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First Aid Kit - Zombies are dangerous but so are infections from minor cuts and lacerations. Gotta prep for the unexpected.
Machete - Most effective and common sense weapon as all the others require some level of skill or maintenance and only the machete would be good at making pointy sticks for improvised spears.
NVGs - Something people forget about is that when the power goes out you're going to be looting some dark ass buildings even during the daytime. Stock up some batteries or a charger and looting just got so much simpler. Plus, if you hear a bump in the night, you can go looking for it without letting the neighborhood know where you are, like with a flashlight.
Water purifier - You can go approximately 3 days without water and the pipes stop working when the electricity does. That river and lake isn't safe to drink, neither is the rainwater, and do you really want to whip out your firekit and draw attention just for sippy sips?
Boring picks but I think these are the biggest bang for your buck. Everything else will take so much just to maintain that it isn't worth it. Including doggo.
Why not the fire axe? I don't think it would be that difficult to swing. Granted, it would be much heavier than a machete, but long term the axe is gonna last longer and dull slower.
Fire Axe requires you to be pretty dead on with every swing. You miss or misalign the edge coming down and it bounces off their skull. They feel nothing and now you've got to lift up that axe for another swing. You'll tire yourself out pretty quickly but if the edge lasts long enough I suppose it could be used to make spears as well. Spears, even just makeshift ones from sticks, are light and if you miss it's almost effortless to get another go at it.
Also might come in handy as a tool in more ways than the machete. Open doors, smash windows, chop firewood and you'd probably still manage to sharpen some sticks with it. As a weapon I do not think that a machete is easier to use without any training.
See, light and water I can make/clean myself. I'd replace them with one of the firearms to counter other humans and maybe the dog for danger detection.
Ah but see, a firearm requires cleaning, oil, and ammunition. The suppressed sidearm will lure in your neighborhood while anything unsuppressed is going to call everything within 8 blocks right to you. Dog is a mouth to feed, mess to clean, and is also loud unless you've trained them very, very well. Making light isn't hard but everyone can see light - including zombies. NVGs are just for you. Water you can clean yourself but I assume you mean boiling which would need a fire.. and everyone can see the light and smoke.
You only use the firearm if you need it. If you need it, you really want it.
There's a lot of heating solutions in the world that do not involve fire and even so, plenty of ways to do light sanitation exist.
A lot of these are highly contextual in terms of the type of outbreak and individual skills but I think my options give more flexibility overall for me personally.
I suppose but for me I wouldn't want to waste a pick on something I'd use for extreme cases. Sure it'll help in a bind but I'd rather prep to not be in that bind to begin with.
Everything changes with context but I made my picks with "The Walking Dead" scenario in mind. They all walk, everyone's infected, it only takes effect if you die with your brain intact, they roam in hordes. But hey, we may never know and it's probably for the best.
On the other hand one supermarket probably has enougth packed water for years
Which has a shelf life.
My partner worked at a water bottling station and they kept a "dead archive" of production for quality control: dark, cool room, away from machinery and chemicals.
Archived samples were cleared after 5 years. Out of curiosity, they decided to try the water before emptying the bottles and it was foul. Blamed on too long storage time.
When the plant shut down, the archive was fully cleared and samples older than 6 months were drinkable but not pleasant to, older than a year tasted bad.
Water does not stock well and even worse when exposed to sun light.
Absolutely the last place you'd ever want to be. Everyone loots stores, it's safer to loot locally first. Best case scenario everything is cleaned out. Worst case, you find other people. Or other "people".