Appalachian Zombie Apocalypse Survival PlanSubmitted by JeffreyOKay on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 11:49 |
This plan is based off of a reasonable Zombie Apocalypse, where the zombies would either be the enraged ones from 28 Days Later/28 Weeks Later, or based off of the Dead Rising zombies. In no way am I prepared for Smokers, Hunters, Tanks, Boomers, or zombies from I Am Legend. I don't think any of our zombie plans are well prepared for such unreasonable (and unlikely) types of zombies. It is also based off of an area that is only minutes away from the Appalachian Mountains (Smokey Mountains National Park), and this is a plan that would cover me, and approximately 3-5 other survivors. Any more would be unnecessary, and dangerous in my opinion.
-Preparation-
Right after figuring out about the outbreak, I would grab any canned food I have from the two houses my family owns. Mostly fruits, and hopefully Vienna Sausages (vitamins and protein). I'd also grab a two liter bottle filled with watter to bring along with me in the backpack filled with food. I would advise two or maybe three well trusted people to grab someone that they would consider to be a good person to bring into our group (very sane, common sense, resourceful, NO ANGER PROBLEMS), but only if they have my approval, and I would instruct them to grab a backpack full of canned food for themselves, and a two liter bottle of water also, and medical supplies if possible, and at least one weapon that isn't a fire arm, and bring as many fire arms as possible to the skating rink immediately. My military mom and dad might be included in this plan, if they're alive when this happens. They're both smart, resourceful, strong, and good shots, and they might already be at the rink while this is happening, considering they kind of live there. To help barricade, we would park our cars in front of the glass doors in front of the building, and enter through the fire exits as quickly as possible. We would not let anyone into the skating rink without a strip check, otherwise they will be turned away, or shot if they seem to be a threat.
-Location-
My safe haven, and a very well picked one I'd say, is a four door entrance skating rink, that has three enormous metal fire exit doors, that can easily be chained/bolted shut, and one glass front door. The glass front door leads into a lobby, that has a concrete wall and an exit door, and a buzz in entrance door, both heavy wooden doors. I do not plan on letting zombies into the lobby. We have a nice assortment of heavy arcade machines that we would barricade the glass doors with, and we also have plenty of concrete bags in our storage room. With enough concrete and arcade machines barricading the door, that lobby would be nothing but a wooden, concrete block. We also have 2x4s that we could nail over the glass doors to be more secured. Plus we already have cars parked in front of them.
-Weapon Setup-
We obviously need defense, as everyone does. I personally would choose to have a cross draw vest with an AR15, a Glock 33, a light long bladed combat knife, that has a serrated edge near the handle for sawing, and a pocket knife in it. It also would have 3 mags for both the guns, and a flashlight. I'd more than likely also bring a belt with more mags for both guns on it, and a pouch with first aid supplies in it. I have seen this being tested out, and no, it would not be too heavy to run with. As long as I've got a tight grip on the AR15, it would be a very reasonable set. I also have three katanas in my room, and a baseball bat. My preferred choice to have with me would be the baseball bat, because blunt weapons don't need to be sharpened, and it's easy to slip into the securing straps on a cross draw vest, but bringing along the katanas to the rink would be nice to have with us just in case. I also would make sure to bring a pack of cards, because you NEED entertainment to keep sanity.
-The Plan-
After securing the skating rink, and barricading the lobby, and using whatever else to barricade the large metal doors, just in case, I would need to get to work on setting up a living strategy for the skating rink. To start off, I would fill up, after cleaning out, the 8 or 9 trashcan buckets with water from our sinks or shower in the rink. That would easily be enough to last weeks to a month or two. I would plan to spend anywhere from weeks to months there, and might end up being years if the zombie outbreak turns out to be an actual apocalypse. In the rink, we have a ladders, axes, hammers, and tools of all kinds in our storage room. After filling up the buckets, I would have my group cut a hole in the ceiling, and as the trash cans and buckets get empty, we could set the trash can buckets and other buckets up there that aren't filled with water to catch rain fall. It usually rains once or twice a week in this area. The most it goes without raining is two weeks average, but out of all the buckets we have to catch water, and have filled up at the beginning, one rain fall should be able to last a while, so it would be a nice cycle. The roof would also be a safe place to be in case of any problems that might happen in the rink. It's also a great place to escape from if needed, because of it being higher up and you would have an easy choice of the best area to leave the rink if it is surrounded. You can also shoot easily from there. Near the rink is a gas station, a grocery store, a mechanic shop, and a McDonalds. After getting set up, we could keep a watch, if the area is clear enough, we could have a group of three take trips by foot or car to all three areas, with guns and all, and scavenge as much as possible that might be useful. We would preferably do this by car because it would be easier to fill up with supplies. Ideally, from what everyone has brought, and how much we could scavenge after as many trips as possible, we could have enough food to last anywhere from two weeks to six months. After a while, we would have to resort to finding other locations, and that would be more dangerous. Everyone dies at one point, and I don't plan to live forever through this, but this plan is good enough to last from months to maybe up to four years if done very correctly, and if most everything goes estimated correctly.
