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Lately I've been doing some serious thinking in regards to my long-term plan. Some issues:
1) I spent some time re-evaluating my prime safe house prospect and one very serious issue presented itself. Without power, the whole building would be essentially pitch-black. The theater I intend to hole up in has no windows. Good for defense, bad for vision. The school it's in does have a backup generator for minimal lighting, but it requires gas to run. (Stations exist pretty close, but I can't rely on those forever) Anyone know of any alternative, sustainable light sources?
2) Lets say things get really bad and I have to escape. Now as far as I can tell there aren't any other ZPI members in the Seattle area and I only know of one other planned group anywhere nearby (And thus only one other prepared stronghold), my girlfriend and her friends 30 miles north of my position. Due to obvious reasons, travel between the two places is dangerous at best. Air travel would be ideal, but a luxury I can't depend on.
-Land routes pretty much consist of a major highway and a railway with elevated sections. Both have the misfortune of going straight into downtown Seattle, a place I would very much like to avoid. In either case, I'd be biking the distance. Driving would be impossible due to very likely road blockages and traveling on foot would be too slow.
-The second option I have is a water route. There's a nearby slow-moving river that runs out to Puget Sound, from there I could follow the coast up to the town with their safe house. The river is fairly shallow so something like a kayak would be necessary until I hit the deeper waters, from there I could commandeer a larger/faster vessel. (There are marinas everywhere)
3) Running a group of survivors. Any group of survivors larger than around 30 is probably going to need some form of formal leadership, possible even a full governing body. Being as this is an area I have limited experience in, any insight is appreciated.
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On the issue of the lighting, I'd suggest either picking a different part of the building to barricade up in. You said something about a School, so I'm going to assume that's what you have picked to make a safe house. I'd suggest changing your idea's to focus on the schools lunch room, most feature lots of windows and most also have a room in the kitchen area to store food, which would have no windows, offer good protection, and would have large wooden shelves to give elevated area's to sleep on.
On escaping I'd suggest the water method Idea, it would be a quite way to travel so other possible hostile survivors would have a less chance of seeing you, boating can be a very quick way to travel distance without the muscle strain of running or biking. It's also not hard to build a Ghilie-esque outfit for a Kayak or raft to make it look like a large pile of driftwood/weeds floating downstream. You also wouldn't have to switch to a larger boat if you didn't want to since a Kayak or Raft can do fine in deep water with a bit of skill, lastly Rafting is a lot of fun so I'd suggest taking a class in it anyways.
I don't have any advice for the governing a group of survivors though, I wouldn't suggest a large governing body though as that slows down decision making process. The way I see it is that these people came to you and you allowed them to stay with you giving them protection,warmth,food,etc. So they should follow your plans. I can see asking people on what they think the group should do, or suggestions on anything to try and do/create/obtain but in the end it should be the person who created the safe haven and possibly a few whom he/she trusts with decision making to lead the group.
Because The Muppet Show Said So.
The problem I have with windows is that they're very hard to fortify and still be used as a window. The lunchroom as windows from floor to ceiling on one wall, so it's basically a big fragile aquarium. The other option in the school is the other wing, it's two floors and all the classrooms have windows. The second floor windows would be secure from the outside, but if zombies got into ground floor then the whole building is jeopardized.
Honestly, I've been leaning towards the water route myself. Being as it is a pretty shallow river, I have some concerns regarding submerged zombies. A kayak is not the ideal place to be if you suddenly find yourself surrounded by zombies.
My biggest reason for wanting a governing body is if there gets to be too much stuff for one person to keep track of/control. Outgoing search parties, patrols, food growing, supplies, etc. It seems like an awful lot for one person.
2. the kayak idea sounds pretty darn smart. The roads will clog up quickly, and become a breeding ground for zed (traffic fatalities... and violent conflicts over "borrowing" someone's car). The rails won't be much better. I suppose you could at least run along it, since the trains won't likely be running on time.
a. Are you near enough to water?
b. And is it readily available?
If memory serves, you could put a fair amount of gear in a kayak. At least enough to survive a coastal voyage of a few days, right? Do you kayak regularly, though? There's a level of exertion to consider.
3. The leadership thing is an interesting one. I'd probably defer to a cop/firefighter/military guy or gal-- at least for the initial encounters. Voting on everything will definitely thin out your group.
Deeper into the crisis, I think whenever possible, a leader should be elected by 100% affirmation. Those not affirming can go take a flying leap. And this leader should have a second, in case he or she is killed, so you don't need to vote again in emergency situations.
