Zombie Escape Plan - Seriously.

[Dilphat]

gosh i missed out on this from playing too much halo! well as for me...ME and my family(parental units) have 2 trucks and a sequoia, all with front bar mask things. yea!! Mob deep to the gas station, run over as many zombies as possible. And pick up non infected TBCS people, friends(my friends have a nice collection of firearms), and since it's also in Delano, Ima go raid the farms hot wire there tractors and go have some fun ! woohoo! and knowing my town there are people with chemicals maybe some explosive material in their household *wink wink* i know i have a fair amount of m80's stashed somewhere. make some molotov with the bottles of alcohol my dad has. As if we can't get any more weapons we still have baseball bats, machete's, knives(lots and lots), swords, (and my favorite item) a propane powered torch(it is fun to use it on bbq grills to start it). I think my family is ready for such an attack.

[crenn]

I'm ready. I have the most effective weapon known to man.



Political bulls***.

[Vertigo]

I was thinking about this again this morning, and have decided that my town would make a decent outpost, and since it's close enough to 2 major cities we have access to loads of supplies.

Major Cities = big no no in a zombie outbreak ... more people = more zombies. You want seclusion, as secluded as possible.

[Ironcat]

The surviving human race goes to a desert island (or maybe like australia... you never see zombies in australia

I beg to differ. Link

Mob deep to the gas station, run over as many zombies as possible.

Bad idea. Unless you know exactly what is causing the zombies, you don't want all the contaminated blood and guts getting all over your truck where you could possibly touch it later, spraying up into your ventilation system, etc...

Shotguns aren't nearly as practical as semi-auto rifles.
Once you run out of slugs, all you have left is balled shot, which, while extremely effective against living targets is damn near worthless against undead

1. A very important part of using a firearm is having adequate supplies of ammuntion. Semi-Auto rifles are nice but unless you live in near a National Guard armory, you're going to run out of bullets... Shotguns (and likewise 22s, and 30-06s) will have tons of ammo available most anywhere thanks to the hunters and farmers of the world. Running to the hills? No problem, all the farmhouses whose ocupants were eaten will have shotguns.
2. Shot = worthless? You've obviously never used a shotgun for hunting. 00 can go completely through a car door at 10 yards, and would handily dispose of any undead milkmen creeping up on you at dawn. Even "3 Buck" is sending out 18-20 quarter inch wide pellets. that's enough to remove an arm, and would easily knock out any wandering corpses.

my town would make a decent outpost, and since it's close enough to 2 major cities we have access to loads of supplies.

Wrong, wrong, wrong... That kind of thinking will get you dead. Here's why.
1. Everyone and their brother is going to be thinking the same thing, that your little town would be close enough to hit and run, then kick back during the inbetweens. This means you have scavengers and predators of the human variety swarming your area.
2. All the zombies from those little towns are going to spread out looking for food. Sure, most will stay near the familiar city, but some will head out searching, if it's close enough for you to get there, you're close enough for them to get you.

You want to hit the towns once, get everything you can to last for as long as you can, and then get out of dodge. Live off the land in the middle of Yosemite if you have to but don't go back to a population center until you have to.

Someone else mentioned clothing. Motorcycle racing leathers are good here. Warm, waterproof, relatively easy to move around in, and if they can protect you from asphalt at 100mph, they can protect you from rotten zombie teeth, you might get a bruise from the crushing force but that's it.

[Gen.Omega]

AWESOME.
My Plan:

Grab our weapons and vehicles,
Well. Seeing as I'm in a town and I can drive to any city. I'd gather the living. Raid the nearby cities for supplies all using preferably trucks ("Zombie Tanks", as they can run over and squish those nasty zombies), gather sandbags, bags of concrete, food, guns, munition, swords, knives, bows+arrows (oh yeah, they help, no one ever thinks of raiding a bow+arrow store, UNTIL NOW, copy my idea w/e.), etc.

