Where would you make your stand, and why?

[DRM]

I made this for another forum, but thought I would post it here and see what others came up with.

Basically, I see two options for myself:

1. Go remote, and struggle to seek out supplies.

2. Go to supplies (populated areas), and deal with increased zombie count

I used to think I would go remote, however after some consideration I think going to the supplies is not a bad idea.

My first idea was this:

My second thought was a Lowe's or Home Depot.

TSC has some advantages over HD - namely the smaller size makes it more easily defensible, and the supply of clothing is a big plus. Otherwise - many of the same features of a HD: tools, generators, materials to build/fortify/etc., seeds, grains, *some* foods, propane, "Caged" exterior section, flat roof for clear line of fire, growing food, etc.

However, after some thought, a HD or Lowe's might be better - despite being MUCH larger and harder to defend/fortify...

1. FAR greater access to building supplies - namely wood (does TSC carry much wood if any?)

2. HD's racking system makes for a SUPERB defensible inner elevated living area. You could basically build your living quarters on the top shelves of the racking system and have an effective inner sanctuary that you could retreat to should the walls be breached.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on it... Anyone else?

[Guest 1010011010]

If you make it past the initial outbreak, the zombies generally aren't what's going to kill you.

The folks who survive the outbreak are those who most quickly get over their compunction about killing a human-shaped animal.

Not all of them are going to maintain the distinction about zombies.

What's your plan to deal with other people showing up at your fortified palace with the same idea? What's your plan if someone else got there first?

[DRM]

If you make it past the initial outbreak, the zombies generally aren't what's going to kill you.

The folks who survive the outbreak are those who most quickly get over their compunction about killing a human-shaped animal.

Not all of them are going to maintain the distinction about zombies.

What's your plan to deal with other people showing up at your fortified palace with the same idea? What's your plan if someone else got there first?

How is that question any different than if you stayed at home?

New people show up - you have to decide if they are a risk, asset, or liability - and proceed accordingly.

[Paletiger13]

I think it's an excellent idea! You have everything at your disposal in that general location. You would definitely need the extra hands if anyone shows up. You also need someone to help you build stuff.

[LagerHead]

If you make it past the initial outbreak, the zombies generally aren't what's going to kill you.

The folks who survive the outbreak are those who most quickly get over their compunction about killing a human-shaped animal.

Not all of them are going to maintain the distinction about zombies.

What's your plan to deal with other people showing up at your fortified palace with the same idea? What's your plan if someone else got there first?

Amen. The places with supplies are going to be overrun with humans, which means they're going to be overrun with zombies too. Better to have supplies on hand to wait out the worst and then do some recon for supplies once things die down a bit.

[Guest 1010011010]

How is that question any different than if you stayed at home?

If someone else also implements the "stay at home" plan they will stay at their home and I will stay at mine. If we both implement the "fortify a home-improvement or big-box store" plan we're going to run into each other at said store. And a couple dozen other people who have the same idea or are just there to scavenge for supplies... and the horde of zombies this crowd attracts.

New people show up - you have to decide if they are a risk, asset, or liability - and proceed accordingly.

Why would people be coming to my house, though?

[DRM]

Why would people be coming to my house, though?

1. When you run out of food at your house - the logical step is to find the nearest home to your, and try to secure additional resources, then the next house, then the next, etc.

2. #1 assumes you already have supplies - those without supplies are going to be on the move, and desperate. At some point, they will want the supplies YOU obviously have (since you're sitting tight and still alive).

3. #2 is further magnified by the MASS EXODUS you will see from metropolitan areas (like Nashville). Survivors from areas like that will flood out of the city, and WILL seek out refuge somewhere... possibly at YOUR house.

[JAB]

1. When you run out of food at your house - the logical step is to find the nearest home to your, and try to secure additional resources, then the next house, then the next, etc.

2. #1 assumes you already have supplies - those without supplies are going to be on the move, and desperate. At some point, they will want the supplies YOU obviously have (since you're sitting tight and still alive).

3. #2 is further magnified by the MASS EXODUS you will see from metropolitan areas (like Nashville). Survivors from areas like that will flood out of the city, and WILL seek out refuge somewhere... possibly at YOUR house.

So what you are saying is that all of us should have plenty of canned vegetables onhand because the meat will come to us?