-Back-up Plan-
The military air base is an eight minute drive from there. We would more than likely have gathered up gasoline in scavenging trips. That would be the first place I go to. If that for some reason is unavailable, there is a fall out shelter I know of in town. That is my last resort for a reason, it will probably be in use, and getting in there might be unlikely, but you never know. If all of those plans fail, the best bet is to travel constantly with as few people as possible, scavenging everything you can to stay alive. I live near the Appalachians, as you know. With the right supplies, and a little bit of know how, you could easily survive there. Wildlife to eat, rivers of water everywhere, and bears, boars, and cougars to kill the zombies that attempt to attack them :)!
Interesting idea... i thought at first you might be defrosting the ice from the rink itself, but is that traeated with chemicals? Someone with know-how, enlighten me.
-You're hardly going to turn away anyone that your friends bring. We rely on each other (as a species), so the more people, the better.
-I'm pretty sure other people would be able to get into the rink (with the defences you described). And give a zombie long enough and it'll manage to climb over your car- and you don't want to go shooting through the glass window, else you've just given a conduit to any animals outside, along with any inclement weather.
-Scratch that, you've got the door heavily defended. I'd suggest moving some of the reinformcement over to the other doors, rather than having one impassable door and three that are only difficult.
-Meelee weapons (particularily blunt weapons) increase the risk of blood splatter infection. I'd suggest a short handled hatchet, since it is functional too.
-I don't think that a pack of cards is enough to keep a group of 3-5 (+potentially your parents + other survivors) sane for too long. Take some books if you can, if not, go back for them after making yourself at home.]
-What's the capacity of the bins? It's suggested you get 2.5 litres of water a day, but a lot of that comes from the food you eat.
-Interesting rain catch idea. But any leaks would drain on morale.
-Gas station and grocery store would be hit fairly early in the rush of people fleeing. McDonalds not so much, but people will turn to anything they can get. Bear in mind how salty most of that stuff is, and how you'll need to drink more to compensate.
-I'd suggest starting to farm as soon as is feasible. Raiding gives limited food, it's limited by what you can find and carry, it's dangerous and it takes you away from your new base.
According to the Zombie Survival Guide, wld animals will try to avoid zombies as much as is possible. So you'll have to deal with any that get too close.
Pretty good plan I'd say. Just iron out some of those points ^, and good luck.
Thanks for the tips. Some of those I thought about, and others I didn't. By the way, it's a roller skating rink, not an ice skating rink lol. Big wooden floor. 2000 square feet building.
-I don't want too many people. We have a lot of food, enough to last us about two weeks without even scavenging any. But those foods aren't canned foods and mostly rely on electricity, but we could find other ways to cook that. Food would become a problem when you have a group of more than five people, and I plan on having about six or seven it looks like.
-The lobby would be impassible after arcade machines and concrete, it's the only threatening entrance we have. The cars, yes, they could climb over, but there's a small roof area over the entrance. It's like a porch, so parking cars there would keep them from really climbing over. The most they could do is wedge themselves into the small area between the roof of the car and the roof. The big fire exit doors really aren't much to worry about. I could concrete those exits easy, I should've mentioned that in the plan. The other exits would be non existent basically. And yes, we have a lot of concrete. It's meant to redo the parking lot, but we're putting that off for quite a few years.
-Don't want blood splatter! Looks like I better go with one of the axes we have in storage! Or possibly the katanas I already have.
-The pack of cards, your right. Thanks for the tip :D! I love to read. We'd have other fun activities to do though. We've got soccer balls and goals. A bunch of skates, but I'd be weary about skating in a zombie apocalypse. The walls keep sound from leaving pretty well, so we could make quite a bit of noise without people hearing us. Most the people I have in mind wouldn't mind playing Monopoly or Risk, two board games we keep in the attic here. Activities in a skating rink are easy to think of. I mentioned cards because I've seen them keep people well entertained for hours at a time, and day after day too.
-The gray trashcans hold probably a little more than a bathtub's worth, or a little less, depending on the bathtub of course. The black ones could hold a bathtub and a half. Including every single bin we have, even the ones holding skate boots, we probably have 16-20. That's a lot of water if we fill them all up asap. We have a lot of other various sized buckets too, by the way.
-I forgot what I said about the leaks.
-All of the following is on a mile or two mile long strip of road. To the east side of the rink, you've got the gas station and grocery store and the McDonalds, and at the far end they're building a strip mall. That will probably be finished in the next year, so I can rely on that to distract people too. To the south side of the rink, there's a small neighborhood with a middle school next to it. People would probably be instructed to go to the middle school, even though a lot wouldn't, I'd say. To the west, there's another gas station, about four food shops, a donut store, the fire department, and other average stores. That all would be everyone's distraction. Now that you've enlightened me on farming, I could easily go to the huge gardening store right past the McDonalds, and grab everything possible, and try growing food on top of the rink. I would still plan on gathering as much food as possible though (preferably meat, since it'll be rare), but only as long as I'm armed and with a group of people.
-Thanks for the following! My plan just got a little more reliable :D!
Growing food on top of a building = difficult. You need to get all the soil up there (which would be several tons, because skating rinks are quite large), and soil doesn't have infinite nutrients, it'd be drained and you'd either need more or to fertalise it regularily. but the rooftop does mean it's safe from raiders, and there won't be zombies hiding in the tall crops...
Double edged sword really, just like everything else.