Zombie Outbreak - where to hide?

[Umbran]

Oh, duh. I forgot to mention - move North, or to anywhere else where it freezes for long periods of the year. Zombies don't have a metabolism (they are, after all, dead). So, no internal heat source - which means they'll freeze solid in the winter.

 

[ethandrew]

Rechan got it right, in my opinion. A two or three story house with one staircase leading up to the floor above. If you destroy the stairs, zombies can't get to you, and you still have all the amenities houses offer, save for what's on the floors below, and until you lose electricity. Suicide steps are the best, because you can remove one at a time, all of them, put them back in, all at your convenience. Go far north during Oct-March, far south from April-Sept.

If you ever need any information at all, or just don't know what to do if potential zombie threats scare the hell out of you, then I definitely recommend The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks, mostly just because it's a fun read, and good logic. It discusses everything people have mentioned so far, from zombies walking along sea-beds, freezing in the wintertime, the best weapons for attacking, so on and so forth.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

A big, luxury cruise line. And a Marine task force. Together you can keep civilians alive a long time, and you have enough troops to raid food. (Well, I hope that latter part.)

 

[Intrope]

If you go with Big Box stores, choose one of the warehouse-type outfits (Sam's Club, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc.). You can climb up the racks and hide on top of them. Heck, in the Home Depot or Lowe's, you can use the Lumber to make catwalks and have quite a setup, 20' off the ground!

If you really want defensive structures, find a grain silo. Or better yet, find a grain mill complex; some of those are huge aggregations of dozens of silos. Not a lot in the way of supplies, but impervious to almost any attack!

A National Guard armory is another good choice.

In Texas, the older county courthouses would be decent (they're more or less actual forts).

Most shopping malls would be terrible, owing to having way too many doors, and big ones at that--also note that most malls have lots of delivery doors and loading docs, too.

An office building might work pretty well, especially if it's kind of fancy and has a big foyer on the first floor (so that the first floor doesn't have a lot tiny little offices). Just block the stairs and the rest of the building's yours.

 

[Asmor]

An island? No - zombies don't need to breathe, and can just walk there. And you're stuck.

I gotta disagree. I really don't think a zombie could walk there.

According to Wikipedia, the average density of the human body is 985 kg/cubic meter (compared to 1000 kg/cubic meter of water). Since a body is less dense than water, it would float. I don't think zombies are particularly good swimmers.

Even if a zombie had extra stuff weighing it down, I'd imagine it would have to be significantly more dense than water in order to move effectively, or else it would be like it was trying to walk on the moon while the currents batted it back and forth.

And, of course, this is assuming a zombie could traverse the river/lake/sea bed. It depends on a lot of factors, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just too rocky and rough to be effectively traversed by something that can barely shamble.

 

[ivocaliban]

I'm thinking the Greenbriar resort/bunker in White Sulphur Springs, WV. I trust any place congress builds for itself as a bomb shelter.

A friend of mine suggested an oil rig assuming it's well-supplied.

 

[Tetsubo]

Oh, duh. I forgot to mention - move North, or to anywhere else where it freezes for long periods of the year. Zombies don't have a metabolism (they are, after all, dead). So, no internal heat source - which means they'll freeze solid in the winter.

I've often thought of this myself. The cold zones would become the strong points for human survivors. Making raids South in the winter and retreating North in the warmer weather. Not to mention taking out a frozen zombie would be easy...

 

[Tetsubo]

One thing that has always bugged me is how the "biting as vector" type of zombie plagues spread... A zombie is programmed with "eat living" as its sole bit of software. So if they get a human they eat them. They don't bite one and let it go to make more zombies. There is no "catch and release" policy amongst the Living Dead. So how does a zombie plague spread? This is why Romero is such a genius, if you die, for ANY reason, you Rise...

A comic artist by the name of Ross Campbell [http://www.greenoblivion.com/] has created another zombieverse that is good. I also happen to really like his style. The book is called The Abandoned. In it the Event takes place one random weeknight. At midnight anyone older than 23 just dies. About an hour later they Rise. No explanation, no reason, it just happens. Now that is Instant Zombie Plague! You can pick up a copy on Amazon...

There is also the issue of numbers. There are 300 million people in the US. How many bodies are there that could become zombies in a Romero style Rise? Maybe 3 million at any one time? That leaves a LOT of live humans. Even if taken by surprise I doubt there would be more than 6 million zombies within the first couple of days. And a few humans can take down a zombie without trouble. There is also the issue of firearms. There are a LOT of guns in the US. A LOT. There is also a lot of empty space. So lots of guns and lots of space to run too... I just don't see zombies being a real threat. I see a Shawn of the Dead type of reaction. Lots of panic for 24 - 48 hours and then all the zombies are dead or rounded up...

Humans are nasty opponents. Especially when pushed into a corner. We would survive...

 

[Darklone]

Islands? Zombies will simply walk there underwater. Not a good idea.

 

[Aeric]

One thing that has always bugged me is how the "biting as vector" type of zombie plagues spread... A zombie is programmed with "eat living" as its sole bit of software. So if they get a human they eat them. They don't bite one and let it go to make more zombies. There is no "catch and release" policy amongst the Living Dead. So how does a zombie plague spread?

Ah, but the trick is holding on to the victim once they've been caught. Zombies are strong, but they're slow; you would have to be really unlucky to be captured by zombies. Most people will get bitten and run away, only to die and rise again later on as zombies themselves.

In the early stages of an outbreak, the virus would spread fast because people are much more likely to get away from an attack before they are killed and/or eaten. There are more people around to help you, too. Also, you wouldn't have the zombie hordes to begin with. An attack by a single zombie would be much more likely to result in the victim getting away.

It follows that the more zombies there are, the less likely it is that new zombies will be created. This idea is the only thing that makes the human race surviving a zombie apocalypse a possibility, IMO.