The supermarkets are emptied, stocks have plummeted, schools are closed, transatlantic travel is restricted, politicians are in quarantine, and theaters and stadiums are abandoned as a virus sweeps the earth. No, this is not the exposition for The Last of Us 3, or a zombie apocalypse movie, it’s the current world-wide reaction to the novel Coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe. If you are reading this from the future (welcome, time traveler) then you are keenly aware of whether this has been a massive overreaction to a simple illness, or if we didn’t do enough to stem the tide of a deadly infection. If you, like me, exist in the Here and Now, then only time will tell.
Whichever the case may be, it never hurts to be prepared. Reactionary bullshit is what got us into the Toilet Paper apocalypse in the first place. Anyone who says these people are “prepping” are wrong. Preppers didn’t need to run to WalMart to buy up shit paper – we had plenty already. These are Panic Buyers who would waste valuable time trying to acquire what they need in a real SHTF (Shit Hits The Fan) scenario, when real preppers would have bugged out already. So when the dust settles from the current hysteria, what can you do to make sure you aren’t caught in the middle of any panic buying situation if and when things do go south?
Fortunately, most geeks I know are perfect candidates to be well informed preppers. We are typically organized, at least to some degree. I have Star Wars cards organized by set, alphabetized, in separate binders, packed in card sleeves and binder sleeves, and they’ve been on display for almost 25 years. I have trilobites on shelves in my house arranged by geological period, taxonomic order, family, genus, and species. My computer desk may be a disaster, but I can organize when it involves my nerd passions. Prepping doesn’t need to be any different.
We are also patient and proficient when it comes to acquiring things to add to a collection. Long ago I built a 500 piece Star Wars action figure collection and I did it slowly and methodically over many years. That collection is lost, like tears in the rain, but that’s a story for another time. My point stands; we have the natural inclination to collect things and with the right mindset, prepping can be another collection for you to put together.
Finally, geeks are good at, well, prepping. For those of us that play RPGs we know the entire game is basically set up to prep you for the final battle. We grind out XP to level up, hoard items to sell for gold to buy increasingly better gear, and find allies along the way to help us out all in the name of sneaking in to the Dragonlord’s castle and saving Alefgard, fighting Saren in the Citadel, or confronting Alduin in Sovngarde. If there’s something that we geeks know, it’s how to prepare for shit.
So what is the basic level of preparedness that we can achieve without tumbling down the preppers rabbit hole so we don’t end up in an off the grid bunker on 10 acres of woodland in the Colorado Rockies? The Bug-Out Bag.
A Bug-Out Bag is a collection of survival tools and gear kept in a backpack that can help you in an emergency situation when you need to bug out in a hurry. Bug-Out Bags can be kept fairly simple, just the necessities, or you can get a bigger bag and prepare for something a little more permanent. Regardless of what type of Bug-Out Bag you start with, be careful that you don’t start sliding down that slippery slope – one Bug-Out Bag sometimes begs the question: why not two? Why not one for home and one in my car? I may find myself in a SHTF situation while commuting to work, then what? Can’t really run home and grab the Bug-Out Bag. That defeats the purpose. Once you start, it’s easy to get carried away. But that’s no reason not to start.
So if you are interested in learning what you should put in your Bug-Out Bag, check out Part 2 of this article. It’ll be a good place to get you started on the road to a little peace of mind.