I messed with Texas.
Personally I think that that many survivors together would be very hard to provide for in food, water, and space alone. I would reccomend findng some remote island, settling there, build a walled in area of about one square mile, and grow crops inside that area, along with a safe house in case the walled in section is breached. Also, sentries would be usefull. And a large amount of solar panels.
Therefore you could maintian things like microwaves and refridgerators. Just an opion.
"Annihilation Will Be Unavoidable"
~Disturbed
"Only The Dead Have Seen The End Of War."
~Plato
Wonder how long till nick's mentioned.
oh it'll get you somewhere, it'll get you bait
with the idea of the river... what if the river is contaminated? like with zombie virus or something.
And schools are built so they arn't broken into by people trying to rob their stuff or graffiti.
My local high school which is about a 1-2 minute walk is fairly fortified as it is surrounded by large metal aniti-climb fences and there are only about 4 windows at the front of the building but they have ditches infront of them for some odd reason, but yeah I'd go up there with my 2 bikes, mum and brother, good friends, my 4 samurai swords, my combat gear (British 95' DPM) and food and spare clothes and as much bottled water as the car can carry!
"With Speed I Strike"
As for lighting, during Katrina we simply relied on lamps and candles. We had a gas powered generator but we saved the gas to sell and trade for food. Candles can be melted down and wicks easilty made.
I would have to agree that the theatre is prob. a bad ide along with the big squishy aquarium of a lunch room. Have you considered the gym?
As far as escape routes and mobility around Seatle, I am not familiar with the area. But, I'll take a look at a map for you and see what I can come up with. As far as taking a boat I agree that it could possibly be the best way of escape, being from New Orleans and surrounded by water we have already planned on high jacking the river boat (its actually pretty easy to pilot) and getting as many people out as we can. That is, if someone else hasn't taken it or wrecked it; lucky me there are 3 here.
For leadership purposes, you should deligate responsibilities to the people you already have with you and anyone that joins your group later will have to understand "I'm running this ship, not you" and if they don't like it they can make the choice to be safe, or be food.
Symmetry is the highest form of Chaos...
I don't think night lighting will be too much of a problem, because by day you should have secured your place for the night, and should be asleep, you'd only need light to watch entrances, if watching entrances is necessary...for which, ooh you could try those Solar-powered garden lights ? they light up good, and our ones were working 4 years after we bought them ? and that was with continuos use in Full sun. If possible a fire, night could be cold ?
but light would be a major beacon to any living or non-living thing in the area...i'd say go for it if your fortifications are impenetrable. Then you could clean out the area of zed and find suvivors...but if not pitch black please!!!
during the day...maybe mirrors ? have a few coming down from the roof and keep the light reflected...as long as you wipe em once a week with a cloth easy!
How deep is the river ? like deep enough to fully submerge a car ? or wading height, if it's wading height prob not...
As for social skills, breaking-down into job specialisations are natural so you shouldn't worry about that, that's easily a group descision which you can take time deciding... and trust me on the spot decisions can be made by everyone, just be sure to enforce rules, show your the dominant one and your sweet!
As long as aminals dun get reviveded, thinks "Black Sheep" all over again...see link;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHMyVljAP_A <- Black Sheep Movie Trailer...
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/uncyclopedia/images/9/9d/SpecialPoliceWong.gif
He said that there were no windows in the theatre so even during the day they wont have natural light, but the garden lights are a good idea especially if the building has sky lights in another room, you could get a bunch of them and set them on the roof to charge, then at night go up, bring them in, and set them up, the fire could be dangerous depending on what the building is made of, like my school for instance is pretty much all block and tile, so a fire would be good here because if you build it by a wall it would hold heat, same goes for the tiles, problem is what would you use for fuel? If theres a big library you could always do what they did in The Day After Tomorow and burn books, maybe get all the textbooks from the classrooms and burn all books that arent worth reading from the library, and since at my school the high scool and elementary are conjoined through a single hallway by the nurses office we could always walk down there and get more if necessary
Use the mirrors like the ones in The Mummy?
oh it'll get you somewhere, it'll get you bait
the virus is only contactable from direct zombie fluid
so there should be no issue in waterways, so long that you stay away from floaters and the like.
Zombies don't climb, they just push it down...so fences don't do much
also, if the school is in a developed area, there is the risk of being overwhelmed, as well as long term food supply.
It's best to get out of the cities as soon as you can