I'm joking, of course.

[DRM]

So what you are saying is that all of us should have plenty of canned vegetables onhand because the meat will come to us?

I'm joking, of course.

When in Rom... wait, what?

[Krull]

I'm thinking steal an abandoned SAMS Club truck. Drive it to WVA where my stronghold awaits deep in the mountains. After hauling supplies back and forth to my mountain establishment taken from the truck with atv and trailer. Making sure of course I have plenty of Twinkies for Tallahassee when he arrives.

[peejman]

You guys have got it all wrong. Clearly the best location for a "final stand" is an amusement park.

[DRM]

I am sadly disappointed nobody else has fired up MSPaint and added their highly skilled technical plans to mine.

[kesava]

I will likely take over a CVS or Walgreens. It has food, drugs, Snuggies and it locks up tight with rooftop access. Not to mention, it will not be a hot spot. While everyone migrates to the walmart I will make my stand at a less likely place. besides, so many people will be taken out, I think that finding food after the first couple of weeks will be easy. Its the first two weeks that are going to be hell.

[DRM]

I will likely take over a CVS or Walgreens. It has food, drugs, Snuggies and it locks up tight with rooftop access. Not to mention, it will not be a hot spot. While everyone migrates to the walmart I will make my stand at a less likely place. besides, so many people will be taken out, I think that finding food after the first couple of weeks will be easy. Its the first two weeks that are going to be hell.

Good call. They generally have brick exteriors, almost no glass down low, very few entries to barricade... Not bad.

[Guest mosinon]

Anyplace you try to take over will likely be thought of by someone else first. Though I like the drugstore idea. People are going to want the stuff at HD and Lowes and people, not zombies will probably be the real problem.

If it were me I suspect I'd skip the back country. In the bayous of Florida I could eat but probably not in TN.

The first thing I'd do is make my house look looted. That way passers by wouldn't want to waste the effort to look in my abode. The second thing I'd do is liberate the food from the neighbor's houses. We'd live on one floor and make forays out as the situation dictated.

After all the zombies are dead, which would be maybe a month, I'd hack the electrical systems so I could run the primary generator a few houses away. There will be loss from the transmission of electricity so I'll wast a little gas (which I'll get from all the cars sitting around) but a sniper rifle trained on the easiest path to the generator will let the me hit the targets while they are looking to take out someone else. Misdirection is your friend.

I wouldn't bother holing up in a business, waste of time. The best place to hole up would be in the sewers. You've got the rats for food, water and so forth. It's disgusting, no doubt but you also have a roadway to most anywhere. Plus you can pick where the threats are coming from.

[Tobashadow]

CVS and Walgreens at first seem a good choice except that if you think about where they are located, main roads right on the road and on corners. Not very good to hide out but a good choice for supplying up.

I'm thinking industrial plant off the main road more like a smaller factory in a small town off the main highways.

Cons

Min Food on hand

Large building to fortify

Pros

Usually a complete surrounded parking lot to give buffer room for target to be in the open to get to you.

Most have flat roof areas for food growing.

Machine shop and tools on hand.

Most have water filtration and storage on hand for industrial use (clean it up of course)

Any factory worth a darn will have a tornado shelter for the employees (hint hint) ready made fortified interior safe room that can be easy beefed up.

With a bit of piping and building materials you can build a internal blackout shelter for fire for cooking and warmth without giving off light to outside world and easy enough to dissipate smoke if you know what your doing.

Plenty of room for internal grow rooms if the warehouse is equipped with skylights.

Storage, Storage, Storage

If your worried about security when you hit up places for supplies grab some of the motion sensing solar light setups and pull the bulbs and wire the dc outputs to anything you wish internal that are low amperage dc like child toys, no need for ac power for security.

Well crap gave out my ideas.

[Guest coldblackwind]

YouTube - Red vs. Blue...Zombies

Sorry, had to do it,

[Guest Jared556]

Stay at my house . Wait & see how bad things are F upped. I would go thru my neighbor hood & loot it 1st before getting out in town. The concept that what ever idea you come up with is "original " or that you'll be 1st on the scene to have 1st pick is ridiculous to me. There is no way! Too many variables. It would be nice to own a hardware store or a private pharmacy. But I don't have that luxury as I would assume most people wouldn't either. The people who were not infected would most likely not be willing to share their supplies or they would want what you have ( survival of the smartest). the only way to be a successful SURVIVOR is to out smart the dead & the living.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DRM]

At least the walking dead are predictable... those pesky living ones are the dangerous variable to worry about.

