# How to survive a wartime disaster

Try to get away from the combat zone as fast as possible.

- Leave as much as possible that may slow you down.
- Leave *as soon as you can* to avoid the [logistical nightmare](logistics.md) of everyone fleeing.

If you're stuck in the combat zone, hide away from everything.

- Find a location that's as far away from where the fighting may happen.
  - Stay indoors, but be ready to bolt if the building collapses.
  - Avoid closets, cellars, and attics, which are safe until the building is destroyed.

## Minefield

1. Since some mines are magnetic, get rid of anything metal.
2. Follow any existing footprints or tire marks.
3. Use a stick to check for mines by pointing at a diagonal angle (mines only respond to downward pressure).

## Nuclear bomb

1. You'll have some warning, so get to shelter.
   - Most people will die within 1--10 miles of the explosion from the blast wave and intense heat.
   - Ducking below cover after seeing a flash of light could save your life.
2. Find the lowest, most interior room in a building with no windows (like a closet or bathroom)
3. After the blast, seek the lowest shelter you can, such as a basement or underground floor of a building.
   - You're trying to shield yourself from the gamma rays coming off whatever is settling on the roof and outside walls.
   - You don't need lead, and mattresses and bulky furniture should be fine.
   - Fallout is a legitimate threat, but it tends to be overstated.
   - Nuclear power plant meltdowns and the ground burst give *way* more fallout.
   - Fallout isotope radioactivity drops to 1/10 within 6--8 hours, decreases to 1/100 within 2 days, and is likely safe to venture out after a week or two.
4. When you do go outside:
   - Keep the trips short.
   - Wear disposable coveralls.
   - Don't track any residues into your home.
5. After a few months, it's safe to still "live" in the same area where the bomb went off.
   - The big problem comes from nuclear dust that spreads isotopes into the local water and food.
   - Crops could be grown after removing several inches of topsoil, and most moving water will become safe rather quickly.
   - One of the biggest fallout issues comes from radioactive iodine, but if you take potassium iodide pills, your thyroid will be saturated and won't absorb irradiated iodine.
   - You can also get pyrroloquinoline quinone, diindolylmethane, melatonin, and n-acetyl cysteine if you're particularly worried.

## How to recover from surviving a war

In many ways, surviving a war is a combination of witnessing a [mass murder](hardship-death.md) *and* a man-made [disaster](hardship-disaster-1_short.md) at the same time.

Irrespective of whether you were military or a civilian, you will probably have [trauma](hardship-ptsd.md) about it for decades:

- Beyond other war survivors, nobody else will fully comprehend what you've experienced.
- Even worse, people who don't know will often portray you or your enemies (depending on who "won") as heroic.

To prevent the trauma from destroying you, find [creative ways](mind-creativity.md) to build the experiences you keep reliving into something useful.

As much as possible, try to put the experiences behind you:

- If your home was damaged, rebuild it or move.
- If you were in a foreign war and have trouble with others' opinions of it, go somewhere you'll be accepted.