Come back, find an open place or build this new bunker between existing buildings. Sandbags and concrete pillboxes on the outside, wall. 2nd wall even higher. 3rd wall higher than that (sieges are awesome). Main building inside with 1-6 feet thick concrete walls w/the "reebar" or whatever its called. Mount machineguns on the top. Make custom weapons, mines. Get a survivo thats hopefully some sort of mechanical/electrical engineer start making rechargeable melee death bots (or go fine one).

Raid a radio station, make that a communication outpost.

Find a farm, build another concrete wall around that. You need food afterall.

Find a gas station closeby to the farm, build a concrete wall around that.

Build a Headquarters and base. Raid the military bases/armories if no one is present. Take everything. Return to the base. Expand. Build more farms, houses, farms, houses. lol.

Take solar panels, find someone from PG&E or whatever power company to make a solar grid and set it up right. you need power for this next part.

go to another radio station, take everything. If theres a radio technician, take him too.
Return to base. Setup a communication grid, start broadcasting a looped message, change it every week (or few days preferably, maybe everyday so they know your alive for any listeners)

Begin mass expansions...

I could go on.

I will, but not now. I'll edit later.

THIS IS FUN.

[nil8]

1. A very important part of using a firearm is having adequate supplies of ammuntion. Semi-Auto rifles are nice but unless you live in near a National Guard armory, you're going to run out of bullets... Shotguns (and likewise 22s, and 30-06s) will have tons of ammo available most anywhere thanks to the hunters and farmers of the world. Running to the hills? No problem, all the farmhouses whose ocupants were eaten will have shotguns.
2. Shot = worthless? You've obviously never used a shotgun for hunting. 00 can go completely through a car door at 10 yards, and would handily dispose of any undead milkmen creeping up on you at dawn. Even "3 Buck" is sending out 18-20 quarter inch wide pellets. that's enough to remove an arm, and would easily knock out any wandering corpses.

I agree, that's why if you're using some special, stockpile.
I never said that a 30-06 or .22LR wouldn't be effective. A magazine fed 22 will be cheap, easy to obtain, you can carry scores of ammo for it, increased ammo capacity and it's not nearly as loud as bigger rifles, thus attracting less zombies due to noise.
Not to mention that many cleaning kits for 22's are easy to find, light, and easy to break down, plus they don't weigh much if you're hoofing it.

Rifles are more effective if you know how to place your shot. Shot spreads, damn the penetrating power. If you miss the brain, you just wasted your rounds. It's just another variable that allows for problems.
And yes, I do know about shotguns. I keep a mix between 3" 00 shot magnum and normal quail loads to get the utter damage of the buck and the absolute "can't miss within 30 feet" of the bird shot in my 19" Savage semi auto. For most of my childhood I hunted small game with either a 410 breech loader or a 20 gauge coach gun. And now I refuse to kill squirrels. I like them too much.

And around here, most of the shotgun ammo I've seen isn't slugs or buck, it's birdshot, which outside of close range against a zombie is absolutely useless.

In a group, having someone with a shotgun for human targets, close range and easy to find ammo is vital. If it's just you, I would discard it for something else. Slugs are heavy to lug, even if they are absolutely devastating.

Handguns are something no one has mentioned. They're light, and portable. Accuracy over range is not the best, and ammo can be hard to find, unless stockpiled. Don't really even need something as big as a .45ACP. A 9mm should crack the skull and scramble just about any brain, providing you can hit the head properly.

Man, this is making me want to hit the range really bad.

[Luke122]

Major Cities = big no no in a zombie outbreak ... more people = more zombies. You want seclusion, as secluded as possible.

We are 45km from Red Deer, and 80km from Calgary. Yes, tha's within driving distance, but stumbling distance? Maybe, but being flat prairie here, we'd see them coming.

Either way, I do agree with the possibility of "raiding parties", but since this is the heart of redneck country Alberta, it's very unlikely that anyone from the city would have the balls to come out here looking for trouble. Even if they did, I doubt they would last very long. If they were smart, they'd just come out here to live with us.

