In a zombie outbreak explosives can be very useful tools. However, their volatile nature makes explosives dangerous to the user as well as to their potential target. Generally explosives are also hard to come by, and it is very dangerous to try to manufacture explosives without the proper training and equipment. For this reason, explosives should generally not be handled unless one posseses adequate knowledge in respect to their usage. Explosive weapons have poor effect against the living dead however, as they rely on the shock of the blast to cause a balloon effect on living organs or Sudden Nerve Trauma, and since zombies require the destruction of the brain to kill, neither of these are going to happen. When used on an undead hoard, explosive weapons are likely to result in a lot of disfigured and dismembered (but still active) zombies. It is therefore recommended that they be used on either closely-packed hoards, or you use high-grade mining explosives. Here is a brief list of some explosives and explosive devices.
[edit] Grenades
Weapons-grade explosives used by both the military and special divisions of some police units. There is a wide variety of grenades, ranging from fragmentation grenades, to smoke grenades and flash grenades (flash bangs). Although relatively easy to use, grenades, especially high explosive grenades, are hard to come by. However, if local police and military forces have been overwhelmed grenades may be possible to attain. Grenades are increasingly effective when fired from some kind of launcher, as it keeps the grenade at a safe distance for detonation. As with all explosives, grenades should be handled with extreme care, used preferably by those with proper knowledge and experience (such as ex cops, veterans, or police/military personnel). Grenades’ use on Zombies (Max Brooks) is dubious at best. Fragmentation grenades will usually only shred a zombie’s body and organs and knock it over, unless one of the fragments or the blast itself damages the head and brain. A flash bang grenade, unless inserted into a zombie’s mouth, is going to have even less of an effect, as a ghoul doesn’t need sight or hearing to find prey. Poison gas will have no effect at all, and incendiary grenades will only serve to turn the zombie into a shambling torch.
[edit] C4
“Boom”
A very powerful type of plastic explosive containing RDX. C4 is relatively easy to store and handle, though it is both difficult and dangerous to arm a C4 bomb. The equipment needed to arm a C4 bomb is hard to come by, as is the C4 itself. Homemade C4 is very dangerous to create, and is also quite unstable. Although useful for setting traps, C4 should only be handled by experts (such as military personnel or ordinance disposal officials).
[edit] Pipe Bombs
A type of homemade bomb, consisting of low explosives packed tightly into a pipe. The bomb is usually a short section of steel water pipe containing the explosive mixture and closed at both ends with steel or brass caps. A fuse is inserted into the pipe with a lead running out through a hole in the side or capped end of the pipe. Pipe bombs can create relatively large explosions, the shrapnel caused by the fragmentation of the pipe adding to its lethality. Pipe bombs are much easier to manufacture than C4, grenades, or other military grade explosives; though it is very dangerous to do so. Although pipe bombs can be useful tools, making them can be more dangerous than the zombies you’ll be using them against.
[edit] Land Mine
Land mines are very useful for defending positions against conventional enemies. However, most mines are designed as anti-vehicle with a limited anti-personnel capacity. Mines are designed to wound, not kill, by blowing off a leg, both legs, and the genitals. This is so that their army can spend money patching him up, and then send him to Ma and Pa civilian so they can look at their boy every day and wonder if fighting this war is a good idea. Zombies have no Ma and Pa civilian back home. The most these hidden bombs are going to do is create a lot of crawling, dismembered G’s, which presents a hidden danger, especially in grassy fields where you are likely to step onto a zombie you wouldn’t have seen otherwise. There is also the danger of unmarked minefields, which pose far more of a danger to the living than the living dead. If against all reason you do decide to use land mines, for the love of God please visually mark them so other people don’t step on them, since zombies are going to wander onto an active minefield weather they are marked or not.