If yellowstone decides to blow its top, pretty much half the continent is buggered, no? an explosion THAT big is going to wipe out everything in the immediate vicinity (orders of magnitude beyond the kind of ground zero any kind of terrorist attack bar perhaps an efficient and well-coordinated successful biological attack by a group with resources could possibly hope to cause [the thought of something like a hybridization of ebola reston (harmless to humans, but airborne, unlike ebola zaire, sudan, tai forest and bundibugyo) with ebola zaire or sudan (the two most lethal, respectively but neither is vectored via airborne transmission, bar close-range secondary transmission of coughed up blood aerosols affecting those providing immediate care)...shit, it wouldn't even need a geneticist's knowledge. Given the way viruses replicate, infecting a host with both strains could be as little as it takes to create, potentially, an airborne, lethal filovirus-based weapon).
Then theres aftershocks, disruption of power supplies and one bloody big toxic, corrosive hadean fart of a gas cloud. Only those on the very outskirts of a disaster like that, or else access to private aircraft (maybe, assuming they weren't wiped out immediately, at medium damage range..just maybe..not sure how feasible that would be). Any closer than on the outskirts of the range, theres just no GTFO from something like that.
In a human-based (as opposed to zombie apocalypse scenario where you need to physically destroy heads and endless-waves of brain-hungry corpses) SHTF, I could defend this place for a while I should think, using poison gas, phosphorus bombs, conventional fuel-based incendiaries and explosives. Not got the likes of the latter ready made, but mixing together a fuel-oxidizer type low-explosive mixture and using it to propel shrapnel would be fairly effective against a mob at the door type scenario.
If its ALL gone to hell in a handbasket, and things are reduced to pockets of survivors then I'd be packing the more useful of the chemistry set and resources, first thing though would be to grab my sword and rob as many DIY stores, pharmacies and sources of edible provisions, plus the gardening supplies to grow crops (although I do have a fairly good knowledge of what you can eat as far as things that grow), and yes, if things got that bad, and the resource hotspots that would need to be targeted first, as above, and fuel supplies etc. staff put up resistance they'd get the choice of either forming up some resistance effort or being killed for getting in the way.
Should be able to fabricate some moderately-effective firearms using the lathe (even without power, it would be possible to run it, given that its powered by a gear system and drive belt, so interfacing it with a liquid fuelled motor ought to be doable long enough to bore out something akin to a shotgun barrel and it wouldn't take me long to make some black powder, I have everything needed if I wanted to put it to that use, save the charcoal, and I could come up with that easily enough..or better, save the nitrates for nitric acid production and HE manufacture..used to do all kinds of such things as a kid and young teen. Probably have to switch to perchlorate or chlorate-based explosives when the nitrate supplies run down...but for some personal protection or hunting it'd do. ) Or in an emergency, rely on torsion-propelled weapons and blowgun weapons. Theres an awful lot of nasty things I could come up with for that, be it chemically synthesized or extracted from plants.
Weaponry-wise, given a little time, then even a rocket-launcher wouldn't be out of the question. Not sure how well the best I could do would fare against a modern tank with explosive-reactive armor plate, spaced armor etc. but could probably come up with something that would do for older models using homogenous armor (first idea would be to go for killing the crew and doing minimal damage to the vehicle itself with HESH rounds, HE rounds designed to form a pad of explosive on the outer surface of the tank wall, and then blow the explosive, the shockwaves passing through the armor cause the metal on the interior side to spall off at high speed and make meatpaste out of the crew)
Have a few rather valuable goods for trade, albeit that are of no use to me in a survival situation-a very large stash of penicillin-group antibiotics. I use the stuff for cultures, but couldn't take them to treat an infection since I'm allergic. But something like that would be better than currency in the case of everything going 'fallout'
Pros in favour of my survival longterm-useful as hell to have around given my knowledgebase and supplies, ability to prepare and use explosives, which few would be able to access here in the UK, likewise, chemical weapons if needed, DAMN good knowledge of wild edible and toxic and medicinal plants and fungi, medical knowledge. Logical personality and good ability to keep my head screwed on in a crisis.
Cons-long term leg injury, need to take pain meds, would have to detox from daily opioid use and taper using supplies...liberated..from the pharmacies, using as many of the non-opioid metabolic manipulation type tricks I know. And it'd slow me down from day to day, using pain relief only at night (otherwise I just can't sleep).
Very low tolerance for idiots. Too many of them around. If someone is going to endanger me due to that, chances are it wouldn't be the zombies and/or plague that killed them. It'd be me if they didn't shape up quickly. I'd sooner be eating them than have someone's stupidity get me killed. Which might well not be too popular with fellow survivors.
