Abako post=18.68064.623197 said:
Shivari post=18.68064.621650 said:
See I have a plan similar to that because it involves a wal-mart and a Gander Mountain right next to each other. For anyone who doesnt know, Gander Mountain is everything under the sun for outdoors stuff and they have enough guns of all types in there to supply a militia. Basically while guns arent that hard to aim (at least for me, a practiced shooter) you could assume your average person can at least point a gun towards a zombie. So this is where the beasuty of shotguns would make for great zombie killing weapons as anyone can shoot one pretty much. Also at gander mountain they have a caged, tracked vehicle that looks like, and pretty much is a small tank. Its also amphibious. 2-3 of those would be the main method for moving people as the protected cab can hold 3 people and the back could hold up to 10, and or any combination of men and supplies.
Now once the group is armed and in the tracked vehicles, we would also make the trek to every home depot and Lowes in the area and go back and forth bringing in all of the gardening equipment available. Also an empty vehicle would always go both ways to pick up more survivors. Once the group grows large enough it is imparitive that you send a team to secure and hold the local water tower. Once there you shut off the water and save it (sucks for other survivors but this is about survival). The trick to all of this would be the intellect of the zombies. If they are the stupid kind, that is best, because speed doesnt matter if they are stupid. A group would also go and secure gas stations around the area. Then you could start moving convoys to and from the water tower and each of the gas stations to keep everything well supplied with water and gasoline. Then you would have to start expanding.
I would begin this process with creating an armed perimiter around the wal-mart and begin constructing a strong outer wall made of metal and wood brought in from Home Depot and Lowes. If you can make a strong wall then the area around the store will be like the inside of a castle and you can keep supplies and people inside of there. You then slowly construct walled in passages that run to each of your major outposts (the water tower and gas stations) and wall them off as well. This will keep zombies out because they are too stupid. You can then freely move from your major supply areas inside the walls. Then it becomes a Bio Dome like situation where you keep expanding by building more and more walled in areas, some for field, some for living quarters, etc. A system for collecting and purifying rain water would also be needed soon after because the water in the tower will not last forever. Then you can start doing things like getting pipes layed from the tower to make running water in your civilization as well as getting the pump station to the tower working. Also early on it would have been a good idea to send a team to the nearest hospital and bring in all the medical supplies you can, as well as any doctors.
From there it is all a matter of expansion. As you move out you can take over more and more places such as factories. All the equipment should still work so its a matter of getting the materials they need and you could probably with enough time start producing things. Other things such as capturing and demestocating animals would be priority as well.
The problem with shotguns is ammo concerns (especially in as large of a scale of plan as your's) and the fact that since you use them at close range it's hard to argue for them over just destroying their brain with a blunt object. I guess some pistols would be ok if you're s sharpshooter and the zombies are at a distance, but other than that guns will surely lead to more casualties if inexperienced people (the majority, including me) only have them as defence. They're more of a secondary weapon in this situation, not what you should rely on.
As for you're aggresive expansion you've got going on, it's highly unlikely that could happen. I don't care how many gas stations you secure, chance are they were mostly sapped dry from the people that decided to flee in cars. You can get some gas, but not enough for your "convoys."
And how do you plan to build these walls? You won't have enough supplies to encompass your whole area and there will be zombies EVERYWHERE. They won't stand idly watching you build a wall, they'll eat you. For me I'll just use the supplies from Home Depot to blockade all of the doors except one, which will have a cover that can come off if we need to get out. We'll have people take turns guarding it, and their reward for the day will be an extra ration of food. And that whole bridge thing was just for kicks. It's pretty much impossible (they're on opposite sides of the street) unless we had unlimited resources, which we won't.
There are also far to many people in your scenario. You won't be able to feed all of them. To hold all of these places down you'd need (assuming you have this Walmart/whateverplace, the water tower, and maybe 5 gas stations) upwards of a hundred people. You can't feed all of them especially considering it probably won't be the time of year to plant yet and you'll be living on canned food, which will be heavily rationed even with a small amount of people. I said 20 people but that's probably to much even. At 15 people if someone came to the door I'd turn away unless they had something valuable to offer our group.
Your problem is that you have this at too large of a scale. You don't have unlimited resources, and can't risk doing half the stuff you suggest. You can't do that much, and people won't listen to you. No one's going to continue going outside like that, it's far too dangerous as there will be thousands of zombies hanging around at that point. My plan involves getting everything within a day or two and then packing shit in. You seem to feel like you can rebuild civilization like that, but chances are your lifetime will be spent in a small Walmart growing crops, eating rations, and reading books, but that's you only choice.
In short, you plan will fail big time.
You did mention something I forgot though, catching rain water and the like, as the water in containers we fill won't last forever. Also purifying urine (yes, I know, get over it) will be needed as well. It's the same as purifying salt water, with the whatever fluid at the bottom with a cup in the middle and a bag on top. The urine will evaporate and the water will hit the bad and fall towards the lowest part in the center, where it will fall in the cup. The water in the cup is clean. (Thank you Bear Grylles!)
