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The world is going to Hell, and the undead are running amok, seeking to eat you or making you one of their own.  How do you thwart their efforts?

First off, you have a little time.  The Zombie Apocalypse takes a few weeks to take hold.  The first thing you want to do is stock up on firearms and ammunition.  Note:  everyone else is thinking the same thing.  Of course, being the House Rules gamer you are, you've stocked up on firearms and ammunition.  However, you might want to stock up even more.  The undead will begin appearing in increasingly larger numbers as the disease infects more and more people.

As the threat becomes more apparent people will panic.  Canned goods will disappear off of shelves; firearms will become increasingly rare; and ammunition and fuel will become virtually non-existent.  Within 1D6 weeks, the situation will become critical as survivors flee to open country to avoid the zombie threat in urban centers.

A lot of the same rules of hunting monsters applies to surviving a Zombie Apocalypse, including massive firepower, vehicles, and party size.

Still, survivors will need a number of critical supplies to survive:

Ammunition
Food
Fuel
Medical Supplies
Secure Shelter
Water
Weaponry
Conclusion

Ammunition
In the first few weeks of the Zombie Apocalypse the military and law enforcement will have expended prodigious amounts of ammunition trying to keep the undead threat at bay.  And, as the threat spreads there would runs on ammunition at gun stores and department stores.  Finally, as panic sets in any source of ammunition would be snatched up by desperate survivors.

In other words, ammunition is going to be extremely difficult to come by.  And the stuff available will probably not be in the more "popular" calibers.  The trick will be to collect spent brass whenever possible.  Characters with Gunsmith skill and the proper equipment (found in most abandoned gun shops and pistol ranges, along with a few department stores) can reload the brass to be used again.

Food
Food will not nearly be as big an issue as one might think.  During the first few weeks of a Zombie Apocalypse panicked survivors will raid grocery stores stocking up on canned food and other non-perishable items.  Unfortunately, most of these stocks will go unused as their owners succumb to the undead.  These stocks can be found in abandoned houses (maybe haunted by their former owners) or vehicles.  The drawback is that most of these untouched stocks will be found in regions of high-zombie density — the cities and suburbs.  Of course, farm houses and hunting lodges will also have stocks of food, but these are few and far between.

Foraging and hunting can supplement these supplies, though if the Zombies in the campaign are the type to eat any living flesh, game animals may be hard to come by.

Fuel
Fuel is going to be a major concern.  After about the second week of the Apocalypse the refineries and distribution networks are going to shut down.  This will occur about the same time as living folks are trying to get out of the more populated areas where the undead have begun running rampant.  The result will be little or no gasoline available for the characters.

Characters will be able to eek by for awhile siphoning off gasoline from abandoned vehicles and gas stations, but for long-term survival the characters will need to resort to vehicles that can handle multiple fuel types.  Twilight: 2000 has a number of vehicles listed which can run off of alcohol, and includes rules for Distilling Alcohol.

Characters should therefore choose their vehicles appropriately.  Sure, it's nice to run over zombies in an M1 Abrams tank, but the monster is a gas-guzzler.  Zombies don't use weapons, so armor isn't a factor in choosing a vehicle.  Cargo capacity and fuel efficiency are the biggest factors.  A hard-sided HMMVV (available at the local National Guard Center) is a perfect vehicle for a group of character.  Also, if a mechanic can make the conversion to alcohol or hydrogen, a Recreational Vehicle would be a good choice for a group of characters.

Remember, if at all possible, the group should have more than one vehicle at its disposal.  There may come a time when one or more vehicles have to be abandoned.  The party is going to want at least one vehicle that can carry it out of danger.

Vehicles will be readily available after about week three of the Zombie Apocalypse.  This includes military vehicles of all sorts.  The characters will simply need to choose which ones they are going to use.

One last option, which may become a necessity as civilization's infrastructure completely collapses, is an animal-drawn vehicle.  This assumes draught animals are available and haven't been eaten by either desperate survivors or zombies, or died through neglect after their owners fled. 

Medical Supplies
One might think medical supplies would be readily available.  After all, most of the population is now zombified, and zombies don't need medicine.  However, with a panicking population, medical practitioners trying to stem the plague, and eventually lack of refrigeration, the amount of readily-available medical supplies is close to zero.  Bandages and alcohol can be easily manufactured, and characters with the proper skill, equipment, and facilities can perform blood transfusions.  If the party has access to lab facilities that have power, characters with Chemistry and Medical skills can attempt to produce basic medicines such as anesthesia and pain killers.

Secure Shelter
Most Zombie Apocalypse stories have the survivor group moving from one encounter to another.  However, the group should have a secure destination in mind.  Obviously, the best shelter would be a boat or ship in greater than three meters of water (shallower water allows zombies to walk along the bottom of the body of water and attack the vessel).  Unfortunately, boats or larger vessels are typically found in port cities and such places will be crawling with zombies.

Inland options include buildings with limited and defensible entrances.  Examples include jails and prisons (once their former occupants are cleaned out), military weapons bunkers and intelligence facilities.  Prisons, in particular, are designed to house a lot of people for long periods of time.  They will have medical and dining facilities, and will have backup generators.  Maximum security prisons also have high walls, watchtowers, and sally ports — enclosed spaces with gates at each end and enough space in between to handle a large vehicle.  The inner gate will not open until the outer gate is closed.  Sharpshooters on the walls above could eliminate any zombies that might have gotten in with the vehicle before permitting the latter to enter the facility.

Malls are right out (though they would be good places to pick up supplies). There are too many entrances, and those entrances are made of glass.  Malls also lack chokepoints that can funnel zombies into a kill zone.

Security while travelling is also going to be important.  If there are enough characters, the party can switch off driving duties until they're in a relatively safe area.  Selecting a place to bed down is important.  It should have a clear field of vision for several hundred meters.  Parking in a farmer's fields or holing up in an abandoned farmhouse are good options, provided the former owners aren't still around.  However, if enough time has elapsed, the farmer's fields may be overgrown, allowing zombies or other potential opponents to approach unnoticed.

If the characters are forced to bed down in an urban or suburban environment they should choose places with few, narrow, defensible entrances and with access to secure parking.  Armored car companies fit this bill, but there aren't that many such facilities around, and they typically don't advertise their presences.  Fire stations and police stations are also good bets.  They typically have emergency generators, so, provided there is enough fuel, characters will have access to electricity.

Also, buildings with a lot of windows, especially windows on the ground floor, should be avoided.  Glass does not deter your average zombie.

Water
Oddly enough, water is going to be a problem for survivors.  First off, survivors in an urban environment are not going to have running water unless they have electricity.  In the countryside rivers and streams may be contaminated by rotting corpses.  Well water will be relatively safe.  Humans require about five liters of water per day; the characters will need to boil water, or otherwise treat it for contamination before consuming it.

Weaponry
Weaponry is not as big a consideration as one would think.  Any weapon that would destroy the brain (or the spinal cord) will render a zombie hors de combat.  The primary consideration is at least one ranged weapon, loaded and ready to fire.  A secondary weapon is needed as the zombies get closer.  If this is a modern scenario, this should be a pistol.  Finally, don't forget the use of close-in melee weapons.  In this case, one should secure an axe or machete.

Conclusion
The consideration in this article should go far to giving both players and referees a more concrete grasp on the "realities" of life on the ground during a Zombie Apocalypse.  It should also lay the foundations for a number of adventure sessions as players attempt to locate necessary supplies and avoid zombies