The reason I mentioned being close to the major cities as being a good thing, is for the people who manage to escape the cities. Also, the possibility of raiding the cities for equipment or supplies is there, provided that proper planning and preparedness are ensured.

Let's leave the weapon issue alone for a bit, as I think that's been covered well enough.

Let's consider the food/medicine issue next.

Since society as a whole won't be functioning as it should, the possibility exists that people will be unable to get the medication that they need to treat illnesses, injuries, or existing/ongoing conditions.

Luckily we have a medicinal manufacturing company here in town, so we've got a bit of an edge there. They have the capability to produce some meds, but certainly not all.

Next, our town is known mostly for it's world class agriculture college. The facility includes monstrous greenhouses making year round produce possible, as well as the facilities to raise, slaughter, and process cattle for meat. There is also a veterinary school in the college, so keeping the herd healthy is covered too.

What about fuel? As of this year, the college has embarked on a biodiesel project, and has purchased all the necessary equipment to press canola, and process oil. Not to mention the huge oil and gas industry out here.. I think we'll be covered on that area too.

40km from here is a hydroelectric dam, which produces power for this region. I'm not an engineer, but I know a few, and I'm sure it wouldnt be too hard to isolate the power grid to provide for this area only. We also have a few companies here that specialize in solar energy.

Keep in mind that we are also less than 100km from the rockies, and that there are freshwater rivers coming down that run right near here, as well as the lakes and underground water supplies we already have.

[Vertigo]

Open Prairie land ... ok, great ... how many do you think you can kill off before they get to you? The biggest mistake people make with zombies is forgetting, they don't rest ... they don't stop until they are stopped. If they catch the scent of prey they won't stop going till they find them. So, if they get on your trail in the city, they will follow you back. It might take them time to get to your stronghold, but they will. Meanwhile, they'll be attracting others along the way. Soon, you'll be surrounded. As for the medical supplies, etc. That is great also, but you have to assume unless you yourself are trained to operate the necessary machinery, are a chemist knowing the correct mixtures, etc. That you might not be able to find one when the dead hit the fan. For a zombie attack, the most important thing is to have a small group of disciplined people who work well together. Practice self reliance, and live an austere life. Forget comforts such as Tylenol and gasoline. These things will run out. It is a war of attrition. Infact, one thing to consider is siege warfare. Find any books on the topic and you're likely to find a wellspring of information that's applicable to the situation.

[Luke122]

The bonus of the prairie land surrounding the town is the visibility.. even at night, a few well placed motion lights will make an approach easy to spot. In the daytime, they'd be spotted very quickly.

Also, the possibility to build a fence around the whole town is very real, as it's not that big of a place. With regular patrols around the outside, we could keep any major build up of zombies from building up.

Even if we didnt have the people necessary to run the manufacturing equipment or people who know the "recipes", the stockpile of meds would no doubt be beneficial.

Gasoline would run out, without a doubt. Biodiesel however is just canola oil, and if we were farming canola crops, the fuel output would just keep.. growing.

I always wonder why people dont just get into some heavy equipment, and just mow them all down...? A few mods to a tractor, and it's a nearly perfect zombie crusher. It doesnt have to be fast, they cant run. It just has to be tough. I can imagine a bunch of tractors with armored cabs and radios for contact, just going out and driving in circles, running over everything (I refer to zombies as things, rather than people) in their path.

[Vertigo]

When you read the book, you'll see some interesting uses for vehicles in zombie attacks. Really the biggest problem is their numbers. It's easy to underestimate the zombies, because they're so slow and stupid. But with enough of them, you won't be able to mow them down before one gets to you and bites you, then it's over. I would recomend something like an armored car (think of those big trucks security companies use to move money from banks). The problem of course is getting into one yourself. You'd pretty much have to find one of those companies AND the keys, then hope there's a truck around that matches the keys. All of this before the living or unliving find and dispatch you.