[Paletiger13]

I'll hide out at the YMCA. Pffft nobody wants to workout.

[Guest HvyMtl]

I was thinking sporting goods store... If I moved. Say an Academy... or the like... Place with guns, ammo, camping supplies (incl food and water) clothing, etc...

I would probably batten down the hatches and see if a few weeks would make the difference in the event... They would be rapidly decaying... I would then start looking around to see what I can scrounge. Gasoline and groceries are at the end of the street. A Lowe's is 2 miles. Same with a Grocery store and drug store. Walmart is 2 miles, as well. So...

IF we get a heads up, the first thing I will do is gas up, and hit a few gun stores. THEN drugs, then food and hardware stores. Fortify the home. Make sure my armed neighbors are up for either grouping together, or staying separate but watchful. Hunker down. Wait it out.

[Paletiger13]

What part of Nashville are you in?

[Mr. Brooks]

How about a jail/prison?

Think about it, multiple layers of fencing with razor wire on top that they can't get thru. Guard towers for picking them off. They probably have decent food storage as well as generators. Just round up some people with some guns and hunker down.

Good idea or not?

[Guest Letereat!]

Well, if im at work, myself and Phil and Jewel would expedite the following:

Phil.(Desert Storm Tanker Vet with plenty o combat experience) Raised in Morgan Co, 16 yrs as EMT on a “Wagon†in said area; has family with THP and County etc.

Jewel

(No nonsense little old lady who hunted for subsistence with her dad and brothers

Made or built everything they had, unassuming and innocent looking, tough as nails, crafty as a fox.)

We’d grab a couple of the Dump trucks and the biggest trailers we could haul loaded with heavy equipment, vehicles and necessary supplies and head to Union Co, (Uncles 130+ backwoods watershed with plenty of arable land all the tools up to and including welding, machining, and milling equipment metal bending etc. and start outfitting the Dump truck and other vehicles with 50, twin 50, m-60, Grenade and Minigun mounts as well as bullet resistant materials.

All of which we have or have obtained because in the Zombie Apocalypse all things are as you deem necessary like in a movie, to accomplish your mission, namely, kill as many zombies as possible to secure our future.

Of course we pick up immediate family on the way; which have been holding their positions as they are well armed and equipped for assaults upon our castles.

Then we go about and collect the rest of the things well need like generators, casting and forging machinery and necessary related equipment, Radios and comm. equipment, fuel tanks and trucks, pigs cows, chickens seeds and such, more munitions, arms and small to medium size aircraft from local municipal airports... East TN hills are riddled with small, often nearly invisible home airstrips. Not to mention plenty of “paved areas†one could land.

Then we would carry on securing the surrounding and greater area, till all the Zombies are gone.

At which time We would Party/celebrate till the next New Moon.

The End

[poak]

How about a jail/prison?

Think about it, multiple layers of fencing with razor wire on top that they can't get thru. Guard towers for picking them off. They probably have decent food storage as well as generators. Just round up some people with some guns and hunker down.

Good idea or not?

Structurally, an excellent idea.

Logistically? we've got a few problems...

Where are the prisoners now? Depending on type of infection and the time frame of the incident, we could assume one of two scenarios...

1) Prison staff abandoned the prison, and most likely left the prisoners to rot behind bars. Even if we assume the staff abandoned the prison and released the prisoners to fend for themselves, it's likely a large contingent of felons are using the prison as they're stronghold... not the kind of folks you'd want to hunker down with.

2) Infection spread to the prison population and you now have a structure full of infected persons.

Either way, it presents a problem.

Perhaps a viable option would be a now abandoned prison, such as the old TN State Prison (filming location for "The Green Mile" and "The Last Castle", among others).

I've never been in the place, so I don't know how secure it is in it's current state. Of course, we again run into the problem of "bring your own food".

In a scenario where the complexities of cross-continental travel in a post apocalyptic world aren't factors, I would imagine Alcatraz would be quite ideal.