Civilization has broken down, most humans are dead. You have to haul ass, and fast. You have your clothes, your footwear, and what's in your pockets. You have the chance to grab only one. Thusly:

1. You get one shot. Otherwise, it's a stick, and breakable. Intimidation factor a plus. Worth it?
2. A sturdy, functional tool, lightweight. Portable and good in a tight spot. Think a hunting knife, Ka-Bar, bayonet, etc. Something rugged.
3. A large, awkward tool. Useful for getting into things. Can deliver a good thumping. Requires both hands. Not so good in a tight spot.
4. Old-school, the real thing. Sturdy and sharp. A pure weapon, though.

Go.

Imma go with an Ax, preferably a nice one like a Gransfors Bruks or a Wetterlings. Ideally a smaller head, 1.5lb to 2.5 or so. Otherwise some proper USA old Hudson Bay shit with the big-ass felling head would certainly be workable.

Shit is flexible, can be as sharpened as a knife, and used as such, especially if it is well designed and balanced correctly, and made of a good quality steel. The handle can be shortened or lengthened, or even fabricated if broken, in the field with relative ease, using nothing more than the axe head itself. For instance, if i wind up with a hatchet, i am putting it on a 24" handle. If i wind up with a 35" felling axe, i may very well be cutting it down by about 10", depending on the head weight.

Can also be used for shelter construction, or the poll used as a hammer, animal skinning/butchering, etc etc.

Alternately, i am just grabbing this guy on the way out the door, and sharpening the edges on a rock somewhere:



Some sort of commercial chipper/stirrer tool whose origins i do not really recall but seem to have had here forever. A good weight, solid stainless steel baseball-bat-with-a-blade sort of thing for most of one's general clobbering requirements.

Axe f'sho, but it was close between that and katana.

Katana, not so useful outside of zombie decapitation, but does the job well for what it is made for. Still has the ability of thrusting forward in a tight spot, whereas the axe would not do that so well for me.

I am thinking maybe crowbar. Was a hard decision, but I think it's multi-tool options would come in handy. Also, I like the idea of bludgeoning muh fuckas to death better than slicing their heads off.

Also, one should note that an ideal sized bar could easily be used to stab into the brain through an eye socket. Would like something 30" or so. The head would preferably have a flattened end to serve as a hammer and then another claw end for prying and destruction of that shit I don't like. I have only ran into ones at about two feet but I am sure they are out there.

oh yeah, I have a 36" crowbar that can do some massive damage. Love that thing.

This says it all. http://coub.com/view/8kxuecn?suggest_plfalsece=17

My own take on it:

The gun is temptation. It's the most useless of all of them. You have to find shells somewhere- and assume all police stations and sporting goods stores have long since been looted. Too much of a gamble. And there are better blunt objects.

Now, the hunting knife or whatnot, this seems very practical and sensible. The ass end of the thing can be used as a blunt object to do blunt object things.

Okay, the sword, I'm liking this. It is similar to the knife, but, y'know, bigger. It's certainly a better weapon, but not a more practical tool.

I think I agree with Chris, though, about the axe. It's mankind's most primitive tool- it probably pre-dates the knife- and it is hella versatile. As mentioned, it's useful to build shelters and whatnots, and the head can function as a knife. As a weapon, it is very effective, and it's more useful than a sword for things like breaking windows or bashing through doors.

Now, the sword is the prestige choice. And were it my own things I was picking through it would be a longsword rather than the above mentioned. Still... The axe is the most practical, though it doesn't have the sword's cutting length. Now, if I have a decent pocketknife on my person, I might- just might- take the sledgehammer. Reasoning being I can get into anything simply by smashing it.

Axe for it's straight usefulness. The knife is useful but in order to wield it properly you are going to have to put tasty appendages closer to zombie mouths than you would with any of the other weapons. Shotgun is ammo dependent, and requires too many mechanical parts to be reliable. The sword is a good option, and still useful as a large blade but nowhere near as useful as an axe.