hot shower after a long day hacking at the undead. Heck, even hot water to rinse off with, if everything else has to be done with cold, will give your group of survivors much friendlier temperaments.

So stockpile fuel and sturdy pots. Let’s heat things up!

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