EXPLOSIVES

Question: What could be better than hurling a hand grenade at a mass
of approaching zombies? Answer: almost anything. Anti-personnel
explosives kill mainly by shrapnel, metal shards tearing through vital
organs. As this will not affect zombies, and the chance of shrapnel penetrating
the skull is slim, grenades, bombs, and other explosive tools
are inefficient weapons.

These devices should not be completely discounted, though. For
blasting through doors, creating instant barricades, or even scattering
zombie mobs, nothing works better than a jar of gunpowder.

FIRE
The living dead have no fear of fire. Waving an open flame in a ghoul's
face will do nothing to slow or impede its advance. Zombies who have
caught fne will neither notice nor react to the engulfing flames in any
way. Too many humans have met with tragedy forfailing to understand
thatfire is no deterrent to zombies!
As a weapon, however, fire is still humanity's greatest ally.
Complete incineration is the best way to destroy a zombie once and for
all. Burning eliminates not only the body but all traces of Solanurn.
However, don't think a flamethrower and several Molotov cocktails
are the solution to all your problems. In actual combat, fire can be as
deadly a threat as it is a protector.
Flesh-human, undead, or othenvise-takes a long time to bum. In
the minutes or hours before a blazing zombie succumbs, it will become
a walking-or to be perfectly accurate, a shambling-torch. Several
cases have been recorded in which burning ghouls have done more
damage, even caused more deaths, than they would have with only
their fingernails and teeth.
Fire itself has no loyalty. Consider the flammable nature of your
surroundings, the chance of smoke inhalation, the possibility that a
blaze will act as a beacon for other zombies. All these factors must be
considered before such a powerful and unpredictable weapon is
unleashed.
For this reason, fire is mainly considered an attack or flight weapon,
and rarely used for static defense.

1. MOLOTOV COCKTAILS
This term applies to any jar of flammable liquid with a primitive fuse.
It is a cheap, effective way to kill multiple zombies at once. If the situation
permits-e.g., fleeing an advancing horde, clearing a fireproof
structure, or destroying a flammable structure with multiple zombies
trapped in it-by all means, bombard the ghouls in question until nothing
is left hut ash.

2. DOUSING
The act of dousing consists of simply filling a bucket with flammable
liquid (gasoline, kerosene, etc.), throwing it at a zombie or zombies,
lighting a match, and mnning. If there is room for escape and no danger
of residual fire damage, the only drawback to this method is the
close proximity required to fully drench the enemy.

3. THE BLOWTORCH
The common torch, which consists of a propane tank attached to a nozzle,
has neither the heating power nor the fuel supply to bum through
a zombie skull. But it can be a convenient firestarter if the undead in
question have already been soaked in a flammable liquid.

4. THE FLAMETHROWER
This device, perhaps more than
any other, shikes people as the ultimate
zombie eliminator. A jet of
flame, two hundred feet long, composed
of jellied gasoline, can turn
an undead crowd into a wailing
funeral pyre. So why not acquire
one? Why not forsake all other
weapons for this man-made firebreathing
dragon? The answers are
as realistic as they are numerous.
The flamethrower was developed
purely as a military weapon and is
no longer in service with the U.S.
Army and Marine Corps. It would be difficult to find any model, let alone
one that works properly. Acquiring the fuel is even more dEcult than
the thrower. But assuming you can find both, you must consider its practical
use. Why cany seven pounds of equipment on your back when
only a handful of ghouls are loose? A flamethrower's weight makes it a
liability if you are on the move. Unless you are in a fixed position or have
access to motorized transport, sheer exhaustion will become as dangerous
a threat as the walking dead. Common sense would suggest that a
flamethrower's place on the battlefield is against overwhelming numbers,
swarms of undead numbering in the hundreds if not thousands. If
such a horde were, heaven forbid, to exist, chances are they would be facing
a much larger, well-equipped government force rather than one private
citizen and his trusty (and let's not forget illegal) flamethrower.