Since no one wants to say an early goodbye to our furry friends, let’s talk pet preparedness. Whatever instructions you’re given for staying inside and sheltering applies to your pets, too. Having an emergency kit for them is going to make all the difference, and FEMA says you should have things like a carrier, back-up harnesses, leashes, collars, and tags, along with copies of vet records, vaccinations, and registrations. Have some toys, beds, and blankets at the ready because your furry friend is going to be more scared than you are. Dogs aren’t going to be going outside to do their business, so have newspapers, paper towels, and disinfectant, along with litter and a box for cats. It’s a good idea to have some photos of you and your pet together, too, in case you ever need to prove ownership. (Or “best friendship.”)

The CDC says you’re going to need to take extra precautions if your pet was outside when the nukes hit. Put on your dust mask, then give your pet a good wash with soap or shampoo. Rinse completely, and pay attention to any cuts or injuries. They’re the perfect place for radioactive dust to enter, so keep them covered.

We’ve all seen the movies, and we can all admit the desire to hop in the car and get out of Dodge as fast as humanly possible is a classic, knee-jerk reaction. But radiation expert Brooke Buddemeier says that’ll get you killed for a few different reasons.

First, cars make terrible shelter from nuclear fallout, especially our modern, flimsy, plastic cars. Glass isn’t going to help you at all, and your car isn’t exactly airtight. Just try driving it into water and see what happens. (Don’t try that. You’ve seen enough TV to know what happens.) The biggest danger comes from the radiation in particles the size of sand, and those are going to get into your car and turn it into a sort of microwave for humans.

Also, Buddemeier says you can forget any ideas you have about outrunning the blast. Fallout travels along at 100 mph, and even if you make it to a freeway, you won’t be going anywhere near that fast. In fact, you probably won’t be going anywhere at all. The roads are going to be filled with people trying to run, too, along with debris, accidents, and obstacles. It’s not long before those obstacles are going to include people frying in their cars, so don’t be one of those people.

If things go really, really sideways, you might not have much of a warning. It’s entirely possible your survival will be down to luck, and if you’re outside, you’re going to have it a lot harder. But there are a few things you can do to maximize your chances.

Ready.gov says the first thing is not to look at the fireball. You’ll be blind, and that’s not going to help you. If you’re still alive, you’re far enough away that you’ll have a handful of seconds to take any kind of cover that’s around, putting it between you and the blast. Lie on the ground face down and cover your head. Once the blast wave passes you and the winds dissipate, find shelter.

And there’s the weird thing. Being outside is the worst place you can possibly be, but according to Irwin Redlener of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness (via Time), you’ll actually have some valuable time if you make it to this point. Between the initial blast and the time those radioactive particles start settling to the ground, you have around 15 to 20 minutes. Use that time to find shelter, and stay there.

If you were caught outside or exposed to any radioactive air, you’ll need to completely decontaminate yourself. It’s strangely easy, and Dr. Eric Toner from the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Biosecurity (via NPR) says you’re about 95 percent of the way there if you just take off your clothes and take a shower.

That’s because most of the radiation is in the form of dust, and you’re essentially just washing it off. The best scenario is having clean clothes, but if you have no choice you should be able to wash your clothes and put the same ones back on. Toner says even washing in rainwater will work because even though water, rain, and runoff will be radioactive, it’ll be so diluted it will get rid of the dust with minimal risk.

There’s a catch. You should be using soap and shampoo, but radiation expert Andrew Karam (via NPR) says it’s vitally important not to use conditioner. Think of those commercials that show magnified sections of damaged hair. It looks scaly, right? Conditioner is designed to bind those scales, and when it does, it’s going to bind radioactive particles, too. So skip the conditioner. You’ve probably got other things to worry about, anyway.

You’re safe, you’re sealed inside, and you’re decontaminated. You’re not going anywhere for a while, so you should know some basic food and water safety. We’ll start with food, and the CDC says before you prep anything, you should wipe off all surfaces, cans, and utensils with a damp cloth. That goes for your pets’ dishes, too, and once you’re done put the cloth in a sealed, out-of-the-way container. Then, eat up. It’s not just food in cans and emergency rations that are safe; anything in your fridge, freezer, pantry, cabinets, or drawers should be safe, too. Your garden, however, is not, and you shouldn’t be going outside anyway.

Water is a little trickier. The CDC says the drinks in sealed containers are safe, and if you’re in a bind, the water in your hot water tank and your toilet tank is also safe. (No one will judge you.) But you also need to know that tap water isn’t going to be safe to drink, and you should only drink from sources you know are safe until a professional tells you differently. You can’t boil radiation away, but you can still use that tap water to wash and decontaminate with. Don’t waste bottled water and other safe sources on a shower — you might need them.

If you think you’ll make it through the worst of it, you’ll need to be prepared for the aftermath. It’s impossible to imagine the death and devastation you’re going to see, but if you want an idea of what’s going to happen to your home and your neighbors, read the first-hand accounts of those who survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It’s terrible stuff. Take Junko Morimoto’s account. She was 13 when the bomb exploded over Hiroshima, and she was about a mile from the epicenter. Her home collapsed on her and her family, and when she found her sister she was missing teeth and had a hole in her face where a chopstick had passed through it. She and her family walked through crowds of people with skin blackened and burned, over rivers clogged with the dead. The worst hadn’t come yet.

Yoshitaka Kawamoto was 13, too. In his account (via Time), he talked about trying to save some of his classmates from their collapsed school. He found his friend Ota, but his back was broken, his face was peppered with nails, and one of his eyes was not in the right place. He died a moment later.

Be prepared. Surviving a nuclear blast is one thing. Living after it is another.