I had a thought once:
Ideally, our base has an outer wall as well as a building wall, this way we can be less concerned about zombie bodies piling up outside the door or threatening to get on our roof. But I was thinking, if there is someone stuck outside that outer wall would provide them a temporary safe place -- they come in and are not totally safe, but at least then the zombies can't get him/her.
My thought was this, partially I think we should have that outer wall gate locked at all times, but then what about that person who has been wandering and is not a zombie, but is looking for shelter. If the gate is locked, they will need someone to go out and help them to get in, but it may be too late by then. So, perhaps we create a lock that is simple, but effective at keeping out the zombies for the most part.
Perhaps a latch that must be opened in a complex way and the instructions written down so a human could operate it but a zombie could not. Or else the sort of rotating doors you see in subways, where only one can go through at a time and it only works in one direction. Or both?
Thoughts?
All that needs to be said is this: FIRE = BAD |
Could just have a normal lock, but leave the key in it. Zombies can't turn keys, purposefull or accidentally.
Yeah. But I fear the key breaking off, or becoming accidentally opened and left unlocked. I want a system that resets itself and can stand up to the elements.
All that needs to be said is this: FIRE = BAD
Lots of locks can be set to reset themselves automatically, even with a key in them. This would make the key simply a fairly hard to turn doorknob.
I can see the problem in the key breaking off though.
Perhaps a system of two latches. The first latch would be vertical, and keep the second, which would be horizontal, from being lifted, and the weight of the second would keep the first from coming off. You'd lif the second a bit, wiggle the first off of it, lift the second the rest of the way, and then go through. When you close the door, the second latch falls back down, pushing the first latch back into position.
Not exactly foolproof, but perhaps something to work with.
You'd want something that was operable swiftly so that if whoever needed too use it was being closely chased by grasping zombie they could get in without needing to struggle. I'd suggest perhaps having a ladder that needed climbing to get up to a hatch which was well above reaching zombie with a swinging latch that spanned the whole height of the hatch, it would take a simple push to open the latch which would allow the hatch to swing open inwards and the person to climb through. The big swing latch would swing back and lock on it's own once the person was through it would be secure.
Zombies have never been seen climbing ladders as far as I know, so that might work!
Actually, yeah, ladders make a lot of sense. They would also get the person immeidately out of the zombie's reach, so that there's time to figure out how to open the door.
Actually, since this door is just going to go through the outer wall, is there any reason not to have the ladder just go over the wall?
well... the only reason I didn't say the ladder could just go over the wall was the thought that if we're dealing with viral zombies there is a potential for the virus to evolve which might somehow allow the zombie enough function to climb.
I'm comfortable using ladders, but leaving them lying around makes me nervous. Something about a paranoia that eventually a zombie will accomplish the task accidentally, or the ladder gets tipped over. But even if the ladder is anchored, I would still be paranoid.
I agree that using a ladder for MANY things is good, but I don't like the idea of leaving one at the edge of our wall. Not to mention the possibility of human raiders using it for other reasons. Using a short stepping stool type thing for them to reach a latch makes sense, as Grey suggested. A variation on that though would be something that requires balence or has gaps to reach a lock.
All that needs to be said is this: FIRE = BAD
Here's something of what I was thinking.
...damn....image didn't come over...
Of course, there are some technical flaws with this thing, but you see what I am referring to, multiple action locks, and then have things weighted so that it pulls it all shut afterwords.
All that needs to be said is this: FIRE = BAD
Awesome lock, that's pretty much exactly what was in my mind.
You know this point about human raiders? I was thinking, instead of this hatch/door leading straight into the compound, how about that it leads into a completely secure holding cell. This would allow a person who was genuinely fleeing a place to hide in safety but without allowing them free access to us. There could be a viewing window for us too check who was in there and determine whether we would let them in or tell them to leave, the only way out of the cell would be completely under the community's control.
That would also help with your paranoia I'm sure
i like that, what I was thinking is to use the same system that most schools have (that's why schools would be a good place for a base). They have an entrance, and to get through the first door, you have to pull out, a tactic zombies may not be good at. But that only puts them in a sort of foyer, not in the compoud, to get all the way in they would need a way to get through the locked door.
But for this, I was referring to a wall outside of a structure. Of course, that would require some construction, but it would be pretty easy in a suburb or something where you can find cars that can be connected and turned into a makeshift wall.
All that needs to be said is this: FIRE = BAD