City is collapsing under the weight of a zombie outbreak, there's a military quarantine to keep people from escaping. Obviously a lot of people are going to try to escape because it's not safe to stay in zombie city, but for the people stuck inside, what exactly would their priorities be.
Hospitals would probably be overrun because initially infected people would have been taken to them. That means setting up field hospitals.
Wold people try to rob a bank? The rest of the country would still be using the same money so...
- Rob a bank in a zombie infected city because, honestly, what are the odds any surviving police would even give a shit?
- Escape zombie infected city.
- Be rich in the wonderful non-zombie infected world.
Not even a step of ??? before you get to "profit". Great for the opportunist.
Returning to less self serving things:
You'd need to keep at least one pharmacy going, and it would probably need to deliver.
A fire department is a must because otherwise all of those people throwing Molotov cocktails at the zombies are going to burn down the city and, without buildings, where would you hide?
It might be a good idea to have some kind of news source, and while die-hard traditionalists would want it to be a newspaper, a radio station probably makes more sense. Saves you the trouble of delivery.
You're going to want to work to keep the power on because no one wants to fend off zombies in pitch black.
Water running is important too. Surviving the zombies only to die of dehydration is not a fun prospect.
But what else?
What does one do when in a city overrun by zombies? Seriously, I'm looking for ideas here.
First things first: no zombies, water, food. Fortifying a supermarket might help here, but they're hard to fortify; maybe pick somewhere a bit more solid close to a supermarket. Are other survivors going to be a concern? Classic zombie stories are about fighting with other survivors as much as the zombies. That's not as interesting, to me.
ReplyDeleteIt's not going to be survivable in the long term unless you can spread out a lot: the rainwater and roof-garden of one house won't feed the people living in that house. After a bit the sewerage is going to stop working. You need to start thinking about an escape plan from day one. Is the military going to let people out eventually, once they've been inside long enough to be clearly immune? Or maybe a quarantine system, come out naked one at a time and we put you in a box for three weeks to see if you develop a taste for brains?
Are the zombies time-limited if they can't feed?
Weapons to keep the zombies at bay. I'd predominantly prefer distance weapons since getting hand-to-hand with something virulently infectious seems counter-intuitive to me... though something like a sword or axe as a backup weapon makes sense to me for emergencies?
ReplyDeleteA good alarm system to warn if zombies have broken through. That could be technological, home-made (like a string at knee level with jangly pots & pans tied to it), or biological -- barking dogs or hissing geese. Geese are surprisingly territorial! Of course, then you have to feed them as well... though if you have the right sort of hideaway you could potentially use the geese for keeping your garden snail- and weed-free.
Actually that's a good thought too: I'd try to find composting toilets, and maybe a good book on sustainability. If you can't keep your computer running for anything less than short bursts then keeping the local library safe is going to be important -- for all the how-to information in it.
Some form of communication with the outside would be another imperative for me. If there's no one calling *out* from the besieged city then the folks safe outside might assume everyone inside is either dead or a zombie. That being the case, it might be easier to just burn the city to the dirt to sterilize it... and you emphatically *don't* want that happening if you're still in there!
How would the pharmacy deliver? Drones, maybe? Armored vehicles traveling from sealed garage to sealed garage? Something else?
How would the pharmacy deliver? Drones, maybe? Armored vehicles traveling from sealed garage to sealed garage? Something else?
ReplyDeleteDrones would be a good idea; I was thinking runners. High risk job, but if you can keep your speed up and take paths zombies have difficulty with ... maybe you can help people.